New digital converter

[paul8539]

My old digital converter gave up after a power outage recently. I got a 'new' one, from a resale store. It works good. But it doesn't pick up 12. After the scan, it recognizes that all of the 12 subchannels are there, but the signal is not strong enough for it to decode the signal. I tried moving the rabbit ears antenna in several orientations, but no luck. Anybody have any suggestions?

[k8jd]

Any Way you can get an outdoor antenna connected,?
SORRY managed to post same lines twice.

[k8jd]

Any Way you can get an outdoor antenna connected,?
Not one of those amplified UHF jobs that are so popular, recently, they will not help for Ch 12 !
Indoor Rabbit ears are only good when you are right in the middle of an urban area near the TV transmitting towers.

[SolarMax]

The RF sensitivity of the set-top converters (and receivers) varied a lot depending on maker.
The "Zinwell" ATSC box I got at Meijer back in '99 for the digital switchover is amazingly sensitive, can grab DTV signals with a short stub of wire in the F-connector. Other boxes and sets could barely decode even with a "good" wall panel or an outdoor antenna. An outdoor or attic antenna might make things better for Paul8539, or he might need to try a different converter (or, give it up and get a TV receiver made in the past decade or so )
My Zinwell box will not decode at one station's program multi streams (a religious/shopping -LD I don't care about). Good signal, but it just throws up a generic "not available" screen. I think along the way the station's PSIP coding was changed and the old converter can't deal with it.

[MWmetalhead]

Is the channel 12 in question WJRT near Flint?

I ask because there is also a channel 12 in the Traverse City area.

Paul, does your converter box or indoor antenna contain an integrated amplifier?

If not, you may want to give RCA's indoor amplified antenna a try. Found it for $37.99 on Amazon (new) but can likely be found for cheaper elsewhere. There is another RCA model that is passive but contains a dial that somehow directionalizes reception. I own that model, which contains long dipoles, which are valuable for VHF-lo reception (not applicable in this instance).

Speaking of the dipoles, you may want to collapse them most of the way if you haven't already tried that. RF channel 12 wavelength should not require fully extended dipoles in most instances. Also, bend the UHF loop element (if you are able) downward so as to minimize conflict with the VHF antenna elements.

[WC8KCY]

If your old converter got all the channels you want, why not look for the exact same model on eBay?

That would be a lot more straightforward than making antenna system modifications in a possibly-futile effort to get the new box to work.

[paul8539]

MW:

Yes I am talking about WJRT. This place is in the Tri-Cities area, about 40 miles from the WJRT tower. I am getting 49 and 66 and their sub-channels good. The signal meter says that 12 is coming in between 0 and 15 signal strength.

When the roofers re-did my roof some years ago, they wrecked my antenna system. They pushed the leads down into the attic where I can't get at them. The roof antenna was tossed to the ground and smashed. They put the stump of the mast back up, but it got blown over in a windstorm. I had to get a new rotor and cable, but never got a new antenna.

I need to use what I have, which is rabbit ears on the back of the set, and a bow-tie clipped to one of the ears, and a second rabbit-ears/circle set-top gizmo that I paralleled in.

I got the 'new' converter at a re-sale store, just the converter box and remote. No instructions, no information, nothing else.

I had a Zenith 901 converter, hooked up to a 1992 Zenith TV. The TV still works good, I just need a converter that works good. I thought about getting a new TV that does not need the converter, but the cheapest that I could find was $40 at a pawn shop. Now that I am involuntarily de-employed, I don't have all that much money to spend.

[MWmetalhead]

All I can recommend is try collapsing or partially collapsing the rabbit ears and also try rotating them. If your TV set is able to be moved closer to a window, especially one that faces west or south, that may help, too.

40 miles in the digital era unfortunately is a long trek for VHF reception using indoor rabbit ears. Anything beyond 25 miles' distance is a crap shoot.

Both WSMH and WJRT have tower sites between Chesaning and St. Charles, but WSMH's antenna is about 260 feet higher than that of WJRT. Also, WSMH's effective power of 245 kW on RF channel 16 gives more "bang for the buck" than WJRT's effective power of 30 kW on RF channel 12.

[km1125]

Instead of buying just a converter, you might also consider getting a DVR. There's a mediasonic one on Amazon for about $28. It picks up some channels that my TVs won't because of weak signals.

[paul8539]

I tried MW's suggestions. It seems that getting WJRT is dependent on the day and the weather. Sometimes I get nothing; sometimes it comes in fine; sometimes it pixelates.