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Long Range Tests
Description:
Long distance stations are picked up from San Diego, about 130 miles away. There are no significant mountain peaks in my
line of sight. Due to the distance, the line of sight is actually being blocked
by the curvature of the earth. San Diego is a coastal town, most of the path
the signal travels is along the coastline. Because of this, weather becomes a
critical factor in signal reception. In favorable weather conditions, signal
levels can be very high with the help of tropospheric
ducting. In bad weather conditions, the moisture and fog in
the air can create a "wall of water". The lack of the
"ducting" can cause the signal to completely disappear. A high gain
directional antenna is
required to pick up these distant stations, but you will still need good weather
conditions for reliable reception.
Results
Definition:
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XX-XX =
Measured signal strength level
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0-XX-XX =
Signal locks on briefly but keeps dropping out
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0-50 = Signal
was detected but not able to lock
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0 = No signal
detected
Note: Signal level
refers to the Dish 6000 indicator which measures the signal quality based on
percentage of errors. As long as the indicator stays above 48-50%, the
signal will lock. I assume that if you have over 50% errors, the Dish 6000
does not have enough good signal to decode properly. A reading of 100% would
indicate no errors in signal. I have found that at 47% I will see pixelation
in the picture and below 46% the picture will drop out completely.
**For easier
printing, click on image to bring up a separate page containing just results.
Date: 1/19/02
Conclusion:
Televes Pro-Range 1046 (Dat75)
DY28A
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Best performing antenna for the lower
frequency channels 19, 23, 25, 30
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Although this is a group "A" antenna
(ch14-35), channel 55 was coming in strong enough today for this antenna to
pick it up
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Signal strength levels always
seem to
fluctuate more than with the other antennas
JBX21WB
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This antenna was tested using two
different sized reflectors. Both reflectors had similar results for long
distance reception. For short distance reception with multipath, the larger
reflector is better
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The PCB balun was replaced with
the 6.5 coax balun in the second test. My experience with coax baluns is
that it widens the channel range of the antenna, since the WB is already
tuned for a wide range, there was not much difference in the results. The WB
has a longer trace on the PCB than the C/D
JBX21C/D
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This antenna ships with a PCB
balun that is tuned for the upper channel range. The only channel that I
could get from San Diego with the PCB balun is ch55
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With the coax balun, this antenna
becomes a very good wide range solution for me. It is the best antenna for
picking up my local channels 59, 65, 66 (see
this test). And with the coax balun installed, it is also capable of
getting all the San Diego channels
ATF-X200
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This is my custom built antenna
in a new configuration. It performs well for all San Diego channels, but I
cannot get the local ch59, 65, 66 with it yet
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