OK finally got all the components installed for my system. I use an Antenna Craft U8000 with a wine guard 4800 pre amp. it is installed at the top of a 30 ft tower. install a channel master rotator also as I have stations 360 degrees of me. is there anything else anyone could suggest I can do to tweak and improve my reception I am still getting some drop out on some stations. WWMB 21 is one of the channels I want but can't seem to get the channel shows up but I get only an intermittent signal. same for the sub channel 21.2 which is CW PLUS and has some good shows.you can put zip code 28327 into tvfool.com to see channel layout. Maybe we can come up with some recipes for deep fringe reception for those that need it.
Last edited by cowboyup4christ; 11-04-2008 at 03:43 PM.
For anyone wanting to know about the broad cast stations around them the tvfool.com is a place to look it gives you direction signal strength, distances and noise levels so you can see just what is available and what it not. After some trial and error I now have my antenna craft U8000 pretty much tweaked and am receiveing from about 70 miles out. I get about 34 channels excellent and 5 others marginally. I may in the future add the antenna direct 91-XG which would give me better reception on channels over 70 mile out. height iss a real help as well here are a few things that were posted on other boards that I have found. Run your exact address through TV Fool - Home at both 20 ft height and then again at 60 ft height, there is a dramatic improvement in the signal potential, like 6 fold. Even 40 ft gets you a 5 fold improvement in signal.
20 ft = -17.8dB noise margin
40 ft = - 2.1dB noise margin
60 ft = 1.7dB noise margin
80 ft = 5.6dB noise margin
Each ~3dB is a doubling of signal strength so from 20 ft to 40 ft you gain about 15db in noise margin (5X3dB a five fold increase).
Getter on up there!
15 dB is not a five-fold increase. It is approx a 32x increase. (2x2x2x2x2) It's a logarithmic scale rather than a linear one. A 15.7 dB gain is about a 37-fold increase.
hope this will help others.
also if you have strong signals near you a pre amp will overload so be aware of this when adding them more amplification is not always better with digital.
You seem to be an expert in this field, which I am not. I was an antenna hobbyist way back when though.
Back in the day when I wanted to tweak my system, I replaced my RG6 cable with RG11 cable. The gain was minimal but I could see the difference. And that was less than a 30' run from the antenna to the wall jack. As far as tweaking goes (and if you're not already using RG11) that will help a little but not a lot.
Either way it sounds like you have a fantastic set up.
Deep Fringe reception
Maybe we can come up with some recipes for deep fringe reception for those that need it.
Linear Mode
