and then there was one...

[johnsonx42]

I just got back from Fry's with another indoor antenna. This one insisted it's good up to 60 miles from the transmitters, and I'm 33 miles away. It has a small flat panel and a pair of telescoping 'Rabbit Ears' which I understood to be better for VHF.

No ABC. Sigh.

[fred250]

I just got back from Fry's with another indoor antenna. This one insisted it's good up to 60 miles from the transmitters, and I'm 33 miles away. It has a small flat panel and a pair of telescoping 'Rabbit Ears' which I understood to be better for VHF.

No ABC. Sigh.

The signal may be too strong. I use this type of attenuator to get the right signal level. Nothing expensive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxEoFW44Pf4

/Fred

[johnsonx42]

I tried two more antennas tonight, still no ABC.

That's a total of 5 antennas (or 6 if you count the tiny little 2-foot telescoping antenna that came with one of my tuners) with no ABC.

I don't think it can be a too-strong signal issue; ABC would have popped up with one of the smaller antennas if it were.

(yes, if anyone is wondering, I did check the logs after a scan, the tuner isn't locking a signal on VHF 7. I also tried each antenna on my TV's ATSC tuner, no ABC that way either.)

I'm considering building a gray-hoverman next.

[cbgifford]

I just got back from Fry's with another indoor antenna. This one insisted it's good up to 60 miles from the transmitters, and I'm 33 miles away. It has a small flat panel and a pair of telescoping 'Rabbit Ears' which I understood to be better for VHF.

No ABC. Sigh.

Good luck with that, however, being an old radio man, a VHF antenna is nothing more than a piece of wire. Did it come with a powered amplifier? The one I use came with a 20db gain.

[johnsonx42]

if anyone cares, here's all the antennas I've tried so far:

Philips SDV2940 - http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbin...=US&slg=en (this is the one I already had)
Winegard Flatwave Amped - http://www.frys.com/product/8319787?site...IN_RSLT_PG
RCA ANT1251 - http://www.frys.com/product/6291590?site...IN_RSLT_PG
RCA ANT1052F - http://www.frys.com/product/8022974?site...IN_RSLT_PG
RCA ANT1700R - http://www.frys.com/product/7721158?site...IN_RSLT_PG

The best was the Winegard, it got every channel except ABC (even got UHF 29 after scanning again). I think the RCA1700R may be the worst, no VHF channels at all and only some of the UHF channels, which is surprising as it is the biggest and most expensive; it's the only one besides the ANT1052F that isn't amplified. The little ANT1052F actually picks up a lot of channels, even a manages to sniff out a couple of the VHF channels, though they're a bit choppy.

[dgeezer]

I think that you have a bigger collection of anennas than me.

I don't know if the gray hoverman would be any better. I believe that in it's basic form tht it's a UHF only antenna. The station which gave me so much trouble is my CBS affiliate which broadcasts on the upper end of the UHF spectrum. It's channel 51. I don't have any VHF stations. As a matter of fact our local Fox station WGHP temporaily switched to UHF channel 35 durring the digital conversion and then switched back to VHF 8 afterwards. They got so many complaints from people not able to recieve their signal that they moved permanently to the UHF frequency.

If you do a search for gray hoverman vhf there do appear to be some modifications for vhf reception.

Maybe an antique 6' long vhf antenna screwed to the ceiling? :-)

[dgeezer]

Check out this article http://www.happy-monkey.net/dtv-antenna/

The multiple folded dipole design wouldn't cost much to try and could probably just be taped to a piece of cardboard. There's tons of variations on this design made from coat hangers etc. Maybe even do the calculations to tune it to the frequency of the station you can't get.

[mulletback]

I built a folded dipole specifically tuned for my problem station (10), using 12 ga. bare copper from some Romex and a balun I had in the junk bin. In your case, a half-wavelength for channel 7 is ~0.80-0.85 meters, depending on design fudge factor. I don't need a reflector; at your distance you might need one. See: http://imageevent.com/holl_ands/loops/vhffoldeddipole or search for your favorite. My antennas are mounted in a closet. I use a Antennas Direct ClearStream 2 for the UHF - got it through Ebay for $30. The ClearStream 2V has a built-in VHF dipole, haven't tried it.

[SickBoy]

I've had some pretty good luck with the RCA 800 outdoor antenna and OTA... though I had a similar experience about six months ago with Comcast. Just about lost it with them when they transitioned the last of the local channels onto digital encrypted QAM. I'm also lucky in that, in MSP - all the broadcast stations are pretty much in the same place, at the highest point in the metro area, in a flat terrain.

So is pole-mounting an antenna onto a freestanding base on your balcony not an option? that was the first thing that came to mind.

Of course, now that I have my ATSC setup & reception dialed in... we're moving, and I get to do this process all over again.

[steeb]

if anyone cares

We all care. It is what we do round here!

But no help at all other side of the pond :-(