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southern MN | I did a lot of research & experimenting a year ago. I'm 80 + miles away from the Twin Cities, but I now get more channels than I did before digital. And I'm using the same 20 year old antennea, the biggest Radio Shak stocked.
1. Well shielded coax cable. The good stuff, not the cheaper less shielded. Top notch.
2. Watch for leaks or bad connections, they degrade if water gets in........ If you had good digital, and don't know, look to this!
3. An amp that starts up on top of the antennea. Has a bit piece that goes up on antennea, and then the powered plug in part down on the ground. No splices can be in between. Got mine from Radio Shak, $20 or so maybe 30. Made the biggest stability improvement of anything I did - got very choppy reception without; rock solid even in light to medium rain with it.
4. That extra 150 feet is likely costing you. Probably need a second amp (this could be a pusher-type, not the 2 part like you need on the antennea) to push the signal down that segment of wire, unless it is all one long piece of cable all the way???? Very critical to have the best shielded cable you can get for that long a run! The signal break down you are seeing is reflections and disturbance along that long a wire.
5. Rock steady antennea is important. The digital signals pile up on each other if the antennea is moving in the wind, etc. Digital is much more fussy, No movement....
6. Line of sight is best - a roof is gonna slow you down a lot, trying to pull through the roofing.... Trees also mess it up, esp evergreens (needles are little signal absorbers).
7. Aiming the antennea is more critical with digital - it needs to be pointed right at the tower, analog was more forgiving.
If you do not have the 2-piece booster/ amplifier, that is the #1 thing you can do.
A shorter cable; a single piece cable; the best shielded cable; throwing a regular amp in if you have a spliced cable will all be critical to keep your signal from degrading and causing a very choppy reception.
A point to note: As the changeover was made, the TV stations were running 10-50% of power, and even into this year they were building new towers or toying with increasing power - all had to clear regulators, paperwork, etc. If one hasn't tried in the last 6 months, there could be a lot more available channels out there now.
As well during the changeover all stations had to move up to the UHF channels - the short or bow-tie segments. But _any_ station that was ch 6-13 came back to the VHF channel again after everything sorted out & we are all-digital. VHF signals (the long or rabbit ear part) carry farther at 10% the power a UHF signal needs, so if possible, the stations returned to VHF that possibly could. All we lost were channels 2-5, those had to go UHF permanently.
So what? Radio Shak and all the other hucksters were selling new digital antenneas, which were UHF only. What a crock. Your old combination antennea works better than those new ones, and the new ones don't get VHF. Rip off. The old antenneas work just fine with the digital signals, exact same thing, and one _should_ get the same channels you used to get - especially any channel 6 or higher.
The issues are that digital is more sensitive going down the wire from the antennea to the set. You really need good cable, and good pre-amp/ amp setup.
My experience, and yea I'm too cheap* to put satilite at the farm so I researched long & hard to figure out this new antennea stuff for free TV. A bonus is that antennea TV is _real_ HD 1080i resolution, you won't find a better picture anywhere! The dish setups and most cable companies are compressing their signals, and what you see from those systems is crappy compared to what I get. You don't realize it because their compressed signals look better than the old analog did, but you are getting much poorer resolution than advertised. Free TV is very very clear if you can get it. Why pay $80-90 for a poorer picture?
--->Paul
* In addition to being German (aka cheap) I have a beautiful set of trees mostly almost mature black walnut to the south of the house & nearby buildings, making satilite TV a very difficult proposition......
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Problems with new digital TV
