Virtually zero reception on new HD8200U.

[dugndar]

Hello. I just installed a new HD8200u but I can only get 1 station- channel 30. The antenna height is about 30' and there are no obstructions directly in front.I live 60 miles SW of Chicago, zipcode 60548. I have 12' RG6 quad to a pre-amp (RCA) then 50' RG6 quad straight to a tv. I have bypassed the pre-amp to make sure it wasn't the problem and the reception got worse on the 1 station I can get. I then replaced the coax to be sure it wasn't the problem.There was no change. I have it mounted on a rotator and I have tried to reprogram the stations on my TV with the antenna pointing various directions, but other than a snowy station that comes and goes, I get nothing else. What can I check next?

[TomV]

A check of TVFool shows that most of your stations will come from Chicago (76 deg) and most are UHF.

The antenna appears to be a bit more complicated than many in terms of assembly. I can envision making an assembly error based on the phasing wires. Are they touching the boom?

Are the short elements of the antenna pointing towards CHI?

Ch 30 is about 4 miles away so you can pick that up with a bare wire hanging from the TV. If that is not clear and you have swapped out the cable, it looks like an antenna issue on the surface.

Are you able to pick up FM radio stations with the antenna? This will help determine if the VHF portion is working. Based on FMFool, you are close enough to a lot of stations so no preamp is necessary.

Based on my experince, the signal levels on TVFool lead me to believe that you will need a preamp for any station to be reliably received. Though you bypass yours for troubleshooting purposes, the results you get are not very conclusive.

What is the preamp you are using?