do antennas go bad?

[shan]

is there anything to look for? thanks for the help

[tigerbangs]

Give us the information requested in the sticky above and repost your question with the info requested.

[shan]

zipcode is 38574 tennessee

no trees or taller buildings more than 2 storys

1 tv set

30' tower.

i dont know why this matters if a antenna can go bad or not but here it is

[tigerbangs]

Antennas can go bad, but they tend to go bad very slowly: Antenna lead-in wires and other components like amplifiers and matching transformers can experience catastrophic failures. Do you want to know how to proceed?

[shan]

Antennas can go bad, but they tend to go bad very slowly: Antenna lead-in wires and other components like amplifiers and matching transformers can experience catastrophic failures. Do you want to know how to proceed?

yes please

[tigerbangs]

I have several questions about your antenna system: first of all, when I run a TVFool.com scan of your area, you have few usable TV stations in your area. Did you suddenly lose whatever reception you had? Are you currently using a digital tuner on your TV? While coaxial cable rarely goes bad, flat-twin-lead antenna wire is good for only 2-3 years before it deteriorates. What stations were you receiving before that you now fail to receive? According to TVFool.com, based on the zip code that you gave me, you only have a PBS station that should be strong in your area, a couple of analog low-power translators and a CW station that are very weak, and really nothing else.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 64a6511dab

Your specific street address may yield different results: if you want to post your report, that may prove useful.

[shan]

I have several questions about your antenna system: first of all, when I run a TVFool.com scan of your area, you have few usable TV stations in your area. Did you suddenly lose whatever reception you had? Are you currently using a digital tuner on your TV? While coaxial cable rarely goes bad, flat-twin-lead antenna wire is good for only 2-3 years before it deteriorates. What stations were you receiving before that you now fail to receive? According to TVFool.com, based on the zip code that you gave me, you only have a PBS station that should be strong in your area, a couple of analog low-power translators and a CW station that are very weak, and really nothing else.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 64a6511dab

Your specific street address may yield different results: if you want to post your report, that may prove useful.

we have the pbs tower about 25 miles away it comes in in any direction i point the antenna of coarse there isnt nothing any good on them stations.

the other towers are 75-80 miles east and west of me,

we didnt loose reception all at once. we have cable tv so i never really tried the "tv tower" much after they switched it, but i did turn it on when we got the converter box and it didnt pick up much at that time,

the coax cable was new about 3 years ago its rg6u

OK update....


had a friend over today and we took tower down and replaced the transformer at the antenna, and installed a rotor and checked the antenna out everything we could see looked good didnt see any rust or corrosion.

i can get about 4 stations pointing west and about 4 stations facing east BUT i can only get about 15 for a signal strength

is there a booster or anything to help bring in the signal better?

im up about 30' is as high as i can get


thanks for you time............

[tigerbangs]

Do you get a clear TV signal with your with your 15% signal? Does it drop out frequently? You can add a preamplifier, which may buy you some additional signal. I would suggest using A Winegard Ap-8275 or a Channel Master Titan 7777 preamp to help your signal strengths.

[shan]

Do you get a clear TV signal with your with your 15% signal? Does it drop out frequently? You can add a preamplifier, which may buy you some additional signal. I would suggest using A Winegard Ap-8275 or a Channel Master Titan 7777 preamp to help your signal strengths.

yes the channels we get are clear, a couple of them will "glitch" every now and then, but i have some that are there and clear and i move the rotor and come back to them and they are gone even if i rescan thanks

will a preamp help bring the channels in or just clear up the ones i have? thanks again

[tigerbangs]

There aren't a lot of TV stations in range of your antenna, so I couldn't say if you will get MORE channels, but you will get stronger signal strength, and fewer glitches, especially during bad weather.