Channel 4-1 Problems

[vetrev]

Is it just my location (Port Washington) or is anyone else having trouble receiving channel 4-1 lately? That used to be one of my most reliable OTA channels. Now ironically, I can receive 6-1 just fine, but can rarely get 4-1! Are they changing equipement or something? My signal strength meter bounces around all over the place on that channel. I can receive 5-2 just fine as well. What gives? :confused:

[GBK]

no problem here in germantown

[Jon.Zickermann]

All fine here  :wave:

[bradsmainsite]

I have also experinced this problem seems to corrolate with tropo ducting
because when the band is open and all the chicago and Indiana stations
are coming in thats when 4-1 is weak.

In other words its not just you, howver the closer you are to the station the
chances are much less you will experience this problem

[vetrev]

Could you explain "tropo ducting" for me? What you said seems to be the truth. I can get Channel 5 from Chicago when 4-1 is down. I can't get Chicago or Grand Rapids when 4 digital is strong (which for me is only about 60 on the strength meter).

[bradsmainsite]

Here is the none technical explaination.

It has to due with the tempertatures in the atmosphere that causes a duct where
RF signals can get caught in and travel 100's of miles rather than just the typical line of sight that VHF and UHF frequencies do.

When this happens if there is another 4-1 digital channel  ( which is actually being transmitted  on UHF channel 28) or for that matter even an analog channel 28
it will interfere with the local channel and this causes all kinds of problems with digital tuners with bre (bit rate error) and in essence it desencitises your tuner and its not sure which signal to lock on to which in turn causes what appears to
be weak signals.

It is actually quite more complex than this, but I think you will get the drift.

When this happens though have fun with it (if you have a rotor) and try turning your antenna to different directions and scanning  for new channels you will be
amazed at what you can pickup! :eek:

Now this you can't do with CABLE or SATELLITE  HA HA HA!  

On a side note you should have signal strengths on all your milwaukee channels
(with the exception of digital channel 30) in the high 80's or low 90's, but that also
depends on your tuner meter they also can be somewhat flaky.   I'm also assuming you have an outdoor antenna and not an indoor setup.

[Tom Snyder]

You can always see the current tropo conditions HERE

[jfelbab]

9/22/05  Audio dropouts throughout the Leno show tonight.  No other channels exhibit this problem.  OTA 4.1 seems to be the source of this problem as DTV's (non-HD) feed is just fine.

[oflaherty]

The audio drop outs have been going on all night.
Master control & I can't figure out the cause.

-Sean at TMJ