Free TV channels
 

Recently our channel reception changed. We are in SW Ohio.We have an outdoor antenna on the peak of the roof,we had been getting 18 channels. now I am only getting 7 channels, I bought a replacement antenna amplifier kit from Radio Shack. Installed the kit and reception is much clearer,but less channels.Any suggestions?

be happy
 

be happy if you get local weather,,world news and some andy grinffth.

A rotor is pretty much a necessity to beam in on all channels unless they ALL come from the same direction.

Friend had that, went over for an all day job.....

Took the cable off his tv and the end fell apart in my hand.

10 minutes and we were having a beer and enjoying TV.....

Anyhow, a y end, or break on a cable, or the cable frayed will gove problems.

Water soaked into the ends up by the antenna... Any such small thing the whole way.

Paul

We have a regular antenna with a booster. We are in SE Indiana so our stations come out of Cincinnati. We get a total of about 40 channels. Check all of your connections.

who needs tv????????? we have a flat antenna that gives us the 10 channels in our area, check your cables and then reprogram

We get get close to 50 channels on ours with a good booster. No rotor. This is a great site with lots of info and good prices. Just click on the info on the left and look around. He will even answer questions.
http://dennysantennaservice.com//

Onew thing about THAT site is they KEEP mentioning a HD Antenna
And there is NO SUCH THING.
None.
I am using my 18 year old ALL Channel Antenna that I got from Radio Shack and get all of the channels in my area at 14~! The key words are ALL Channel meaning able to receive UHF as well as VHF. But there is no such thing as a HD Antenna. LOL
And that Antenna was bought LONG before ANY thoughts of High Definition Programming. LOL

We get about 45 channels with an outdoor antenna. But when you back out the duplicate channels, QVC-like sales channels, Spanish channels, and religious channels it leaves us with more like 20 watchable channels. I'm content with over-the-air reception.

We used to get one channel clearly, then two other channels with a lot of snow but the aerial had to be aimed in a different direction.

After they outlawed high-power broadcast in favor of this lo-power digital, folks in our township lost the signals.

No cable here.

Replace the co-ax cable, try plugging up a different set. I assume that you have already replaced the balun (little shell sized case with flat leads coming out one end to the antenna and co-ax to fit on the cable on the other). Should take care of it unless a transmitting tower is down.

And if you do decide to replace the Coax get the good stuff.
RG6 ----- 18AWG ------ BRAID SWEPT TO 3 GHz
It does make a huge difference on HD signals.
http://www.cerrowire.com/files/file/...27-2011(1).pdf

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDAwWDQwMA...ShuMF/$_35.JPG

We had that. Some thoughts:

For a year during the switch, the new digital stations were broadcasting at only 10% power. So you couldn't get them on the fringe. Typical govt regulating, force something new but don't allow it to work for a year......

Then you need a cleaner signal with digital. Can use the same antenna, but:

We had the old flat antenna wire, 2 wires parallel. That is too noisy, need to go to top grade coax cable as AK mentions. Better is truly better here.

Then, a booster that plugs into wall power and the antenna coax at the bottom, and has a little gizmo that plugs into the coax right by the antenna, about $20 at Radio Shak, will do wonders to stabilize and bring in the poorer signals.

You might be able to make things work, for very little investment.

I actually end up getting more channels now than before, and according to the charts I should only be getting 2 channels. I get about 20, from up to 80 miles away.

Well, I did. Antenna blew over, is laying flat on the roof. I still get 12 of them, even with the directional antenna laying sideways and a couple rods bent. Need to fix that, winter is coming!

Paul

Thank you for your help.
Possum Belly,I like the Denny's antenna site,will continue to look into that.
Harry,I have coax cable,one line from tv to antenna,no need for a balum as described. But have considered up grading to better coax cable.
I replaced power booster,with the kit from radio shack.

Here is the kit from Radio Shack I installed. Much more clear on channels we receive.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...uctId=11113014
I replaced power block,but in line amplifier installed with a 3' coax lead close to outdoor antenna,per instructions,actually made signal worse.(amplifier installed in correct direction)

We have one of those.

We also had one of these:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=3740642

The highest gain antenna Radio Shack carries.

I ended up using a Clearstream 4 UHF aimed in one direction and a Clearstream 5 VHF aimed a different. The Clearstream 5 came with a combiner for this setup which feeds into a 30db Pre-Amp which pushes it from my deteached garage into my house (several hundred feet). This works fairly well with no complaints here. The channels are all 2 edge but come in very well unless there is heavy storms.

The balun I referred to is the one on the antenna. Standard antennas often have a natural output that is two screws meant to connect to a 300 ohm twinlead. To connect to an RG58 cable, they incorporate a balun (also called a "matching transformer") which lives on, in, or within inches of the antenna itself. They can become damaged by lightning, stray currents, or corrosion can set in and destroy the connection.

A picture here is better.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...jL._SX425_.jpg

It sounds to me like everyone just wants to talk and all you are getting is their experience and their opinions, none of the answers given were a educated response.

I have been in communications for over 40 years.

First, lets start with the obvious - where do you live.
In order to give any advice, we first need a street level address.

Second, we need to enter this information into a web site called Tvfool.com
This will give us the channel assignment, the frequency transmitted on, the direction from you and the signal strength at your location.

Next we need to look at your antenna situation.
What kind of antenna do you have?
What make and model of antenna is it?
What brand and model of coax are you using? How many feet? How many Splits?
What kind of splitter are you using? What make and model?
How many feet total of coax do you have connected to the antenna system?
What direction is your antenna pointed in?
Do you have a television antenna rotor?

I have accomplished over 3,000 antenna suggestions and I have never had anyone come back and claim that I was wrong, if the information they gave me was correct.

Before the DTV transition 6 years ago, most terrestrial television was analog and operated in the VHF portion of the spectrum.
VHF is the large part of the UHF / VHF antenna - Yagi - if you have one!
After the transition, most of the signals with the exception of channel 3 out of Cleveland Ohio migrated to the UHF. The small part of the antenna that looks like bow ties is the UHF side.

VHF is like sound - if you yell, you can stand on one side of a building and the people on the opposite wall of the building can hear you.

UHF is like a flashlight, if you point the beam north, the light does not go south, if you point the beam up, the light does not come down.
Anything one wavelength in size or larger can block your signals.

This means that trees, the foliage in the trees etc can and will block your reception.
A man puts up an antenna and 3 years later, the trees are higher then the antenna and all of a sudden he has no reception anymore and then he wonders where his stations went to?

TV fool will ask you for your antenna height above ground, I will also ask you for the height of all the trees and hills and mountains in your neighborhood.
Many of the signals coming out of Ohio are a part of the Western Reserve and originates in the middle of the state.
Because Ohio is relatively flat, one television transmitter can effectively cover the entire state - at least as far as PBS goes.

FYI - I can pick up the FOX stations out of Youngstown OH in Punxsutawney PA - 90 mi away, with my simple antenna set up.

"It sounds to me like everyone just wants to talk and all you are getting is their experience and their opinions, none of the answers given were a educated response.

I have been in communications for over 40 years."

First of all, if you are going to be snarky about education, it is AN educated response, not A educated response. Secondly, if you want to lead with your chin, you might want to engage what is above and behind it first.

The original post states "Recently our channel reception changed. We are in SW Ohio.We have an outdoor antenna on the peak of the roof,we had been getting 18 channels. now I am only getting 7 channels..."

The chances of ELEVEN stations suddenly shifting to low power are pretty slim. Now in the AM band, stations DO change power levels at varying times, according to FCC regulations and the time of sunset, but we are talking about UHF television.

We can also pretty confidently rule out that a television at the home does not work at all - since there are stations that ARE being received.

So... eliminating the possibility of a tower down that carried eleven channels, and discounting the possibility that the oil mavins from Dubai built another super-skyscraper in the direct signal path, we can tentatively narrow the problem to the receiving antenna, matching transformer, co-ax, and front-end circuitry. If the lost signals were all low spectrum or high spectrum, we might isolate it further. I suspect something like that would be noticed by the original poster and noted, so the logic points in the direction of general signal degradation.

It is fall when leaves generally tend to exit trees on the way to the ground, so I am taking a wild guess that no new foliage is a problem.

Existing antenna are metal and do not change characteristics suddenly except when crushed by snow or damaged by high winds. That wasn't mentioned, and I eliminate that.

Now we have only a few areas to check: The matching transformer, the cable, the front-end circuitry.

If you care to look again at posts 11 and 18, I have covered those items specifically rather than going for a generic litany of reception problems. Of course I'm not "educated"... I only helped my father build radio stations...

Sure tree foliage will degrade a digital signal, but with good equipment and cable etc. trees should not be too much of a problem. Not as much as a tree branch hanging down JUST ENOUGH to block Satellite signals. LOL I had to cut that brach off and got better Satellite TV reception even in mild rain storms. LOL
My 18 year antenna is shooting through many trees and hills and buildings and who knows what else to receive many High Definition Digital stations over 75 miles away.
Now I do have a antenna rotator because some are to the South of me and the others are pretty much North.
And with a outside inline booster I get all those channels simply by turning the antenna.
And I can do this in summer and winter from both directions. And shooting North i have a ridge to contend with also with many trees that come with 25 miles of countryside. LOL

Project Free TV has tons of current TV shows (and old ones) you can watch online for free. Last nights episodes are already up. And it truly is free :)