WISN-DT 34.1 Signal Strength

[StarvingForHDTV]

I was wondering if I am the only one experiencing this.

Sometimes when 34.1 is broadcasting I have rock solid strong signal strengths.  At other times the signal strengths vary widely.  As an example last night I was trying to watch that channel at times but the signal would vary from a strength of maybe 90 to absolute zero.  Other times it would be less dramatic, such as approximately 85 to about 30.  When it was varying wildly I would get pixelation and audio dropouts regularly.

This also happened during Monday Night Football for me.  But during A Bug's Life, the signal was rock solid and very strong.  Is this an issue with my antenna placemant (this does not happen with any other channels, even Faux 6-"DT")  Or is WISN-DT playing around still?  I get analog WISN 12 very strongly.  Is the digital signal coming from the same tower as the analog one?

I was just wondering if I have to go back up to my attic and adjust the RS double bow tie for WISN-DT specifically.

Starving

[Pat]

The biggest problem (IMHO) with digital bradcasting (8VSB -- theres another one for the glossary) is relections.  I seriously doubt that the signal itself is varying, but some moving object may be reflecting the signal.  Airplanes?  Trucks?  Leaves?

Also maybe you have a church steeple or something nearby that is reflecting, but I would suppose such a thing to be constant.


[This message has been edited by Pat (edited 10-30-2002).]

[StarvingForHDTV]

I don't know if that is the case or not.  I would think some of the other channels would show the same problem as well, if that were true.  I know there was one very windy night before WISN-DT was on the air, and before my RS double bow tie was positioned properly in the attic.  Well that night all of the signals would vary.  Even the analog signals dropped in quality.  I live near some pine trees, and I guessed that night they were blowing all over the place and wreaking havoc on my signals.

Since I have moved the antenna to the attic, I have not had a problem like that.  Maybe my antenna isn't aimed properly for 34.1, but that doesn't make much sense either since sometimes it comes in super strong for hours and no signal strength wild fluctuations.

Starving

[Kevin Arnold]

This may be a quirk of ATSC signals. Out here in Hartland CBS 46 will occasionally fade to unwatchable levels but if I rotate the antenna, most of the time I can get it back - but sometimes the antenna is 45 degrees off the station. Reflections, multipath changes, gremline, I don't know but it is very strange when it happens.

[P a u l]

No we are not playing around with our signal strength. We have been up and running since last Thursday.

Yes our Digital antenna is on the same tower as our analog antenna.

I'm hot sure exactly where you live in Mequon, but I have a friend who lives up there and I have noticed some rather steep hills. Do you live on the backside if a hill? You might want to try and move your antenna as far to the south in your attic as possible.

[ugyvel]

I'm in Mequon, Ville du Parc area, Wisn 34 has been rock solid everynight for signal strength.  Samsung 150, RS anntenna over the rafters in the attic.

[StarvingForHDTV]

Thanks for the input everyone.  The problem is definitely on my end.  I'll move the antenna.

Starving

[GS kid]

I have had the same problem the last 2 days with WISN-12. Doesn't happen that often. My antenna has never moved, so what ever the problems are, they are recent. Had no problems before with 34. Been having the same problems with PBS lately. Strong signal, dropout to 0, then back up to full. Could this possibly have anything to do with the huge solar flares they were talking about on the CBS news last night?!?!---- GS kid



[This message has been edited by GS kid (edited 10-31-2002).]

[StarvingForHDTV]

Maybe???  I was all set to go up to the attic and move my antenna last night.  I went to channel 34.1 and the signal was rock solid and strong every time I checked it last night.  Of course I can't move the antenna to a better spot until I have a problem with the signal.  I guess I will keep waiting for it to show up again.  

Starving

[Mike Sheahan]

I was noticing this same thing late this summer when we were having those brilliant Northern Lights.

Even the satellite signals were dancing around pretty good.

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[Tom Snyder]

We've lost all the leaves in the woods that have been blocking signals all summer. I'm back up to  94-95 on 4 and 10 Digital. Even 58 which gave me fits and forced me to buy my Radio Shack Bow Tie antenna earlier this year is back up to solid 90+.

Channel 12 digital, however still bounces around in low to mid 80's... not low enough to cause lockups or dropouts, but still lower than all the rest.

With a little more help from those November winds, I'm hoping that I may even be able to pick up Channel 6 digital. If I'm real lucky, some strong Autumn gales will knock the rest of the leaves off the trees, and  knock their antenna loose from the tower and re-aim it due west!

[StarvingForHDTV]

I ended up moving the direction my antenna was facing a bit more south vs. east on a windy night, and WISN-DT now comes in strong with no dropouts.  All of the other stations come in strong now except for WTMJ-DT which now has frequent dropouts.

I would rather have 4.1 dropping out than 34.1 since the latter has much more programming in HD and DD 5.1 sound.

Would getting a 4 bow or 8 bow UHF Channel Master help solve the problem?  Is it possible to get too much of an antenna?  The 8 bow is suggested for fringe areas, and I am not located in a fringe area.  Is it possible to overload a signal with too much of an antenna like adding an amplifier sometimes can overload a signal?  I just wanted to ask before I ordered the 8 bow model.

Starving

[ReesR]

You may want to try the 4 bow rather than the 8.  The reason would be the higher than necessary directional aspects of the 8.  Using the broader 4 would then allow you to receive (hopefully) all the stations with more than adaquate gain from the gain of the 4 bow-tie.

Rees

[StarvingForHDTV]

Thanks Rees,

I'll probably order the 4 bow then.  It's cheap enough even if it doesn't work out.  The 8 bow is more directional huh?  I didn't really notice that part at the Channel Master site.  Hopefully it will be better than the double bow tie for my situation.  

If it works out I may have a double bow tie available for someone else.  It has a transformer permanently mounted on the unit for plugging in coaxial cable, and also has shortened 300 ohm leads, but a slight dent in one of the bows.  Overall a nice antenna, for certain conditions.  I may keep it in case I need to do an onsite demo or something though.

Starving

[StarvingForHDTV]

Update:

The Channel Master 4221 4 bow antenna came in today from www.warrenelectronics.com   About $30 delivered.  It solved my problem.  Now I get 4.1 and 12.1 just about at the top of the meter, and strong everything else.  6.1 stayed at about mid range on the meter bar, so I guess that's  all the signal they give out these days.

Interestingly, just like the RS double bow tie, this antenna works good for VHF as well.  I did the re-scan on the Sony HD200 and it filled in the analog channels I had hidden from my previous scan.  Analog 4,6,10 etc. come in just fine with this "UHF" antenna.  I also got MTV2 or something I think it was channel 7 analog.  Strange.  

It's a nice antenna in case anyone is in the market for a medium sized antenna.  It is definitely small enough for an attic (that's where mine is), and could even be used indoors if you don't mind looking at it.  Outdoors it wouldn't look large at all.  Also unlike the RS double bow tie, it's easy to get the coax on.  They include a little balun and the screws are built in to the antenna for the 300 ohm leads to the balun.  You just use a washer and wing nut (included) for each of the leads.  The whole deal takes maybe a minute or so from the time you get the box open.

I just thought I would update.  Problem is solved.  Thank you Rees for the suggestion.

Starving