WTVM Erratic reception at times

[carlosr]

I live off County Line Road (muscogee county, but right at the harris county line). According to antennaweb.org I'm about 17-18 miles from both WTVM and WRBL (I guess they share the same tower).

The antenna I'm using is an amplified Winegard Squareshooter SS2000. The antenna is mounted outside (chimney mount, about 25-30 ft off the ground).

The TV is a Panasonic TH42PX50U (42 " plasma). All the other HD channels come in just fine but at times, WTVMs signal (according to my TVs tuner) varies from 70% to 40% to 0% back to 70% etc.

In other words, it's very erratic. What I don't understand is why I never have this problem with WRBL when they're supposedly in the same location and WRBL is supposed to have a weaker signal than WTVM.

Most nights, WTVM comes in just fine but when it acts up (and only WTVM does this) it's unwatchable. My TV is able to lock in to a signal as long as it's above 25%.

Do any of you have this problem?

[Mike Slade]

Can you remove the amp from the antenna? Perhaps using the amp, the signal is too strong and causing problems for you. I'm not sure if it's possible for the signal to be too strong but i just did a search on that and it's is mentioned on some sites that came up. Also i saw something mentioned about the possibility of a bad amp causing bad signals.

If you can't remove the amp, hook up to a different antenna and see what happens with WTVM. Any UHF antenna would probably do the trick.

That may not be the problem but maybe something you could try.

[carlosr]

Actually, I emailed Winegard and they said the same thing. I'm not using the amp. Using the amp I get worse reception. That was the reason why I emailed Winegard in the first place.

I'm not using the amp and I've already tried my friend's amp (who lives 1 block from me) to no avail. We both bought the same antenna to save on shipping charges. On his setup, he loses several HD channels unless he uses the amp so I know his amp is good. That same amp makes my signal decrease when I use it. Winegard suggested it may be getting too strong a signal and the HD decoder can't handle it. Seemed backwards to me but I'm just and end-user.

Someone on another forum mentioned that the problem may be a multi-path problem (caused by the antenna picking up multiple signals bouncing off trees or buildings nearby). At this point I'm not sure.

This antenna is directional and oddly enough, I get the best reception by pointing it in the direction of the towers BUT with an elevation of over 65 degrees! The thing is pointing almost straight at the sky. Any other orientation causes me to lose 1 or more of the HD locals. With the current orientation, I get all of the Columbus HD channels but at times I have this issue with WTVM. Most nights, it looks fine.

Because of this, I suspect the trees/wind? may be the culprit as I have several TALL oak trees directly behind my house. In any case, I don't want to cut any trees. These trees are VERY old and shade the house in the summer.

Thank you for the reply and suggestions.

Carlos

[Mike Slade]

On rare occasions i've had WTVM and WRBL drop out but it's so rare that I've never really though anything of it. During those times my Dish 811 will bounce between 0% and 49%, which looks like to me means its getting something but not enough to lock. I always just assume it's some kind of fluke.

Maybe when all the stations go full power all these problems will be no more. Not too much longer now if everything goes as planned.

[sklej]

I hardly ever have WTVM or WRBL drop out, but I have problem like this with WXTX. I have tried the whole amp/no amp thing, new cables, antenna height and aiming. I pretty much just gave up and got Knology HD service so I could watch FOX in HD reliably. So far so good. I am hoping also that going to full power may help some of these problems. We will just have to wait and see, I guess.