Antenna TV

[returntosender]

For a few weeks now I have had the worst time keeping certain stations on signal. NBC and it's affiliates have been off for many hours during the day and many random stations. This is not one tv or I would assume It is my tv. I can't tune any of them in. Just like when many were off and they made public recently, they are saying nothing about these. I can only assume there are many with this problem and they are assuming it is their antenna and no one is reporting it. Sounds like satellites to me. What say you?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Do you know where the local transmission towers are? Here in Los Angeles, they're at the top of Mount Wilson. Antenna placement and facing makes a lot of difference. Half the time I dust the shelf where the antenna sits, it gets knocked a bit askew and the signal isn't as good.

I know sometimes it's also useful to have the TV 'rescan' the antenna signals every few months.

 

[Sophrosyne]

When they went to digital TV, you ended up with a better picture at a cost in that it was either all or nothing when your signal reached a point where it was too weak or degraded the picture will break up (pixelate) or simply no picture at all where analog TV the picture would show shadows and get more and more snowy. Two problems you can have with digital TV: weak signal, and multipath. Weak signals happen for several reasons such as distance from the tower is far, obstructions between you and the antenna such as mountains and buildings and a mediocre antenna plus the transmitter can also be lower power than others at the same distance. Multipath is when a signal is bounce off other objects and the TV "sees" several signals and has to try and figure out how to interpret them. Multipath can be a permanent obstruction type situation or a temporary one and can be caused by fixed or moving objects. I've had times when a neighbor (that was old) had an firetruck and then ambulance show up that blocked the signal of the station I was watching making it drop out and at best pixelate. When the vehicles left the signal came right back. Another problem I have had is weather and mainly the wind. The wind can blow trees around and even move towers slightly swaying them and it may be just enough to cause multipath problems as the set cannot continually deciper multiple signals that are constantly changing.
The cure for a lot of these problems is a better antenna, better placement of it perhaps even on a roof or pole outside as the stronger signal you have to your tv the less problem you have. I have 2 stations that constantly have problems and I have a 4 bay homemade antenna that works well but is a little directional which is good and bad in that it can better receive weaker signals but we have TV towers in almost all directions here so when I have it more pointed at one set of towers another set signals may end up being weaker. If a station vanishes for a long time it may have had to move frequencies and you may need to rescan. I've had several stations do this without any notice and rescanning they came right back.

 

[returntosender]

Unfortunately, I am having to scan several times a day. NBC has 5 stations and all go black for hours. when it is like that scanning doesn't help. As I said I have several tvs and they all have their own antennas and they all are out at the same time. I do know where the towers are. This has been going on for a few weeks. I should call but this type of thing I usually get the answer like it's at your end. I always get that with isps. It's really frustrating constantly adjusting and scanning. It doesn't seem quite as bad with the digital converter on one of my tvs but it is In a better position. So I guess I will call if it doesn't clear up soon.
Thanks for your help.
Have a good weekend.

 

[Sophrosyne]

Unfortunately, I am having to scan several times a day. NBC has 5 stations and all go black for hours. when it is like that scanning doesn't help. As I said I have several tvs and they all have their own antennas and they all are out at the same time. I do know where the towers are. This has been going on for a few weeks. I should call but this type of thing I usually get the answer like it's at your end. I always get that with isps. It's really frustrating constantly adjusting and scanning. It doesn't seem quite as bad with the digital converter on one of my tvs but it is In a better position. So I guess I will call if it doesn't clear up soon.
Thanks for your help.
Have a good weekend.

Rescanning only helps when stations move to a new frequency it doesn't help if their signal is not enough to receive it. Likely the NBC stations aren't "going black" but your signal is for some reason lower at those times. It had happened that stations adjust their transmitter power for reasons especially when they are in the process of repairing transmitters they can drop to lower power or go off air completely. I have two stations that are low power here that vanish at times for weeks and then are back on the air again as I guess we could see it be harder to repair transmitters due to both Covid shutdowns and some stations lowering their transmitter power as they go to more internet based programming. For now stations are required to transmit but the market for OTA TV is shrinking as even though people are watching still they also switch to streaming apps when their favorite programs are not available so filler programs and reruns could have lower and lower revenue as the broadcast corporations put more and more content on their streaming apps people binge via streaming instead of tuning in to local stations would can affect their budgets making transmitter repairs a lower priority.
If you watch a lot of OTA TV I would consider the purchase of a better antenna something like a 4 or 8 bay setup and don't get too enamored by signal boosters as my experience with them is they are mainly useful for preboosting signals to run either long distances or a splitter to several TVs. Using them to get a signal likely isn't going to work, you may be able to help a signal that is pixelating mostly to lock in finally but one that isn't trying to come in constantly the signal boost will likely just be boosting noise that doesn't help. If your antenna is 50-100 feet from your tv a signal booster at the antenna could help but one that is located near the tv is likely a waste unless you split the signal that will drop the signal down (weaken it) some for all on the splitter.
Try adding more coax to your antenna and moving it around several places, sometimes going higher up can help. One other issue can be construction, lots of large vehicles and new buildings can change the signal landscape. I think my one channel that is now hard to get is because a 2 story building went up recently a few blocks away that could either be blocking signal some or causing multiplexing of it as I get about 5 seconds of scrambled garbage then nothing. Some TV sets and digital converters have signal strength meters on them you can access and watch the numbers when you are adjusting your antenna

 

[Crwth]

Yep, same here too. We experience periodic signal degradation at times too. Could be terrain, atmospheric issues... dunno.

Only suggestion I have is to make sure your antenna is positioned properly - and that you have a decent antenna in the first place. Otherwise, we just have to wait until the signal strength returns, which isn't usually that long, though it is still annoying. But that annoyance is nothing compared to the annoyance of our old cable bills, so we'll put up with periodic signal degradation, np.

 

[CatsRule2020]

Rather than pay extortion prices of cable or satellite, I went to Antenna. My channels went Waco just like the OPs. I had to spend $30.00 and get the FURMAN SS-6B pro plus power strip from Amazon. It has worked tremendously!

I now recommend this device to anyone who wants to get away from cable and go Antenna.

 

[Sophrosyne]

I made a 4 bay antenna out of coat hangers about 4 feet of copper house wires a thin board a balun and some screws and a piece of coax and a soldering iron. I made the antenna a little longer than the pattern that I got online so it will get VHF channels better as we have several stations that were in that range here even after the shuffle of DTV that made most channels frequency/channel not match their old frequency number.
Longer antennas better receive lower frequencies while shorter ones get higher frequencies. The First repacking moved channels down to 55 UHF and below and around here pushed channels up from below 8 to 8 and above. There was an additional repack that moved channels again so the highest channel is now 51 I think down from 70 something to 60 to 51 now.
In the next 5-10 years it is likely they will again redo the channels as current TV tuners (DTV) are ATSC 1.0 and they are slowly bringing out ATSC 3.0 tuners starting with high end TV sets. The advantage of ATSC 3.0 is higher resolution and better reception including 4K resolution better sound too. The problem is ATSC 3.0 is not backwards compatible with ATSC 1.0 and they may one day decide to abandon ATSC 1.0 entirely which will require people to get OTA channels with either a separate tuner or stream them via internet.
Since I've gone to streaming for free via smart tv I don't watch OTA TV as much now as a lot of stuff on channels is streamable for free or even on demand.

 

[MehGuy]

I did not even know that you could still receive channels through the antenna. Thought the FCC shut that operation down long ago..

Grew up with basic cable, so never had a need to fiddle with that stuff.. although I do vaguely remember using antenna's at other people's homes and remote cabins as a kid. Something somewhat magical about that I guess.. but I'd like to think in the 21st century we'd be beyond such things.

 

[Sophrosyne]

I did not even know that you could still receive channels through the antenna. Thought the FCC shut that operation down long ago..

Grew up with basic cable, so never had a need to fiddle with that stuff.. although I do vaguely remember using antenna's at other people's homes and remote cabins as a kid. Something somewhat magical about that I guess.. but I'd like to think in the 21st century we'd be beyond such things.

New sets all have digital TV tuners these days there was some for awhile that didn't have one (certain Vizio TVs) Older analog sets need digital converter boxes to get content that cost about $30 or so most people just put that towards a new set if they decide to drop pay tv. I've found about 1/2 the stuff I get over the air you can stream now either channels (live) or on demand. The advantage of OTA TV is when power fails or internet goes down you can still watch something.