OTA Newbie in need of help
 

I have a Dishnetwork 921 HD receiver with a VU-190-xr (radio shack). Says it's range is:
• VHF = 190 miles
• UHF = 100 miles
• FM = 100 miles will pickup

I live in the Baton Rouge area (70769) and am trying to pick up:
*WGMB-DT 45.1 FOX BATON ROUGE LA 269° 17.2 45
*WBRZ-DT 2.1 ABC BATON ROUGE LA 259° 12.4 13
*WAFB-DT 9.1 CBS BATON ROUGE LA 304° 14.1 46
*WLPB-DT 27.1 PBS BATON ROUGE LA 283° 13.3 25

I am able to pick up all except fox....AND I really would like it...NASCAR.

Fox is the farthest of the channels from me, but only 17 miles (the othere are from 12 to 15 miles and I get 125% signal...It is hard for me to believe that the extra two miles is stopping me...I do get a signal on my receiver for fox, but it bounces from 0 to 70 percent and will not stay locked. On my antenna, I have the little black inline amp that hooks near the antenna. Not sure if that is what it is called, but hopefully the description is enough...My question is, what can I do to get fox...Hope I included all the information needed. If not, let me know and I will add whatever needed...thanks a bunch!

I'm wondering if you might not have too MUCH signal... perhaps you should try it without the pre-amp...

will do....and post results back shortly

tried without the pre amp and it did not make any difference. I still pick up the same channels analog and digital with the same signal strengths.

BTW, forgot to mention that antenna is mounted in the attick of a two story house in the middle of a 22 acre field.

Get the antenna out of the attic and on the roof, and aim it properly! WGMB-DT is operating with only 1 KW of power from what appears to be a telephone pole in their back yard. Your NBC station, WVLA-DT is in the same situation. I have included a map of their temporary coverage area: if you don't live within the contours of this map, chances are that you are probably SOL...sorry to say!

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-serv...=DS696069.html

Thank you for the advise. Unfortunately mounting on the roof is not much of an option for me unless I want a divorce. As for aiming it properly, I have done all that I know to do. I have entered my addy in http://antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx which gave me the direction to aim it. I receive all the others with no problem and have tried "tweaking" for hours while watching the signal indicator on the TV trying to pickup WGMB (44). The signal pretty much stays the same (0%,70%,50%,100%, and then back to 0%)...I am extremely new to this, but do not see where you got the 1 KW of power fox is broadcasting with. Everywhere I read says:
1000kw for WGMB (which I do not receive)
1000kw for WVLA (which I do no receive)
30kw for WBRZ (which I do receive)
316kw for WAFB (which I do receive)

I am confused :confused: isnt higher kw better....???? I seem to get the lower kw stations????


BTW, thanks for the map link. I am defintely inside the area that should pick the station up (not even close to the boundry)..

ANY and all suggestions are very much appreciated

The FCC website says that your FOX station is still operating with an STA, or tempory authorization to operate at lower power. They will eventually operate at full power, but are not doing so yet. The Radio Shack VU-190 is a middling-quality antenna whose greatest virtue is it's easy availability. Put it indoors, and you increase multipath and reduce it's available signal by half. With so little signal to work with, and the obvious problems with multipath, since you see the signal meter jump so wildly, your one solution would be to get the antenna outside. Since you didn't mention whether or not you still needed analog TV, you might consider replacing the Radio Shack antenna with a Channel Master 4228 8 bay UHF antenna, and mount that on the roof. It is a much smaller and less obtrusive antenna that has a much higher WAF than a large antenna like the VU-190, and it much more effective than a VU-190 on UHF. The 4228 mounted outdoors will probably solve your problem, and it retails for only about $50.00

Have a look at the antenna here: it is only about 39" square, and about 5" deep.

http://www.channelmaster.com/images/4228.jpg

Thank you Thank you Thank you for your patients and WONDERFUL information...I will take your advise and look into the Channel Master 4228...If I am able to receive fox, then analog becomes unnecessary, so it seems that will be the way to go. Thank you once again.... :bowdown:

The fact that you have special problems should have nothing to do with what advise you should be given. Divorce over an outside antenna is why there are so many rip-off antennas trying to cash in on peoples feelings, like the Terk TV55 which is clearly aimed at your market situation.

See here is the thing. You tell us that you have this special situation that your wife does not want an antenna showing and perhaps you don't either. But that situation has nothing to do with what will be best for OTA reception. Antennas in attics are hit or miss at best and just because your neighbor is sucessfull is not an indication that you will be sucessfull with an attic installation. But antenna manufacturers are not above selling into this sort of situation.

The TV55 is just such an example as well as the stupid things that plug into your wiring to turn your whole house into an antenna! These things work only if you are in the shadow of the transmitters. There is a legimate market for some of these antennas (not the whole house wiring thing) as there are a lot of people that do live close enough to get stable service from them. But you will be hard pressed to get anyone that knows about RF reception to recommend any of the "wife friendly" solutions, particularly antennas in attics.

So just as tiger has said, if you want a shot at stable reception you need to get the antenna out of the attic. You might want to run a separate coax for the new antenna and use an A-B switch in case you still want the analog signals off of the RS antenna. It will still be a great FM antenna for your stereo.

Not to take issue on such a minor point, but the VU-190 SUCKS DUST BUNNIES for FM reception! If you look at it's gain curves on FM, it actually has a small signal LOSS over a dipole antenna, and my empirical evidence confirms that it is a poor FM fringe antenna, although, by leaving it in the attic you will probably be able to use it for local Baton Rouge FM signals. Having said that, rbinck is absolutely right on his other points about reception. Good luck!

Thank you both! Upon a few hours of reading, I have learned MUCH from you guys and also picked up a little additional info telling me that there is still hope that I may be able to get these last two digital channels and keep the ole lady...lol...with my current setup... As mentioned by Tiger earlier, WGMB (fox) is currently broadcasting at just 1 KW at the moment as is WVLA (NBC). However, starting the middle of May (this month) they will start testing the signal at full strength (each at 1000 kw) which will hopefully be more than enough for my current setup (since I am pretty close to the tower)...This is an assumption on my part since I am currently picking up WBRZ (ABC) and WAFB (CBS) both at 125% signal and they are only broadcasting at 30 kw and 316 kw...If it does not work after the signal goes full, I have gained some knowledge here that has clued me in to which direction I will need to go next. Anyway, I thought I would share this info incase anyone else is having the same problem. Thanks once again...Have a great day!

Comprmise outdoor antenna
 

Given your otherwise good situation ( range and terrain) - another alternative is the Winegard Sensar - either the GS-1100 if you're going to just hook up to one device or the powered/preamp included model the GS-2200 . These will do UHF/VHF/FM and should work well at the relativly close range you've got. For reason's I am probably gender challenged to understand - at least some women find this more acceptable than "other" antennas. Getting your antenna up and outside will probably make much more differnce than which of four or five good choices will be the very best. Give her a choice between your current monster antenna and something a bit more discrete - she might go for something outside.