What's your trick on getting local channel on board?

That's because the local channels are all coming over the UHF band now instead of the VHF band and the Glomex performs better.
 
Stations moving to UHF is not necessarily permanent. Many are only moving temporarily and will move back. Some will move to entirely different frequencies, with their current one only being temporary. It varies widely by area. You cannot just assume a UHF antenna will be a better choice unless you know the local market plans. Here's a list from the FCC: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-138A2.pdf
 
wkearney99 said:
Stations moving to UHF is not necessarily permanent. Many are only moving temporarily and will move back. Some will move to entirely different frequencies, with their current one only being temporary. It varies widely by area. You cannot just assume a UHF antenna will be a better choice unless you know the local market plans. Here's a list from the FCC: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-138A2.pdf
Click to expand...
Bill,

Thanks for the post and attachment. I had no idea this might be the case. :thumbsup:

As we are in the Washington DC market, this information will be helpful...especially if Sea Ray replaces the obsolete Analog TVs on our 2008 newly purchased boat.:smt013
 
I don't know what rules apply to a TV included in a boat, but I recall reading a couple of large big-box retailers got slapped with a pretty hefty fine for continuing to sell non-ATSC capable TVs past a certain date. The point being you can't screw the customers fobbing obsolete gar off on them. But I've no idea if those rules apply to something in a boat or RV.
 
alex
direct TV at the slip. it's the ONLY way to go!
 
Thanks Ron, we just ordered for the Direct TV dish to be installed to make admiral happy. Now, that lead to a new project of installing cockpit tv :))

Alex.
 
Direct TV dish to be installed to make admiral happy
Click to expand...

:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
ANYTIME said:
No need to check the specs on an Analog TV...

The Digital Converter Box will do the trick. Just disconnect the antenna input from the Glomex unit in your cabin and plug it into your Digital Converter. Then, plug the output of the Digital Converter into the Glomex antenna input.

You can buy a Digital Converter Box at Radio Shack or Walmart. With the Government issued "coupon" which looks more like a credit card, you can get $40 off the selling price of each converter, for up to 2 of them.

Google "Digital TV Coupon" and you will find the website to get the coupons.

Good luck!!
Click to expand...
This past week, just for the "heck of it", I temporarily hooked up one of the DTV Converter Boxes between the input of one of my new analog TVs and the output of the GLOMEX antenna. I was truely amazed at the number of channels that were now available and the quality of the picture/audio. The analog TV using the GLOMEX gets around 14 channels, many of them weak and noisy. The DTV Converter setup gets around 30 or so channels, with only 2 or 3 showing minor digital instability (weak signal).:smt038:smt038:smt038

This test was done while docked at the Quantico Marine Base marina in Northern Virginia. I didn't want a bunch of wires and a loose coverter box "floating" around in the cabin, so I unhooked it and put everything away, hoping that sometime in the next few days/weeks/months Sea Ray will replace these obsolete TVs they installed in my new 1/4 Million $$ boat:smt013.
 
A good buddy of mine and Captain of the sailing vessel "Fox III" told me just last weekend that their DC powered HDTV received many, many great channels in the Panama City, Fl area. I'll be ordering one soon.
 
OK... "most" and not "all" of the channels are moving up to the UHF band to broadcast. If I recall, the channels that stick down in the VHF band have to reduce transmission power by some stupid amount hence the move up to the UHF band. I believe all of the local channels here in Hampton Roads have moved up.

As I said before, I think this is actually a good thing for boaters. Maybe Glomex was "visionary"... Ha!
 
rondds said:
:thumbsup::thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Got the Direct TV dish installed at the dock. Admiral is a happy camper now :smt038. Next step is the cockpit tv. I tell her, if you like it so much we need to get M3, so we can travel more and you'll always have your favorite channels available :grin:. But, this is not this year's item forsure.
 
If I have a digital TV, will installing a converter improve my reception?

Or is this only for the analogue TV's?

I actually have one old analogue TV in the master stateroom, and an new flat screen digital TV that I installed in the salon.
 
searaycruisn said:
If I have a digital TV, will installing a converter improve my reception?

Or is this only for the analogue TV's?

I actually have one old analogue TV in the master stateroom, and an new flat screen digital TV that I installed in the salon.
Click to expand...
I don't see how adding a DTV Converter to a TV that has one built in will help anything. If you aren't receiving the channels that your dockmates are, I would suspect a faulty antenna or cable connection between the antenna and the TV.

Good luck.
 
searaycruisn said:
If I have a digital TV, will installing a converter improve my reception?
Click to expand...

No, not unless the digital tuner that's already in it is somehow defective or known to do an inferior job tuning stations.

The suggestion to check your antenna and cable is a good one. A quick way to confirm if it's the cable is to temporarily string a long coax line directly from the antenna to one of the TVs. It's entirely possible for an antenna to go bad but it's more likely that a cable has gotten crimped or a connector has worked loose. Starting with a known-good cable will help cut down debugging time. You can also use that long cable to let you test the antenna location with a cheap set of rabbit ears. If the combination of known-good cable and antenna doesn't solve the problem then it's entirely possible it's the tuner in the TV itself.
 
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