Need Antenna Help

[Rick0725]

No, I did not replace any wire. I also did not remove the amp, I just unplugged the power to it. I know the problem has to be these pine trees that aren't more than about 20 feet away from the antenna. I might end up moving it to the other end of the house to see if that helps.

A direct line from the antenna to the tuner is what we are asking you to do to help diagnose the problem.

Remove the preamp from the antenna and disconnect the powersupply. Of course just unplugging the preamp is going to make the picture worse

want the model number of your preamp stamped on the bottom of the preamp.

which channel from this list are you having problems with that you desire to receive?

red - uhf WGFL 53 CBS HIGH SPRINGS FL 92° 16.7 53
* red - uhf WGFL-DT 28.1 CBS HIGH SPRINGS FL 92° 16.7 28
red - uhf WOGX 51 FOX OCALA FL 124° 36.3 51
red - uhf WCJB 20 ABC GAINESVILLE FL 106° 27.7 20
* red - uhf WCJB-DT 20.1 ABC GAINESVILLE FL 106° 27.7 16
red - vhf WUFT 5 PBS GAINESVILLE FL 81° 28.1 5
* red - uhf WUFT-DT 36.1 PBS GAINESVILLE FL 81° 28.1 36
* blue - uhf WOGX-DT 51.1 FOX OCALA FL 124° 36.3 31
blue - uhf WGEC-LP 33 FMN CHIEFLAND FL 169° 10.7 33
blue - uhf WBXG-CA 31 BOX GAINESVILLE FL 90° 26.0 31
violet - uhf W69AY 69 REL ALACHUA, ETC. FL 89° 33.1 69
violet - uhf WYPN-CA 14 IND G

 

[bowens]

The main ones I want to receive are 28.1 and 20.1. I don't care about the others. I won't be able to do any more work on it at least until tomorrow night but it may be saturday before I can get to it. I'll let you know.

 

[bowens]

Well about 9:45 last night I lost all signal on both the channels. Nothing came unhooked because I still had 36.1,2,3. They were back this morning but with signals in the 60's.

 

[techpuppy]

If the channels went away at the same time that would be a good indicator that something is physically wrong with your cable or connectors. It might also be caused by a problem with your amplifier.

With that said your reception of ch 36 WUFT should be near perfect. They are already full power at 1MW and do not use a directional antenna.

WGFL is using a directional antenna and one of the weakest nodes is in your direction. Their power level is shown to be 168KW.

WCJB is also using a directional antenna and again one of the weakest nodes is in your direction. Their power level is 343KW.

What this means is that your reception of WUFT when you can't receive others is not an indication that your antenna/cable/connectors/amplifier are okay. Since your antenna is new it almost has to be the cable, connectors, or amplifier.

 

[bowens]

If the channels went away at the same time that would be a good indicator that something is physically wrong with your cable or connectors. It might also be caused by a problem with your amplifier.

Well I don't know that they necessarily went away at the same exact time. My wife was watching Grey's Anatomy on 20.1 and said it went out, so I put it on ABC on the satellite. After the show was over I checked both and they were both gone.

I just got back from my lunch break. While I was at lunch I checked the signals and 20.1 was in the low 80's but 28.1 was in the high 60's. I decided I had time to unhook the amplifier so I ran a cable straight from the antenna to the tv and signals dropped down to the high 50's (28.1) and low 60's (20.1), so I think it does need the amplifier.

It could be the cable I guess. Is there some way to check this before replacing all of my cable?

 

[teamerickson]

Well I don't know that they necessarily went away at the same exact time. My wife was watching Grey's Anatomy on 20.1 and said it went out, so I put it on ABC on the satellite. After the show was over I checked both and they were both gone.

Dish gets it HD lil feed from the OTA signal the broadcaster puts out. If OTA goes out, so does the HD lil. That's how it is here.

 

[bowens]

Dish gets it HD lil feed from the OTA signal the broadcaster puts out. If OTA goes out, so does the HD lil. That's how it is here.

I don't have HD lil. I meant that I put it on the SD ABC on the satellite.

 

[bowens]

Good news. Saturday I decided to move the antenna to the other side of the house. That would make it farther from the stations but also farther from the pine trees. So after a couple disappointments, which I figured out were unplugged cables, my signal on 28.1 is between 97-100, 20.1 is 95-98, and 36.1 is 88-93. So I'm very pleased now. Thanks for everyone's help.