Poor signal strength with HD-7698

[rdthorp]

I recently purchased an HD-7698 Antennae and also an AP-8275 preamp. I believe that everything is put together and wired correctly, yet I still am getting a very low quality signal. My Zip is 54829 and according to TV Fool.com I should be getting up to 14 channels if the antennae is pointed correctly. I do have an antennae rotor. It is mounted on top of my 14ft high house and the antennae goes up another 17 ft for 31 feet total. Ionly get one channel at about 20 to 40% strength and that is UHF and is 35 miles away. the channels from 64 miles away are about 20 - 30% signal strength which is not enough to get a picture with. I believe the phasing lines are wired correctly and are not touching the boom. I am using 100 ft of new quad insulated RG6 cable and the signal is not split yet, although I would like to. I am using the preamp also. Do you have any idea what I would need to try to get the signal strength up? From what I've read, it should be much better than this. Also, now that I've mounted the antennae, it is a little difficult to reach the housing box.

[winegard]

Using the 54829 zip code on the TV Fool website you are very marginal on the channels you can receive for your area. In order to receive a reliable signal you need a NM (noise margin) level of 15.8dB or better and a dBm level of -72dBm or lower. Can you please private message your complete street address including city and zip code or if possible private message your phone call and we will have Hans with technical service call you.

We will need to know a few other answers as well...

Also can you give us a description of your location such as are you low, high, compared to the surrounding area? Do you have a lot of trees in the direction you are pointing the antenna etc? Do you have any hills between you and the TV stations blocking your view of the direction you need to point the antenna?

Hopefully with this information we can figure something out for you.