cycler

HTNut

I'm not in NYC, but have you done a TV Fool plot yet? It'll help determine how far away you are from broadcast towers. Post your results and we can better help you.

cycler

Thanks - I did it -
TV Fool
My antenna is indoors - I'm on a very low floor in a big building and there are lots of big buildings all around and the signal fluctuates during a show. Tonight, for example, I was watching Fox and several times during the show I had to move my antenna so it doesn't seem that aiming it in a specific direction is the answer.

Jay

You're practically standing underneath broadcast towers! Bet you're experiencing signal overload. What kind of indoor antenna is it? Powered?

Side note: I looked at a few of your older posts, and it looks like you were fine up until the transition right? Have you tried rescanning for channels since June 12? Some of your stations may have jumped frequencies.

cycler

It is powered - Terk (the one that has the weird looking arm).
I was mostly ok until the transition - the same sort of reception issues - needing to move the antenna during a show alot of the time.

I did scan after June 12 which was when I gained PBS (WNET) since it wasn't available as DTV until then but I lost Channel 2.1, 2.2 (CBS), 9 (WOR) and 21 (WLIW) (which also wasn't available as DTV until June 12).

I know that CBS broadcasts from the Empire State Building but I don't get the best reception aiming the antenna in that direction.

So - if I am so close how do I fix it? I don't know how to interpret the map.

Thanks!
Susan

NativeNewYawker

No, actually today I had the opposite happen. I actually gained 21, but only because I experimented hooking up a TV directly to the antenna itself and not to a 4 way splitter. So 21 is definitely working here in NYC post-transition, but trickier to keep than the other stations.

Piggie

Try doing this. You are less than a mile from the ESB and probably getting signal overload with an amplified Terk antenna.

Can you disconnect the Terk from the TV or Converter box, then take a 1 to 4 feet piece of wire that you can push in the center hole of the antenna input on the box or TV.

Don't force anything in there bigger than the size of the center wire of the coax.

If you don't have any wire try just unplugging the Terk and rescan.

Of if you have a plain jane rabbit ears that are not powered try them.

I am very sure the Terk powered antenna is just overloading your system.

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.

cycler

I will disconnect the antenna and scan to see what that does and if that doesn't work I'll see if I'm able to get some wire.

What if I unplug the antenna from the outlet but keep it plugged in to the TV? Or, there is an on/off switch on the cable for the antenna - I'll see if that does anything.

cycler

I shut off the antenna and did a scan - I had 20 channels before but I only had 8 channels after the scan so I put it back on and did another scan and now I've got 22 channels! 9 is back and all of the "regular" channels so I guess that I ought to be satisfied.
Right now I've been watching CBS for the last hour and the reception has stayed ok.

Piggie

Sounds like you box or TV has the known "old memory problem" lots are finding after the transition.

Here is the solution I keep reading over and over.

1) totally unplug the antenna
2) scan for channels and probably get none, this is wanted.
3) then unplug the TV or converter box for 5 minutes.
4) hook back up the antenna, plug it and the TV or box in
5) do a fresh full scan.

This washes out any thing the box should be refuses to forget often finding all the channels. Sound like you pretty much did this. If you still have missing channels try the above steps.

Glad things are better!

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.