Digital TV converter not working well

gredmer said:
Does it matter whether you hook the converter before or after the glomex gain power switch? I hooked mine right at the tv and get nothing.
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I hooked mine up right before the TV also. It worked great from the second I hooked it up. The only things I can think of that would not let it work correctly are: Wiring from conerter box to TV not hooked up correctly or not hooked up, antenna not turned on or the fuse to the antenna is blown (make sure the red light is on and the gain set to max) also make sure the converter box is turned on. I think the TV needs to be set to channel 3 also, it's been a few months since I hooked mine up and would have to look at the instructions again to be certain.

Hope this helps but as I said, mine works great and haven't had any issues with it unless I forget to turn on the antenna.
 
RiverRat said:
I hooked mine up right before the TV also. It worked great from the second I hooked it up. The only things I can think of that would not let it work correctly are: Wiring from conerter box to TV not hooked up correctly or not hooked up, antenna not turned on or the fuse to the antenna is blown (make sure the red light is on and the gain set to max) also make sure the converter box is turned on. I think the TV needs to be set to channel 3 also, it's been a few months since I hooked mine up and would have to look at the instructions again to be certain.

Hope this helps but as I said, mine works great and haven't had any issues with it unless I forget to turn on the antenna.
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Thanks. It's hooked up correctly. Maybe it's the area or as Gary mentioned to me the Glomex coax cable maybe bad.
 
gredmer said:
Thanks. It's hooked up correctly. Maybe it's the area or as Gary mentioned to me the Glomex coax cable maybe bad.
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Check the connection @ the antenna base on the arch. Mine was loose there when I got my boat and really gave me little to no reception. (pre converter box)
 
Don't assume assume something is "bad". There is something simple you are missing.
 
This is a "typical" coax connector as installed at the factory on my boat:

IMG_2809.jpg


I have redone a dozen of these things.
 
That reminds me when I moved into a new house 2 years ago Comcast had to replace all of the pre-installed connections because the installer had crimped the connections wrong.
 
Re: PROBLEM SOLVED - Digital TV converter not working well

RonF said:
Originally Posted by sbw1
Artec guy.

Thanks, I'll try them too.

Well, I am getting nowhere. The Artec guy who I spoke to (Infong Chen I believe) said that he doesn't know anything about boat antennas. Then I called Shakespeare and spoke to a very nice person named Chris. He did not know anything about DTV converters, but he was going to inquire at the manufacturing facility. He did tell me to check for 17 volts DC at the connector that goes into the dome, but he also thought that a powered antenna might not be compatible with a digital converter (though that was just a guess).
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Well, Chris from Shakespeare did get back to me with another suggestion about attenuators, but the crux of the problem turned out to be zero voltage to the antenna. I guess that, after all these years, the outer braid disintegrated inside the coax connector and was not making contact. The antenna power supply was putting out 13-14 volts, but the antenna was essentially dead. I stripped away some insulation, replaced the connector, and got a voltage reading. After re-connecting the cable to the antenna dome, I got a few more analog channels, and the digital converter picked up 28 channels, of which about a dozen were worth watching. So, case closed, and a favorable impression of Shakespeare tech support.
 
Glad you got to the bottom of the issue. Our Artec converter continues to work well and we have figured out a way to use it with the original Sharp remote. The converter was a far better approach to the alternative solution of having a digital TV installled in a very nice piece of furniture at considerably more money than the $10 it cost me.
 
Agreed. For the amount of TV watching we do on-board, it's not worth the cost and effort to mount a flat screen TV.

BTW - another feature of the 12v operation is that it will also work at home with my battery powered TV when the hurricane knocks out the power. Just have to hope that the TV stations are still boradcasting.
 
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