Hey guys! I have encountered a problem with my ota signal. Other than the occasional interference my system has worked great until the weather started to change. It did the same thing last year in the fall. I have tried several configurations of my system. I have taken the amplifier off the system and adjusted the antenna and my stations read yellow orange on my tablo channel guide in stead of green. So I tried the tablo amplified and about the same result. I put the system back together with the amplifier and get 4 green dots on the channels I wish to get but still experiencing a pixel blips on the screen. It sometimes throws off the picture and sound so they aren’t synced. It also can stop recordings. Don’t know if another antenna would help of if I need to relocated it again. My setup is: ClearStream 2V TV Antenna on 2nd story of house..to..Channel master lte/5G filter…to…Juice preamp on mast right below antenna..About 100 feet of rg6 quadshield cable…Connected to a coupler in an outside junction box…then about 10 feet of cable from inside of wall jack..to..power inserter..then to a Tablo 4th gen…WiFi to Sony Bravia Tv. Any advice would be appreciated!
How far away are the transmitters? You may need to set up an antenna outside. Your Sony should have tuner diagnostics if you connect the antenna directly to the TV. I had issues similar to yours and installing a Televes antenna to the top of my chimney solved all of my problems. Check this site for help.
His antenna is outside. It is NOT a big one either.
Bobplough how about some more important info? Is your problem with VHF or UHF channels? One channel or many? How far are you from the broadcast transmitters?
Shouldn’t be season dependent, but I’ve had some success by resetting my Tablo 4G when I’ve experienced sudden, odd, unexplainable reception issues. Other than that, I do have seasonal changes in reception quality dependent on atmospheric conditions.
It will be season dependent if your antenna is faced with trees in front of it. Also if their are tall buildings, mountains, cell towers etc can all have an impact not season dependent.
Also he has 100 plus feet of coax which causes signal loss and even though using a preamp the preamp is also boosting interference etc.. The antenna he is using if fine if you are within 15 to 20 miles of the broadcast towers with great line of site to them.
So we need more info to help him.
TVFool hasn’t been updated in years. Their last upgrade was to add Google Earth. They don’t even have the digital transition stuff.
Use Rabbitears.info it’s updated daily.
It’s out side. Antennas direct told me I have the right size antenna.
Had no issues for 8 months then I started getting the pixelated blips after the weather started to change.
As I mentioned, it was working fine until the weather changed. I could shorten the cable but it did the same thing last year with 50 ft of cable. I moved the antenna and got a new cable to make sure I had enough to reach. Thank y’all for any help you can give!
Based on the images you provided, unfortunately, some of the channels with “Good” Field Strength are in different directions so this will cause some issues.
My only suggestion would be to see if you can remove the mesh reflector. This would allow the antenna to receive signals from both sides, but they might not be as strong, either, on the primary side after the mesh is removed. But the signal should be stronger than it would be on the mesh side once the mesh is removed.
If you do this, my recommendation would be to orient the antenna either N to NNW or S to SSE, so that the front and back of the antenna element point toward the two main tower directions.
Of course, this should be based on what channel(s) you want to receive.
Antennas Direct LIED to you with a capital L! You still have not answered my questions!
If you want to receive the stations in Green you will need a much bigger antenna and need a rotar on it to move it to face the transmitters.
The leaves on the trees and humidity likely bounced the signals during the summer so you lucked out. In reality reception should be better in the fall and winter when the leaves are off the trees.
Antenna makers routinely lie about how many miles from the transmitter their antenna can pick up the signal. They really have no skin in the game and just want to make money. Even if you use tools they don’t know about the trees and other issues you may have at your location.
The good news is we know what your issue is. You need a much better and bigger antenna and if you want reception from Transmitters in different directions you may need either a rotar or two antennas. Its as simple as that. If you do that you may not even need an amp or preamp.
Rotors don’t integrate with Tablo devices. And would be complicated regardless (makes zero sense). Just saying. Either an antenna that receives most or a more complicated multi-antenna setup that is well configured (most will not be).
I agree with you, @cjcox. I think the easiest and cheapest way forward is to remove the reflector and test it out. He’d then know if a larger antenna or multi-antenna setup would be needed.
If you are referring to the question vhf or uhf, I get the same pixelated blips! Any suggestions on antenna? We prefer the stations to the north of us because they include our small town the their weather broadcasts. It worked perfect all year until the fall started! Same thing last year then the issue went away around the end of January. Just kinda strange how it can work perfect and then start having issues at the same time each year. Again any suggestions would be helpful! Thanks
I live in IL about 10 miles from WI border. I have Clearstream 2 mounted in my attic. I pick up both Rockford, IL (green bars all the way) and Madison, WI (all green some days and pixelated to no signal most) channels. On cloudy, overcast, or stormy weather no reception at all. I sent an email to Clearstream support giving them my home address and they sent back information on which comps point and direction topping my antenna. They said xxx degrees south for Rockford and xxx degrees North for Madison (if pointing at Madison they said I should get most of the Rockford channels too as the antenna is multi-directional (not omni). Since like you I wanted more focus on local I chose that and just know that depending on atmospheric condition I can watch Madison. But when I did point north the Madison channels came in better, but again good to spotty depending on the atmosphere.
You might try contacting them to see if they can offer some guidance.
That’s a bit strong. They provide their best recommendations based upon the information you give them and what they can glean from antennaweb.
Yes, manufacturers mostly exaggerate their product ranges (with the possible exception of Televes and Channelmaster) but you need to apply a little common sense and reality to any advertising claims.
I have difficulty receiving some “green” channels on my Tablo/Televes Dinova and get some yellow and red dot channels just fine. It’s basically impossible to give definitive answers to every indivudual reception situation.
These are the best directional antennas. They are pricey though.
Ya, if the OP only wants the channels that are True ~339º, they’re 36-37 miles away and a stronger antenna would probably work best for them. If they could put it on the out building to the NNE, that’d be ideal to get out from behind those trees. Their existing antenna might work better for them at that location, too.
Keep in mind that an antenna may actually receive a signal from a long distance but due to the curvature of the Earth your antenna would need to be very high above ground level to see the transmitter.
Tropospheric conditions and e-skip not withstanding. Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections interfere… Black Holes. Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse is kinda bad.
Topography, vegetation, building structures, lakes or other bodies of water influence signal quality. Even temperature - since warm air rises or humidity thickens the atmosphere. Bla, bla it’s a wonder it works at all.
Voyager signals travel billions of miles with less strength than used by TV broadcasters.
I purposely installed an omnidirectional antenna from Channel Master (cheap no VHF-LO you don’t have any) 30’ AGL. In Dallas we have an antenna farm for most stations transmitters but there are several LPTV stations distributed around.
You still have not really answered the questions I asked.
And no one here but me will tell you that the antenna you are using is NOT good at all for VHF reception!!! Lots of antennas rated UHF/VHF are poor for VHF!! You need a great UHF/VHF antenna if VHF stations are important for you. You don’t have one and distance does matter when it comes to reception!
Also bag the idea of removing the reflector. It will do more harm than good!
Also we need a Rabbit Ears report not a report from TVFOOL.
He did answer.