getting OTA WISN 12 HD in Lake Country

[jimmymke]

Greetings! I appreciate reading the input from everyone, I've learned a lot over the months of lurking.  Took the plunge and have a new plasma in the home.  First experience with digital tv.  I'm in Oconomowoc, no cable or sat, all OTA.  
I went on the roof and tweaked the antennas, I have two DB4 bowties, one aimed to Madison and one to Milwaukee.  We can get the Milwaukee digital signals nicely except 12.1 (34). I can only get 25-35% signal and it's not strong enough to save.  If I monkey too much with the direction I degrade the signals from everyone else and still don't get 12.1.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  

Jimmy

[bradsmainsite]

Greetings! I appreciate reading the input from everyone, I've learned a lot over the months of lurking.  Took the plunge and have a new plasma in the home.  First experience with digital tv.  I'm in Oconomowoc, no cable or sat, all OTA.  
I went on the roof and tweaked the antennas, I have two DB4 bowties, one aimed to Madison and one to Milwaukee.  We can get the Milwaukee digital signals nicely except 12.1 (34). I can only get 25-35% signal and it's not strong enough to save.  If I monkey too much with the direction I degrade the signals from everyone else and still don't get 12.1.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  

Jimmy

Are you combining both antennas into one downlead?  If you are this could be your trouble.  

Try one antenna aimed at ch. 12 first to see if this improves things.  If combining signals lowers the level you are getting some interaction between the two causing a cancelation of some sort on that frequency.

The percent level signal meter is actually a combination of several factors which can be conveyed into more of a signal QUALITY meter not necessarily just level.

Hope this helps!;)

[jimmymke]

Hmm.  I do have them both coming into one combiner/splitter, but I only hooked up one at a time when I aimed them.  Now I'm spooked to move them again because of the hassle it took the first time to get 4 which was quite elusive compared to the others. I just figured since 24 and 58 digital were looking good that 12 would follow since it has the same compass heading as 24 and 58.

What I think is weird is that the analog signal for 12 is spectacular for me, better than the other analogs except 10, so the analog is perfectly watchable.  The digital from Madison's ABC 27 comes in quite nicely, but would love to have the MKE ABC as well.

Thinking about a preamp or amp.  Would it be worth it for just one channel (12)?  The weather has been pretty nice the last three days since hooking up.  Do changing weather conditions affect digital signal quality? Should I expect worse days ahead?  Perhaps an amp would help things all around.  Then the question is put a good one on the mast or a cheap all in one from Farm and Fleet that plugs in behind the tv for 15 bucks?

Jimmy

[bradsmainsite]

Hmm.  I do have them both coming into one combiner/splitter, but I only hooked up one at a time when I aimed them.  Now I'm spooked to move them again because of the hassle it took the first time to get 4 which was quite elusive compared to the others. I just figured since 24 and 58 digital were looking good that 12 would follow since it has the same compass heading as 24 and 58.

What I think is weird is that the analog signal for 12 is spectacular for me, better than the other analogs except 10, so the analog is perfectly watchable.  The digital from Madison's ABC 27 comes in quite nicely, but would love to have the MKE ABC as well.

Thinking about a preamp or amp.  Would it be worth it for just one channel (12)?  The weather has been pretty nice the last three days since hooking up.  Do changing weather conditions affect digital signal quality? Should I expect worse days ahead?  Perhaps an amp would help things all around.  Then the question is put a good one on the mast or a cheap all in one from Farm and Fleet that plugs in behind the tv for 15 bucks?

Jimmy

Remember analog 12 is on the VHF hi band.  Digital 12 is on UHF 34.  Two completely different bands, so that is not unusual.

An amp could help, but not the cheap kind.  Use a Winegard AP8700.  This will add around 15-18db on UHF with low noise (less than 3db).

What is your distance from the Milwaukee towers vs. Madison?  What is the distance that separates your antennas?  Type of cable and fitttings used.  Length of cable to tv location, and cable lengths from antennas to combiner/splitter.

Weather can play a factor and vegatation can really attenuate the UHF signals.

If aiming these antennas were that difficult it sounds as if you may be in a bad spot for UHF.  It may be that a 4 bay bowtie antenna is not the best choice for your location, and a yagi may work better.  Hard to tell without more info though.

Lots of factors come into play, but lets start with the answers to the above questions first.