Fox 6 HD

[daldrewek]

We are located in Wauwatosa, and have the dish 811 HD reciever with a bow-tie antenna in the adttic. We cannot get a lock on for FOX 6. Is their signal that weak? Channel 4 cdomes and goes as well. 12,58 and 36 come in at about 70% - 77%

Can someone shed light for us. We're big football fans, and would to see the pack in HD.

Thanks.

[gobble]

Fox 6 is a joke.   I have the same problem in Germantown.  I sent them an email the other day and they have no quick fix.  They told me they wouldn't have a decent transmission until after football season.  I'm going to try the Channelmaster 8 bowtie antenna and see what happens.

[summerfun]

Originally posted by daldrewek
We're big football fans, and would to see the pack in HD.
 

You might try a better antenna. Others can help you better with that, but I would suggest getting TWC. OTA channel 6 is very difficult for many.

[gobble]

Real football fans have NFL Sunday Ticket, and its unreasonable to have to subscribe to Directv and TWC.

[borghe]

I'm in wauwatosa and get about a 93 with my outdoor antenna and a 20dB attenuator (aka I actually would get them higher than that without it). even with my indoor DBT at their old location I could get a 44-50.

I would give it another shot. In tosa there isn't any reason you shouldn't get 6 with a rock solid signal.

[daldrewek]

Thanks for the feedback.

With the OTA antenna what channel does fox broadcast over, and where is the tower actually located?

[Gregg Lengling]

Fox broadcasts from their tower at the Milwaukee River and Capitol Drive...that's the big 1000' free standing tower.  They are on digital channel 33, but they are running low power on a cardiod pattern antenna...only about 5,000 watts ERP and it's all beamed mainly west.

[gobble]

Gregg, you seem very knowledgeable.  What do you feel is the best antenna I could buy in my effort to pick up WITI in Germantown?  I'm getting desperate.

[Gregg Lengling]

That's a poser of a question.  The problem being is that you may already have enough signal but with channel 33 running around 5000 watts and channel 34 running 500,000 watts, and your antenna having to point at both stations you are experiencing an receiver action called AGC.  What happens is the receiver reduces it's gain when it gets a very big signal as to prevent Intermodulation distortion within it's amplifier sections.  So what may be happening is that you are overloading due to the reciever seeing channel 34's big signal, thus stopping it from seeing the weak signal on 33.

I would personally use a UHF only antenna and then Radio Shack as a variable attenuator that you could put in the line.  By attenuating all the signals (especially 34), you should be able to get your receiver to go max gain and receive 33.  So once you have an antenna and attenuator in place, you can adjust it for a good quality signal on 33.

Of course this all would be moot if WITI just installed an antenna with the proper pattern to cover ALL of it's coverage area, even with the low power transmitter.  But we probably won't see this cure til next year when they have to meet coverage requirement.s

[gobble]

Would I buy the Radio Shack 15-678 TV/CATV attenuator?  I did an internet search and found a 15-578 variable attenuator, but they don't appear to still sell it.  

How do I choose to attenuate all channels?  The 15-678 only has a min/max knob.  Sorry for my ignorance on this topic.

[borghe]

that should be the same attenuator I now have to use for WB18 since things went fritzy on my system.

You attenuate your entire antenna signal. Every channel. Greggs point was that you cut EVERYONE's power equally so your receiver stops cutting it's gain when it sees the super high WISN power..

In layman's terms, connect the attenuator, twist the knob completely in one direction, and then slowly twist it in the other direction until you are at the optimal signal strength for 33.

[gobble]

I believe what you're all saying, and will try it tonight, but why doesn't the attenuator cut the channel 33 signal too?  Does it reduce the strong ones and leave the weak ones alone?

[Gregg Lengling]

It will attenuate all signals including Fox6 Digital...but the real effect is that it will attenuate enough of WISN Digital and still have enough signal of Fox6 to allow your receiver to decode 6.

[Matt Heebner]

I thought I would chime in being another 'Tosan that had a hellava time getting FOX. What did the trick with me (I have a Radio Shack double bowtie antenna, and a bigger UHF antenna hanging in the attic) was to aim the big  antenna North by Northeast right at the towers. I then turned the DBT due East. After the DBT was turned directly east, BAMM! I got FOX with a pretty solid signal. Seems turning the DBT away from WISN's signal allowed me to grab FOX.

I get every signal perfectly, but FOX is the lowest powered of all of them.

Matt

[mhz40]

Originally posted by gobble
Real football fans have NFL Sunday Ticket, and its unreasonable to have to subscribe to Directv and TWC.

Real football fans go to the game.[/b]:drink: