Poor reception from a 30 miles away transmitter

[Fuifje]

I am in West Chester PA and the transmitter is in Philly close to Camden NJ. Thats about 30 miles away.

I receive all channels well but one channel (Univision Philadelphia) breaks up at random. As the transmitter antenna is close to all other channels transmitters I do not understand why this one breaks up. I even get NJ public perfectly.

The antenna (HD8200U) is about 20 feet from the ground and under the roof. (I know under the roof is not super but as the transmitter is only 30 miles away and all other channels are fine I dont see an issue there).

The WC is only transmitted thru Univision so I am really hurting without my soccer games.

I tried with or without splitter_booster from antenna straight to the TV etc no improvement possible.

Please let me know what I can do.

Fuif

[winegard]

Good morning Fuifje -

Are you able to view WGTW digital channel 65? It looks like WUVP (Univision) is broadcasting on a fairly low power. WGTW is broadcasting from the same location, also at a low power. If you are not receiving WGTW it would give us a pretty good clue.

Of course mounting the antenna higher, away from obstructions and not under a roof would probably solve the issue.

[Fuifje]

Hi

Univision is at 335 KW while WGTW is at 160KW in my eyes thats quite a significant increase.

WGTW does not come in at all. I hope that gives you a clue. It still baffles me as its under half the distance of the antenna's reach.

let me know.

Thanks

Fuifje

[winegard]

Antenna 'reach' is a very unstable concept and we often struggle with putting any mileage numbers on our antennas because it is heavily dependant on how the end user mounts the antenna, obstructions between the antenna and the tower, and other in-house factors such as cable run, etc.

When you are talking antenna mileage we keep a baseline of an antenna mounted outdoors, 30 feet in the air, with no obstructions and little to no cable loss.

With the antenna mounted lower, under a roof and possibly with other obstructions given that height, it would not surprise me that you would have an issue pulling in a station 30 miles away.

I would suggest mounting the antenna in a better location, higher up.

[Fuifje]

Ok this basically means I should just have kept my old antenna, as the result is equal ie all others come in clean.

Thanks

[winegard]

I am unaware which antenna you previously had installed, but if you are mounting them in the same place... low to the ground, with obstructions, under a roof... then yes, I would assume all antennas are going to have the same issue.

I would recommend for further information to call our technical services line at 800-788-4417 and ask for Hans.

[Fuifje]

I called Hans an he offered a couple of suggestions of which one worked. Thank you Hans!!

Hans suggested that I could have the antenna in place that is signal shaded. Meaning there is reduced signal on some parts of the roof. Now moving a 4 meter long antenna around is not easy but I gave it a shot and while working I already got shouts from the family that it improved. So I ended up moving it 2 meters to the left and there it was. I moved the other also and fine tuned their distance to channel 65.1 (29) and the screen is cristal clear.

Thanks Hans, now I am ready for the upcoming soccer game today.

Regards,

Fuif