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WFAA Digital Reception Problem

I also have had the same issue with WFAA.

I have pretty much given up on WFAA and Belo about getting their channels.

No Dancing with the Stars for me this season.
 
The wonderful world of digital technology is like that.
Worked yesterday, not today.
Isn't it just great?
Dropouts and no reception are the new "snow".
It could get better when the analog is killed, and the antenna placement might be changed on a lot of towers.
Then again, it might not.
If your AM radio has a lot of noise, the same things causing that noise could be swamping out your amplified antenna.
Turn off anythng with a switching-mode power supply, flourescents, ANY lamp with a dimmer, then try.
Amplified antennas are even worse than passive antennas as regarding locally generated noise.
If you can turn off the amp on the antenna, that may do the trick, along with fiddling with the antenna.
The days of fiddling with your antenna are back! Unfortunately, you can't watch in real time to see if you're making progress,
since there's no picture OR sound to assess the results of your fiddling.
 
Well,

I was able to fix my reception problem with CH 8.

I found a "sweet spot" that allowed me to receive all of the Digital Channels that I want to watch.

My solution was to change the rabbit ears from a reverse "L" shape to a "V" shape.

Seems simple enough... but to get it right, I had to use the meter strength display, as I slowly adjusted the rabbit ears.

So, if my wife will just not "adjust" the antenna when a station does not seem to be coming in... then we'll be fine. From time to time, the OTA digital signal of some stations is off the air, TBN, for example, but, it comes in over the Time Warner Cable Channel. But, sometimes... TBN is off the air on both....

The main reason I subscribe to Basic - Basic Cable, is to watch C-SPAN.
But Time Warner has graciously rasied the Basic - Basic rate several times since taking over from Comcast. What used to be 10.99 a month ---- is now 17.99 a month. For the same number of channels, and NO box. So, Iask, why do the folks that just want the Basic cable, to get the local channels and C-SPAN, have to be hit such a percantage increase.

The people that can least afford such incrases are being slammed anyway.
Very smelly.
 
Also have the same prob with WFAA. Every other signal comes in fine on my converter box with the exception of WFAA (and low vhf ch 3).

No matter of manipulation of my antenna will bring that signal in. Might be time for someone at BELO to apply for a UHF freq. for channel 8 so that people can see it.
 
Scotpfv said:
Also have the same prob with WFAA. Every other signal comes in fine on my converter box with the exception of WFAA (and low vhf ch 3).

No matter of manipulation of my antenna will bring that signal in. Might be time for someone at BELO to apply for a UHF freq. for channel 8 so that people can see it.
Click to expand...

WFAA-DT be moving from 9 to 8, KFWD-DT 52 will move from 51 to 9 and KTVT-DT 11 will move from 19 to 11, so after June 12 there will be 3 digitals on VHF. You will need an antenna that works as well on VHF as UHF, and few indoor antennas do that.
 
I read somewhere that a digital channel can sometimes be hard to lock in when its next to a full power analog signal. That problem does not exist with adjacent digital signals. See if the problem goes away after channels 8 and 9 are both digital.
 
Megapsycle said:
WFAA-DT be moving from 9 to 8, KFWD-DT 52 will move from 51 to 9 and KTVT-DT 11 will move from 19 to 11, so after June 12 there will be 3 digitals on VHF. You will need an antenna that works as well on VHF as UHF, and few indoor antennas do that.
Click to expand...

The Phillips MANT410 amplified indoor antenna, that I got thru Wal Mart, gives me 46db Amplification with dual gain tuning controls: 45db max chls 2-13, and, 30db max chls 14-69. Thw UHF dush has 310 degree turn radius and 90 degree tilt radius.
 
TheRover said:
The Phillips MANT410 amplified indoor antenna, that I got thru Wal Mart, gives me 46db Amplification with dual gain tuning controls: 45db max chls 2-13, and, 30db max chls 14-69. Thw UHF dush has 310 degree turn radius and 90 degree tilt radius.
Click to expand...

Something that worries me as an engineer... is the apparently common misconception that, if you don't want to put up an outdoor antenna, an indoor antenna with an amplifier is just as good. It isn't.

- TV signals can be too strong. Imagine an amplifier powered from a 9-volt battery and with a gain of 10dB. (100x the voltage) Put in 0.001 volt of signal, and it's amplified to 0.1 volt. Put in 0.1 volt of signal, and it's amplified to -- 10 volts? But it can't be, because the power supply is only 9 volts. The relative amplitude of the signal is messed up, and that's going to kill your digital reception.

- Amplifiers will amplify everything on the frequency. Signals, noise, and interference. If the problem with your digital reception is interference from the computer in the next room -- well, the amplifier is going to amplify the computer noise just as much as it amplifies the desired TV signal.

- Reflections - multipath - "ghosts" are a common issue in indoor-antenna reception. Signals reach your antenna via more than one route -- say, one directly from the transmitter, another by going past your antenna, bouncing off the refrigerator, and bouncing back to the antenna. Ghosts will kill digital reception. An amplifier amplifies the reflected signal just as much as it amplifies the desired signal.

I would suggest an amplified indoor antenna is likely to cause more problems than solutions when used within ten miles or so of the towers, and only rarely is it going to improve reception at any location.
 
A friend of mine has a home about 8 miles NE of the Cedar Hill towers.

He uses a $1 antenna purchased at one of those discount stores.

He gets good Digital reception with just that, upstairs and down stairs.

I live about 20 miles North of the Cedar Hill towers.

I tried an unamplified antenna combo, but that did not pull in the reception I needed.

I am pleased with the reception from the $27 amplified antenna.

But everyone will deal with their own unique digital recepetion issues.

When it's really windy/gusty, some signals are harder to lock in.

I really like WFAA's 8.3 radar channel with it's Regional Radar Map.
 
w9wi said:
Something that worries me as an engineer... is the apparently common misconception that, if you don't want to put up an outdoor antenna, an indoor antenna with an amplifier is just as good. It isn't.
Click to expand...

I agree. Amplified indoor antennas are usually a waste of money.

But there are exceptions: if you're going to have something in between the antenna and the TV that'll weaken the signal, an amplified antenna can be a good idea. Examples include a long cable run, a splitter connecting more than one TV to the antenna, or a length of old-fashioned twinlead. (Twinlead should be pretty rare these days, but you never know.)

The goal of your antenna system isn't merely to maximize signal strength; it's to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. Amps will inevitably add some noise to the signal received by the antenna. If the amp is really good (read: expensive) or your receiver is really bad, the amp might add less noise than your receiver, in which case it might help. But few amplified indoor antennas have amps that good.

Oh, and even if you aren't too close to the TV towers, an amp may still cause problems if you're near an FM broadcast tower. Since FM signals are near the VHF-Lo band, the FM signal may overload the amp (or the receiver, particularly if you're trying to tune in that troublesome channel 3). You can buy FM traps to reduce this problem, but they're most effective when installed between the antenna and the amp, which isn't an option if the amp is built into the antenna!
 
TheRover said:
When it's really windy/gusty, some signals are harder to lock in.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem when I bought my first DTV receiver. I was using an omnidirectional antenna (one of those "droopy" folded dipoles that clips onto a satellite dish).

The problem is caused by signal reflections from things that can sway in the wind, like trees. On analog stations, those reflections cause "ghosts." When the wind blows, you can see the ghosts shift.

DTV receivers have gotten pretty good at filtering out reflections, but they still have problems when the reflections shift around. Thus, dropouts when the wind kicks up.

A more directional antenna will help. But few indoor antennas have much directionality. Exceptions include the Silver Sensor and Double Bow indoor antennas. These are both UHF only, though.
 
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