I am one of those dinosaurs who still use an antenna to receive television. During the last 6 weeks or so, I have had problems with channel 4 (FOX) and channel 11 (CBS).
On channel 4, sometimes the reception is so bad that we cannot watch the programs at all. The picture freezes, blacks out, or is thoroughly scrambled, with partial or complete loss of sound. This can go on for an hour or more.
On channel 11, the problem is much smaller. Once in a while, we lose the sound for just a second or two.
Has anyone else in the DFW area been having problems with these two channels?
enter your address and height above ground. it will tell you the direction to aim the antenna.
if channel 4 might be your weaker channels then a antenna cable connection that isn’t fully good might weaken the signal on those channels. unplug and make sure the connections are good.
loosing sound for a second or two is not a major problem. could just be a faded signal or tv burp that happens.
It is possible that some high wind has redirected my antenna. But my wife will not let me up on the roof to re-aim it, so I am hoping that someone will say they are having the same problems. If not, I may have to pay someone to go up there.
I am not having problems with any other major stations nor with most of the minor ones, and all of the major transmission towers are in the same direction (give or take 2 degrees) from my house, so I am not convinced the antenna is out of line. A report of trouble from someone else would tell me it’s not my antenna.
As near as I can figure, the antennas for Channel 4 and Channel 8 are located in the same spot, so if you’re having trouble with one, you should be having trouble with the other. Ditto for Channel 11 and Channel 13.
Can you hook a different TV to your antenna to see if the problem is in the set?
Third option. Your antenna is fine, but the cable into the house is crimped or otherwise bad.
Antennaweb.org will let you enter your address and give you a plot of the broadcast sites in DFW. According to the site, there are some 70 HDTV channels that cover the DFW area.
All of the major stations and several of the minor ones have their transmitters at Cedar Hill.
I am in east Fort Worth and I’ve had problems with Channel 4 and 11 since the switch to HD and it hasn’t gotten any better over the decade. At one time I wrote Channel 4 asking them what was up with the poor signal but they didn’t have an answer.
I suspect that being in a heavily treed area, the signals have a hard time pushing through them. Don’t really know. I get Channel 8-1,2,3 just fine and wiki says they broadcast at 512ft and 55kw while I have problems with Channel 4 which is supposedly at 510ft and 857kw. Have zero idea if that is significant or not.
I have had intermittent reception problems on CBS channel 11 in Dallas. When I contacted the station in the past I was directed to use a different channel number while they were working on their antenna. Worked fine, but now (over a year later) I get the run around. Anyone else having reception problems with CBS or FOX?
I have the same sorts of problems where I live, digital TV broadcasts aren’t nearly as forgiving as old analog ones were. Windy days definitely make it worse.
I wind up watching a lot of episodes online when I can’t receive them well enough to watch. Just Google something like: watch wayward pines online
I would generally suggest you stay away from sites that aren’t the official networks though. Notable exceptions are sites like Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.