and then there was one...

[johnsonx42]

got VERY close tonight with this crazy looking thing: http://www.frys.com/product/7722328?site...IN_RSLT_PG
When I hooked it up and did the scan, ABC popped up instantly as did every other channel. But actually watching ABC was not so good; just black screen at first, then after messing with the dipoles it played very stuttery, mostly just frozen images. I wish ABC had stayed on the UHF channel they used during the digital transition, it was very easy to get.

Definitely headed towards building my own dipole antenna.

[johnsonx42]

and with yet another failure to receive ABC, I'm going out drinking...

(ok, I was going to do that anyway! cheers!)

[johnsonx42]

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

it turns out you were right; I just believed that couldn't be it because I'd tried such a range of different antennas, including some very small ones, both with and without amplification, so I figured if ABC was coming in too strong on the better antennas, then one of the small ones ought to have picked it up at a more modest strength. With the better antennas that got VHF 9-13 the signal strength meter on the TV seemed to agree, showing ok signal strength on VHF 13, lower but ok strength on VHF 11, still lower strength on 9, and just one bar on 7; it all seemed to make sense. It wasn't that I doubted at all that too much signal was a possibility, I'd actually run into such an effect before when I had a great big outdoor antenna in my attic back in 2009, but I didn't think what I was seeing now made sense for too much signal strength; plus I figured 33 miles from the transmitters using small indoor antennas just wasn't likely to result in too much signal strength.

I had basically given up on getting ABC, at least for now, given that I've been without for over 2 weeks and hadn't died. Yesterday I went back to Fry's and got that same Winegard Flatwave Amped antenna I started with, because it had the best results on most of the other channels and Fry's had it on promo-code special for only $20; better to spend only $20 to not get ABC with an unobtrusive flat antenna hanging in my window than spend $60 to still not get ABC with a big ray-gun-looking thing with a UHF array and two 5' foot dipoles that I had no idea where to put.

Yesterday I also picked up a new TV stand I'd ordered and set about finally getting my TV and other media stuff setup neatly; it had been a real eyesore since I moved this summer (cables all over, stuff sitting on the floor, no room for AV receiver or speakers, etc.).

Up until tonight I'd had all the antennas I tried hooked directly up to my capture card or TV. When I set everything up again tonight I hooked up a 3-way splitter to send the signal to two my two capture cards and the TV. Now lo and behold I get ABC and every other channel perfectly. The splitter attenuated the signal just right so all the channels are strong enough but not too strong. So frustrating to think that if I'd just had the splitter hooked up 3 weeks ago I could have saved myself a ton of time and hassle, plus I wouldn't have missed several episodes each of Castle, Forever & Shark Tank. Oh well, it's only TV. Hopefully I learned something... listen to Fred250?

[stustunz]

Yeah Arial stuff is witch craft if you ask me

[johnsonx42]

Yeah Arial stuff is witch craft if you ask me

(insert font joke here; find a way to reference comic sans whilst making a double entendre about arial and aerials)