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Old 04-17-2003, 04:16 PM   #1
sreigle
Montana Master
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Oceanside
Posts: 20,028
M.O.C. #20
TV Antenna Booster Problem

This is kind of involved, so bear with me. The last time we used the TV antenna and booster was last Fall. Since then all parks we've been in had cable. However, we're now in a park without cable and are having a problem with the tv antenna and/or booster.

First, we had bad, snowy pictures in an area where we should have several stations with strong signals. Turning on the booster actually made the picture worse, in some cases taking out the color at the same time. On the converter 12v panel is a fuse my dealer labeled "TV". I pulled that fuse and we suddenly have a great, clear picture. I pulled the booster and found one cable not as tight as it could be. Otherwise it looked fine. Tightened the cable but no improvement.

We have a DVD/VCR combo player between the antenna connection and the TV. The VCR works through the coax, the DVD works through the three separate cables (I've forgotten what that's called but one is labeled yellow, one white, one red). Removing these cables made no difference. Taking the DVD/VCR out of the loop made no difference. Trying different cables between antenna jack and TV made no difference.

I did find that resting my arm against the DVD player while connecting cables, touching the metal part of the connector, and in my stocking feet, I sometimes get a buzz, a la fla native's ground problem. I tried and do not get a "buzz" when standing outside barefoot on concrete and touching metal latches and the like. So I don't think there's a problem with the park connection.

OK, the nearest Montana dealer is 40 miles away through heavy freeway traffic. I ran up there this afternoon and they were willing to let me take back a new booster and install it myself. They wrote a warranty service ticket but I had to pay for the booster and will get that refunded when I return the old booster.

I installed the booster. Now, hitting the boost button does improve the picture somewhat (the old booster made it worse) but the picture is still not very good. In fact, it's lousy. Hard to make out many facial features, etc. I again pulled fuse 7 and we have a great picture again.

In summary, the boost function of the old booster made the picture worse. The new one makes it better as it is supposed to. However, the picture is still lousy. Remove fuse 7 and we get a great picture, both with the old and the new booster. I get a buzz when touching the coax connector while I'm grounded.

Fuse 7 also seems to affect other things. One is the refrigerator light. The other I know of is the light on the fridge control panel. Because we're here for a month and paying electricity we're running the fridge on propane and it's still working fine. I don't know if it would work on electric without this fuse.

Anyone have any idea what might be happening here? Is this likely to be a short in the coax somewhere? This site was very tough to get into and I'm not anxious to hitch up and tow through San Diego freeway traffic to the dealer in San Marcos if I can avoid it. We're in this site until May 15th. So any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks and sorry so long.

Steve and Vicki Reigle
Fulltiming, but "from" Topeka, KS
'99 F350 V10; '03 3295RK
 
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