- Oct 23, 2000
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Our family has a cabin up in the mountains and my father-in-law in particular likes to watch the evening news, and occasionally some other programs while we are there.
For several years we have had the following setup:
ClearStream 4 antenna approximately 25 feet off the ground on a pole lashed to the cabin’s chimney with several strong metal bands ratcheted down as tight as we can get them to prevent movement of the mast.
Channel Master CM7777 Titan2 preamp mounted just below the antenna on the pole, with the receiver at the other end of a good quality 30-foot coaxial cable next to the TV. (I don’t recall the rating on the cable or where I got it, but it had good ratings at the time.) I added the preamp after initially trying the setup with just the antenna. We didn’t get any usable signals at the TV so I added the amp and it did help somewhat.
Zinwell ZAT-970A digital converter box for the old analog only CRT TV that lives in the cabin. We’ve tried a digital TV as well to see if the converter was affecting the signal, but got the same results, and the last time we left an LCD TV there over the winter it did not survive the harsh freezing temperatures.
With this setup and a lot of very careful tuning of the direction of the antenna, we can sometimes pick up some of the OTA network channels from home that are about 75 miles away from the cabin. Generally when they do come in, the signal is decently strong and the picture is stable, but frequently there is either no signal at all, or a weak signal that results in severe pixilation or intermittent complete loss of picture.
This is the Signal Analysis Results for the location from TVFool.com. http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=903886cfedc842
We are interested in the network transmitters that are at 256° and about 75.5 miles away. Specifically, the ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS stations on channels 40, 38, 34, and 44. Currently, we almost never get any signal on channel 34 even when the others are working great. I’m not sure why that is but I thought I’d include the info in case it’s relevant. We’re not interested in the stations at 340° and 350° since those are just small local broadcasts from a couple of small towns in that direction.
I realize that this is definitely a fringe situation with the long distance, tall mountains between the transmitters and the cabin, and mildly hilly terrain around the cabin (although there is a large flat meadow immediately next to the cabin in the direction of the transmitters. What suggestions if any can you give me to try to pull in a better signal to make Dad happy? Inexpensive or free is always nice, but we’re not opposed to spending a bit of money if there’s a good chance of getting acceptable results.
For several years we have had the following setup:
ClearStream 4 antenna approximately 25 feet off the ground on a pole lashed to the cabin’s chimney with several strong metal bands ratcheted down as tight as we can get them to prevent movement of the mast.
Channel Master CM7777 Titan2 preamp mounted just below the antenna on the pole, with the receiver at the other end of a good quality 30-foot coaxial cable next to the TV. (I don’t recall the rating on the cable or where I got it, but it had good ratings at the time.) I added the preamp after initially trying the setup with just the antenna. We didn’t get any usable signals at the TV so I added the amp and it did help somewhat.
Zinwell ZAT-970A digital converter box for the old analog only CRT TV that lives in the cabin. We’ve tried a digital TV as well to see if the converter was affecting the signal, but got the same results, and the last time we left an LCD TV there over the winter it did not survive the harsh freezing temperatures.
With this setup and a lot of very careful tuning of the direction of the antenna, we can sometimes pick up some of the OTA network channels from home that are about 75 miles away from the cabin. Generally when they do come in, the signal is decently strong and the picture is stable, but frequently there is either no signal at all, or a weak signal that results in severe pixilation or intermittent complete loss of picture.
This is the Signal Analysis Results for the location from TVFool.com. http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=903886cfedc842
We are interested in the network transmitters that are at 256° and about 75.5 miles away. Specifically, the ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS stations on channels 40, 38, 34, and 44. Currently, we almost never get any signal on channel 34 even when the others are working great. I’m not sure why that is but I thought I’d include the info in case it’s relevant. We’re not interested in the stations at 340° and 350° since those are just small local broadcasts from a couple of small towns in that direction.
I realize that this is definitely a fringe situation with the long distance, tall mountains between the transmitters and the cabin, and mildly hilly terrain around the cabin (although there is a large flat meadow immediately next to the cabin in the direction of the transmitters. What suggestions if any can you give me to try to pull in a better signal to make Dad happy? Inexpensive or free is always nice, but we’re not opposed to spending a bit of money if there’s a good chance of getting acceptable results.