Problem Coupling a 9095 and 1713

[J Zolkoske]

Good Day,

I recently installed the 9095 UHF antenna and it performs fantastic. I am around 60 miles from most broadcast towers, and this even pulls in some of the low-power (15kw) UHF stations from that distance that previously faded in and out.

Today, I got the 1713 for the high VHF channels in this area also about 60 miles distant. As soon as I coupled the new VHF to the UHF antenna, the signal dropped to almost zero on all channels (VHF and UHF). I should mention that the box on the 1713 was fairly crunched-up by UPS and I had to try to unbend a couple of the elements. This made me wonder if the antenna or circuit box could be 'shorted', and causing the UHF antenna to stop performing as well.

Now, I read in your forum somewhere that the antennas should be separate by 4 feet or so? I'm a little space challenged on the mast, and cannot currently separate the antennas by 4 feet. In fact, they are presently only about one foot separated, vertically. Will this cause the signal to drop as dramatically as I saw (from 80% signal down to 10% as soon as I connect the two antennas).

Oh, I should point out that after I disconnected the VHF from the UHF antenna coupler, the UHF worked fine again - even though the VHF was still mounted a foot below (UHF performance unaffected as far as I can tell). I then tried to feed the VHF only into my amp (bypassing the coupling to the 9095), and it does not work at all. The VHF stations are fairly strong normally, so something is definitely amiss.

Best Regards
JZ