I am less than a half mile from waters edge in Toronto. My antenna is a Clearstream 2 Max(with a Winegard LNA-200) and it is pointed at WGRZ in Buffalo. Most days it comes in strong as does WBEN and WKBW. Today, Superbowl Sunday, The sky is clear but the three Buffalo stations mentioned all have poor reception. PBS comes in strong, as does Fox 29. So do the Toronto stations of the CN tower which is five miles away. I have had excellent reception in rain storms and snow storms. You would think the signal would be stronger on a clear day. Luckily CTV is carrying the game and all the commercials are on line. But I would like to hear from anyone with a knowledge of broadcast signals and how they work.
So you are about 50 or so miles from the Buffalo tower? Granted you have a lot of clear site across the Lake I wonder if a Clearstream 2 is enough of an antenna (at times). Where is your antenna, inside or outside? Clear days don’t always mean good reception. I am about 45 to 50 miles from towers in my area as well, but it’s all across dry land, Clearstream 2’s would not cut it for me.
The antenna is mounted on my balcony 13 ft up and the cable run from antenna to tablo is less than 15ft. There is nothing between me and the lake. It has been this way for over a year and a half. All Buffalo stations give five dots when tuning. The distance to WGRZ is 70 miles away.Most of the time all stations work fine. In fact I just got in from my walk and looked at WBEN again and the signal is strong. Nothing has changed including the weather.
Less than 15 feet of coax and you are using a signal amp? Could it be sending too strong of a signal to Tablo at times? When you are having trouble with certain stations try removing your amp from the equation. I’m about the same Northern location as you but much more west and much colder. Today is a great day for TV signals in my area.
I started without the amp. I reiterate, this setup has been in place since Sept 2019 after testing with and without splitter. I consulted a technician who installs for apartment buildings. He advised to aim for the farthest signal which is WGRZ. Without the amp the signal is spotty. With the amp it and the rest of Buffalo is strong. Most of the time.
And you are aiming toward Buffalo? -7 here with wind.
No much, much, much more west. 100’s of miles.
lol!
That’s really odd. I’m in Richmond Hill north of you with a DB8e antenna and get WGRZ solid, I even have the same amp. My antenna has a little more range but I’m 20k farther away. WGRZ, PBS, and Fox have all been solid since the final repack last summer.
I have 1 panel aimed at PBS and 1 at CHCH in Hamilton. WKBW is a hit or miss since the repack.
I would guess that something like a cell tower or new building is causing interference. A friend and I both started having issues last September and noticed a new cell tower to the west. I added an LTE filter and that got everything back to solid. Tablo has a blog on reception here
Hopefully you find a solution, time to get ready for the game!
Do you have a TV you could plug directly to the antenna cable? Try it when your Tablo is having issues. Your antenna direction didn’t change including elevation? Are there any coax A/B switches used? I’ve had them fail as they age.
I do . Same TV that I use with Tablo it is only a few feet away. I may do that when I gain some of my energy and interest back. I checked today and the American signals are all tickety boo.
Your elevation is a bit higher but still… I checked the power supply for the amp and it’s still got power. And reception is better today. To be honest, I don’t really watch the big three American channels much if at all. And I’m not willing to invest too much effort or money in this scenario because I hope to be moving out of the city within a year. Which will present a whole new set of issues .
-7(celsius) is not radically cold but cold is the only possibity to have messed things up.
Cold and winter very rarely negatively effects my TV signals. The worst for me comes in summer on clear, warm, humid breezy days. Just the days you’d think would be ideal. Wind blowing the trees leaves can also do it. I can’t ever remember having problems with rain or snow like I did occasionally with satellite TV.