Antenna reception can be trickier than you may think, even if you live near the towers! If you have an antenna that has stopped working, we can also diagnose the situation.
#OPTIMUM NO SIGNAL ON TV INSTALL#
We have a number of seasoned experts on our staff with the tools and experience to determine what kind of antenna you need and where to install it. If you are having trouble with reliable signals for more than one channel in our area, it’s worthwhile to hire a company like ours to professionally install an antenna.
There are a lot of factors that can affect reception, including distance from the towers, elevation, obstructing objects (trees, buildings, etc) in the path of the signal and so forth.
#OPTIMUM NO SIGNAL ON TV TV#
Contrary to popular opinion, simply attaching an antenna to a TV does not guarantee a good signal. There can also be other issues with signal reception. This has been the most common cause for not being able to receive FOX 11 when all other channels work. It is possible that older antennas, or some newer, cheaper ones marketed as “HD digital antennas” at other stores, may be UHF-only. So to receive FOX 11, you need an antenna that is capable of receiving both VHF and UHF signals, which is what we sell. (You won’t likely notice, as your TV maps the channels to the virtual numbers like 11-1 that you’re used to.) But FOX 11 will still remain in the VHF band. Soon, many local channels will be switching which channel number they broadcast on, due to the shrinking of the UHF band. They switched their digital transmitter back to channel 11 - a VHF channel. After local broadcasters shut off their analog transmitters, the majority kept transmitting digital signals on the UHF channels to which they were assigned. Since most digital stations were on the UHF band, many antennas sold around the digital transition - even ones marketed as “digital HD antennas” were UHF-only models. (Your digital TV was smart enough to make that channel appear as 5-1 instead of channel 39, to make it easier to identify. For example, WFRV’s digital channel was broadcast on channel 39 at the same time that channel 5 contained their old analog signal. The transmissions may have changed to digital, but the frequencies and the way we receive them with antennas has pretty much stayed the same.ĭuring the digital TV transition period, local stations operated analog and digital transmitters simultaneously, with the vast majority of new digital channels falling operating on UHF channels. Little has changed in the post-digital landscape, though the number of channels left in the UHF band has decreased, as many have been re-allocated for other uses. A handful of channels used to reside in the VHF space (channels 2, 5, and 11 in our area), while the rest occupied the UHF band. If you remember back to the older tube TVs you may have watched back in the 70’s and 80’s, there used to be two dials – one that spanned channels 2 through 13 (the “VHF” band) and one that contained channels 14 on up (the “UHF” band). The long answer requires a little refresher on TV broadcasting technology. The short answer is, in most cases, your antenna may be incapable of receiving FOX 11’s signal. Some people who receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna will get every Green Bay TV channel except for FOX 11 (WLUK-DT). It’s been a hot topic ever since the digital television transition completed in 2009. It’s also a top search query on our website from August on through the winter.
Original article (published September 2017): This is one of the most common questions we’ve received about antennas in the past several years, especially once football season starts up again in the fall.