OTA Reception Help

[stanger89]

Hey guys, I need some advice, I'm trying to really lock down my reception and get things rock solid, but I'm having a bit of trouble.

I'm theoretically in a pretty good location:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...90383f72ca0dd2


The trouble I'm having is getting KGAN and KWWL reliably at the same time.

Right now I've got an ancient Radio Shack antenna, I believe it's one of these:
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/VU-120XR.html

I'm wondering if it's too directional, this weekend I was messing with it, and just a couple degrees different in aiming had a dramatic affect. I could get KWWL or KGAN locked, but not both at the same time. Should I be looking at something like a 4-bay bowtie? Though I realize that would likely be problematic for KWWL since it's VHF.

[MattHelm]

Something like that is going to be very directional at UHF, but the channel 7 should be pretty wide???

If you want to try something else, I would suggest something like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Are you on a tower?

Any metal barns near by?

[stanger89]

Not a tower, but on the roof. And no metal barns that I'm aware of, perhaps some houses with metal siding. I am right below the crest of a hill though.

[texneus]

If that is your antenna, the radiation pattern is actually quite wide for VHF. You should be able to get 7 and 9 quite easily (your post seems to confuse these two?) by aiming at 29.

Is this a recent phenomena? Possibly one of those stations changed to a backup trasmitter to work on the main one. It happens more often than you might think, especially with spectrum repack starting up.

Are you able to get any of the low power (-LD) stations? In your case they should be easily receivable with the right equipment, but perhaps 7/9 are your limit.

Report also says everything in question is Line of Sight. Are they really? If you stand at eye level with your antenna you should see at least the top of the transmitter towers. Might need some binoculars to do so, but if you can't see them it's because a building, trees, hill, etc are in the way. Will also be easier at night with the red beacon on. If you do see them then "gun sight" along the top of the antenna to the tower. Maybe its just not pointing where you think it is...

If you have an HDHR take a laptop with you, tweek the aim for the best signal quality (not strength) on your hardest to recieve stations, even strong signals can be hard to decode either due to transmission error or reception error.

[SHS]

stanger89 have try turn the antenna 180 just see what happing

I say go for Channel Master EXTREMEtenna 80 on 5' mast and 3 feet tripod point it North/West all done being that local very close by.
Or pair Digital Advantage 45 with face one North/West the one facing South/East with JOINtenna 7' mast and 3 feet tripod.