KAET & Converter Box Question

[landtuna]

Not sure whether this belongs in the Engineering board but since I've only noticed it on one channel in my market I'll try here first.

I live about 8 miles line-of-sight to KAET's antenna on South Mountain. I have a large combination VHF/UHF antenna mounted on my back porch roof pointed right at the antenna farm. I also have several different makes of converter boxes attached to the various TV's in my house.

Here is the question:

When changing channels specifically to channel 8 (KAET) all of my boxes show a signal strength of approximately 50% then the strength gradually increases to the low 90's in a matter of 5-10 seconds. It then fluctuates by a percent or two but stays above 90. It doesn't seem to happen on any other channel including the LPTV stations. The video and audio are fine on 8.1 and all the subs.

Whyizzat?

 

[KeithE4]

Not sure whether this belongs in the Engineering board but since I've only noticed it on one channel in my market I'll try here first.

I live about 8 miles line-of-sight to KAET's antenna on South Mountain. I have a large combination VHF/UHF antenna mounted on my back porch roof pointed right at the antenna farm. I also have several different makes of converter boxes attached to the various TV's in my house.

Here is the question:

When changing channels specifically to channel 8 (KAET) all of my boxes show a signal strength of approximately 50% then the strength gradually increases to the low 90's in a matter of 5-10 seconds. It then fluctuates by a percent or two but stays above 90. It doesn't seem to happen on any other channel including the LPTV stations. The video and audio are fine on 8.1 and all the subs.

Whyizzat?

Overload of the converter's front end? That's a lot of signal coming into that huge antenna. Did things change for the better when KSAZ and KPNX returned to VHF? Their digital transmitters run lower power than their analogs did.

I live about 5 miles from the towers and have found (so far) that a simple UHF loop in the window (all windows face south at my place) seems to work best for me, even for Channels 8, 10, and 12 (KPNX was all but unwatchable when it was on 36, but I have no problems with it, now that it's back on 12). I now get all the Phoenix stations perfectly, and still get most of the Tucson ones. The only Tucson station I lost yesterday was KGUN-TV, which returned to Channel 9.

 

[landtuna]

Overload of the converter's front end? That's a lot of signal coming into that huge antenna. Did things change for the better when KSAZ and KPNX returned to VHF? Their digital transmitters run lower power than their analogs did.

I wouldn't think it would be front end overload since I'm running the antenna signal throughout the house with multiple splitters (5 TV's currently connected) and 1980-era coax.

I didn't notice any problems with KSAZ or KPNX before or after the analog drop. KAET was a problem before the drop - the video would be OK but the audio would drop in and out. Box always had a signal of 100.

I live about 5 miles from the towers and have found (so far) that a simple UHF loop in the window (all windows face south at my place) seems to work best for me, even for Channels 8, 10, and 12 (KPNX was all but unwatchable when it was on 36, but I have no problems with it, now that it's back on 12). I now get all the Phoenix stations perfectly, and still get most of the Tucson ones. The only Tucson station I lost yesterday was KGUN-TV, which returned to Channel 9.

I am at Warner & McClintock and seem to be blocked from all the Tucson stations. I used to be able to get a snowy analog picture on KVOA sometimes but not really watchable. Haven't tried pointing the antenna down Tucson way since the cutover.