KMPH Antenna Giveaway
 

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I am in the mountains of western NC. Before the transition, we got decent reception for all the networks, and some PBS stations. My neighbor bought a converter and some rabbit ears, like the folks on TV said to do. The morning after the 'conversion,' she calls me saying that her TV wouldn't pick up anything.

I went over and checked the system out. I could only get two channels.

We called the local TV stations and were told that we were just going to have to purchase a big new roof antenna so she could get the channels that she got before with rabbit ears.

I temporarily hooked up a big old antenna on her garage. Now, I could get 3 channels.

After several days of getting nowhere, she broke down and went with Dish Network. Now, she's happy. SO happy, that, she bought a 42" plasma set.

So much for local TV in the area.

So are your major stations from Charlotte? or perhaps from Knoxville?...either way it is quite a haul.
jr

I think the FCC has once again neglected to show the benefits of DTV for the typical American with free local TV.

But the benefit to the new users of the vacated spectrum is quite obvious... Or is it?

I have experimented quite a bit with antennas on my rentals. The most important thing with digital seems to be having a directional antenna. Reflections drive digital crazy, and sense reflections change with environmental variations some channels may work at different times of the day.

Wineguard still makes good antennas in the USA. Our local electronics store carries most of them. I looked through all the specs and found the HD7010 had about a flat 7db gain across all channels, its a great antenna for about $50.
I have 3 of them now in attics and they work great.

What they were giving away looks like those China set top directional antennas. A good directional antenna in the attic or roof with a low loss coal feed is a must.

Reminds me of an ongoing promotion one of the local stations (WMDT-47) had throughout the 80s and early 90s. They sold UHF antennas. The idea was that many folks had big VHF antennas aimed at Baltimore/DC/Philadelphia/Norfolk (depending on where in the viewing area you lived) and usually they were aimed exactly in the wrong direction to clearly get the locals. As a good example, at the house I grew up in, the antenna was on an old utility pole without a rotator, locked into place facing west, while the local transmitters were to the southeast. This made them almost totally unwatchable because of all the multipath interference. I have some old videotapes of shows I was trying to watch and it was just terrible. So, hook up their little UHF antenna seperately to your TV and you can have the best of both worlds: the big VHF stations from the city and then the locals.

Sorta strange digital problem I'm having: the local PBS station has a main channel plus 2 subchannels. The trick is that sometimes the main will do the typical digital "pixelate and freeze" but the subs will be just fine. Of course, the show my wife is trying to watch whenever this happens is on the main. I added a pretty big amplifier to the line. Right now I have a large UHF-only antenna in the attic. Someday I need to mount the nice Winegard I have up on the chimney. Maybe after I buy a ladder...

Amplifiers raise the noise floor and would increase the error rate and pixelation. Get yourself a good antenna Bryan...having all the great old sets with out a solid source is a crime!

Worse. Greenville, SC, 60 miles away, down the mountain, and Spartanburg, SC, near Greenville.

We had an ABC station in Asheville. It was one that we could get on DTV.

Knoxville used to come in on overcast days. Not any more!

Charlotte re-aimed their transmitter antenna away from Asheville in the late 1980's after a big dispute with the Spartanburg station that carried the same programming from the same network. Sucked, as Charlotte had better local shows.

Ouch! That would be a fun location for a DXer but a real pain for somebody just trying to watch TV.

I notice on the FCC site that two Greenville stations, WHNS ch 21 Fox and WYFF NBC ch 36 (branded 4) actually have transmitters in the hills, perhaps only 20 to 25 miles from your location (Slick Rock Mt & Paris Mt) are these the ones that you can get fairly easily ?

jr

Why not turn the antenna to the southeast, or better yet, put the antenna on a rotor? Why was the antenna facing west in the first place?

If some subchannels are OK and others not, its not your reception problem, but something at the station. Reporting it to the station may not get you an immediate answer, but then again they may take some time to look into it. It's possible that the subprograms are from a different source than the main, and they have some problems of their own with the main source.

Good to know, I'll have to take a minute and drop them an email. I know that prior to the digital transition they had lots of trouble with the digital downlink to the local station. On analog you could watch the sat signal lock up and error messages show on the screen. I suspect the local PBS'er is run on auto-pilot?

I have a good outdoor antenna but it is poorly mounted down low on the roof of a toolshed. I just haven't wanted to take the time and mount it on the roof of the house. Neither Kim nor I really watch enough TV.

WHNS has its transmitter near Brevard, NC. West Asheville, where I am, is in a mountain shadow. There is a translator channel for WHNS CH. 21 on Ch. 14. Thats the other channel we get with rabbit ears.

WYFF used to come in strong on VHF. Their antenna is on Paris Mountain, not really far from Greenville. Their digital image blinks and freezes now.

A while back, I remember reading that the FCC based all their over-the-air DTV transmitter output levels and reception predictions and assumptions regarding distance, terrain, population, etc. on viewers using rotatable antennas on 30 foot tall masts that were not blocked by trees or buildings. Indoor antennas on the ground floor of homes, trees, nearby buildings, etc. were not considered. :thumbsdn: