Troubleshooting OTA Antenna

[devans175]

I bought a house last year and the owner left me what looks to be a pretty nice HD OTA antenna on the roof. I took a look at it and I couldn't find a model number, but it's pretty big... for what it's worth. I've wanted to connect it to my DirecTV HR 20 for some time and I just got around to drilling a hole through a block and brick wall to connect it.

The problem is, I can only get one good channel... our local NBC affiliate. My confusion is that the ABC and CBS affiliate brodcast from the exact same azimuth and distance. Is there any point to trying to treak the antenna direction or would it ba a waste of time? Getting up on my roof is rather difficult.

I should also mention that the RG6 coax length between the antenna and my TV is about 125 to 150 feet.( the last 5 feet is a RG59 patch cord) Also note that I took the DirecTV HR-20 out of the loop and connected to my HD TV... same issue.

Could someone give me some suggestions on where to start?

Thanks!!

[Jim5506]

Give us your zip code and maybe a picture of the antenna.

You may have a VHF only antenna or may need a pre-amp for your distance from towers.

Look at www.antennaweb.org and www.TVFool.com. Input your exact street address to see your DTV possiblilities.

[devans175]

I attached some pictures of the antenna. My zip is 21128. The major affiliates appear to be 12 miles away from my house on and azimuth of 258^.

Any guidance you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to know what this thing is on my roof and what I can do with it. Please keep in mind that the coax run from the antenna to the TV is 125 to 150 feet.. I have no idea if there are limits.

Thanks!!

[STEVEN-H]

I attached some pictures of the antenna. My zip is 21128. The major affiliates appear to be 12 miles away from my house on and azimuth of 258^.

Any guidance you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to know what this thing is on my roof and what I can do with it. Please keep in mind that the coax run from the antenna to the TV is 125 to 150 feet.. I have no idea if there are limits.

Thanks!!


Yours is a UHF antenna. If you need channels 2 to 13 you will need a different or additional antenna.

[Jim5506]

It looks like a Channel Master 4221.

You're about 12 miles from the Baltimore towers. It may be that the long cable run is reducing signal enough that you get no picture.

Are you looking for digitals or both analog and digital? All your digital stations are UHF now, but CBS WJZ-DT will be on ch 13 and WBAL-DT goes back to ch 11 in Feb 2009.

Make sure you don't have any stray sheilding wires shorting out the center wire on your coax connections. Make sure the center wire is long enough to make good contact at all connections and all the connections are free of corrosion. If that doesn't help, try a Winegard HDP-269 pre-amp mounted at the antenna. It has 12 dB amplification and should overcome your line loss.

[Nick]

Well said, Jim -- just what I was thinking.

[Digital Madman]

That and from the pic, it looks like the balun is all twisted. It may be strained. Check that out if you can, and you might want to make sure water hasn't gotten in the connection from balun to coax. If so replace balun and fitting then tape well with electrical tape.