Issues With TV Reception?
If you are having reception issues and need help, please contact our technician.
Basic Troubleshooting
- Make sure your antenna is still aimed correctly.
- make sure that the antenna cable connector is screwed on tight on the back of your television
- To insure you have a good connection, unscrew the connector from the TV, then reinsert the connector and tighten it. This will make sure that the wire in the center of the connector has a good connection.
- For antenna or booster recommendations, see the “Antenna Advice” section for your location.
- In most situations, we recommend an outdoor signal booster.
- If your coax cable is short (less than 10 feet), an indoor booster might work, but we recommend outdoor.
- Channels might break up occasionally due to a temperature inversion or other conditions that are beyond our control.
- Do not rescan if a channel seems to be off the air. If the channel is really off the air, rescanning will cause your TV to “forget” that channel and you’ll have to rescan after the channel comes back in order for your TV to relearn it.
- We transmit at low power per our FCC licenses.
- Channel 6.3 is a sub-channel for KHQ and may be just a black screen at times.
Scanning and Re-scanning
To receive over-the-air digital TV channels, your TV has to scan for them.
This is typically accomplished with your TV’s remote control by hitting the “Menu” button and then navigating to a “Scan”, “Channel Search” or similar menu item. It can be a little tricky because there is a lot of variety in the terminology used by TV manufacturers. The User Guide that came with your TV should provide detailed instructions for scanning. User Guides can frequently be found in the tech support section of a manufacturer’s website.
Do I need an outdoor antenna and/or a “signal booster”?
We generally recommend an outdoor antenna with an outdoor mast or antenna-mounted amplifier. If you have signal blockages such as hills or trees between you our our transmitters, then you may need additional equipment. Please look at our suggestions for your general area:
- Goat 2 “Billy Goat” Mountain (Lower Methow)
- Goat 3 Mountain (Brewster/Pateros)
- Grizzly Mountain (Upper Methow)
- McClure Mountain (Twisp-Winthrop)
Signal booster suggestions are listed below in rough order of cost/performance:
- TV Antenna PreAmp 1 (Channelmaster.com or Amazon.com)
- Antenna’s Direct “Juice” Preamplifier with coaxial cables (Amazon.com)
- RCA TVPRAMP12E Digital Signal Preamplifier (AceHardware.com)
Don’t forget to get a short RG-6 cable (if needed) to connect from the booster to the antenna and weatherproof those connections.
What about the cable from the antenna to the TV?
We recommend using RG-6 coax cable (Amazon examples) for better performance (less loss then RG-59 type cable. Don’t forget to weatherproof your connections using connector boots, electrical tape or other material.
If you are having reception issues and need help, please contact our technician.