Poor Digital TV Signal

2112 wrote:
Sorry to confuse you wmoses. I gave up on the sat and went aerial.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I was trigger happy this morning. :)

wildtoad wrote:
Reread the op. He said he could not get his sat to work due to the trees so he raised his antenna. The rest of the post is about his OTA antenna reception.

Thanks. After reading your post and the OP's confirmation that was the case I can see that I went off on a tangent. My mistake. Of course regarding OTA and the regular antenna I concur with the advice given so far.

The distances Bill mentions are achievable providing the terrain is reasonably flat since the towers in Houston are right at 2000', so that makes line-of-site to you just shy of 70 miles. This situation is where the Batwing shines over the Jack: extreme fringe areas. If you don't have a Wingman, add it. You also might be able to add a preamp, but the amplifier only amplifies whatever is at the input. No input, no output, so the highest performance antenna is a must. As for amplifiers, Winegard SensarPro is the best one out there for RV use because it has adjustable gain (sometimes too much is a really bad thing).

Look around and see what the neighbors or local ranch's have. If they are running 50' masts with giant wedge antennas then you probably won't have much luck 15' off the ground.

IF your OTA antenna is a winegard Sensar II, III or IV then there are 2 (1) upgrades possible.

For the II and III you can add the Wingman, this is a UHF director array and improves performance of the antenna in the UHF band (Just about doubles signal strength per my and other tests) The Sensar IV already has a wingman.

The other one (Which works with all 3 of the above, is the Sensa Pro indoor module, about 100 bucks

If you have a wall plate with a switch, light outlet and antenna fitting this replaces it

if you have a box of many buttons you will need an outlet box to mount it in and a short jumper cable.

This device performs several functions

1: Switch just like the wall switch it selects between CALBE (OFF) and ANTENA (any setting where it is ON)

2: Signal finder, scans the TV bands (all 3) and reports what it finds
3: Reporter (See 2)
4: Antenna pointing aid: Digital signal strength meter shows you how well it is receiving either the channel being reported (step 2 and 3) or the channel you select.
5: Variable gain amplifier... Mine is currently set on 20 (Wide open highest gain, stations are over sixty miles distant)
6: Audio signal strength meter.. You have heard those folks aiming their sat antenna BEEP BEEP BEEP Beep beep beep.. Same thing but OTA tv.

another trick I do is after I point the BATWING antenna towards the local town that has HDTV signals then I go to the HDTV menu - select ANTENNA verses CABLE then start searching for digital signals. If I don't see any start counting up in the first 15% of the count I will stop the search and move the BATWING antenna one direction or the other a little bit then restart the scan all over again. The low numbers channels will be counted first so you should get 6-12 channels counted right away if you are pointing good at the local town...

We always get up to around 36 digital channels just about everywhere we go here on the East side of the US where there is lots of towns I guess.

Our BATIWNG with the UHF DIPOLES on it does rather good for us picking up the OTA HDTV signals. The Antenna Wall Panel push-button has to be pushed ON before our BATWING will work.


Roy Ken

If you are at Lake Livingston State Park (TX) you are also 50-85 miles from the Houston TV towers which would make reception nearly impossible. Maybe channel 3 CBS (60 miles) but that's broadcast on channel 50 so you need the Wingman for those higher UHF channels. ABC 9 is broadcast on channel 9 and is only about 50 miles. That would be picked up by the long arms of the Batwing. Everything else is 80+ miles away.

1SG Ret wrote:
I use this web site it is great. http://www.antennaweb.org/default.aspx You put your zip code in and or street address and it will tell you the stations their direction in degrees and distance from your location. I don't know if they have app for smart phone but may have by now or if know where you are going then look up info before hand and take with you.

I use an APP to find the stations near me, their strength and direction.
Very Helpful Antenna Helper

I use this web site it is great. http://www.antennaweb.org/default.aspx You put your zip code in and or street address and it will tell you the stations their direction in degrees and distance from your location. I took a marker and marked on my rotation knob of TV antenna so I would know which was the side to receive the signal look on info for your ant. Then I use compass to get my degree to move my mark to works great. If you have older ant that is not digital ready buy the add on ant for digital less than $30 from CW really works easy to install remove four plastic plugs and line up holes put the four new plugs that came with it you are done. I have sat but some times have to use ant. Also most stations will have from 1 to 4 different channels on one channel i.e. 8.1, 8.2. Good luck. I don't know if they have app for smart phone but may have by now or if know where you are going then look up info before hand and take with you.

Please reread my previous post. Many problems of receiving OTA signal is TV not set up properly.

2112 wrote:
I do not have the Wingman. Do you think that will help? I'll have to go on the roof to see if it will interfere with anything.

I checked all the connections that are not wall internal excluding the roof antenna connection. Maybe I'll go up there and do that while seeing about Wingman clearance.

Yes, I turned the antenna every which way using the dirrectional knob. I found 1 spot where ch11 Houston comes in. I'm currently in Livingston SP.

Sorry to confuse you wmoses. I gave up on the sat and went aerial.

I have 50 ft of coax on my portable dish. This is the 1st time it has let me down. How long of a cable can I use? Would using a barrel adapter to add another 50 ft be a bad move? I believe the 3dB down rule would come in play.

If you are using a manually pointed open face antenna you can likely good 150-200 feet with your coax and barrel connectors. If you are using one of the portable automatic dome type antennas, some will not work beyond 50 feet and some can go 100 feet.
For your OTA TV issue, the first thing you want to do (if you can) is go up on the roof, disconnect the coax going into the head of the Batwing and, using a digital multimeter, verify that you have at least 12VDC in the coax itself. It will be higher if you are plugged in. If you do not then you have found your first issue and it needs to be resolved. Work backward, connections, cabling, power supply, etc. until you locate the problem. Depending upon how far you are from the signal and how dense the trees are there may also be no signal available, however, if you have the room, the Wingman is a required add-on to get the best TV reception.