TVChannel search

[budbon]

We came out to Quartzsite to spend a week or so. Working off of the TV antenna, we found a bunch of channels on the bed TV but none in living room. We had just left Apache Junction and had equal channels in both areas. Any ideas as to whatI'm doing wrong? We did a channel search on both.

[bncinwv]

Are you sure the source on the living room tv is set to air or antenna and not cable?
Bingo

[budbon]

It's set to air.

[bncinwv]

Sounds like you need to be checking some coax connections. Back of tv, etc. Also may want to check that the antenna booster never inadvertently got turned off between searches? Reaching for straws here, but I am sure it is something simple.
Bingo

[mamestra]

It might be how good your tuner on the TV is. We had the opposite problem, our living room TV had 30 channels our bedroom had none, We replaced our bedroom tv, under warrantee and now it gets more channels than our living room tv, which is what we thought it should do since it is a 12 volt tv.
Michael

[RonD]

Our bedroom Tv always gets more channels than the main tv does, also a lot of people have replaced the antenna head with a Jack antenna, the amount of channels you receive will increase by 20-50% or more

[tim43]

My BestBuy, flat screen 24" TV in the bedroom picks up more channels when set either to cable or air. I think it is because the bedroom TV has a better tuner than the OEM 32" TV in the living room. Recently I replaced all of the coax cables I could find that weren't running through the frame and have since found that both TVs have improved pictures and get more channels. The BR TV still receives more though.

[nosticks]

The Sony in the lr finds a few less channels than the Jenson in the br. It's always been that way, even when I had the Jenson installed in the basement for a while. I think it just has a more sensitive tuner than the Sony.

[budbon]

I think I have done all of the checks-air,coax etc. The problem is the bed TV ha a lot of channels while the living room TV has zero, nada.

[H. John Kohl]

Take a jumper coax from the feed for the bedroom tv at the amplifier and connect it directly to the living room TV. That will tell you if it is the TV or the Coax feed to the living room. My guess would be Coax feed.
Good luck.

[budbon]

H John- Are you talking about a coax lead from the bedroom or one of the connections behind the TV? If behind the TV how do you determine which of the three connectors are for the bedroom?

[steelpony5555]

Do you get all your FM channels on your stereo? They come over the same coax and it passes thru a splitter. If you're not getting any FM channels either I would do what John said with the extra coax cable. I would even go as far as to connect the cable right to the cable connection that goes into the back of the bed TV first. From there if the TV works fine then start tracking it down to sections or connections.

[jgavin]

OK, I’ve been down this road already, I didn’t have a solid TV signal on 1 set and a good one the other.

Most peculiar.

Early in the diagnosis, I decided that the standard TV amp wasn’t doing what I thought it should be doing so I tore out the rats nest of coax wiring up in the front end only noting which was the antenna input to the distribution amp.

Methodically, I figured out which cable went to each TV, (bedroom, outside & living room) and in one case, I installed an new coax connector. The old one had a single braided wire short to the center conductor which caused the issues we were having.

Using my P-Touch label maker, I labeled every coax line just in-case I have to revisit this area again.

I replaced the standard TV amp unit with a Winegard SenarPro (http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...er-white/55642). So why this one? It allows you to peak in signals prior to channel scan on your TV, provides up to 10 dB gain for increased performance or lower gain for close range areas.

This replacement provides me feedback of signal strength of a specific station when I’m trying to tune it in. But since we travel around from park to park, sometimes I don’t know which way to point the antenna except to see which way others are pointing :0

Tuning Digital channels as it turns out are a bit of a mystery using the new unit. How so you say? Aren’t channels the same? Well, actually in a lot of cases they aren’t. To help demystify this, I consulted a website: http://www.tvfool.com and chose “See Which TV Stations You Can Get on a Map” and plugged in our coordinates. Presto! A map appeared with every channel in every direction with compass settings, distances and Real Channel to Network.

Below is a sample of the data for East Harbor State Park, Ohio (up on Lake Erie).



So, once I got a handle on this, I did charts for every place we’ve been and might go to and have a word document with chart in it.

Best wishes to you all for the 2013 camping season!

[mhs4771]

OK, here's how our Monty was wired: First the Ant Amp has two inputs (ant and cable) and two outputs (the one on the front that typically goes to the bedroom tv and one on the back). OK, now Keystone takes that 2nd output on the back and splits it resulting in cutting the signal strength in half for each output, one to the basement and one to the Living Room. Now behind the Living Room TV they install another splitter to supply signal to the TV and the stereo which again cuts the signal in half. The result is the Bedroom TV will receive much stronger signal and be able to pick up the stations, by the time that twice reduced signal gets to the Living Room TV there is not enough signal for the TV to pick up anything. Now a disclaimer: If you located near the stations you're trying to receive the signal will be strong enough for all TVs to work, but once you get into fringe areas where the signal is marginal at best you can get them on the Bedroom TV but nowhere else. I added a Radio Shack inline amplifier to that second output (going to the basement & living room) from the ant amp and greatly improved the living room reception.

[steelpony5555]

Oh Oh I almost forgot, Joe just triggered my memory, almost every coax connection on the cables was loose. Several pulled right off the cable just moving them around. I ended up redoing all the coax connections on the cables so that they are now tight.

[Dontana]

Joe:

You are now in charge of my 401K.

[budbon]

I'm in Quartzsite we have not had the problem in the past. I would e of the other tests but my inverter has quit working and somehow I can't even get generator power/shore power into the unit. Anyone familiar with Cotex ST 100?