Don_M

Eureka

It's interesting how some of the smaller antennas in that series actually have better gain on certain channels than bigger ones. Sometimes, you might be able to choose a smaller one that would possibly work better for particular channels/signal strengths in a certain situation.

Beth1079, be very careful assembling the phase lines on the 7698. It's easy to short them out (at least for me!).

Piggie

I straight up asked Winegard the other day why they have not come out with an antenna cut for channels 14 to 51, that it was obvious from the physical size of the directors on their long boom yagis, in particular their HD-90x2 series, they are cut for 14 to 69. Even the HD-90x5p series while addressing the lower channels, still cater to the higher unused channels.

Response: We are slammed, working OT, 3 months behind on orders, the ones we have are selling.

I said good. I am sure like other American Manufactures of electronics, before this things were slim. Even their 769xP series we all love was not moving and were on sale at the big internet sites (I knew I should have bought a 7698p on sale!).

So as it is most antennas are cut for the high end, even the beloved XG-91.

One of the best across the band was the 4228, the classic one. The Winegard 8800 is almost as good. Still these are large and those better than the 2 and 4 bay versions of these type of antennas on front to side, because they are essentially horizontally stacked antenna, a long boom yagi can be just as effective with less wind load and weight on the mast.

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Beth1079

Everything is up and running wonderfully. We have a total of 11 channels now (7 have been added!) and all at 90-100%. This is a huge improvement from 4-5 channels at 30-60%.

The only problem I am having is 66-WSMH is not coming in very well at all. It's really choppy. Any suggestions with that one? My husband would be estatic if we got FOX.


Thank you for all your help.
Beth

Trip

Which stations do you now receive?

As for WSMH, I would suggest you try tweaking the direction of your antenna. A few degrees in either direction might make the difference. Also, moving it up or down by a few inches may make a difference as well.

- Trip

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Comments are my own and not that of my employer or anyone else.

Piggie

5 to 6 inches for UHF. Most of the time you find peaks and nulls 1/2 wavelength apart.

So one can move a total of about a foot up and down if looking for a good height. That is enough to find interference peaks and nulls. Sometimes though huge jumps in the order of 5 feet find things like ground reflections or influence of the roof.

The other thing to do is just plain higher. put it up another 10 to 15 ft and get out the guy wire, as it won't stand that tall on it's own.

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Beth1079

Before we were getting

4 PBS stations: 19.1 WDCQ, 19.2 WDCQ, 19.3 WDCQ, 19.4 WDCQ
and very rare and weak 5.1 and 12.1

Now we are getting 5.1 WNEM, 5.2 WNEM, 12.1 WJRT, 12.2 LIVWELL, 12.3 WJRT WX, 19.1 WDCQ, 19.2 WDCQ, 19.3 WDCQ, 19.4 WDCQ, 25.1 WEYI HD, 25.2 WEYI SD, and a choppy 66.1 WSMH.

Actually, right now, at this exact moment 66.1 is coming in really well (44% intensity and 80%-ish on quality). That's a lot better than earlier today and way better than our old antenna at its best (considering we weren't able to pull this one in at all with our old antenna.)

Tomorrow I will try playing with the height a bit. I tried getting it as high as I possibly could today. I never thought about going a little lower.

I'll keep you posted.

Beth1079

I just did a quick rescan since 66.1 was coming in better and I've picked up 46.1 CW & 46.2 NBCSD.

Don_M

If you review your TVFool report, any station with a minus sign in the "NM" column is very, very weak, and so your experience with the Fox and CW stations is fairly typical for post-sunset reception, when things usually improve noticeably. Don't be too surprised if these signals drop below the "digital cliff" after 9 o'clock or so tomorrow morning; heating of the ground has an outsized effect on faint signals. Mid-day is actually a good time to make the final antenna adjustments since reception is at its most challenging then most days.

You've made significant progress. When you can get anything at all with a weak DTV signal, it's a sign that you're probably getting closer to being done with the antenna fine-tuning. Good luck!

Piggie

Don and Betty. I am amazed. OrlandoOTA (guy in AVS orlando ota thread) uses a lot of 7698p antennas for his Orlando Hotel Solutions. Since Orlando has so many channels and subs he can give a hotel, nursing home, etc. 30 some programming choices with OTA, into modulators, etc. Most of the buildings are their own towers with 60 to 100 ft at the top. My point is he finds that just a good antenna to order even when it's over kill because it really beams in on Bithlo tower farm in Orlando. Some of the hotels are out 40 miles plus. I would guess less mulitpath really lowers the signal to noise. Something I need to add to my it's not all about gain article.

Anyway, more to the point. Everyone I know I have helped like Beth used a CM7777. And had unexpected results better than I have seen where I live on UHF. Most had a bigger UHF antenna up higher than I do.

More to my point. I have seen the Winegards work very well for over coming signal loss, splitter loss, being basically loss over comers.

But every time I seem someone pull stations UHF, from 5 NM signals, it's a CM7777.

Now the question, are they really that much better when you get to weak signals? They sure seem to be. I have one after my twin YA-1713s pointed at Jacksonville and no one around me even sees Jacksonville. I have my complaints about that path, but I am out 61 miles and 2 edge, so probably doing very well. I just upset every NBC around me is at the cliff, lol.

So is the CM7777 really a better weak signal amp?

Then add to that the results I am seeing repeated with people using a 7698p.

Makes me want to find a way to get to top of my tower and put that up there. I might be able to pick up Jax UHF and Orlando UHF at least at night, when I watch most TV. Leave my current set also, since it's nuts if a person in one room is watching Gainesville and would turn it to Orlando. Sort of an every day OTA feed and a DX feed.

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