More OTA channels with better surge protector???

[gtodd01]

I am using a Zenith HD 520, and a TV 940 Jensen amplified antenna. I have never been able to get PBS and WB digital stations (I have had this set up for 4 months). Today, we had a bad thunderstorm in Odessa, and my receiver got surged out.... (3-year in-store warranties are great, aren't they). This has been the 3rd receiver to go out on me... so I decided that I need to get the best surge protector out there. Well, when I brought the new receiver and surge protector home...... I now get PBS and WB. So my question is... can a surge protector make that big of a difference with getting channels, or is this just a coincidence?

[jaymer]

were you using one of those that you feed the coax cable through for protection?... or was it just the AC outlets plugged into it?

through each connection or splitter, etc. there is some signal loss.
if you had this inline with your antenna wire, perhaps it was cutting out enough of the signal. tell us exactly what you had, and what you have now.

is there any chance that tonight you were getting a picture or sound on WB 57.3? 57.3 was a solid green screen for me.
During smallville, i could only get the picture and on 57.2 - which was ok, but it used to be 57.3

[passedpawn]

If you were feeding your antenna input through the surge protector, I would bet the farm that it was not passing the RF properly. Probably was adding a bunch of noise to it, likely at the channel 54 frequency that PBS is on.

[OccamMD]

It could either attenuate the signal or, if the impedances don't match, cause ringing. Did you have a combiner as well to get CBS?

[passedpawn]

It could either attenuate the signal or, if the impedances don't match, cause ringing. Did you have a combiner as well to get CBS?
Yea, it would be tough to keep the impedence real with all kinds of capacitive loads (MOVs, etc) attached to the line. The UHF carriers go up to 1 GHz. PBS is at 713MHz, and WB is at 731MHz. These are relatively high in the TV spectrum.

The minute you break the coax, you are playing with fire. The original surge protector was probably only designed to carry the analog cable signals, which are lower than those (I think they are all under 500MHz).

Do you get the mexican station (UNI), or UPN?

For reference, here are our local stations and their carrier frequencies.

Call Actual Virtual
Letters Channel Channel Network Freq (MHz) Ant. Site
------- ------- ------- ------- ---------- ---------
WFLA-DT 7 8 NBC 177 (VHF) Riverview
WTVT-DT 12 12 FOX 207 (VHF) Riverview
WMOR-DT 19 32 IND 503 (UHF) Riverview
WCLF-DT 21 22 CTN 515 (UHF) Riverview
WTSP-DT 24 10 CBS 533 (UHF) Holiday
WFTS-DT 29 28 ABC 563 (UHF) Riverview
WXPX-DT 42 66 PAX 641 (UHF) Riverview
WEDU-DT 54 3 PBS 713 (UHF) Riverview
WTTA-DT 57 38 WB 731 (UHF) Riverview
WTOG-DT 59 44 UPN 743 (UHF) Riverview
WFTT-DT 47 47 UNI 671 (UHF) Riverview

Call Actual Virtual
Letters Channel Channel Network Freq (MHz) Ant. Site Live Date
------- ------- ------- ------- ---------- --------- ----------

Soon...

WUSF-DT 34 ? PBS 593 (UHF) Riverview May 01 '03

Maybe for folks in St. Petersburg ???...

WWSB-DT 52 ? ABC 701 (UHF) Sarasota Now LIVE!

[gtodd01]

See... that's what was crazy. Before, when I didn't get PBS, I didn't run my phone line and antenna coax through my surge protector. Now I do, and I get PBS, so its actually working backwards.

[Floyd]

Gtodd01, if you brought a new receiver home and noticed a change in reception, then perhaps the receiver is the cause, and not the surge connections.