I have Directv with my local channels coming in over the air via an antenna that is attached to my dish. It works fine for most of the channels, but Fox does not have a strong enough signal. I live about 30 miles from Columbus, OH. Has anybody tried a signal booster? Do you think this would help?
the low signal probably has more to do with the location of the Fox broadcaster. The antenna attached to your dish is somewhat directional and is just not positioned right for that station. If Fox is important to you, than a small external antenna pointed at the broadcaster will give you much better results.
Jim, Since Channels 6 (ABC) and 28 (FOX) [both owned by Sinclair Broadcasting] share the same broadcast tower (on Dublin Rd.), reception antenna orientation is not the problem. I haven't been able to confirm this, but I suspect 28 is sending out less power than its sister station. This seems possible since you do not mention reception problems with Chan. 6. Therefore some amplification via a high quality broadband amp might just do the trick.
I have no personal experience with amplifying OTA TV signals, so this is strictly wild speculation on my part. However, two years ago I was having occasional pixelation and dropout problems on my HD cable box. A 15db powered amp installed by the cable co. took care of that problem.
If you do try an amp, it sould be installed as close as possible to the antenna and not at the TV.
Thanks John. I get 4, 6 and 10 just fine and I can see where the tower for 6 is the exact same distance from my house as 28. The direction is SW which is the same direction my dish faces. I might just try a booster, and if it doesn't work I can return it. Probably just try Radio Shack.
It didn't work. Put a powered signal amplifier on the line from the antenna to the receiver. This line carries both the antenna signal and the satelite signal then goes to a splitter of some sort with one output going to the satelite in and the other to antenna in on the TIVO box. When I put the power booster on I got 28-1 in High Def, but all my satelite channels were gone.
I tried getting a non powered booster and put it on the dish going from the from the antenna to the thing that combines the signal into one wire. With that I didn't get 28-1 or any of the satelite signals.
I also tried the non powered booster after the splitter going to antenna in on the TIVO box. Don't really remember what that did, but it didn't work I remember that much.
I really want my HD OTA going into the TIVO so I can record things. I bet if I ran a wire with the power booster from the antenna straight to the the TV's tuner I would be able to get all the channels, but would lose the ability to record off that line. But at least I could watch 28-1 in HD. That would be a pretty big effort and good bit of wire though.
Have you ever considered running a seperate line for the simple fact that there may be some cross channel frequency issues between your sat and ota signals? I'm pretty sure if you get creative with your connections, you could possibly connect an A/B switch into your system to allow you to record SAT channels while watching HD OTA, and likewise in reverse. I've run across SAT/Cable connections whereas the SAT feed disrupts the cable feed due to frequencies crossing, although I don't have a schematic, I did configure his system with 2 A/B switches so he could choose which to record and which to watch based on the A/B selection.
I can already do that through the TIVO box. I can watch one channel and record another whether they are SAT or OTA. I can even record two channels at the same time if I want, but then I can't watch another. I do have some A/B switches setup to choose what signal I send back to the bedroom, but I don't have any as input to the TV or TIVO receiver. I would rather avoid doing that if possible. I can really live w/o getting FOX in HD to tell the truth, but if just putting a signal amp in would do the trick that would fine.
The problem is in the amplification or lack thereof... if you amp the OTA signal, it would blow away the SAT signal and vice versa. I fully understand the Tivo's capabilities, and I don't think you're going to find a simple solution if you are transporting both SAT and OTA signals on the same line. Of course I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time lol. I'm just basing this off problems I've seen when introducing two signal types on a common line, it doesn't work as the need for 2 individual lines is greater based on physics.
Thanks cableguy for jumping in here...I'm sure your experience is far more useful than my intuition. I do have a question though:
I don't think you're going to find a simple solution if you are transporting both SAT and OTA signals on the same line. Of course I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time lol. I'm just basing this off problems I've seen when introducing two signal types on a common line, it doesn't work as the need for 2 individual lines is greater based on physics.
If this is so, then why would JimKW receive our three main VHF stations OK?
And one question for JimKW: How do you do with Chan 34? That tower should be up around you somewhere.
John~ (quote)If this is so, then why would JimKW receive our three main VHF stations OK? (end quote) The frequencies being different would come to mind first. Example of this: Went into a bar a few years back, the guy had 3 sat systems in place plus the "trivia game" network so people could wirelessly play trivia while eating or drinking. When we switched from an all analog STB to an HD STB, he found about 36 digital channels that were not coming in at all or were breaking up severely. A few techs went out and installed in amp on our line and fixed our problems but caused his sat feeds to lose certain channels in return. I was called out to investigate and found what specific frequencies were being knocked out by the sat system, and then one by one disconnected the sat feeds and found out which sat feed was knocking out which range of channels. Ironically, after showing the owner of the bar the effect of the sat systems on his HD cable he decided he would allow me to A/B switch the feeds to his TV's. What this accomplished was out of the 20 TV's he had in his establishment, he gained more control over which TV's were showing sat or cable, and had better PQ then ever before. His trivia game feed was inserting at the high end of our channel spectrum, and since it only affected 2 channels, he was fine with the poor PQ on those 2 channels (since they didn't get watched too often) The key component here is if there is an option to run seperate wiring do so!, if there is not the consequences are inevitable, 1 wire can't share the same 2 frequencies without 1 over powering the other. Another issue is that WSYX-DT in Columbus (based on antennaweb*org)is being broadcast in the VHF band, while WTTE-DT is being broadcast in UHF. Now, according to their tower location (both exist off the same tower)and they both are the only 2 OTA channels not coming in properly, and also factoring in that when JimKW installed the amp he got his 28-1 but lost his sat feed, it would indicate to me the frequency they are broadcasting at is being shared by his sat system as well. The only solution would be to run a dedicated line from the antenna directly to the TV. I would be curious to know what frequency they are broadcasting at?
Channel 34 comes in fine. I think channel 28-1 comes in on frequency 36 and 34 is freq. 37, but I'm not sure. I will check when I get home. I got 4-1, 4-2, 6-1 and 10-1 just fine all the time. Even when I lost the satelite stations with the booster amp.
By the way, I really appreciate you guys trying to help me out.
just to add a little more confusion to this discussion.....by adding a powered pre-amp to a coax feeding a powered low noise amp on the sat. dish, you now have two devices trying to put voltage into the coax as remote power for the devices. This could seriously effect one or the other powered device if the combined voltage is too great. The pre-amp, if not specifically designed to pass voltage to the dish low noise amplifier, could cut off the power feed to the satellite amp. The amplifier on the satellite dish is very much more sensitive than the typical in-line UHF/VHF TV pre-amp.
Good Day. My cousing bought a second hand tv. He live in the mountain barangay about 12 kilometers from the highway/national road. The tv reception is not clear, a blur image and a noise. Do you think he need an antenna booster? Can u give me an idea. thank you.
Sulpicio, since your cousin lives in a mountain village the first thing he should do is to get an outdoor antenna up as high as possible. This antenna will work best on a tower well above the roofline, or at least on the house's roof itself. The antenna should be aimed toward the broadcast towers in his area.
If there's some improvement, but the picture is still not acceptable, then a good quality antenna booster might help. Good luck.