Posted on 05/02/2017 3:21:52 PM PDT by Weeble
Which Channel Master 45 antenna do you have? The Masterpiece 45, Digital Advantage 45, or the Suburban Advantage 45?
And how does the new antenna’s size compare with the old antenna?
Basically more surface area of antenna = stronger signal.
I agree with the suggestions about checking signal strength, and with trying it hooked up without the box.
I’m not sure what box setup they have lately, but I doubt you will much terrestrial antenna signal through the box.
The problem sounds relatively simple.
[1] Check the connections. Make sure that they are all connected to the CORRECT locations. Double check this.
[2] Turn it on. Go through the diagnostics for signal strength. If you get zero readings, it has to do with your antenna setup. Check connections again. Check positioning of the antenna, and look carefully for blockage, such as a tree or something.
[3] If both of those two things check out, I suggest that the receiving module on your antenna might be faulty. Get a replacement.
gotta have unobstructed line-of-sight to transmission towers for HD TV signals, unlike the old VHF and UHF signals that could tolerate trees and hills and such in between.
As the quality & number of elements go up the antenna’s focus becomes quite narrow. This causes it to reject station signals that less sophisticated antennas will capture. The new HD digital signal format works quite differently from the old analog format. If the TV’s processor cannot decipher the signal coming in it will refuse to paint a picture on the screen. Sorting out the signal can take a few seconds, we usually are not patient enough to wait those seconds and move the aim which will likely reset the process. (More seconds).
The Winegard RV antenna company markets the Sensar Pro which operates on 12VDC and displays signal strength info. This aids in aiming as RV’s tend to to move often. It also provides 20db amplification.
Check the main distribution point in your house. The multiple coax ports in your house all run to a central location in your home, where the outside connection lands. It is likely a large multi-connection coax splitter that has a power adapter to it.
Trace the wire from the antenna to the tv. Literally.
If you have one of the multiple-line splitters, the splitter and wire connectors could be sufferring from exposure and age. Also check the coax outlet in your home by removing the two screws and check that connector (replace it if you worry) - DirecTV put a new wall plate connector into most newly installed homes during the past few years - it should not be a problem but you can get a different one if you want to feel better knowing you’ve replaced all the connectors and multi-point cable distribution hardware.
The Dish antenna was pointed at their satellite.
Position your antenna as TVfool recommends: http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?Itemid=29&option=com_wrapper
Correct it *directly* to the TV.
Voila!
DO NOT USE THE DIRECT TV BOX AT ALL, FOR ANYTHING.
If you need a splitter buy one. They’re cheap.
Weeble this isn’t just for you benefit but also anyone else considering the same step.
I just went through this with my Mom. She lives 30+ miles from a medium-sized metropolitan area and now she’s getting fifty-one (51) digital stations plus two analog. All that Direct TV left in/under her house was about two hundred yards of coax and half a dozen splitters and connectors, all of which were very useful and cost-reducing when I replaced their hideously overpriced service with free over-the-air (OTA) TV. Based on my experience I’d say Channelmaster’s customer service is blowing smoke up your skirt.
The first thing to understand is that there’s no such thing as a “digital” or “HD-ready” antenna. That’s just marketing hype. In some cases the old antenna you’ve had on top of the house for 50 years still could be all you need. And if you have a digital TV of recent manufacture, you no longer need a set top box. That much of the standard finally was unified and the set top box in now built into the set, which it always should have been.
Second, the standard for digital OTA TV is a botched job. For one thing, the compromise they came up with keeps the old VHF and UHF bands in use. That in itself isn’t a problem, or it wouldn’t be, except that it’s impossible to tell from the new channel numbers whether a station is VHF or UHF. That’s because all stations have a “virtual” channel number -AND- a “broadcast” channel number. In most cases, the two numbers are not the same. The three traditional broadcast “network” stations almost always have a “virtual” channel that matches their old broadcast channel in that market but their current broadcast channel will be anybody’s guess. In my Mom’s case, the broadcast channel of one of the three “network” stations stayed VHF (along with the public television station), but the other two network stations went to UHF.
And this matters because #1) not all antennas cover both both UHF and VHF and #2) not all VHF antennas cover the entire VHF range. So first you have to identify the broadcast channel (not the virtual channel, which is the number you see on your TV) of the stations you want to receive. Then you have to figure out whether those channels are #1) low VHF, #2) high VHF or #3) UHF. Then buy your antenna accordingly.
Low VHF is broadcast channels 2-6. High VHF is 7-13. And UHF is 14-83. In my Mom’s case, the lowest broadcast channel number that was on her “have to have” list was 7 (and it’s virtual channel WAS NOT 7), so she needed a UHF antenna that also received the high VHF band (at least).
It can be complicated figuring all this out but I lucked out and found some excellent resources for the technical information I needed. The two that gave me my “make or break” info were www.digitalhome.ca and tvfool.com. Others I also used for background information were palgear.com, avsforum.com, and yourfreedtv.com.
TV Fool has an aid to plot the distance to all the TV antennas near your address, gives you the compass heading to them (so you have something to aim your antenna toward), gives you estimated signal strength (so you can tell how near optimal your reception is) and it tells you just how sensitive/powerful an antenna you’ll need to receive the individual stations (more sensitive antennas in general being larger and more expensive, and low sensitivity situations are more likely to require the use of a signal pre-amplifier). Their chart also will tell you whether you have “line of sight” to a given transmission tower or if there are terrain and/or structural obstructions between you and it. Which can reduce the “range” of your antenna because it diminishes signal quality in excess of what the range alone would dictate, and also could make precision in aiming the antenna more critical.
That tool is here: http://bit.ly/2oW1NeT
The Digital Home (Canada) forum is an overall excellent and high-level OTA information source but what really saved my bacon was their antenna selection chart (maintained by user name ‘Stampede’). A lot of the antennas on the market today are crap and this chart helps you separate the pepper from the fly specks and avoid making a buying error. Unfortunately, I found that the antennas they rated “best” in the category I was most interested in were no longer available. I’m not sure if the chart is out of date or if the situation in the Great White North is different but I triangulated among the antennas on the chart that were available and the results were excellent. Stampede’s decision chart for OTA antennas is available in this thread:
http://bit.ly/2qCCuei
A given antenna’s “beam width” is the span of the arc from which you can expect optimal reception from with it. A beam width of 30 degrees is the same as the arc from 12 o’clock to 1 o’clock on the face of an analog clock (do they still make those?). The more broadly dispersed the transmission towers you want to receive are, the more “beam width” your chosen antenna will need. Unfortunately, I never found a consolidated resource for this information so I searched individual manufacturer’s websites and different enthusiast and technical websites. And depending on how reliable I considered the source, I also looked for a second site to confirm the information from first.
Look on the TV Fool transmission tower chart and find the position of two antennas you’d like to receive that are furthest apart. As in furthest from left-to-right from your perspective, not furthest apart in miles in the ground. Subtract their compass headings (listed on the chart) and you have the minimum “beam width” your OTA antenna will need.
All that rigamarole boils down to just three key details:
#1) What broadcast bands will the antenna need in order to receive my “have-to-have” stations, low VHF, high VHF and UHF)
#2) What is the distance to the transmission tower on my have-to-have list that is furthest from me? (the chart is written in metric units, kilometers; miles x 1.6 = kilometers). However, there could be a circumstance where your most critical tower is not the one that is furthest away but one where “line of sight” (LOS) is partially obstructed by terrain or tall structures, in which case your antenna would need a reception range greater than the physical distance to the obstructed tower. If this becomes a factor for you, you’ll need to bone up on what “edge diffusion” is in order to make an informed decision.
#3) How much beam width will my antenna need to receive over the entire arc between the have-to-have tower on your extreme left all the way to the have-to-have tower on your extreme right?
From Stampede’s decision chart for OTA antennas, identify all the antennas that meet both of your first two requirements. From among those, select the ones that come most highly recommended. Then scrounge the Interwebs, manufacturer’s websites, enthusiast’s websites, etc, to find the ones with a claimed “beam width” adequate to your situation among those best recommended antennas. And if you find yourself with more than one qualified choice, use whatever other alternate criteria you deem helpful to narrow your selection.
That’s the ticket!
Life is much richer without TV.
I did miss was NCAA Basketball Tournament(March Madness, but that’s a small loss against a huge gain.
XLNT Thanx
BKMRK
Thanks for the advice (and thanks to everyone that chimed in with helpful suggestions). I bypassed all the Dish coax and ran a separate test coax directly from the antenna to one tv. It worked great. But, that means I would have to test/replace all the Dish coax to determine why it didn’t work- work and expense I did not want. I returned the Channel Master and bought 2 el cheapo indoor antennae (Sobetter from Amazon). They work great. I was able to remove all the Dish coax (they nested and coiled it all over the outside of the house), and the antenna mast (which my wife hated). Not only do I get 25 OTA channels, I also get 40 “cable” channels from Sling TV for $25 per month. And, they are all HD, which we couldn’t get from Dish because we have a wooded lot and access to the HD satellite was blocked.
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