Checking signal strength of OTA

[freedml]

I think it's the same with most hardware tuners. You have to have the DRIVERS installed for Sage to work with them, but not the APPLICATION.

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by m0ng00se30

gj,

I hope this is the info you were looking for... I guess my problem this whole time is I should have been going smaller rather than bigger on things. I really hope the attenuator will help with my problem as its really becoming a pain the butt! I'll keep ya posted once I get the attenuator in this week.

Thanks!

OMG, -3.2dBm.... I have NEVER seen a stat that high, even up on some of the towers, just under the broadcast antenna, it is not always that high. You are right in the strongest point of the radiation. I would point your antenna at 87 for the stations in the green other then with the gain focused on WIIQ-DT, hopefully knocking down the close stations a bit. The attenuator is also a good chance of improving them.

What antenna do you have?

EDIT: just looked up your location, the short towers must be because of the air port that is 4 miles away (the FAA/FCC limits are 100ft of tower for 1mile from the air port)
With a few 100KW FM stations close in, I would use an FM trap too...

Do you get FM leaking into your audio/video gear at all?

I may get in touch with an tv station engineer for you and see what they do for on the broadcast tower, antenna installs, so knock down the signal coming back in a bit...

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by m0ng00se30

gj,

I hope this is the info you were looking for... I guess my problem this whole time is I should have been going smaller rather than bigger on things. I really hope the attenuator will help with my problem as its really becoming a pain the butt! I'll keep ya posted once I get the attenuator in this week.

Thanks!

Yes let us know how that went. I used splitters for awhile to reduce the signal strength coming into my house, but that had other negative affects. Just about the time I decided to buy an attenuator, I realized I could just use the Clear QAm coming into my house (since I have a cable modem) and never really went back to get OTA working correctly (I only use OTA for a couple of the 24 hour local weather channels and could careless how well they come in).

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by freedml

I think it's the same with most hardware tuners. You have to have the DRIVERS installed for Sage to work with them, but not the APPLICATION.

But the HDHR doesn't have an "application" like most tuners (ie it doesn't come with anything to play back the video). It just comes with drivers and some config/setup apps. I never even considered not installing that. I installed the HDHR drivers, did a scan in their config app, and then another on in Sage, which uses a file created by the HDHR's config app and just adds the enabled channels.

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by stanger89

But the HDHR doesn't have an "application" like most tuners (ie it doesn't come with anything to play back the video). It just comes with drivers and some config/setup apps. I never even considered not installing that. I installed the HDHR drivers, did a scan in their config app, and then another on in Sage, which uses a file created by the HDHR's config app and just adds the enabled channels.

Now that Sage can scan OTA inside of itself, I am not sure if the entire config GUI is needed.. I like having it for DXing and checking signal strengths, I get REALLY sick of having to run channel scans to check for new channels, I might add..

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by gjvrieze

Now that Sage can scan OTA inside of itself, I am not sure if the entire config GUI is needed.. I like having it for DXing and checking signal strengths,

It is quite handy, I agree.

...I get REALLY sick of having to run channel scans to check for new channels, I might add..

How often do you have to do that? I run one maybe once in a blue moon.

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by stanger89

How often do you have to do that? I run one maybe once in a blue moon.

I watch/monitor markets, plus DX with my HDHRs, so being able to look a given RF channel and see what is there, without scanning, is a HUGE feature for me at least.

[m0ng00se30]

Originally Posted by gjvrieze

OMG, -3.2dBm.... I have NEVER seen a stat that high, even up on some of the towers, just under the broadcast antenna, it is not always that high. You are right in the strongest point of the radiation. I would point your antenna at 87 for the stations in the green other then with the gain focused on WIIQ-DT, hopefully knocking down the close stations a bit. The attenuator is also a good chance of improving them.

What antenna do you have?

EDIT: just looked up your location, the short towers must be because of the air port that is 4 miles away (the FAA/FCC limits are 100ft of tower for 1mile from the air port)
With a few 100KW FM stations close in, I would use an FM trap too...

Do you get FM leaking into your audio/video gear at all?

I may get in touch with an tv station engineer for you and see what they do for on the broadcast tower, antenna installs, so knock down the signal coming back in a bit...

Yes I hear radio on my speakers all the time!

I'm using a Channel Master CM2016 in my attic... I know NOW that its really too big for my close location. At one point I didn't realize what was going on. My attuntator should be in tomorrow, and I have an FM trap already installed on the Ant line coming into my OTA tuners. Once I get the Atten in... I will get in the attic and try to spin it around some and see what happens!

Thanks for you time on this!!

--Tvar

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by m0ng00se30

Yes I hear radio on my speakers all the time!

LOL, I figured as much, ground loop isolators and RFI traps are your best friend on that one....

I'm using a Channel Master CM2016 in my attic... I know NOW that its really too big for my close location. At one point I didn't realize what was going on. My attuntator should be in tomorrow, and I have an FM trap already installed on the Ant line coming into my OTA tuners. Once I get the Atten in... I will get in the attic and try to spin it around some and see what happens!

Thanks for you time on this!!

--Tvar

The CM2016, is a good antenna, but has gain at VHF-LO, so those FMs are coming through hot. a UHF/VHF-HI antenna would prolly cut down on the FM signal a decent amount.

I would aim as I provided a few posts back, and see how that helps...

Not a problem, glad that I could help (post back with a reply and let us know how it is going!)

[m0ng00se30]

Originally Posted by gjvrieze

The CM2016, is a good antenna, but has gain at VHF-LO, so those FMs are coming through hot. a UHF/VHF-HI antenna would prolly cut down on the FM signal a decent amount.

I would aim as I provided a few posts back, and see how that helps...

Not a problem, glad that I could help (post back with a reply and let us know how it is going!)

Well here is an update... installed the Attenuator yesterday, and thought it had helped, but the one channel started acting up again. So today we rotated the Attic Ant around like you suggested. Right now the signal quality hasn't improved % wise, but it seem a little more stable. Not seeing any drop outs so far. So we are going to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best!

--Mike

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by m0ng00se30

Well here is an update... installed the Attenuator yesterday, and thought it had helped, but the one channel started acting up again. So today we rotated the Attic Ant around like you suggested. Right now the signal quality hasn't improved % wise, but it seem a little more stable. Not seeing any drop outs so far. So we are going to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best!

--Mike

Want I am wondering, is if it is still an FM overload issue (at the old aim) It could very easily exceed that FM trap you have and still cause issues.. The other aim, should help all around between the TV and FM overloading.

(the thing with FM is that full power FM is 100KW at very little bandwidth, compared to tv, FM is just .2MHz, whereas TV is 6MHz, that amount of power is always stronger then a say a 1000KW UHF TV station covering its' 6MHz of airspace)

Is WRBJ-DT still coming in good, aimed the current heading?

[m0ng00se30]

Is WRBJ-DT still coming in good, aimed the current heading?

No WRBJ-DT was a channel typically I didn't even see until I put the attenuator in place... but it went away, after I rotated the ant to the 87deg posistion.

--Mike

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by m0ng00se30

No WRBJ-DT was a channel typically I didn't even see until I put the attenuator in place... but it went away, after I rotated the ant to the 87deg posistion.

--Mike

That is what I was afraid of happening..

You must not want/care about WRBJ-DT, since you are not asking for more options... That station will be tough to get reliable, since it is basically the same heading as the close in stations and the fact that it needs a little antenna gain to lock reliably. The only way, would be TinLee notch filters for the strong local channels (one for each RF channel) and then the further stations away maybe doable. Probably not worth it for 1 channel. I doubt that you would be able to do the stations in the Red, since you would need a good pre-amp which would surely overload...

[m0ng00se30]

WRBJ is not a priority at all... its a NON HD CW network... I already have one of those locally.

WMDN (CBS) is the one that has given me so much trouble... and the one that I have been trying to clear up with all this! Like I said its not perfect, but I think its better. its flucuates between 65-72% signal quality which doesn't cause problems.... I might see one or two dropouts during an hour show which is better than it use to be. i've just about quit watching The Unit this year due to all the ugly recordings.

Next house won't be this close to the transmitters... so in a couple years this will be a non issue! I HOPE!!

--Mike