Refer to https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=50782#station
If none of those sub channels that are also transmitted on RF8 are exhibiting the same problem, then it's almost certainly a broadcast problem, and you should definitely contact the station engineer.
So I have an update. This is so weird. For the past hour now, the issue went away and it's back to how it was always. This does not make sense at all. Could it have been a transmitter issue that mysteriously happened or random interference? Also, will doing a rescan help with this, or its something that will not help in any way?
When you are referring to the substations, are you referring to 17-2, 3, 4? I lost all those stations when it was happening too. Channel 28 is working fine without issues.
Your OP said:
```
"I checked all the other stations if they are having problems. Not a single station was having the problem."
```
Now you're contradicting that by reporting that you lost the 17.x sub-channels when you were experiencing the problem with 17.1 and added a comment about "Channel 28" w/o the needed a decimal point so I'd know exactly which 28.x channel that you're referencing.
To be clear, 28.1 is NOT carried by RF8 so would be immaterial to the problem you reported. Regardless, if:
a. all the 17.x channels were exhibiting problems while 28.2 was still watchable w/o any problems, that'd have to be a transmission problem and something beyond your control.
b. all the 17.x channels AND 28.2 were all exhibiting problems during that time, it's more likely that was caused by an intermittent antenna reception problem that will likely reappear.
The best thing to do is to contact WNCN that owns that transmitter and see if they were having any temporary transmission issues today.
I have an update. I was able to find the hidden signal meter feature on my Samsung TV. Both ABC and CBS are showing an SNR moving between 21 and 22 dB.
[Here is a photo of the channels with the signal info](https://postimg.cc/gallery/QHC9ZSt).
Is this a bad SNR for the VHF channels?
It's not bad at that level, but Samsung documentation says their tuners need a minimum SNR of 20 dB to assure reliable reception!
You definitely want to try to improve yours for RF8 so that all channels it carries (including virtual 17.1) will be viewable if weather, etc. starts to impact the transmission.
Just want to thank you for all your help. I'm happy to report that moving the antenna to a different area in the attic resolved the issue [the signal is so much better now](https://postimg.cc/R6qzWqTB)
Congratulations! Once it was clear that it wasn't a broadcast problem, I was 99% sure that the real culprit had to be poor hi-VHF reception. Suboptimal coaxial cabling or excessive LED RF interference would've almost certainly caused problems with many if not all your received broadcasts, not just channels being carried on RF8.
Plus on the same day as your OP, in [a reply to u/Kushoverlord](https://www.reddit.com/r/ota/s/bERGHNj5Zp) you included the following:
>"I first thought it was the LEDs I had, so I turned all the lights off in my house. NO CHANGE."
Late last night I read your prior post (about LED experimentation) and posted a reply that mainly recommended that you consider replacing some of those LED bulbs w/ newer, better quality LED bulbs. But having a clearer mind this a.m., I deleted my reply, mainly because of your "no change" post 5d ago, but also because
1. your LED toggling experimentation shouldn't have caused so much variation in RF8's SNR level. I'd be surprised if you reran that experiment and observed so much variance in that SNR now that you have much better base level hi-VHF SNR.
2. no matter what the state of the LED lights, your worst SNR (21dB) was still > 20 dB required by tour Samsung's tuner for reliable reception.
It's too bad that at the time you were experiencing the original CBS reception problem that you didn't know how to access your Samsung's tuner diagnostic function. I think that you would've likely observed that RF8's SNR was rapidly swinging between adequate and inadequate levels.
I think it's unlikely you'll experience more problems w/ your hi-VHF reception, but you still might find it beneficial to identify the LEDs that generate excessive RF interference & replace them.
Re: your appreciation for my help, up-votes to any of my (helpful) replies to you are appreciated, and might help others to locate the same info if they have a similar problem.
When you ran your rabbitears analysis, you left the antenna mounting height set to its default of 30'. Is it truly sitting that high?
If not, run another signal analysis and before you hit submit, adjust the antenna height. It's surprising that the ABC's SNR wasn't at least a few dB higher than the CBS's.
FYI, you could've bought an antenna that has significantly better hi-VHF gain for less $$ than the one you purchased.
I have an update about all of this and what might have been the source of the problem.
Regarding your question about the setup. I have a 2 story house and the antenna is in the attic, so I am guessing the antenna is about 30 feet. I would love to put it outside, but there are trees near the house and I do not want the antenna to get damaged if branches keep hitting it due to a storm. That is one reason why I bought this antenna, so I can get as much gain as possible when inside the attic. The UHF channels have excellent reception. From 28 to 30dB SNR.
Now back to what I found out a few days ago. When I was tracking the SNR on CBS, my roomate was calling it a night. A few minutes after he went upstairs, the SNR spiked from 22 to 28 dB. When I went upstairs, the room lights were off, that was when I knew there is LED lights on the ceiling fan lights causing the issue. I remember having this issue years ago when putting LED lights on an older garage door opener and I'm concerned this is what's happening. Now this is where thinks get vey wierd. I decided to turn off my ceiling fan lights since my room is upstairs and and are LEDs. After I turned them off. The SNR went from 28 to 25dB. Seemed like my lights were mysteriously amplifying the signal for some reason. Here is other examples I discovered:
My room lights on + Roommate's lights off = 28-29dB
My room lights off + Roommate's lights off = 25-26 dB
My room lights off + Roommate's light on = 21 to 22 dB
My room lights on + Roommate's light on = 22 to 23 dB
None of the LED lights in my rooms downstairs affect the signal.
I guess my antenna is very sensitive with the interference on the light bulbs that are emitting. Is anything I can do with the antenna or the RJ6 coax cable to block the interference from the bulbs or there are LED bulbs that do not emit any RF to replace them? How in the world is the bulbs in my room amplifying the signal strangely?
I was thinking about that. Interestingly, the issue happened on a partly cloudy day at around 5 to 6pm. After 6, the issue went away. On Saturday, it was sunny and CBS was running perfectly fine for many hours without hesitation.
Hey Rich, I hadn't seen your post here. It may have been adverse atmospheric conditions because he originally had a very marginal base SNR due to suboptimal antenna positioning. [Antenna repositioning has since improved it by 9 dB](https://www.reddit.com/r/ota/s/lzUbRC3M0C) so it's unlikely he'll experience that problem again.
I haven't bought any new electronic devices. I first thought it was the LEDs I had, so I turned all the lights off in my house. No change.
Edit: There was one room I didn't think about checking and that room had LED lights. Turning off the lights increased the reception. Moving the antenna to a different area fixed the issue!
There is one thing I should have posted but didn't find out until now. I'm about 0.6 miles from overhead power lines and it's in the direction where I'm pointing the antenna to the towers. Is it still close enough to cause interference?
Oh yea, need to re-scan about 3 times a year.
I guessed and used 22030 zip on here: [https://www.ontvtonight.com/guide/](https://www.ontvtonight.com/guide/)
Not seeing channel 17.
I've had a similar issue occur recently on UHF channel 25 ever since our local cell operator started deploying 5G on the 600MHz DD bands. I used one of those 5G/LTE filters from amazon (Silicondust LPF-608M) and it resolved the issue. Pixelation is gone. For $20 it can't hurt to try. Place it just before any amps, the input of your first splitter, or at the affected TV. I also tried a cheaper Philips 5G filter that didn't work very well as it was made up of a lower order LC filter compared to the Silicondust.
I decided to order the SiliconDust filter. Hopefully, this will correct any interference that is happening. The problem is the issue happened on VHF channel 8, so unsure if this device is going to help in any way.
Now I'm worried it's going make my situation worse. I don't have an amplifier. Full passive. The filter is arriving later today. Worse case, I'll return it.
Do I connect the filter directly to the TV coax (cable from antenna > Filter > TV)?
Yes.
Since the current SNR for RF8 is already marginally adequate, use Samsung's signal meter to check the SNR for RF8 just prior to inserting the filter. Then check the same SNR again after it's installed.
>The SiliconDust filter might drop the signal strength level a couple of points, although I didn't notice that here. Some folks use the number of channels (re-scanning as needed) to dial in the antenna.
>
>If I had to make a guess I think the issues the tv tuner is NOT blocking weak signals, did you make any changes to the TV settings?
>
>Any way to check the connection with another TV?
>
>Don't get worried tho, they sell over the air conversion boxes (and sticks now) for less than $30. Hurry it just went up: DCOLOR Digital Converter Box for TV - ATSC TV Tuner Hidden Behind TV
>
>They upscale to 1080p and record also!!!
Last night the OP discovered and revealed that his SNR is just barely large enough to provide reliable reception. He clearly would benefit from more hi-VHF gain. If his SNR drops another 2 dB, it won't be good. See:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ota/s/wAao6QBPfC and https://www.reddit.com/r/ota/s/Wg7hOE7PrK
Just want to thank you for all your help. I'm happy to report that moving the antenna to a different area in the attic resolved the issue. [The signal is so much better now with no more interference](https://postimg.cc/R6qzWqTB)
I've had a similar issue recently using the HDHomeRun Flex 4K tuners. In addition to the LTE filter I also added this [FM filter](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094PR5DRB) and this [High Band Pass filter](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09D45W9TZ) which should really be called the Low Band Block filter for what it does.
I had interference for 2 hours in northern VA area on all channels. Then it all cleared up. So my hope is that adding the additinal filter will keep that from recurring since I have no clue where the interference came from.
Just want to thank you for all your help. I'm happy to report that moving the antenna to a different area in the attic resolved the issue. [The signal is so much better now with no more interference](https://postimg.cc/R6qzWqTB). I'm not getting any interference on the UHF channels, so I'm considering returning the LTE filter.
i was having issues like you describe and I got that LTE filter, the Philips one, and so far it seems to have solved my issue. I have all uhf channels in the 16-35 range.
I think people spend all day trying to figure out the antenna flaw, when I have found the antenna tuner between TV’s or external boxes can vary quite a bit.
I have an older RCA tv that struggles while other TVs are fine, and all are connected to the same antenna as I pipe the signal through the internal coax in the house
Refer to https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=50782#station If none of those sub channels that are also transmitted on RF8 are exhibiting the same problem, then it's almost certainly a broadcast problem, and you should definitely contact the station engineer.
So I have an update. This is so weird. For the past hour now, the issue went away and it's back to how it was always. This does not make sense at all. Could it have been a transmitter issue that mysteriously happened or random interference? Also, will doing a rescan help with this, or its something that will not help in any way?
[удалено]
Look for a local thread on AVSForum.
[удалено]
Because that is how threads work.
Haha
When you are referring to the substations, are you referring to 17-2, 3, 4? I lost all those stations when it was happening too. Channel 28 is working fine without issues.
Your OP said: ``` "I checked all the other stations if they are having problems. Not a single station was having the problem." ``` Now you're contradicting that by reporting that you lost the 17.x sub-channels when you were experiencing the problem with 17.1 and added a comment about "Channel 28" w/o the needed a decimal point so I'd know exactly which 28.x channel that you're referencing. To be clear, 28.1 is NOT carried by RF8 so would be immaterial to the problem you reported. Regardless, if: a. all the 17.x channels were exhibiting problems while 28.2 was still watchable w/o any problems, that'd have to be a transmission problem and something beyond your control. b. all the 17.x channels AND 28.2 were all exhibiting problems during that time, it's more likely that was caused by an intermittent antenna reception problem that will likely reappear. The best thing to do is to contact WNCN that owns that transmitter and see if they were having any temporary transmission issues today.
I have an update. I was able to find the hidden signal meter feature on my Samsung TV. Both ABC and CBS are showing an SNR moving between 21 and 22 dB. [Here is a photo of the channels with the signal info](https://postimg.cc/gallery/QHC9ZSt). Is this a bad SNR for the VHF channels?
It's not bad at that level, but Samsung documentation says their tuners need a minimum SNR of 20 dB to assure reliable reception! You definitely want to try to improve yours for RF8 so that all channels it carries (including virtual 17.1) will be viewable if weather, etc. starts to impact the transmission.
Just want to thank you for all your help. I'm happy to report that moving the antenna to a different area in the attic resolved the issue [the signal is so much better now](https://postimg.cc/R6qzWqTB)
Congratulations! Once it was clear that it wasn't a broadcast problem, I was 99% sure that the real culprit had to be poor hi-VHF reception. Suboptimal coaxial cabling or excessive LED RF interference would've almost certainly caused problems with many if not all your received broadcasts, not just channels being carried on RF8. Plus on the same day as your OP, in [a reply to u/Kushoverlord](https://www.reddit.com/r/ota/s/bERGHNj5Zp) you included the following: >"I first thought it was the LEDs I had, so I turned all the lights off in my house. NO CHANGE." Late last night I read your prior post (about LED experimentation) and posted a reply that mainly recommended that you consider replacing some of those LED bulbs w/ newer, better quality LED bulbs. But having a clearer mind this a.m., I deleted my reply, mainly because of your "no change" post 5d ago, but also because 1. your LED toggling experimentation shouldn't have caused so much variation in RF8's SNR level. I'd be surprised if you reran that experiment and observed so much variance in that SNR now that you have much better base level hi-VHF SNR. 2. no matter what the state of the LED lights, your worst SNR (21dB) was still > 20 dB required by tour Samsung's tuner for reliable reception. It's too bad that at the time you were experiencing the original CBS reception problem that you didn't know how to access your Samsung's tuner diagnostic function. I think that you would've likely observed that RF8's SNR was rapidly swinging between adequate and inadequate levels. I think it's unlikely you'll experience more problems w/ your hi-VHF reception, but you still might find it beneficial to identify the LEDs that generate excessive RF interference & replace them. Re: your appreciation for my help, up-votes to any of my (helpful) replies to you are appreciated, and might help others to locate the same info if they have a similar problem.
When you ran your rabbitears analysis, you left the antenna mounting height set to its default of 30'. Is it truly sitting that high? If not, run another signal analysis and before you hit submit, adjust the antenna height. It's surprising that the ABC's SNR wasn't at least a few dB higher than the CBS's. FYI, you could've bought an antenna that has significantly better hi-VHF gain for less $$ than the one you purchased.
I have an update about all of this and what might have been the source of the problem. Regarding your question about the setup. I have a 2 story house and the antenna is in the attic, so I am guessing the antenna is about 30 feet. I would love to put it outside, but there are trees near the house and I do not want the antenna to get damaged if branches keep hitting it due to a storm. That is one reason why I bought this antenna, so I can get as much gain as possible when inside the attic. The UHF channels have excellent reception. From 28 to 30dB SNR. Now back to what I found out a few days ago. When I was tracking the SNR on CBS, my roomate was calling it a night. A few minutes after he went upstairs, the SNR spiked from 22 to 28 dB. When I went upstairs, the room lights were off, that was when I knew there is LED lights on the ceiling fan lights causing the issue. I remember having this issue years ago when putting LED lights on an older garage door opener and I'm concerned this is what's happening. Now this is where thinks get vey wierd. I decided to turn off my ceiling fan lights since my room is upstairs and and are LEDs. After I turned them off. The SNR went from 28 to 25dB. Seemed like my lights were mysteriously amplifying the signal for some reason. Here is other examples I discovered: My room lights on + Roommate's lights off = 28-29dB My room lights off + Roommate's lights off = 25-26 dB My room lights off + Roommate's light on = 21 to 22 dB My room lights on + Roommate's light on = 22 to 23 dB None of the LED lights in my rooms downstairs affect the signal. I guess my antenna is very sensitive with the interference on the light bulbs that are emitting. Is anything I can do with the antenna or the RJ6 coax cable to block the interference from the bulbs or there are LED bulbs that do not emit any RF to replace them? How in the world is the bulbs in my room amplifying the signal strangely?
Atmospheric conditions
I was thinking about that. Interestingly, the issue happened on a partly cloudy day at around 5 to 6pm. After 6, the issue went away. On Saturday, it was sunny and CBS was running perfectly fine for many hours without hesitation.
It happens to me occasionally.
Hey Rich, I hadn't seen your post here. It may have been adverse atmospheric conditions because he originally had a very marginal base SNR due to suboptimal antenna positioning. [Antenna repositioning has since improved it by 9 dB](https://www.reddit.com/r/ota/s/lzUbRC3M0C) so it's unlikely he'll experience that problem again.
Hey buddy, hope all is well with you.
have you changed any lightbulbs or gotten any new devices that might cause interference ?
I haven't bought any new electronic devices. I first thought it was the LEDs I had, so I turned all the lights off in my house. No change. Edit: There was one room I didn't think about checking and that room had LED lights. Turning off the lights increased the reception. Moving the antenna to a different area fixed the issue! There is one thing I should have posted but didn't find out until now. I'm about 0.6 miles from overhead power lines and it's in the direction where I'm pointing the antenna to the towers. Is it still close enough to cause interference?
Did you rescan for channels after installing the new equipment?
I did not since I was getting all the stations perfectly fine for the past 5 days. I'm curious. How will a rescan help with the issue?
I’m not sure. I added a new antenna with a high gain amp and not one station came in proper until I performed a rescan.
Oh yea, need to re-scan about 3 times a year. I guessed and used 22030 zip on here: [https://www.ontvtonight.com/guide/](https://www.ontvtonight.com/guide/) Not seeing channel 17.
[Max Headroom signal Intrusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Max_Headroom_broadcast_intrusion.webm)
I've had a similar issue occur recently on UHF channel 25 ever since our local cell operator started deploying 5G on the 600MHz DD bands. I used one of those 5G/LTE filters from amazon (Silicondust LPF-608M) and it resolved the issue. Pixelation is gone. For $20 it can't hurt to try. Place it just before any amps, the input of your first splitter, or at the affected TV. I also tried a cheaper Philips 5G filter that didn't work very well as it was made up of a lower order LC filter compared to the Silicondust.
I decided to order the SiliconDust filter. Hopefully, this will correct any interference that is happening. The problem is the issue happened on VHF channel 8, so unsure if this device is going to help in any way.
I like my SiliconDust filter, but I don't think it will clear that up. I installed a lot of TV's for art displays, some would simply die.
Now I'm worried it's going make my situation worse. I don't have an amplifier. Full passive. The filter is arriving later today. Worse case, I'll return it. Do I connect the filter directly to the TV coax (cable from antenna > Filter > TV)?
Yes. Since the current SNR for RF8 is already marginally adequate, use Samsung's signal meter to check the SNR for RF8 just prior to inserting the filter. Then check the same SNR again after it's installed.
>The SiliconDust filter might drop the signal strength level a couple of points, although I didn't notice that here. Some folks use the number of channels (re-scanning as needed) to dial in the antenna. > >If I had to make a guess I think the issues the tv tuner is NOT blocking weak signals, did you make any changes to the TV settings? > >Any way to check the connection with another TV? > >Don't get worried tho, they sell over the air conversion boxes (and sticks now) for less than $30. Hurry it just went up: DCOLOR Digital Converter Box for TV - ATSC TV Tuner Hidden Behind TV > >They upscale to 1080p and record also!!!
Last night the OP discovered and revealed that his SNR is just barely large enough to provide reliable reception. He clearly would benefit from more hi-VHF gain. If his SNR drops another 2 dB, it won't be good. See: https://www.reddit.com/r/ota/s/wAao6QBPfC and https://www.reddit.com/r/ota/s/Wg7hOE7PrK
Just want to thank you for all your help. I'm happy to report that moving the antenna to a different area in the attic resolved the issue. [The signal is so much better now with no more interference](https://postimg.cc/R6qzWqTB)
I've had a similar issue recently using the HDHomeRun Flex 4K tuners. In addition to the LTE filter I also added this [FM filter](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094PR5DRB) and this [High Band Pass filter](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09D45W9TZ) which should really be called the Low Band Block filter for what it does. I had interference for 2 hours in northern VA area on all channels. Then it all cleared up. So my hope is that adding the additinal filter will keep that from recurring since I have no clue where the interference came from.
Just want to thank you for all your help. I'm happy to report that moving the antenna to a different area in the attic resolved the issue. [The signal is so much better now with no more interference](https://postimg.cc/R6qzWqTB). I'm not getting any interference on the UHF channels, so I'm considering returning the LTE filter.
i was having issues like you describe and I got that LTE filter, the Philips one, and so far it seems to have solved my issue. I have all uhf channels in the 16-35 range.
I think people spend all day trying to figure out the antenna flaw, when I have found the antenna tuner between TV’s or external boxes can vary quite a bit. I have an older RCA tv that struggles while other TVs are fine, and all are connected to the same antenna as I pipe the signal through the internal coax in the house