Dallas area OTA HD

For more than a month now Channel 8 in Dallas has been incredibly poor
quality OTA. I thought it might be my antenna amplifier but all the other
Dallas channels are crystal clear. Last night I ran the auto-program and all
that the tv picked up was the analog 8- no 8-1 or 8-2 (weather). Is anyone
else having/observing the same thing in Dallas? Thnx.

I live in Lewisville and 8.1, .2, & .3 are my best ones here. Just
checked them before typing this. Antenna in the attic, single story
house. 15 db amplifier output into a splitter for both FM receiver and
TV.

On Jun 26, 11:01 am, "Croo" wrote:
For more than a month now Channel 8 in Dallas has been incredibly poor
quality OTA. I thought it might be my antenna amplifier but all the other
Dallas channels are crystal clear. Last night I ran the auto-program and all
that the tv picked up was the analog 8- no 8-1 or 8-2 (weather). Is anyone
else having/observing the same thing in Dallas? Thnx.

I live in Irving/Coppel neighbourhood. I also have problems with
Channel 8.1 Its a hit and miss most of the time. I use regular rabbit
ears antenna.

Not to hijack ur thread, but I am planning on getting antenna in the
attic. Any info on how do u connect the antenna wire to the internal
wiring in the house? There are individual co-ax wires running from the
outside to all the rooms inside the house. Should I connect the attic
antenna wire to the outside point and that way signal gets fed into
all the rooms? Isn't there any way to connect it inside the attic
itself?

TIA

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:01:36 -0500 Croo wrote:

| For more than a month now Channel 8 in Dallas has been incredibly poor
| quality OTA. I thought it might be my antenna amplifier but all the other
| Dallas channels are crystal clear. Last night I ran the auto-program and all
| that the tv picked up was the analog 8- no 8-1 or 8-2 (weather). Is anyone
| else having/observing the same thing in Dallas? Thnx.

I hope your antenna or amplifier is not UHF-only.

--
|---------------------------------------/----------------------------------|
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (ka9wgn.ham.org) / Do not send to the address below |
| first name lower case at ipal.net / |
|------------------------------------/-------------------------------------|

wrote:
On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:01:36 -0500 Croo wrote:

| For more than a month now Channel 8 in Dallas has been incredibly poor
| quality OTA. I thought it might be my antenna amplifier but all the other
| Dallas channels are crystal clear. Last night I ran the auto-program and all
| that the tv picked up was the analog 8- no 8-1 or 8-2 (weather). Is anyone
| else having/observing the same thing in Dallas? Thnx.

I hope your antenna or amplifier is not UHF-only.

Good point. Looking up the stations in Dallas, channel 8 is WFAA-DT
ABC 8 which is broadcasting on VHF 9. The rest of the digital stations
in Dallas are currently on UHF. "Croo" - what antenna are you using and
what is your zip code?

Alan F

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:01:36 -0500, Croo wrote:

For more than a month now Channel 8 in Dallas has been incredibly poor
quality OTA. I thought it might be my antenna amplifier but all the other
Dallas channels are crystal clear. Last night I ran the auto-program and all
that the tv picked up was the analog 8- no 8-1 or 8-2 (weather). Is anyone
else having/observing the same thing in Dallas? Thnx.

WFAA-DT (8.1, 8.2, 8.3) broadcasts on vhf channel 9. So you either you
don't have a vhf antenna or there's a problem with it. Comes in fine out
here in Wylie.

--
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"Alan F" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
wrote:
On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:01:36 -0500 Croo wrote:

| For more than a month now Channel 8 in Dallas has been incredibly poor
| quality OTA. I thought it might be my antenna amplifier but all the
other | Dallas channels are crystal clear. Last night I ran the
auto-program and all | that the tv picked up was the analog 8- no 8-1 or
8-2 (weather). Is anyone | else having/observing the same thing in
Dallas? Thnx. I hope your antenna or amplifier is not UHF-only.

Good point. Looking up the stations in Dallas, channel 8 is WFAA-DT ABC 8
which is broadcasting on VHF 9. The rest of the digital stations in Dallas
are currently on UHF. "Croo" - what antenna are you using and what is your
zip code?

Alan F

Sorry but I don't know the make of the antenna. The previous owner left it
in the attic when I moved in. I had hooked up the antenna previously and
bought a signal amp at Fry's. Plugged it in and all the channels in DFW were
crystal clear. All the sudden WFAA went to crap. I'll check this evening and
see if the amp is UHF/VHF or what. Maybe the VHF side of the amp(if there is
one) went bad.

Croo wrote:
"Alan F" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
wrote:
On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:01:36 -0500 Croo wrote:

| For more than a month now Channel 8 in Dallas has been incredibly poor
| quality OTA. I thought it might be my antenna amplifier but all the
other | Dallas channels are crystal clear. Last night I ran the
auto-program and all | that the tv picked up was the analog 8- no 8-1 or
8-2 (weather). Is anyone | else having/observing the same thing in
Dallas? Thnx. I hope your antenna or amplifier is not UHF-only.
Good point. Looking up the stations in Dallas, channel 8 is WFAA-DT ABC 8
which is broadcasting on VHF 9. The rest of the digital stations in Dallas
are currently on UHF. "Croo" - what antenna are you using and what is your
zip code?

Alan F

Sorry but I don't know the make of the antenna. The previous owner left it
in the attic when I moved in. I had hooked up the antenna previously and
bought a signal amp at Fry's. Plugged it in and all the channels in DFW were
crystal clear. All the sudden WFAA went to crap. I'll check this evening and
see if the amp is UHF/VHF or what. Maybe the VHF side of the amp(if there is
one) went bad.

If the amp has separate VHF and UHF inputs, that is possible, although
unlikely. Does the antenna look like a conventional VHF/UHF antenna with
long horizontal poles that get longer towards the back end and a
vertical open V shape with much shorter poles at the front?

My suggestion is to tweak the aim of the antenna by moving a few
degrees to the right and left and see if WFAA-DT ABC 8 comes in then. A
change of seasons can change the propagation pattern of a station,
although this is more common in the east when leaves come out on trees
in the spring.

Another possibility is that the PSIP data for the station got messed
up. One fix that sometimes works is to disconnect the antenna, do a full
scan to clear the channel list; re-connect the antenna and do another
full scan. Sometimes this clears out a station that got messed up in the
tuner mapping. You can also try to manually tune to channel 9.1 if your
ATSC tuner allows you to directly enter the true digital channel number.
Many do, but they don't put this into the manual.

Alan F

"Alan F" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
Croo wrote:
"Alan F" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
wrote:
On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:01:36 -0500 Croo wrote:

| For more than a month now Channel 8 in Dallas has been incredibly
poor | quality OTA. I thought it might be my antenna amplifier but all
the other | Dallas channels are crystal clear. Last night I ran the
auto-program and all | that the tv picked up was the analog 8- no 8-1
or 8-2 (weather). Is anyone | else having/observing the same thing in
Dallas? Thnx. I hope your antenna or amplifier is not UHF-only.
Good point. Looking up the stations in Dallas, channel 8 is WFAA-DT ABC
8 which is broadcasting on VHF 9. The rest of the digital stations in
Dallas are currently on UHF. "Croo" - what antenna are you using and
what is your zip code?

Alan F

Sorry but I don't know the make of the antenna. The previous owner left
it in the attic when I moved in. I had hooked up the antenna previously
and bought a signal amp at Fry's. Plugged it in and all the channels in
DFW were crystal clear. All the sudden WFAA went to crap. I'll check this
evening and see if the amp is UHF/VHF or what. Maybe the VHF side of the
amp(if there is one) went bad.

If the amp has separate VHF and UHF inputs, that is possible, although
unlikely. Does the antenna look like a conventional VHF/UHF antenna with
long horizontal poles that get longer towards the back end and a
vertical open V shape with much shorter poles at the front?

My suggestion is to tweak the aim of the antenna by moving a few
degrees to the right and left and see if WFAA-DT ABC 8 comes in then. A
change of seasons can change the propagation pattern of a station,
although this is more common in the east when leaves come out on trees
in the spring.

Another possibility is that the PSIP data for the station got messed
up. One fix that sometimes works is to disconnect the antenna, do a full
scan to clear the channel list; re-connect the antenna and do another
full scan. Sometimes this clears out a station that got messed up in the
tuner mapping. You can also try to manually tune to channel 9.1 if your
ATSC tuner allows you to directly enter the true digital channel number.
Many do, but they don't put this into the manual.

Alan F

Thanks for the help. I'll check it tonight. May just go ahead and pick up
another signal amp - it was only about 20$.

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:11:58 -0500 Croo wrote:

| Thanks for the help. I'll check it tonight. May just go ahead and pick up
| another signal amp - it was only about 20$.

Why do you need a signal amp? If you have a tiny antenna, it's going to
be getting less signal, but amplifying it isn't really the right answer
in such a case. Amplifying should be mostly reserved for when the signal
will get attenuated later, such as a long feed line or a bad TV. What you
might need is a better antenna. Most of the DFW transmitters are in the
same place, so unless you are real close to there, a rather directional
antenna will help by giving you more signal _and_ cutting out reflections
and interference. The Channel-Master 4228 8-bay bow-tie is known to do
well on VHF channels 9-13 (WFAA digital is really on RF channel 9). If
you have the space in your attic to put it up (it's 40 inches square and
needs to face the transmitters), it could work there. It would be better
outside, but I'm guess you want to avoid that for some reason. Here is
the URL to find out about it: http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/cm4228.html
Google for "channel master 4228" to find lots of sources to buy it.

--
|---------------------------------------/----------------------------------|
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (ka9wgn.ham.org) / Do not send to the address below |
| first name lower case at ipal.net / |
|------------------------------------/-------------------------------------|