Better tv reception

[canfossi]

I have a tv antenna only, no sat or cable. Sometimes I can get 9 channels and sometimes I can only get 5 or 6. Just curious why this happens. I am way out in the sticks and deep in a forested area. Would the weather be a factor or what? Thanks Chris

[mike3367]

alot of depends on the weather your probably getting more channels on a cloudy day as the signal bounces off the cloudes. do you have a booster on you antenna if not i would get one made by channel master and add it to your system it will bring in those weak channels better

[Cabin Fever]

Holy smokes! We get only two stations with our rabbit ears. I wou;dn't complain!

[brownthumb]

agree....clouds

[Windy in Kansas]

Weather plays a very important part in clear reception.

I sometimes go through all of the channel numbers and it is surprising how some weather formations/cloud cover/sun spot activity or whatever will bring signal in from a great distance.

I'm in south central Kansas and it isn't too unusual to get reception of Tulsa, OK stations. Sometimes picture perfect, usually marginal to watch.

A few months ago I received skip signal for a Boston, MA TV station.

This morning I received a PBS station out of Idaho. It is extremely rare to get signals from west of me.

I have also gotten signal from a Florida station a couple of years back.

Try going through all of the channels and see if you don't get some on occasion.

Not sure what will happen when analog signal is done away with and digital takes over completely.

[fordy]

.......................Some of the "bad reception" is due to sun spots where we are inundated with all kinds of plasma of various wave lengths which creates all kinds of havoc . Most TV reception is "line of sight" so the less physical objects twixt your antenna and the transmitting tower , the better your reception . One way of improving Your received signal strength would be to install two antenna's , one above the other and combine the received signal and then run that thru a booster . But , most folks won't spend the money on a set of antenna's or a pole of sufficient height to improve the received signal . , fordy...

[Janis Sauncy]

I get one channel. I've asked around about adding a booster but have been told that, because of my location, that won't help either.

Janis

[arabian knight]

Originally Posted by Windy in Kansas

Not sure what will happen when analog signal is done away with and digital takes over completely.

Ya that is around 2 years away now, so the time is approaching fast.
The way I understand digital you either see the picture or you don't, in other words there is No snowy weak picture. You will either get it or you won't.
But To get it you have to have a antenna that receives the UHF band of channels as ALL digital channels will be above channel 13.
I have a HD Receiver and have gotten my Local Channels in HD but I was just trying as I don't have a HD TV (YET) but I could see them on my standard one, just had not only that black bar on the top and bottom of the picture but also on both sides as well

[fordy]

Originally Posted by Janis Sauncy

I get one channel. I've asked around about adding a booster but have been told that, because of my location, that won't help either.

Janis

....................Two points , The "bigger" the antenna , the better the reception , potentially ! Because larger antenna's have more elements and therefore a larger multiplication factor for the amount of signal received .
....................Second , IF you put up a large antenna and , after testing "it" in a full 360 degrees of rotation and your signal is still either poor Or just snow on the screen , a second antenna won't help a Poor reception situation . Also , the further your antenna Is from the broadcast tower the weaker the transmitted signal will be . Just makes sense when you think about it . , fordy...

[idahodave]

All digital signals will not be on UHF....For example WBBM-TV in Chicago was assigned ch 3 for it's digital transmission. Many stations in the west asked for and received low band VHF allocations. The VHF allocations have greater coverage areas with less transmitter power. There are questions of how translators will be changed to digital. For the time being, some of them may stay analog after the shutoff date of Feb 18 2009.

As far as receiving extra channels:

If you are using an on set UHF antenna, changes inside your home can greatly effect reception. Doors, especially metal, people moving or changing locations and small changes in the antenna position can enhance or degrade reception.

If you have an outside antenna, the low band VHF (2-6) channels are frequently effected during the longer summer days. Extra energy from the sun (longer days have more exposure) make a portion the atmosphere (E layer) reflective to the tv signals that normally would pass though it and go into space. The height of the layer reflects signals back to earth in the 1000 mile range. This can be a condition that occurs at the same time every day for weeks at a time in the summer months. It's called sporadic E propagation.

There are other forms of propagation enhancements caused by weather conditions, but none of them are as consistent as sporadic-E.

[BillHoo]

Originally Posted by Windy in Kansas

Weather plays a very important part in clear reception.

Not sure what will happen when analog signal is done away with and digital takes over completely.

Weather is probably the primary culprit, but if some of the channels you get are bounced off the atmosphere (not the clouds), time of day could be the factor.

The ionosphere changes thickness depending on time of day. If you notice better reception at night, that is because the stations you are watching are lower energy signals from a further distance that have been bouncing off the ionosphere which is thicker and less active than in the day time.

As for digital. Back in the 1950s when color TV came on the scene, the FCC considered getting rid of black and white boadcasts altogether.

There was too much outcry from BW tv set owners and so, the FCC forced all the broadcasters to transmit programs in color AND BW. The broadcasters did not like this as is costs them double to transmit the same show twice on different bands.

Today, real estate on the electromagnetic spectrum is at a premium. Due to the laws of physics, you cannot manufacture new frequencies. With HD TV coming on the scene we have seen a rare cooperation between TV manufacturers, broadcasters and the FCC. They have agreed that when they switch to HD as the standard, they will pull the plug on BW and Color TV broadcasts.

This frees up the frequency spectrum for all sorts of new technology to use that space. Worldwide wireless broadband pocket internet for everyone!

Unfortunately, there will be no signals for BW or old fashioned color TVs to receive. They will become paperweights, unless you hook them up to your Atari systems or VHS machines for playback.

[Windy in Kansas]

[Unfortunately, there will be no signals for BW or old fashioned color TVs to receive. They will become paperweights, unless you hook them up to your Atari systems or VHS machines for playback.[/QUOTE]

Enter on the scene digital signal to analog signal converters. Many will qualify for a $40 coupon to apply toward purchase of a converter, max 2 per household.

Some Walmart stores already carry converters at about $200 plus.

Further, some DVD recorder/players also have digital tuners built in and can also convert the signal to analog. The one I looked at in a Best Buy store was over $300, if memory serves it was $349.

As you state however without some sort of signal converter they won't be of much use.

[idahodave]

Old TVs will work for satellite and cable viewing.

[DW]

We only have an antenna. When we installed it (in attic) 15+ yrs ago, we put a booster on it. Then recently we got a newer booster that is behind the TV...not expensive. We get many channels (55 miles f/Denver) and they are clear, too. I think there have been many improvements with this over the years.

[shar]

We only get 3 channels ( two of them are the same programs), and can't use a cell phone here either. Just can't justify the cable bill for the little time we watch tv.

[fantasymaker]

A few years ago I found a pattern for a tv anttena made out of alluminum foil it was something like 8 or 12 triangles of certain demintions in a ladder pattern .IT WAS THE BEST ANTTENA I EVER HAD . But was stolen . Ive looked for the pattern agin but since it was in a PRE WW-2 copy of Popular sience or mechanics Im not haveing much luck finding it!

[Windy in Kansas]

Originally Posted by fantasymaker

A IT WAS THE BEST ANTTENA I EVER HAD . But was stolen . Ive looked for the pattern agin but since it was in a PRE WW-2 copy of Popular sience or mechanics Im not haveing much luck finding it!

If you can come up with what issue it appeared in I can go to my local library to photocopy the plans. Without the issue # it would take too much time to go through all of the possibilities to find it.

[fantasymaker]

Originally Posted by Windy in Kansas

If you can come up with what issue it appeared in I can go to my local library to photocopy the plans. Without the issue # it would take too much time to go through all of the possibilities to find it.

LOL thats sorta been my problem it was a one or two page artical wrtten sometime before 1944 maybe as early as 1927 because I think it metioned color .AND if I remeber right it was one of those articales that was hard to find in the magazine even with it in your hand!

[radiofish]

idahodave, has been the closest in describing the way wave propagation of TV signals in the appropiate frequency alloctaions VHF/ UHF works. Yes weather does effect the ionsphere and the way signal propagation allows one to see distant stations on VHF. It can be done on UHF channels 14-83, with great cost and difficullty!!

In amateur "Ham" radio we see the same effects, so when I see distant TV stations I go turn on my radio equipment for 6 meters (50 MHz) of 2 meters (144 MHz) to work distant stations. Usually TV and those ham freqencies are line of sight. But when the ionsphere allows sporadic E layer, troposphere ducting, or by other methods (meteor scatter is another)- signals from hundreds or thousands of miles away can be received.

An amplifer located at the antenna can improve the input signal, or at the back of the TV if that is all you can do. Here where I live, I am on an outside antenna for broadcast TV, and I get 4 chennels, and 3 fuzzy ones. I have been a ham radio operator for over 30 years now with a couple of electronics degrees. I design and build many types of antennas, yet that is the best that I can do! That is due to a hill being between myself and the transmitter site for some TV stations. Most of the Chief Engineers at the local TV stations are hams, and one of them is my mentor in Broadcasting Electronics/ & Ham Radio.

The stacking of two identical mulit-element yagi type antennas using the "correct phasing harness" (on a high tower/ pole will give you roughly an additional 3dB gain, over a sigle antenna. 3dB is roughly double the input signal of a single antenna. Remember that not all of the stations you receive have their transmitters at the same location. So you may need a rotator to turn the antenna array towards different stations. Yes the higher you go, the greater distance you can receive signals.

I hope that I haven't confused you too much...

KK6ZY - with an A.S. in Electronics Technology, B.S. in (E.E.) Electrical Engineering and sort of slowly working on my Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Grad School Tuition or land payments? What would you do????

One can always go to www.ac6v.com a ham radio website, and follow the links to antenna theory for more ideas.....

[mellba]

Does anybody know if a signal splitter will work backward? I have a rooftop antenna that is supposed to be VHF/UHF. It brings in VHF great, but UHF is fuzzy. Somebody gave me and inside antenna that brings in UHF great, but VHF not at all. The tv only has a place to hook up one antenna, so I have to keep switching the hook-up between VHF and UHF depending on what I want to watch. A signal splitter has one incoming line and two or more outgoing lines. I wondered if I could plug the VHF/UHF antennas into the two lines that are made for outgoing lines and then connect the tv with the line that is made for incoming. Haven't tried it yet because I didn't have a splitter. Any other suggestions would be welcome.