Piggie

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.

shawnharper

Thanks! I think I'll have to order that. Murphy's law says that once I do, KGO will switch back to their main antenna (they're on aux now, lower power) and the problem would have been solved.

That antenna says "If using coax you must purchase a 75 Ohm Transformer "

Like this? Pigtail 300 to 75 ohm Transformer / Balun (PVMT2) | PVMT2 [Perfect Vision]

Piggie

I like this one a little better because the wires make it easy to attach it to antennas where the two terminals might be spread more then the other ones will spread. It's a little cheaper too.

But yes, you need on of these.

You will need to coax jumpers one from each antenna to the combiner also.

Two that are say 4 to 5 feet should be fine. They go into the combiner

Even if they come back with more power pointing at the mountain with a VHF will give you a lot better reception during noise, lightning, etc.

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.

shawnharper

Which one (75 ohm transformer) did you recommend?

This one?
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_disp...om=Large#xview
Does is "screw on" the same?

Piggie

Yes, I like that one the best out of all I have used. My bad for talking about it then forgetting to post the link!!

Not sure what you mean about screwing on the same.

One thing you need to know is when putting a wire under a nut or washer, you wrap it so in the direction of tightening. Otherwise when you tighten it squeezes the wire out.

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.

shawnharper

Thanks Piggie. I went ahead and ordered the set.

I meant by screw-on that the transformer needs to screw onto the patch cable (which goes to the UHF/VHF combiner), but in the picture, it looks like the threads are plastic and not compatible.

t_newt

Has channel 7 ever fixed their antenna?

I lost channel 7, and several other channels, in the digital television conversion. Since it takes so long to scan and I don't watch much television these days, I probably won't scan again for quite a while, which means that the channel has basically disappeared for good for me. Remember in the good ole days (a few months ago), when every television knew where every channel was and there was no scanning? Channel 7 was at 175MHz and it stayed there forever.

For your information, I am in Sunnyvale, about 40 miles from San Francisco--ironically, in the heart of Silicon Valley--and am in an apartment, which rules out outdoor or large indoor antennas. I've tried many antennas in various places and it comes down to which channels I want to watch. I've picked a place that gives me the largest number, but no 7. I hope it is just an antenna problem on their end.

Given that there are so many on-line choices now days, this poorly timed and poorly implemented massive upheaval of over-the-air has become a final nail in the coffin of an obsolete technology, at least for me. I have to thank the implementors, though, because now I do a lot more reading and watch a lot less television. (I do like Heroes, though, and fortunately I can still get channel 11, at least most of the time).

I read with interest about the better implemented, and way too late ATSC-M/H meant for handhelds, which works well with moving receivers and degrades gracefully with distance. I wonder if it will ever get implemented, and if so, I wonder if any non-mobile televisions will receive it.

Aaron62

First off

Have you done the double rescan yet? Here is specific instructions posted by one of our members: Lost Channels? The Memory Erase Scan I don't recall off hand if channel 7 was one of the stations that switched frequencies the day of the digital transition, but this may help you.

t_newt

I tried the double rescan, but it didn't work. Interesting idea, though. Funny thing is that a couple of channels came in with no antenna whatsoever (such as 36). What are they doing right that the other ones not? Maybe it is frequency based because most of these channels are coming from antennas on the same Sutro tower.

Aaron62

Are you familiar with www.tvfool.com ? If you input your address on there, and then come back here and post your results, we can maybe see what's going on. There's a few people here like Piggie, Don, and EscapeVelocity that have some pretty good experience with recommending antennas and fixes.