VHF/UHF Rotary Antenna Scanner Can't Pickup Signal

[Joyce]

Good Morning. I'm a new member from Wisconsin. My name is Joyce and I'm just trying to figure out how this DYV will work, and how I can implement it for all of us rural folks here in Wisconsin.This website is great, but I do have some questions that may help all of us rural people, if I can find the answers. I hope there are answers. Sure hate to not have access to television anymore. It's too windy for dishes and there is no cable here.

I have two analog tv's, a rotary antenna, two standard converter boxes, and the needed cables. My antenna is mounted on the top of our second story house, so I'm guessing that the number of feet from the base of my antenna is about 40 feet by the time it reaches the TV's. Right now, with my present analog reception and rotary antenna we receive about 12 channels. I's been told that the digital signnals, under the new law are much weaker than the old analog signals and I'm having trouble getting digital signals. With digital signals, all I can get now is 2 channels. Yikes! I only hooked up one of two converter boxes to one of my TV sets to see how many channels I could get, and that's it, 2 channels. It's scary.

I think that my converter box scans so quickly that it misses the signals. It says no signal for most of the channels I used to get, because I'm used to tuning my channels in with my rotary antenna for the present analog signals. My closest digital signal is 13 miles and my furthest 60+ miles

QUESTION IS DO THEY MAKE A CONVERTER BOX THAT WILL SCAN SLOWLY ENOUGH TO PICK UP MY PRESENT CHANNELS DITIGALLY USING MY ROTARY ANTENNA?
AM I SOL? AND NO MORE TV FOR ME? H E L P, P L E A S E!

I don't know if this is the answer or not (A DIFFERENT KIND OF CONVERTER BOX) but I hoping someone , somewhere knows how I should proceed.

Sorry to be so wordy. If any of you out there can help, I thank you for trying. If you need to ask my any questions, I'll try to answer them!



Your new friend,
Joyce

[tigerbangs]

Please reread the sticky" Tips for getting good antenna advice" and restate your question. You haven't given us any information that we can use to give you advice.

[hdtvlabs]

I seriously doubt that the speed of scan is the root cause. We need your zip code at least to make a valid comment. Please, read these tips and come back with more details.

[Joyce]

Hi, it's Joyce from Wi. again. Thanks for the response! Hopefully the following info is what you both need. If not, I'll try again.

I live in Ferryville, Wi. 54628 is my zip and my gps location is 43.370 / 90.956.
My antenna is a large (old, but works beautifully for analog stations rotary antenna mounted on the top of my two story roof and I now pick up 10 to 12 analog stations with my antenna.

I have 2 tv's, both analog. One is a Magnavox and the other is an RCA.Both receive good reception of 10 to 12 analog stations because I can tune them in with my rotary antenna.

My cable (wire) from my antenna runs about 40 to 50 feet to reach from the roof top , into the house and to my 2 tvs.

I've purchased 2 convert boxes (gov issue). One for each tv. The converter boxes are Mangavox TB100MW9 and are supposed to allow me to watch digital signals on my 2 analog tv's.

I've hooked up one converter box to the RCA and all I can receive digitally are 2 stations, yet I get 10 to 12 stations when the same tv is hooked up for analog. The description I've given for the above digital and analog reception have been done without having to rotate my rotory antenna. Until yesterday the rotary worked, but I think now that the rotor (I don't see the antenna turning when I check it out) is broke. Would you recommend that I have the rotor replaced so I can still use it, or what?

My closest digital reception is 133 miles and the furthest is 53.2 miles.

So far this has not been an easy transition. Thank goodness there are people like you and a fantastic web site like this!!!

If I didn't answer all of your questions, please let me know.

Again I thank you both for your prompt response and help.

Joyce

[tigerbangs]

Based on what I can see from a scan of your area, many of the TV stations in your area are over 80 miles away, and I suspect that the antenna that you have may not be adaquate for digital needs: I don't know the make and model of your antenna, but I suspect that it may have some corrosion and little ot no UHF reception. Most of the digital TV stations in your area are on UHF, and an inadaquate antenna and/or other components like a poor splitter may hamper your ability to find reception. If this was my home, and I absolutely needed over-the-air digital reception, I would take this opportunity to re-do the antenna system with new coaxial cable, separate VHF and UHF antennas, a preamplifier, and a new wide-band splitter. You are going to have plenty of VHF-digital stations starting in February, but oyu will also have a bunch of UHF stations as well.

I would prescribe an AntennasDirect XG-91 UHF antenna and a Winegard YA-1713 mounted on a rotor on top of your house and a Channel Master Titan 7777 preamplifier used to connect the two antennas together. If your converter boxes allow for manual input of channels, I would suggest looking at your TVfool.com listing, and use the channel numbers listed in the REAl column to aim the antenna and manually enter the channel numbers into your boxes: save the channels in memory.