Signal strength vs Tree branches

Normally, channel scan produces list of 42 channels with signal strengths: 20 green; 20 amber; 2 red.
Cut 3 branches from 1 tree in back of house.
Channel scan produces list of 42 channels with signal strengths: 42 green.

What
is
this
alchemy?

3 Likes

Firing up the chain saw now. . . Bwah ha ha :crazy_face:

Can I do that to my neighbor’s branches?

4 Likes

No kidding. Last year my neighbor cut down a big tree that was growing close to his house and impinging on his roof. Squirrels were using that tree to get into his attic. Suddenly I got a channel I had never gotten before when the tree went down!

The scourge of multi-path reception issues. UHF signals do not play well with moving foliage. The only natural cure is deforestation, or early autumn. The only technology solution involves a chainsaw. There is no magic antenna, pre-amp, distribution amp, or filter that will cure multi-path.

My next door neighbor has a 70+ year old Sycamore in his back yard. The tree has leaves that are about the size of your hand. It has a 60 degree compass spread, and is tall enough that even a 30’ mast on my roof won’t get over it, and the canopy is less than 40’ from my antenna. The tree is in the direct LOS path to the broadcast towers, some 20 miles distant. Luckily, I seem to have reception issues only on two or three channels. But when the wind is blowing, I resign myself to not bothering with those stations.

I have hopes that the Repack coming next year may help (all of the problem stations will be moving), but that’s likely wishful thinking.

My technology is quiet:

Kept thinking hot knife thru butter whole time cutting.
Very impressed.

1 Like

Own one of these bad boys too. Can confirm awesomeness.

Freaking light as a feather, too.

With respect to the repack, I rebuilt my antennas since all my repack stations will move to much lower UHF frequencies which require longer antenna elements to match the wavelengths.

I’ve also noticed that certain kinds of trees - like cypress and pine - which have solid, unmoving branches nor wavy leaves don’t affect my reception much. I have a solid wall of pines and cypresses (a forest) 30 feet from my house 40 to 50 feet tall that doesn’t affect my reception even on windy days.

The one tree that affected my reception was a maple that swayed in the wind whose leaves were fluttering all over the place. That tree came down.

Those are the killer ones for reception for sure as @tapokata pointed out.

That’s why we often see a a rash of reception-related issues in the spring as leaves start coming in on formerly bare trees.

This is the reason reception of my antennas are good in Fall and Winter, but not in Spring and Summer. :smile: