How can rabbit ears out perform a xg 91 antenna

Ok here it goes, i go over to my neribors house and install an antenna for her. Iv got a xg 91 that i bout here a while back to see if it improved reception over what i already had, and it didnt preform as well as what i had. So she says she needs needs an antenna cause she got mad with the sateillte people. I go over and install it iv got an antenna craft pre amp with up to 30dbs. I get it on a pole and put it bout 15 ft 20ft in the air and get nothin, i checked to anlog signal that was near by and couldnt even get a picture on there ethier, so i had a set of old fashion rabbit ear take the antenna back down and put the rabbit ears on the pole duck tape it where it would stay put it back up and low and behold starting getting all the channels in the area and even a channel form over 100 miles for a little while, now does this make since to anyone on here, and could i lable this rabbit ears 100 miles lol. Im thinking the xg 91 must be missed up or something right and yes all the channels are on uhf but 2 of the them but xg 91 wouldnt pick up anything at all.

Donny,

Does her TV set have its own digital tuner or does it use a converter box? If it has its own digital tuner, have you gone to the on-screen menu and changed it from Cable reception to Antenna or Terrestrial reception?

Is ther amplifier receiving power? Many amps will not pass signals unless they are powered. How do you know she needs an amplifier? Too much signal can kill reception.

We can help advise you better if we had your free antenna survey available here: TV Fool
Please run a survey and post the resulting URL here for us to study. Be sure to include the maximum possible antenna height she can have.

Jim

The XG91 is very directional. Are you sure it is aimed accurately?

The tv did have a digtal tuner and i turned to air antenna part. No with out an amp we would be able to pick up any tv stations in the area due to we live 50 miles plus form the transmitter. I checked all connections, and were good, the rabbit ears were placed in the same spot as the xg 91 antenna, the only difference was i had to use a 75 to 300 ohms converter thing where i hook to the rabbit ears, vs i just went staright into the xg 91 with the coax. I was thinking at one point it could be the coax but i used another piece with the same results, i was just thinking it was odd, but i will post my tv fool chart.TV Fool. Thanks donny

Are you aiming for the stations in Macon, GA at 299 degrees magnetic? When you say rabbitears do you mean plain old VHF rabbitears or a rabbitear/loop VHF/UHF combo antenna? Is the 100 mile station KFXL Fox 31? Those old 30 dB Antennacraft amps have a lot of noise (4+ dB of noise) and therefore aren't very good for digital reception. Like MrPogi said the XG91 is very directional, so it needs to be pointed (small end to the front) directly toward your target stations. It has a lot of natural gain, so it may work better without the noisy amp. You/she may want some sort of VHF high antenna also.

Yes i tried it without the amp, and still no results. I did carefully aim it towards macon, cause that is the only market in the area that has stations that is receiveable, and yes im talking bout just a set of vhf ears, doesnt have a uhf loop or anything on it. The only other thing i can think of with xg 91 is i didnt put it together right. Cause its just not performing at all. Iv tried it in three different place now and havent got any good results yet. And the last place i tried it, i deceided to try rabbit ears and see if they would perform and they did, it was better on the lower stations that on the higher number stations which is understanable, cause the antenna is not a uhf antenna, but saying that it still picked up some uhf channels as high as channel 40. The weather has a lot to due with singal i know, and i did it install it on a day where the signals was pretty strong but like i said i never could get anotherthing with the xg91

So, rabbit ears pick up channels from 100 miles away?

Your description seems to indicate that was skip or tropospheric ducting, which has nothing to do with any antenna used.

The attached TVFool report indicates virtually no reception with rabbit ears and difficult reception with the 91-XG.

There must be other factors in play that we are not privy to, perhaps the 91-XG was shorted or something.

The 91-XG will NOT easily pick up the many VHF stations in your list and they do have a tendency to travel further that UHF.

The 91-XG is not the antenna I would recommend for your situation unless it was augmented with a VHF-high band Yagi and to get stable reception, a low noise pre-amp will almost be mandatory.

I'm thinking tropo and the built in balun on the 91xg may be defective too.

What coaxial cable are you using? Is it RG-6 or better?

So your picking up WMGT channel 40 with plain old VHF rabbitears? Is that right? Let's stop right there and figure this out.

I've pulled channels out of the gray on my TVfool with simple antennas that big "powerful" antennas wouldn't touch before, so I don't see that as something to be completely surprised by. The question is why?

Yes on the day i was setting up the tropospheric condactions was pretty good. The reason i say that is i live half a mile form my neighbor and i was picking up good reception . She lives in an opening, where she has a good veiw to sky. I was shocked when i was getting channel 3 wrbl which is channel 15 form columbus georgia which is i think 122 miles on the tvfool chart, i can get the channel where i live at every once in a while. I was not expecting the rabbit ears to pick them up but it did for a few minutes after i installed it. But i will say this, the results i got with these rabbit ears is one reason why ebay and other sites selling antennas can claim high mileage cause as iv seen with this it is possiable for a basic antenna with a high pre amp to pull in stations form 50 miles or more away. Yes im using rg 6 cable.

Originally Posted by donny

... But I will say this, the results I got with these rabbit ears is one reason why eBay and other sites selling antennas can claim high mileage cause as I've seen with this. It is possible for a basic antenna with a high pre-amp to pull in stations from 50 miles or more away...

Donny,

Yes and even without a pre-amp, but ultimately it will prove to be as dependable as a CB radio Walkie Talkie in San Francisco being able to talk to Nebraska ... From time to time it works but 'skip' and tropospheric ducting is absolutely unpredictable much like the accuracy of weather predictions.

Low-Wave, Short-Wave and even what used to be called 'medium-wave' (30-50 mHz) is comparatively predictable, but higher frequencies, especially UHF frequencies are not nearly as predictable in this aspect: in fact they are (repeat) unpredictable.

Jim

But, how can we help Donny get his neighbor decent reception? Donny, what are you using, and what stations are you getting?

Thanks,
Dan

Looks like tough reception ahead - one PBS station a 2 translators within 50 miles, the rest are pretty weak.

I'd shoot for the Macon stations with a two antenna setup, one VHF and one UHF - For UHF either a Winegard HD8800 or an Antennas Direct 91XG and for VHF an antennas direct YA10-7-13 or a Winegard YA1713join them with a UVSJ (UHF/VHF signal joiner) and run it through a CM7777 or equivaleny Winegard pre-amp.

Well iv got a channnelmaster 3020 at my house and im receiving channel 58 channel 13 and channel 29, if i turn antenna few degrees i get channel 24 as well. My neighor is more out in the open than i am as im under a lot of trees at my house. Im also using and old phillips magnovox booster iv had for a long time . Do yell thank that the same setup would work for her as well, like i said we live bout half a mile apart.

Originally Posted by donny

Well iv got a channnelmaster 3020 at my house and im receiving channel 58 channel 13 and channel 29, if i turn antenna few degrees i get channel 24 as well. My neighor is more out in the open than i am as im under a lot of trees at my house. Im also using and old phillips magnovox booster iv had for a long time . Do yell thank that the same setup would work for her as well, like i said we live bout half a mile apart.

I'm also guessing that both the Philips Magnavox and the Antennacraft Amp are pretty noisy. The Antennacraft has 4+ dB of noise. TV fool predicts channel 24 (RF16)to have a NM of -6 dB. The Channel Master 3020 has an average UHF gain of 9.5 on UHF. 9.5 dB gain -6 dB NM -4 dB noise = -0.5 (Or, your lucky if your getting this station at all). The 91XG has a Max gain of 14.5. 14.5-6-4= 4.5 Still marginal, and definitely no good on channel 13 (since it's VHF). I'd say you need bigger antennas both for you and your neighbor and lower noise amps. I'd say Winegard HD 7698P with a Channel Master CM7777 (2.8 dB noise) or better amp.