What now? Palm Coast FL

[FisherForward]

Hello, I brought a WINEGARD antenna HD7698P, with a pre-amp AP8275, no rotor. I would like to get the local PBS channels (24-1,15-1)consistently, right now its hit and miss.
We have 2 LG LED TV 42LV5500 but only have one connected to the antenna until we can get this right. The antenna is on a mast 40' up, on the SE corner of the house, facing South towards a light grove of 50' pine trees 2 lots over, we can get 25 channels at night, 4 during the day, the most consistent being 26-1 about 45mi. , the stations we want are about 70mi in a 170 degree direction.

Here's our link to TVFool: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d001b80934c6ec2

I have 2 questions:

Are there really antennas with 150 mi range, possibly useful in my situation?

And are there any useful online tools to help orientate the antenna precisely 170 degree, using the tv's signal tool is not helping.

I would appreciate any help, the project has been expensive, with poor results. Thanks

[Melvin63]

Starting with the your first question: I would say that there are too many variables for a manufacturer to claim an antenna range of 150 miles. In particular, the earths curvature, which comes into play at about 70 miles, which may have something to do with your trouble, strange getting so many channels at night and so few in the daytime. How much difference is there in the signal level of those you get during the day? And is the signal level high at night(over 70% on the TVs scale)? Your mast is quite high, I assume this is a large house, not a very tall mast. If possible I would try at 30 or 20 feet up to see if there is improvment. If you haven't already checked I would verify all coax connection are good and that there is no shield wire in contact with the center conductor, if any doubt reterminate the connection. Remove any splitters and recording equipment if any. DTV tuner performance may also be a factor. If you have access to a DTV converter box conparing reception can rule out DTV tuner performance as a factor. The TV fool plot you posted gives no indication that you would have such problems, and the 2 channels of particular interest are full power stations. Antenna orientaion is critical but using a Boy Scout style compass should be sufficient to get an accurate aim.

[tigerbangs]

How well you do with PBS is going to be a function of where you have your antenna aimed. You are between 2 TV markets: Jacksonville and Orlando. You did not mention in which direction you currently have your antenna aimed, nor do I even know if you have correctly identified the aim of the antenna. Based on your TVFool.com report, you are much more likely to have better luck receiving WJCT from Jacksonville than you will WMFE from Orlando. If your antenna is properly installed, a good rotator will allow the reception of channels from both Jacksonville, or Orlando, but, when dealing with fringe-area reception such as yours, the quality of the installation details can often make the difference between seeing a TV station, and not seeing it. Whenever you make a change in your antenna, be sure to rescan your digital tuners so that they can identify the newly available TV signals. Good Luck.