Pulling hair (what's left) out

[ellisfsu]

I think I am experiencing multipathing, but research has not helped me fix the problem. I have a 50" boom outdoor antenna from radio shack mounted in my attic. According to antennaweb.org, this should be an overkill to receive all of my digital locals in the Tallahassee area. Sure enough, using the set-up menu on my Hughes E86, I see that I have strong signals for each of the stations, usually ranging between 95-100.

However, despite constant tweaking, I still have very frequent complete drop-outs on every OTA channel. being that I can't mount the antenna outdoors, am I just SOL? Or is there anything else i can do? Does the E86 have trouble dealing with multipathing? PLEASE HELP!--Andy

 

[boba]

How far are you from the broadcast towers? Are you looking in more than 1 direction for the broadcasts? Do you know the model number of the antenna you are using, is it UHF or VHF/UHF? Seeing it is located in your attic do you have an aluminum foil underlayment for the roof decking?

 

[TuxCoder]

Also, do you see ghosting when you tune to the analog channels? This won't help if the digitals are from other towers than the analog transmitters, but I think in most places they're on the same towers.

 

[ellisfsu]

Thanks for the very quick responses. I'll try to address as many of the questions as my understanding allows.

Regarding distance to towers, I am 23 miles away from 2 of the towers, and 13 miles from the third. The compass orientations are 355, 34, and 39 so there is a good 40 degrees of variance between towers.

I have no idea if the stations use one tower for analog/digital broadcasts, though I am sure a quick call could settle that. I haven't noticed any ghosting issues, though I do not spend much time watching the locals via analog.

I am using the UHF/VHF VU-75 XR from Radio Shack. I have tweaked its orientation, but have not been able to eliminate the drop-outs. I have no clue if I have aluminum foil as an underlay.

I have a diplexer in line to join/split the OTA signal and dish signal. Could this be a problem? Again, I checked the signal strengths tonight and they were all close to 100. Thanks again for your help!--Andy

 

[sampatterson]

I had a similar issue. I bought the biggest, longest range, HUGE honker of an antennae and put it in my attic. I put on an amplifier and let'r rip. I got 1 of the 5 channels that were broadcasting at the time. I took out the amplifier and got 3 of the 5 (seems the amplifier was just amplifying the noise/multipath). On a whim I decided to try a smaller Antenna that I had in the basement. Put it up and it pulled in all stations. Today we have 10 DTV stations and I can get all 10 of them.

For my situation (duct work, etc in the attic) that was causing multipath, the smaller antennae with no amplifier was a better choice. I didn't have a scope or any testing tools so I had to go the "manual" route.

You might actually try a smaller antennae and see if it helps you any.

 

[DarrellP]

Why can't you mount outdoors? If it's a housing association, that's crap! The FCC has ruled that you may install an outdoor antenna. All you have to do is print out the regulation and show it to your association and they can't say SH*T about it.

Regarding an antenna, have you tried an omnidirectional? You seem close enough to the towers to be able to use one. You may also consider using a Silver Sensor or TV top antenna indoors and rotate it as needed.

 

[Cougar]

My thinking is you either have a intermitant connection to the TV antenna or some signal is coming in and overdriving the front end. You could try putting in a 10db attenuator in the line to see if that helps solve this problem.

 

[TuxCoder]

How long are the dropouts you're experiencing? Are they a few seconds or less, a minute or less, or much longer? If they are typically long enough, then have you checked the signal strength while the station is out? My receiver has a nice signal strength meter in its info bar that I can leave up as long as I want while watching the stations, to see more of what's going on with any dropouts I get. If your signal strength is high during a dropout I would say the antenna is OK, and start suspecting your receiver. Maybe take the receiver to somewhere closer to the towers if you know someone closer that wouldn't mind, and if you can score a TV and good enough antenna at that location.

P.S. Sam, antennae is the plural form of antenna (though antennas is acceptable too).

 

[ellisfsu]

Wow. You guys rock. Thanks for all of the help on this. The drop-outs are typically only a few seconds long. In fact, sometimes they only reveal as a brief audio drop and picture freeze. I will try the attenuator tonight.
Unfortunately, I can't monitor signal strength while watching a program, though I have watched the signal strength meter for 10 minutes (more than enough time to catch a drop) and seen only a few point variance in strength.

I also will try an omnidirectional antenna to see if that helps. I too am starting to think it may be my receiver goofing up.

Oh yeah, I can't mount outdoors for a much more threatening reason than the association laws...My wife. She hates the look of those "Old" antennae on the roof. Though if she kicks me out of the bed for installing the antenna outside, at least I will have uninturruped OTA hd to watch from the couch!--Andy

 

[DarrellP]

Check out this, it's definitely high on the WAF!

 

[Cougar]

I forgot to mention also in my first post that one of the diplexers could indeed be at fault here with an internal intermitant connection.

 

[ellisfsu]

Update:

Alright...I pulled both diplexers out of line and installed a attenuator at the receiver -- Still experiencing drops. I almost think the attenuator reduced the frequency of the drops, but more than likely that was just wishful thinking. I also tried an omni-directional antenna and had trouble picking up the stations. Maybe my hughes is just struggling. Could this be the sign i needed to jump on the HDTivo wagon? --Andy

 

[TuxCoder]

I, TuxCoder, official SatelliteGuy, being of sound mind, declare:

your receiver does not seem to be working right and it is agreed upon that you must now purchase an HDTivo unit

(there you go, a "doctor's note" of sorts for the wife to see)

 

[Cougar]

If the OTA signals run through your satellite receiver then I would say that the problem is in the receiver. If you can run the OTA signals directly to the TV this will eliminate any possibilty of the receiver causing this and will show you if that is the cause or not.