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O/T darned digital mess

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Nancy Howell

Well-known Member
We have two tv's at the farm. Bought a converter box. Neither tv would work with the box. Bought a new antenna. Didn't help. Neither tv would work. Took the box back. They said there was nothing wrong with the box. So now I guess we have to replace the tvs. GRRRR.
 
(quoted from post at 06:35:18 06/17/09) We have two tv's at the farm. Bought a converter box. Neither tv would work with the box. Bought a new antenna. Didn't help. Neither tv would work. Took the box back. They said there was nothing wrong with the box. So now I guess we have to replace the tvs. GRRRR.
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You do realize that the tv stays on one channel (usually av input) and you change channels on the box now. Similar to the old cable boxes. I highly doubt your tvs need replaced.
 
oh just wait till you have all the fun. I'm getting my signal through dish network. At the 2nd thunderhead that passes by all the local channels disappear and all i get is a blue screen. I bet those that made this decision have never spent anytime in a rural area!
 
Digital signal is better with more channels, but it has some down sides. analog, if your signsl was not good, you got a poor picture. with digital you get a good picyure/ sound or NOTHING. IF A DIGITAL CONVERTER BOX WILL NOT WORK, A DIGITAL TV LIKLEY WILL NOT WORK EATHER. cunsult a TV/Appliance store NOT JUST WALMART, about signat strength in your area. you may need a rooftop antenna wirh rotor. also check on satilite prices, It may be cheaper than a new TV
 

Maybe the CiC will get you a baleout :roll: :roll:

May not be the same situation, but I've still got a TV that was given to me when I got over here (about 30 years old now). In our case, the tv has to be tuned to the box first. I've used both digital and analogue boxes with good results. The only real moral to that story is that the TV shouldn't care.

Dave
 
Doubt that new tvs will help; went from 8-10 (analog) channels to 4 with the new improved system. This is on the tv in the bedroom, on which the wife watches the local news while getting dressed in the mornings. Thank goodness for the old c-band system on our 'main' tv in the den.
 
How far are you from the signal source?

I doubt a new TV will fix your problem.

Try one of these antennas that are good to 70 miles. Don't forget they are directional...

www.antennasdirect.com/DB8_HD_Antenna.html
 
Nancy, My house has been on Dish for over 8 yrs. We very seldom loose signal. Even in rain storms. Yes, This is Central Texas, and rain is in short supply! But that doesn't mean your reception will be bad. or that someone else has had trouble will be yours troubles The cleaner and more unobstructed the view the tighter the tolerence of the signal should mean a better signal. Visit around and get other neighbors opinion for your area. I recommend Dish highly. Get Dish to install they did on our update 2 yrs ago. I installed initially. Dish will probably be cheaper than a new tube I'll bet! Hope this helps.
Later,
John A.
 
In my area almost everything is UHF now, so about a year ago I bought a DB8 antenna, pre-amplifier, and rotor. Tried just the DB8 and only got a couple of the strongest channels. With the pre-amp I get much more than I ever received on analog. I even get stations 60 miles away off the back of the antenna. Picture quality is GREAT. The DB8 will also receive some VHF signals.

Ichabod
 
One of the issues with the box was that the remote that came with the box would not operate the tv. Scanned all the "codes" on the converter remote and it still wouldn"t work. Directions said, under those circumstances you had to use both the remote for the box and the remote for the tv.

Yes, we set the tv and the box to 3.

We started this process by connecting the very large outdoor antenna to the box, then the cable from the box to tv. Nothing. Thought there might be a problem with the big antenna, so that"s why I purchased a small indoor. It didn"t make any difference.
 
We started out hooking the cable from the large, outdoor antenna located on the roof, to the box. Then cabled output from the box to the tv. Set both to 3, nothing. That's when I bought the small indoor antenna to find out if the big antenna and the box weren't "communicating".

We may try taking our digital tv from Dallas to the farm. If it works, then we replace the tv at the farm. If not, don't know what the next step is. Maybe visit the electronics store in Mt. Pleasant (not Radio Shack, but a real electronics store).
 
We are only at the farm on weekends and only watch 4 to 6 hrs. of tv while we're there. Don't really want to pay for cable or dish since we don't watch that much tv at the farm.
 
I have a similar situation where I am only at the farm on weekends and don"t want to buy satelite. I am also located in the middle of the woods which don"t help. With the largest antenna made I received no signals. One day I spoke to a guy that told me to install a 2 piece amplifier and if that did not work he would refund my money. I installed the amp and now get 15 channels. Since the digital signal is directional I do have to rotate the ant to get all the channels but I have an auto rotator so that is no big deal. The only down side is that during the day time the signal is not as strong just as the analog was and there are fewer choices . Oh, and with the 15 channels, there is still nothing worth watching.

Rocky in MO
 
Why not just say to hell with the TV's? There is nothing but garbage on them, each and every day you see something about gay people and how pitiful people are.
 
Keep a camper out at the farm, small tv for news etc. connected the box and cranked the antenna up, turned on the box and its a good picture with more channels than ever. Use cable at home.
 
The father inlaw needed to put up a new UHF antenna, then the store said to use coax cable as it's "better" than the 300 ohm flat wire. He didn't have any and hadn't bought it by this time so next he had to add on a $100 two part amplifier. He added this to his 300 ohm flat wire and got 15 stations, but took the advise of the store and bought coax cable that I helped him run the next day. With the coax, we lost all but 2 stations. We did check all our fittings on the coax with a meter to make sure we had good connections and no shorted wires. We changed the coax back to 300 ohm only from the antenna to the amplifier and we then got 18 stations. He has worked with radio signals for the past 60 years and he said that the 300 ohm was better for the UHF signal with less loss than with coax.
He is 60 miles from the signal and now has 100% in both signal Strength and Quality.
Wish you luck!
 
If you are using RG59 coax, throw it away. You need RG6 for the converter box to the antenna. Preferably with a two-piece amplifier with the power supply in the house and amp on the antenna mast. My record is 31 channels before the switch when they were using UHF, and I'm deep-fringe with a directional antenna. I havent put my VHF antenna back up yet.
 
Nancy, can you describe the problem a bit more? You say you have the TV and the box set to channel 3, and get nothing. Does that mean that you don't see the menus from the convert box at all, or that you do see the menus, but the converter box doesn't pick up any channels when you tell it to scan for channels?

If you are using RCA cables to connect the converter box to the TV, then you don't use channel 3 at all, you probably have to turn your TV to channel L1 or INPUT1 to see the converter box's display.
 
Nancy, I live east of Hillsboro, so I only use the antenna for Waco stations about 35 miles away. I get Dallas stations with direct tv. I have a new tv in the bedroom and an old one with a converter box in the kitchen. My new tv will only show channels that get 65% signal strength or better. The converter box will show anything 35% or better. I had to buy a new outside antenna with a range of 50 miles to get two channels from Waco, with analog I got 4 channels. I would suggest a strong outside antenna with a range of 50 miles or more. They are pricey though. 50 mile antenna was $100 . the next better one, 60 or 70 miles, I don't remember was $180. Ihaven't hooked the new antenna to the converter box yet as I rarely turn on the tv in the kitchen. Rick
 
Did you try to program the boxes according to the on screen / paper instructions ? I 've programed two of these boxes . One for a friend and one for my sister . My sister had an old outdoor antenna with a booster on it and she live out in the country . My friend lived on the edge of a small rural town and all he had was a old junky pair of rabbit ears . When I proggramed them both they both said that We needed a new out door digital attenna .


Thanks,
Whizkidkyus
 
Unless it gets wet 300 ohm twinleads has lots less loss than coax. But it is also more prone to interference.
 
It sounds like you bought a Zenith converter. They will not output a signal for the regular TV antenna input, even though the book says it will. You have to use the seperate audio and video otputs to the matching inputs on the TV. Put tv on Input 1(or Video 1).
 
I set up a box for grandpa. All you do is turn your TV to 3 or 4, then turn on the box, and follow through it's menu (and pretend it's like a VCR). Then you run the channels from the box instead of from the TV. You have to scan for channels, though.
 
I have satellite here at our main home, and rabbit ears at our vacation home. Both are in mountainous terrain. I checked the maps at the link below and in both cases it looks like there is no signal that gets to me. Used to be our vacation home only got Orange County (CA) PBS, on a repeater for Riverside County. Since we're only there for a couple weeks at a time, I think we'll be relying on DVDs and just watching movies and reading a lot more.
DVT reception map
 
What brand of converter? Some on the market have terrible quality control and suffer from lack of sensitivity and selectivity.
 
(quoted from post at 04:35:18 06/17/09) guess we have to replace the tvs. GRRRR.
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That is impossible. ALL TV's that can tune channel 3/4 will work with a converter, and most (all?) converters also have video ouput if the TV does.

Here's some possibilities:

It IS possible but DOUBTFUL that the boxes are all that bad. I'm using Radio Shack here and they seem pretty fair

We don't know the terrain, the distance of your stations, or how well you received them previously If the best station you used to get was pretty snowy, you might as well give up right now

We don't know the condition of your outdoor antenna or where it's pointed, IE is it actually pointed AT a station

I hate to say this but you SHOULD have done this long before analogue stopped, so that you could use the analogue stations as a crutch to aim the antenna as a starting point, and "check" the rest of the system.

My advice:

go over your outdoor antenna, and check the connections of the cable./ twinlead. If it's over 10 years old, replace it. IF you buy a new antenna do NOT fall into the trap of a "digital antenna". THERE IS NO SUCH THING. Antennas work today just like they did when the Titanic sank, only there ARE some better designs.

ALSO is your antenna a combo VHF/ UHF? Some digital stations are now on UHF BUT WILL BE MOVING BACK to VHF. This is because of a game of musical chairs envolving vacated channels, and the fact that they were temporarily on UHF for "somewhere to be." Many want to move back to VHF because it covers better (propagates) and is more efficient (cheaper) to operate the transmitters.

BUT many will BE on UHF and this means (depending on your area) that you need an antenna for BOTH VHF/UHF


I'd start by doing thus:


Make sure your antenna is pointed toward what was the BEST analoge signal that you got. If the best you got was pretty snowy, YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK.

Go through the menu and "do a scan" of channels. If you can't find your strongest signal, don't be bashful, CALL THEM. Their engineer should be glad to help, and can tell you what their DTV channel IS so that you can enter it manually.

Next, whether you get a picture or not, enter whatever menu there is for "signal strength" or "signal meter" or other such term. This will bring up some sort of graph that will show if there's any signal and how strong it is.

At this point (sorry to say) you'll want to play with the antenna a little, and antenna direction SEEMS to be much "sharper" with DTV on weak signals.

If you don't have on, consider getting a rotator.

Also, check with your local stations to see if any of them have "translators" (relay stations.) Many of these lower power analogue stations ARE NOT GOING OFF the air, and you may be able to either watch them as-is or at least use them to check out your antenna/ tv setup


Just to show you how bad things are, I'm in Coeur d Alene, ID, about 40 mi from "Tower Mountain" in Spokane, but shaded by a hill in the path. I cannot get channel 2 (CBS) reliably, which has an 800ft tower. I can only get PBS channel 7 about 1/3 of the time, who's on the same mountain.

I'm using a BIG VHF/UHF combo with a FOURTEEN FOOT boom, with a rotator, at about 55ft on my amateur radio tower.
 
Do you have a second reciever for a Bedroom that you could take to your bedroom at the farm? I am sure someone will have a used dish around to hook up to the reciever.
 
My Mom and Dad had the same thing happen-no signal with a converter box and a couple different new antennas. Turns out they are in an area where the digital signals from the two broadcasting cities they are in between are too weak for them to receive. Fortunately, they have cable in their area, but they are on a waiting list to get hooked up. I try not to do much complaining, but after living there 48 years with no reception problems, it doesn"t seem right that they now have to pay just to get a signal.
 
I didn't make the switch to digital and am seeing if I can go without TV. There is only a few shows I looked forward to watching, the rest I watch because they are there. I think I will make it a family outing, going to Burgerking to watch the shows I really like.
 
Between my neighbor and my family, we have 6 Zenith boxes in service . 2 are on rabbit ears , 4 are on roof antennas. All are on the single coax cable hookup,not the 3 wire , and we get more channels than we did on analog. We are in the greater L.A. area. Only trick I found was rescan several times at night and day time , to pick up missing channels.
 
I've got a zenith and it works with my 20 yr old tv. i dont have to use audio and video jacks with it.
 
(quoted from post at 10:35:34 06/17/09) Between my neighbor and my family, we have 6 Zenith boxes in service . 2 are on rabbit ears , 4 are on roof antennas. All are on the single coax cable hookup,not the 3 wire , and we get more channels than we did on analog. We are in the greater L.A. area. Only trick I found was rescan several times at night and day time , to pick up missing channels.
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And so your point is what? --that since you are in the center of probably the largest DTV broadcast coverage area on earth that you can watch many channels? Why would you expect anything else?

I've been preaching my opinion of this mess for months, and only now that many --in fringe areas--have actually been thrown into the mudhole--have "we" found what a bill 'o goods DTV really is---much worse coverage, so don't tell me about all the "extra" channels I get for free


The other thing about DTV is that it's MUCH more difficult to troubleshoot problems, and I've said this before too.

With analogue, if you had the "old man" out in the garage welding, you got snow and noise on your analogue picture. The same type of interferance on DTV will simply tile, blank, or freeze the picture--the interferance is still there and still affects the signal--you just can't tell what it IS

The above is true of ANY interferance, including something in/ around the house that generates RF noise, or ----ghosts

We remember ghosts, right? The proper name for which is "multipath," ghosts are a main and a reflected signal which arrive at the receiving antenna at slightly displaced times, causing the delayed picture effect.

Multipath still happens with DTV--and still deteriorates the signal. It's just that you can't see or hear it--so you wont know what the problm IS You'll turn on your "signal meter" in the menu, and show a low signal level, and not be able to figure out WHY. Meanwhile, your DTV signal with tile, freeze, and blank

I don't need to see the pimples on Rosie O'Donnells a$$ in any better quality than I could with analogue
 
A salesman at Walmart told me over the phone that the converter boxes are not working and would be a waste of money to buy the digital antenna's.

I only had one TV with rabbit ears and it would pickup stations 50 miles away. Using the converter I got most local stations until they flipped the switch to digital, then I only received 2 channels and they were fading a lot. I hooked it up to cable. Seems like this was setup to force you to buy all these converters and antennas that don't work. Hal
 
Hi Nancy
After setting your TV to channel 3 or 4 and turning on the converter box did you hit the setup botton on the control box remote and do an auto scan? No channels will work until that is done. You'll have to do that every day now for a while to make sure you are picking up all the channels because some of the stations are still monkeying around with there equipment.
 
Ours gives trouble when it rains heavy or is windy. I loose about 1/3 to 1/2 half of the stations sometimes. Our government sold the analog signal that used to belong to the public for about $90 billion or so and gave us this crappy digital thing that at first I was told would cost me next to nothing and be better but after they passed the bill I found that I need to buy an additional outdoor antenna and I may lose some signals because digital doesn't travel as far as analog. Now we can buy the signal back as wireless internet hookup. Does that sound like a good deal or what?

Once again we were sold out to big business, in this case big media. The claim that it was all done to give better communications for emergency services was bogus. Most small towns and communities can't afford the new equipment.

Follow the money and it leads to big media and their desire to own something the public owned.
 
Use the audio and video jacks. Better quality sound and video. That why TV connections went from using rf on channels 3 or 4 to direct connections.
 
I got a Zenith DT990 or whatever it is with a coupon.

Later, once they were available I got a DTVPal Plus by Dish Network.

I was rated higher on forums. I like it as it has a timer feature to set if you want to record and will switch between channels to do so if needed.

I also has a program guide that shows more than just an hour or two.

The main benefit---it get better reception. I tested both boxes about two weeks ago in back to back tests. Scanned for channels and then did a count. Nine for the Zenith and 15 for the Dish unit. While the coupon took care of the cost for the Zenith unit I did pay extra for the other. Well worth it.

My kids live in the opposite direction I do from broadcast towers and are getting 4 channels that I don't. I'm thinking of getting a signal booster to see if I can pick them up too as they have a lot of old movies on.
 
There's a clue. Getting electronic advice at Walmart. As stated here 147 times previous, an antenna is an antenna no matter analog or digital.
As we have said on here dozens of times. Unless you have a decent outside antenna on a tower. With a rotor using an antenna mounted pre-amp and using RG-6 cable. How do you possibly expect to recieve a signal?
If the converter box isn't good enough to have a HDMI output. Why did you purchase it?
 
I was wondering what the hook was, Bush sold us down the river again. Some of you said in 20 years he might be recognized as the greatest P. ever, i think in 20 years they'll still be finding all the crooked shoot he did.
 
> Now we can buy the signal back as wireless internet hookup. Does that sound like a good deal or what?

Actually, it seems like a pretty good deal to me. I don't have cellular coverage where I live because it's rural and full of hills and valleys. Now that the high UHF frequencies are available for wireless communications, that will change. Less towers and huge coverage areas.

If rain or wind is affecting you, then you need to do some antenna and cable maintenance. If you're not using RG-6 cable, replace what you have. If you are using RG-6, you probably have to weatherproof your connections. Replace the ends and use silicon and/or rubber boots around them. If wind is giving you problems, you need to anchor your mast better and/or use come guy wires.

As for me, I had to buy new antennas when we went digital, but I'm deep-deep fringe and was running with a 30-year old setup. For the money I ended up getting 4 extra channels (digital sub-channels). I'm pretty happy with what's happened.
 
Oh, and if your antenna is pointing directly into a tree branch, cut that sucker off. This is only an issue for the higher UHF channels though.
 
What happens if you hook the atenna cable strait to the TV and then scan with the TV?
 
if the transmitter is within 30 miles you will recieve digital,over that it is iffy or you will need the best antenna money can buy,whichever that is.hills will shut it off to you unless your antenna is very high.then the least differance in the weather will break up the signal

between 2am and 5 am i get 15 channels,when the sun comes up they start dropping off like flies.

your signal will be dropping,just like a cell phone.

we've been screwed again
 
Bush sold us down the river again.WRONG WRONG WRONG.
That law was signed by Bill Clinton. Here is a quote from dtv.gov.
In 1996, Congress authorized the distribution of an additional broadcast channel to each broadcast TV station so that they could use it for digital broadcasting while simultaneously continuing their analog broadcast channel.

Later, Congress mandated June 12, 2009 (extended from February 17, 2009) as the last day for full-power television stations in the U.S. to broadcast in analog. Before June 12, 2009, broadcast stations in all U.S. markets were transmitting in both analog and digital. After June 12, 2009, full-power television stations will transmit in digital only.
 
> about 40 mi from "Tower Mountain" in Spokane, but > shaded by a hill in the path. I cannot get
> channel 2 (CBS) reliably, which has an 800ft
> tower. I can only get PBS channel 7 about 1/3 of
> the time, who's on the same mountain.

The VHF low-band (ch 2-6) are a huge disappointment for digital. I really have no idea why those stations didn't move to UHF permanently (most did).

I am able to get channel 10 from 50+ miles in a valley, but even my new expensive combo wouldn't cut it. I had to get a 10ft VHF Yagi antenna specifically for VHF channels 7-13. Works great though. Plus, I don't need a rotator anymore.
VHF Yagi Antenna
 
Howdy neighbor! I can SEE the towers on Tower Mountain, but 22 never worked well here. Channel 4 on Mt Spokane worked great before the digital conversion. Now it is iffy, sometimes breaks up if there is weather.

I have a good Radio Shack antenna with a rotator, and am line-of-sight to most of the towers. But sometimes I don't get decent reception since they went digital.

We just get all our local stations through Dish Network, however they do not include the "extra channels" the local stations added. I think that was their objective for changing things in the first place: make everyone pay for TV service that formerly was free. They just couldn't leave things that were working right alone...grrrr!
 
(quoted from post at 12:56:25 06/17/09) Howdy neighbor! I can SEE the towers on Tower Mountain, but 22 never worked well here. Channel 4 on Mt Spokane worked great before the digital conversion. Now it is iffy, sometimes breaks up if there is weather.

I have a good Radio Shack antenna with a rotator, and am line-of-sight to most of the towers. But sometimes I don't get decent reception since they went digital.

We just get all our local stations through Dish Network, however they do not include the "extra channels" the local stations added. I think that was their objective for changing things in the first place: make everyone pay for TV service that formerly was free. They just couldn't leave things that were working right alone...grrrr!
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Where are you located? Channel 4 is a no brainer for a lot of the country. I grew up in Sandpoint, and 4 was about all we watched at home

Here in CDA, my beam is pointed at tower mountain for the times that I CAN get PBS, and so I get 4 "off the corner" of the beam. That thing is so strong I think I could get it here with rabbit ears.
 
If you didn't rescan after the changeover you must do it again.
1st Unplug converter for at least one minute to erase memory.
2nd. disconnect coax from converter and run scan for channels. when all done it will say zero found.
3-reconnect coax in lead and rescan. hopefully you will get some channels.

Read this for antenna language.

http://www.electusdistribution.com.au/images_uploaded/tvrecepe.pdf
 
Bush had nothing to do with this was trying to happen when your Mr. Billy Bob dumb sh** and Hill Rod broom rider were in there they let the FCC mess with stuff that isn"t their"s to be messing with. No one has accounted for all the money the government and FCC got for selling those extra new channels on the broad spectrum ?
 
The answer to the digital mess is far simpler than you think. Just get rid of the darned TV.
Years from now historians will look at this era searching for clues as to why this great culture declined so rapidly. Why did families, relationships, even governments all fail.
I'll bet more than one of them will point to the television as a major contributing factor. Our sloth like inattention to the valuable things while we sit trasfixed by American Idol is killing us.

P1010007.jpg
 
You may have trees in the way? Here ours wouldn't hardly work except late at night 9-10 pm after it cools off and works in morning till it gets hot and humid then nothing again till night. Shocked this evening could see the 6 pm news and scanned 5 channels finally. Every location and every neighbor I talk to about it says they get different channels or hardly anything but nothing in heat of the day. Heat waves are messing it up I guess. Do like I did and fire off several emails to FCC and government agencies and every tv station in your area. They are corrupt and in bed with the satellite companies to sell us tv they stuck to us again! Cable isn't the answer they have problems with it in town related to digital issues too I'm told.
 
This is an older tv and doesn't speak "digital". It needs the converter box to translate the signal into a format the tv can receive.
 
No menu came up. All we get is snow regardless of which antenna we use, how we hook it up, or whether we set converter & tv to 3 or 4.

One tv is old and doesn't have a video hook up. Has one "port" only and that is for the antenna.

The other tv is newer with hook ups for vcr, but we tried the box and both antennas with that one and it didn't work either. No menu came up on that tv either when we hooked up the converter.

Radio Shack says there's no problem with the box.
 
One of our local stations (WCPO) has announced that their signal will be weak for a couple weeks. They are taking the analog antenna off their tower and then moving the digital antenna to the top. They say that the tower wasn't strong enough to have both at the top, and when the work is done many signal problems will disappear.

I hope so, I hate having Wheel of Fortune freeze up.
 
Are the converter boxes from radio shack and are they the Digital Stream DTX 9950, the Lasonic LTA-260 or the premium SVHS Winegard RC-1010?
Per dollar spent for a TV which doens't have a SVHS input or HDMI input jack. The Digital Stream is entirely respectable and the Lasonic being very good.
I only have to rotate my antenna 2 degrees sometimes which is hard to even see with the naked eye. The picture will go from snow to clear.
 
I live SE of Spokane. Mica Peak is between my place and C'dA. Channel 4's tower on Mt. Spokane is a lot farther away from my place than any of the other station's towers. Apparently the digital signal is not nearly as strong as the analog signals were and don't carry as far or as well, and so sometimes Channel 4 breaks up on me.

The main local channels work fine on Dish, but I wish they also had the additional channels the stations now have. I can switch over to the additional channels, but it is a lot easier to just use the Dish signal, which is always perfect. Except in heavy weather or when wet snow settles in the dish like it did several times last winter. I have thought about rigging a heating grid on the back of my reflecting dish that I could plug in for a few minutes when there is a snow problem.

I suppose that in Sandpoint channel 4 would be about all you could get over the air. Looking at the maps, Mt. Spokane is pretty close to directly between Sandpoint and Tower Mountain. Do they have translator channels that "repeat" broadcast of the Spokane stations in Sandpoint? I see commercials about the translators, but have never been where they were, so I don't know exactly how they work.

I remember when KHQ put the first tower on Tower Mountain in the very late 1950's. Their former towers were on Moran Prairie, as were those of KREM and we didn't get very good reception at all. With the new tower, suddenly KHQ was the best signal around Spokane and the Spokane Valley. A few years later KREM also put up a new tower on Tower Mountain, as did most of the other transmitters. My guess is that KXLY can transmit to a larger area, since Mt. Spokane is a lot higher than Tower Mountain, but it is also my guess that locating the towers on Tower Mountain was a better business decision for those stations than going to Mt. Spokane, since the population centers are all around Tower Mountain.

Do you have a 440 Roadrunner? Those were fast cars with 383's, and would be a little lighter than the GTX models. I sure wish I had kept my muscle cars, including a Ram Air 67 GTO that used to turn 13's on street tires when we raced it at Deer Park many moons ago. But a guy offered me more than I thought it was worth and I sold it in 1972. Oh well!
 
(quoted from post at 18:57:03 06/17/09) No menu came up. All we get is snow regardless of which antenna we use, how we hook it up, or whether we set converter & tv to 3 or 4.

One tv is old and doesn't have a video hook up. Has one "port" only and that is for the antenna.

The other tv is newer with hook ups for vcr, but we tried the box and both antennas with that one and it didn't work either. No menu came up on that tv either when we hooked up the converter.

Radio Shack says there's no problem with the box.
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Nancy, something very basic is wrong, here's some thinking:

Most converters output either or both audio/ video jacks OR an antenna type jack, so there should be two antenna type (coax) connectors on the back

MAKE SURE the box is set for channel 3

Try your TV on both 3 and 4

Is your TV old enough to have a "fine tuning" knob?

Does the TV have a separate VHF/UHF switch or Tuner?

Try a different "jumper" cable, wiggle it, maybe a bad jack/ cable.

MAKE SURE you have the TV connector hooked up to the correct jack on the box!!

Here's the thing:

WITH NO ANTENNA hooked to "the box" you should at least be able to get a blank screen--such as when you hook up a VCR--and you should be able to enter the menu. Any possibility the box has no power? Any pilot lamps lit up?

If all you get is snow, that is showing you that you are NOT getting any kind of signal from the converter box.

Do you have older TVs? Do they have both twinlead and coax connectors? Is it possible there's a jumper/ switch for those connectors?


I don't know if you have "thrift stores" there, here, we have lots. If you do, buy a cheap small TV that you can carry, and take it and the boxes to where you got them. Get the sales "guy" to get a signal from the boxes, then you'll know that THAT much works.

Then maybe you can use the portable to help troubleshoot.
 
(quoted from post at 19:30:09 06/17/09) I suppose that in Sandpoint channel 4 would be about all you could get over the air. . Do they have translator channels that "repeat" broadcast of the Spokane stations in Sandpoint?
Click to expand...

I was referring to growing up say, 52-68 (joined the navy) I don't think there are any translators except for PBS, and some up towards Bonners


(quoted from post at 19:30:09 06/17/09)I remember when KHQ put the first tower on Tower Mountain in the very late 1950's. also my guess that locating the towers on Tower Mountain was a better business decision for those stations than going to Mt. Spokane, since the population centers are all around Tower Mountain.
Click to expand...

I BELIEVE (not sure) that there's actually a lot of politics envolved re the other stations not being on Mt Spokane. There are however a large no. of public service mostly transmitters up there. As you can imagine, that is a horrid place for a receiver site.


(quoted from post at 19:30:09 06/17/09)Do you have a 440 Roadrunner? Those were fast cars with 383's, and would be a little lighter than the GTX models.
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No longer, but I'm hoping to build a "driver" "lookalike" with modern injected power. IN my younger days, I've owned a 64 Dodge 426, a 69 383 Roadrunner 4 spd, and my favorite, my '70 440sixpack Roadrunner 4 speed. That was "nearly" a legitimate 12 second car in street trim, could do way over 140, and get 13.8 mpg while doing so. I obviously wish I had it now In it's later years, the "first" gas crunch, the 70 got a 340 swapped in, something that Chrysler should have done from the factory. That same 340 went into an old Landcruiser FJ40 for a few years.
 
I picked up stations from Dothan and Montgomery Alabama for a while Sunday night. I live 80 miles west of Memphis on US HWY 64 in Arkansas. The reception on all the channels gets better late at night. I think they will eventually have to use repeaters to make DT work.
 
(quoted from post at 21:38:08 06/17/09) shut-up
Click to expand...


So, you have nothing helpful to add, but you did have time to type this. Or did you slyly cut and paste it from somewhere?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shut_Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NzUwnVCm0U

http://www.slate.com/id/2087706/

2vbqxoj.jpg
 
My experince was same as MN Bob,while at Lake O' The Pines and Bob Sandlin.I never had to reposition the rv to get channels and antenna does not rotate.Could hardly see the sun for the trees. Maybe you should put a rv antenna on your casa.,,,,,,,,,,Well,,,it might work.
 
Nancy,

I don't know much but I do know what we had to do to make our two tv's work, we probably live as far or farther out than your farm. Got two converter boxes for the two tv's. They both only got one channel with the old antennas. Was scared I was going to have to put up an out side antenna. Was at Best Buy a few weeks ago and the had 4 or 5 differnet RCA antennas. We picked up two a $30 one that is about 8"X10" plastic book looking thing and a $15 one that looks like a flimsy boomarang. Was think'n the $30 one would work better in the live'n room and use the cheaper one on the other tv that don't get used much. The $15 filimsy boomarang one works best on both tvs, next trip to town I am going to take the plastic book looking thing back and get another boomarang looking thing.

I like have'n 10 more channels, the local weather 24/7 one is real nice along with RTN. Only down side I see is the blue screen every time the wind blows and I have to keep up with two remotes. The one for the converter box has vol. buttons on it but they don't work so I have to use it to change channels and the tv remote to change vol.

Good luck.

Dave
this one works at my house.
 
Nancy,

I don't think you have something hooked up right. I have only delt with the tv here at work and my two at home so some folks on here know alot more than me but from what I have seen with the digital there is no snow. You have a good picture, froze picture, or blue screen.

Good luck with it, I about pulled my hair out to get the two at the house to work and the one here at work took us a long time to get dialed in.

Dave
 
B&D,

You and I have gone around about this a few times and I am not looking for a fight by no means, I know you know alot more about this than I ever want to. Nancy is in the same spot I was in a while back when try'n to get ready for this. Many people don't buy much off the internet and I ended up drive'n 45 miles to buy the only converter boxes I could find two days before our coupons expired. I had no idea what out put they had, they were the only ones I could get. I hooked the converter boxes to my tvs and antennas that were paid for and working fine on anlog, did not work with the boxes. Hooked a new $15 RCA boomarang looking thing to the boxes with same cable and they work fine. I sent $35 each for my two tvs with out have'n to put up an outside antenna.

I can see how Nancy or any one else could "possibly expect to recieve a signal". Untill last week they did not have to have all the extra expense to watch the 6:00 local news. They just needed a tv and if all it had was a coat hanger stuck in were the antenna used to be it worked fine for what they needed. I guess the gooberment stimulated the antenna and coax factories by make'n us convert to digital.

Dave
 
It's hardly been any surprise that dtv was coming.You all should have been up and running on dtv last fall to meet the end of year deadline. Let alone waiting until hours before the June date.
You must be living on the edge of a large city to get that kind of coverage with a rinky d*nky antenna.
Around here it's 25 miles for the two closest stations.55 miles for another three. Then 90+ miles for another three. Some stations out of Michigan are 70 miles. Flint Michigan 140 miles away comes in clearer than our 90 mile stations.
As you may expect the entire system design is maxed out to try and catch the weak signals. Weather will make or break reception.
Another factor is the signal strength falling to the square root of the distance. The signal 50 miles from a transmitter is only 1/4 the strength it is at 25 miles. So getting out to 100 miles the signal strength has dropped to 1/8 of the level it is at 25 miles.Try that with a coat hanger or a $15 piece of plastic. I have no idea why you are crying foul?
 
No offense but I'm not buying anymore crap. I got by with just rabbit ears all my life and was able to get Austin PBS and KAAL, Mason City PBS and KIMT, Rochester KTTC and Fox, and sometimes a couple Twincity stations and LaCrosse which were the same as the other local stations. Now I need to BUY another danged piece of equipment that I'll probably have to replace every couple years. No thanks.

My point is it wasn't sold to the public that way before they passed the bill.
 
> I got by with just rabbit ears all my life and was able to get Austin PBS and KAAL, Mason City
> PBS and KIMT, Rochester KTTC and Fox, and sometimes a couple Twincity stations and LaCrosse

Wow, it's a different world when you don't live in a valley I guess :)

I get the La Crosse stations and KTTC, but it took $300 worth of antenna equipment to do it and I'm only 15 miles from the La Crosse towers. Even with this setup I can't pick up the Iowa PBS station that's only 12 miles away because I'm on the wrong side of the valley. At my place, you couldn't even get clean snow with a rabbit ear antenna.

I can see why you would be annoyed if you've never had to make any investment in antennas before they went digital. Since we've always had outdoor antennas, replacing them isn't such a big deal. Over the years they get corroded and bent anyway. You have to plan on replacing them in 15-20 years or so just like your shingles. That's why a lot of people put outdoor-style antennas in their attic if they can get away with it.
 
Nope. I'm saying it's a bunch of BS that I end up spending more money on something so crappy as today's television. The only TV I watch anymore is PBS and that comes in the worst now. We used to get good weather updates but now when the storms hit like they did two days ago I get a broken up signal and now my battery TV doesn't receive digital. So not only do I have to buy another danged antenna but also a weather radio and I can't watch certain stations that I used to when it rains or blows. They didn't tell us this back in 2005 when they passed this bill.
 
You have had it so much easier than the rest of us for the past 20,30 or 40 years. Where a set of rabbit ears worked for you. We had to use a 40ft tower, a rotor, an antenna mounted pre-amp, and rg-6 cable. Why are you so special to always get the easy solution?
 
(quoted from post at 13:44:56 06/19/09) You have had it so much easier than the rest of us for the past 20,30 or 40 years. Where a set of rabbit ears worked for you. We had to use a 40ft tower, a rotor, an antenna mounted pre-amp, and rg-6 cable. Why are you so special to always get the easy solution?
Click to expand...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

No kiddin. Where I grew up we got ONE channel, and on "special" nights if you wanted to put up with the snow, fading picture, and crappy sound we could once in a while watch 6 or 2. I think Disney was on 6, don't remember.

It used to be a big huge treat to "go to Grammas" (either one) had a better location and could ALL THREE!!! channels, man, we could watch "Gunsmoke", "Have gun will travel" and "The Honeymooners" STILL YET some of the best shows on TV!!!!
 
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