marant
Central Texas, USA
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Joined: 10/30/2001
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Yes, I have tried the pointing programs, as well as looking where others are aimed. (always wonder if they do not have a signal either, just left it up!) I will try some of the other ideas and see if they work.
My new, thoroughly modern tv is so smart if it does not find a signal it just quits looking, no signal strength or other way to fine tune. Such is progress.
2001 2500HD/Duramax-Allison 2WD
2004 Alfa Sun 31RLIK
Lil Rocker
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FiverDragger
MI
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Joined: 06/10/2003
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You're right progress has made things so much better. During a really bad storm at our house we cannot get a useable signal from the tv stations and they are only 25 miles away and I have a good sized antenna and rotor with an amplifier on the roof. When the weather is fine all is well 95 to 100 percent signal across the board. The pictures are stellar but they were almost that good with regular tv. By the way I have a Samsung digital tv that does the job very well. Just hope we don't have another tornado come through like 2 years ago. No tv tornado tracking sucks. We got a lot of good things when they switched but I would rather have any signal almost all of the time than a perfect signal some of the time.
JMHO
Ron
2002 Chevy 2500HD 6.0 4.10 axle ext cab longbox
36' Carriage Lite Dbl Slide Fifth Wheel
Ron, Barb and Scooter the watchmop
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SCVJeff
Santa Clarita, CA.
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Joined: 07/28/2006
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If you REALLY want to know what's out there and in what direction it's coming from, read THIS
BTW- The "Jack" is noting but a marketing farce. Call and ask them for data to back up their claims and see where you get.
Jeff - WA6EQU
'06 Itasca Meridian 34H, CAT C7/350
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landyacht318
Near a large body of water
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Joined: 07/11/2007
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I point my antenna toward an array of transmitters 92 miles away on a 5000 foot mountain.
According to TV fool, I need to point my antenna at 331 degrees true. Sometimes I find that the channel which is broadcasting on 32 will not come in, unless I point the antenna at 360 degrees, but when I do so, I might lose channel 36, which is also located at 331 degrees.
Sometimes 32 will not even come in at 360, but will come in at full strength, according to my TV, when pointed at 45 degrees, and then none of the other Stations at 331 degs will come in. One day I did auto scans moving the antenna in 5 degree increments, and now know the quirks of reception in my particular area. I have found pulling my RV forward 6 inches can make or break a station. While I have developed a good understanding of what I need to do to watch certain distant stations, sometimes the weather does not cooperate, and Logic is of no use, and I turn off the TV lest it infuriate me, and read a book instead.
I also Get an American Analog channel broadcast from Mexico(channel 6 actual). This reminds me of days of old. Fuzzy screens, staticy audio, and times when it becomes unwatchable, and other times it just drops out completely during the same hour long show.
There is a tendency to remember everything older being better, Digital is far from perfect, but I would not give it up to return to static or fuzz as I've become spoiled by a perfect picture, most of the time.
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Tom&Dale
Manhattan Beach, CA
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Joined: 03/08/2006
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Phils wrote:I got almost twice as many stations with my antenna flat on the roof compared to "up" and pointed in the direction of the stations.
I do not recall any location where having my antenna extended helped reception. While a bit off subject the best improvement for me was in purchasing the ClearStream 2 antenna. I have it hidden in the cabinet above the tv and the reception is much better than the existing Winegard antenna with signal boost on.
Since there might be locations where the outside/higher antenna could pickup a better signal I have a switch to toggle between the two.
02 Dodge 2500 CTD, Edge EZ, Goerend transmission (3.55 axle ratio), BrakeSmart, BD exhaust brake, Firestone Ride-Rite air bags & 05 Americana LC30/31 RL
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SCVJeff
Santa Clarita, CA.
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Joined: 07/28/2006
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Tom&Dale wrote:Phils wrote:I got almost twice as many stations with my antenna flat on the roof compared to "up" and pointed in the direction of the stations.
I do not recall any location where having my antenna extended helped reception. While a bit off subject the best improvement for me was in purchasing the ClearStream 2 antenna. I have it hidden in the cabinet above the tv and the reception is much better than the existing Winegard antenna with signal boost on.
Since there might be locations where the outside/higher antenna could pickup a better signal I have a switch to toggle between the two. A 2-bat "bow-tie" is a good antenna, but I would submit that your batwing is broken.
Any ham reading this will tell you that there is no substitution for height, BUT when working with signals influenced by local terrain and/ or obstacles it's often the case that there are nulls in the signal, causing you to search not only vertically but horizontally to find them. As it happens, when raising a batwing you're doing both.
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Tom&Dale
Manhattan Beach, CA
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Joined: 03/08/2006
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SCVJeff wrote:A 2-bat "bow-tie" is a good antenna, but I would submit that your batwing is broken.
Any recommendations on how to test the "batwing" antenna. I prefer not replacing until positive it is defective.
My original thought was to have some type of in-line meter to measure signal strength while positioning but the electronics store I go to said that couldn't be done.
Thanks for the help,
Tom
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az99
N.Y.
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Joined: 12/26/2006
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landyacht318 wrote:Digital is far from perfect, but I would not give it up to return to static or fuzz as I've become spoiled by a perfect picture, most of the time. I would . I would much rather be able to see the evening news or whatever every night a little snowy instead of perfectly clear only when all conditions are perfect. For people who are far from town, the digital stinks.
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SCVJeff
Santa Clarita, CA.
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Joined: 07/28/2006
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Tom&Dale wrote:SCVJeff wrote:A 2-bat "bow-tie" is a good antenna, but I would submit that your batwing is broken.
Any recommendations on how to test the "batwing" antenna. I prefer not replacing until positive it is defective.
My original thought was to have some type of in-line meter to measure signal strength while positioning but the electronics store I go to said that couldn't be done.
Thanks for the help,
Tom It's a little difficult to test the antenna directly short of shotgunning, but if you look around these forums you will note that a failed antenna is rare, and the usual causes are internally broken coax, loose 'F' connectors at the antenna, power supply, or possibly an 'F' barrel located somewhere in the ceiling under the antenna.
Can you turn the power supply on and off and see a difference? If not, look for voltage on the 'F' connector at the antenna on the roof. If it's there, then it's possible it might be the batwing.
But (jumping around here), it's also possible it's the wiring between the TV and the power supply feeding the roof. You might also take your known good antenna with a barrel and plug it into the coax feeding the power supply and look at your results. Just be careful not to plug in the bowtie antenna into the output of the power supply with it on as that might be shunt-fed and will pop a fuse.
As far as a real in-line 'S' meter for pointing the antenna after it works again, see the link to a post I did on my little toy awhile back above. Chris also posted a link for a much cheaper version (but mines cooler  ).
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Tom&Dale
Manhattan Beach, CA
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SCVJeff wrote:As far as a real in-line 'S' meter for pointing the antenna after it works again, see the link to a post I did on my little toy awhile back above
Jeff,
Thank you for the DigiAir Pro tip. That should work out well with a splitter on the TV side / output end of the dual antenna coax switch.
Regarding the batwing, if the amplifier/signal boost is off then zero channels are available after scanning. Once the amp is powered on a scan gives me 3 regular and 19 digital channels. So it seems that the batwing is working. Now if I switch to the alternate Clear Stream 2 antenna my digital channels almost double.
Appreciate your help,
Tom
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