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• (December 12, 2010, 01:23 pm)

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[Hillbilly_John]

Baraboo Bluffs,
Highest Point in Sauk County.
Big antenna bought at Farm & Fleet, on channelmaster directional. Don't know if it's an amp system.
Directv latest hd tivo receiver.

Basically NONE of the madison hd channels come in clear 100% of the time. It's frustrating, when you look at the signals they sit at the upper 80% for minutes, sometimes longer..then just drop to zero and come back again. I know some channels are better than others but since we've given up watching hdtv ota, I don't remember which is best or worst. I want to throw things as I sit and watch my new big hdtv monitor.

I asked directv for network feeds for hd via sat but all 4 Madison stations turned me down without discussion.

Some have suggested I get off the big directional antenna and try something smaller but haven't had time to mess with that. Directv is promising Madison hd via sat yet this year but if performance on past promises continue, it'll be next year.

[Logic7]

It's possible that you may be getting to strong a signal. You may want to go to a Radio Shack or an electronics store an get an attenuator that reduces signal strength and try it out. Its just a little piece that screws on between the incoming antenna wire and your HD receiver. I dont think they are very expensive and if it doesnt work take it back. I have to use one with my HR10-250. Mine is a minus 6 db.

[Hillbilly_John]

Went to radio shock (just down the alley from the office) He gave me a couple to try (had a 8 and a 12)he just gave me to try. He seemed to doubt this was the problem.

He too thought I was getting blasted by other stations on the same channel in lax, gb or milw.

I'll try them tonight to see if they work. I'm gonna also try a few more things. 1) rabbit ears and 2) I want to make sure this problem persists when I bypass the directv rcvr and hook to my tv's own rcvr. I think I can even PIP to see if the problem persists on both. RS guy thought it might be the tivo box itself but they are notorious technophobes down there (no kidding, when I bought my first tivo unit years ago, they swore there was no future in that).

cheers
jb

[Hillbilly_John]

Update: Tried the attenuators - no  help. One thing though, I tried hooking the antenna directly to the tv and while the signal meter(on the tv's internal tuner) still bobbed up and down just like the tivo unit, I never lost the picture. The other thing I noticed though was that the ota signal for the non-hd signals is not as strong as it was before I moved the tv and rewired everything. Move to new room coincided with the new receiver. Fortunately, the ant. is near the tv and I should be able to run a coax straight to the tv to see if maybe the 30yo channelmaster system is fried or something.

Cheers
jb

[Logic7]

Well it was worth a shot. Have you tried point the antenna in different directions? I.E. off axis.

[Hillbilly_John]

Yes, we've tried tweaking quite a bit east/west. Do you mean adjusting the antenna so it's not level?

[Logic7]

No just what you did. I never have heard of trying that.  :?

[i4tas]

You definitely are in an area that is able to receive all the Madison stations, seeing that I am well north and have consistent reception.  I would think your old antenna should do just fine.  How is your analog reception?  What type of wire are you using? That could affect signal also.

[Hillbilly_John]

Well finally did some experimenting this weekend and proved once again...I am an idiot :oops:

Sometime between the start of this problem and now, the motor went out on my rotary antenna. I had checked it not too long ago to align the antenna with the contoller and it was working fine. I should have suspected something when the problem suddenly worsened.

Anyway, pointed it manually back to a SSE type direction and had good reception last night. Will continue to monitor.

P.S. My channel master rotator isn't very old. I can hear a buzz at the motor when the controller is turned but it won't rotate. Any tricks to freeing it up? I'm hoping I don't need it anymore. The only time I ever used it much was to pick up the blacked out Packer games from milw. or gb back when they first went on ESPN and before I had a dish.

Thanks for the advice all!
JB