disappointed

[SJ531]

I just got the indoor SS-30000 antenna. I live about 10 miles from the transmitter. My old "rabbit ears" antenna got sporadic digital and analog had static. I don't get much better with the SS-30000. I was expecting pristine reception. I pick up a few more digital signals, but most are not watchable as they get all jumpy. Some analog stations come in a bit clearer, but most don't.

I was hoping with the advent of digital broadcast I'd be able to not bother with cable. I don't even know if it's worth trying a roof antenna. Roof antennas worry me because of lightning. Do lightning arrestors work reliably? I'd hate to fry my TV, stereo and computer.

[winegard]

Good afternoon SJ531 -

Could you please give me your zip code or private message me your full address so that I can do a little more research on your exact location? Another thing to remember is that many stations are currently broadcasting at 50-75% power until the June 12 transition date.

Let me know a little bit more information and we'll see what we can come up with.

Thanks!

[winegard]

Looking at your area part of the problem may be that you are very close to your TV stations, using an amplified antenna, which may cause you to have too much signal overloading the digital tuner.

To explain, you are only 3.8 miles fro your TV stations. You can actually have too much signal with an amplified indoor antenna for your digital tuner to handle. This causes overloading and you tuner does not know what to do. Try inserting a 2 way or 4 way line splitter between the power injector and your tuner to see what happens when you reduce the signal input. The other problem may be, as you state, that you may need to move the antenna to a room facing the direction of the signal since the digital signals do not bounce around as easily as the analog signal did.

If the splitter does not remedy the problem I would recommend looking into a HD-1080 outdoor antenna with a good coax grounding block and you should be fine.

Let us know how the splitter works for you.