West Coast VOOM Issues

[GeneWildershair]

Any SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA VOOM installs yet??? If so, please post install experience, signal strength, PQ, and especially OTA success. Thanks!

I'm not in SR, but I am not *too* far away, (Bay Point/East Bay) and I'm getting great signals, for both Sat, and OTA. My Sat power is 61, and quality ranges about 50-57. Btw, where will your OTA stations be coming from?

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

Great to hear you are happy with your VOOM and OTA reception on the East Bay.

Most of my OTA are purple - about 50 miles away in SF - see attached. I probably need more than a standard antenna (if OTA works at all).

How low does your dish point? How was your install?

 

[Grandude]

If there are any Santa Rosa VOOMERS out there, I would like to know if the OTA antenna works around here and what you get!

I'm not on VOOM but I can give you a few impressions about getting OTA here in Santa Rosa. I live on flat land at the very north end of town, corner of Old Redwood Hwy and River Road.
I am able to get a 75% signel (on my Dish receiver) for Channel 11 (12VHF) from Loma Prieta Mountain which is about 100 miles away but mostly over water.
I also get PBS ch30, Ch 4, Ch 5 (CBS) sometimes and a few other lesser channels but nothing on Ch 2 and 7.
I am using a fairly large universal antenna in the attic with a preamp. Universal so that I can get Ch 11, all the others are UHF and all digital. If I could put up an antenna on the roof I expect that I would be able to get better signel strength and maybe more channels.
Everybodys case is different so you won't know until you try but you will need
to use a high gain antenna for the distance to Sutro Tower which is about 45 miles away and perhaps behind Mt Tamalpais depending on where you are in Santa Rosa.
Good luck.

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

Thanks for the SANTA ROSA OTA info!

A big ol' roof antenna !protest ain't gonna cut it in our neighborhood. Sounds like we have to keep !sadroll local basic cable !sadroll when we get VOOM -- at least until we get sick of local channels in SD, and then I can dump cable for good. :dev

Question for Grandude: So why aren't you a VOOMER yet?

 

[Grandude]

Thanks for the SANTA ROSA OTA info!

A big ol' roof antenna !protest ain't gonna cut it in our neighborhood. Sounds like we have to keep !sadroll local basic cable !sadroll when we get VOOM -- at least until we get sick of local channels in SD, and then I can dump cable for good. :dev

Question for Grandude: So why aren't you a VOOMER yet?

Sheesh, I spend enough on TV already. I doubt that there would be anything more that I would want to watch on VOOM, but I suppose that could change.
I really am going to miss CBS as a lot of my favorite shows are there.
I was picking up Ch5 CBS OTA nicely for a while this evening, 60% on the meter but then it dropped to 59 then 58% and I lost it.
Have a new CM preamp arriving Saturday. Hope it improves my reception.
I'm constantly amazed that I can pick up Ch11 from 100 miles away.
What I really need is to pick up a Samsung 46inch DLP TV. Price just came down recently but still too much.
Oops, I'm starting to ramble........sorry

 

[WLong]

Thanks for the SANTA ROSA OTA info!

A big ol' roof antenna !protest ain't gonna cut it in our neighborhood. Sounds like we have to keep !sadroll local basic cable !sadroll when we get VOOM -- at least until we get sick of local channels in SD, and then I can dump cable for good. :dev

Question for Grandude: So why aren't you a VOOMER yet?

A big ol' roof antenna is a right you have. No homeowners association can stop you from putting it up. If they try, tell them to call the FCC.

Bill

 

[styxfix]

Actually there is an issue where I am. It snows... alot...sometimes. And VOOM goes out since I am pointing at 15 degrees above the horizon. It has gone out during every storm since November.

Ti-maniac: You may want to see if you or your installer can repeak your dish before trying a bigger dish. Make some pencil markings on the sat dish before you doing any adjusting so don't lose where the 61.5 sat is. I had the same problem with my 18" dish pointed at 61.5 sat pointing one degree lower at 14 degrees. I think because of the great distance this sat is for us on the west coast, pointing this sat dish perfectly is difficult. I would have a very high sat signal durring normal conditions, but would totally lose the signal durring any storm. Since I repeaked this dish (just a fraction) from where it was I haven't had any problems. It worked great when we had a huge storm a couple of weeks ago and never lost a lock on the sat. I don't have VOOM yet, but I using the same sat for DISH.

1080iWannabe: Most people (inc. me) in the SF Bay Area are having good success using a CM 4228 UHF antenna for OTA DTV. It's also smaller than most UHF/VHF combo antennas. You may want to add a CM 7777 pre-amp to give your self the best possible chance for all the Sutro stations.

 

[pederb]

I'm I the only one not receiving KCBS 2-1? I get everyother OTA channel but not this one. BTW I live in LA.

 

[mellow19]

Any Voomers in Riverside County?

Is there anyone with Voom in Riverside County?

 

[desidoc]

Is there anyone with Voom in Riverside County?

I am in neighbouring county san bernardino, but I am at an altitude of 3500Ft . I am getting 60 signal strength in the afternoon and night times, but morning it drops to high 30s to 40s. But so far I am pretty happy with HD transmission. I hate the remote and receiver though ,very buggy.

 

[Vince2]

OK, finally up and running in the Portland area. This latest installer was able to get me VOOM, but only with a siqnal quality in the 25-30 range. Still no luck with locals, but they are mapping at least. Will try another OTA antenna. The installer said he heard VOOM was looking into using another sat for west coaster's due to popular demand, but he had no details.

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

Still waiting to hear from a VOOMER in Marin or Sonoma county , California. I am ready to jump but don't want to lead! :yikes I am in Santa Rosa. Mainly concerned about signal strength and line of sight. :shocked Thanks!

 

[DarrellP]

I live about 25 miles South of Portland, OR and had Voom installed Saturday. I had them use a 24" dish that I already had for Dish @ 61.5 and it's working great. The installer told me they were having about a 3 in 5 failure rate for installs in the Portland Metro area due to the hills. Where I live, I'm in the flatlands of the Willamette Valley and have no obstructions to the East/SouthEast. My Dish looks like it is pointing at the ground. I used my existing antenna but the Stealth works great, I put it together and plugged it into my Analog TV and picked up all the local signals very well.

Except for the breakups we are all experiencing, I have been quite happy with the overall programming. The SD, to me, is better than Dish (though I don't watch any of it). The Guide totally stinks, I get so flusterred trying to use it. When the Favorites is displayed, I have to arrow in one direction to move up the channels and when the single line browse is up, I have to move in the opposite direction to browse up the channels. Logically, I would think while in the Guide that hitting Back would page back, nope, it exits the Guide and sends me to the previous channel. That is dumb!!!!

3 freezeups while surfing so far and after resetting it, the Guide data is gone for like 2 hours, very frustrating. I hope they get these things to pull the guide down quicker, at least for the current show. Oh, and fix the Reminders.

 

[Vince2]

Darrel, what is your signal quality reading for the dish? How about OTA?

 

[DarrellP]

Vince, I'll have to look but I haven't had any reception issues. If I remember correctly, I think my dish quality was around 35 and my OTA 65. It was lower during the last 2 days when VOOM was having problems, I'll check again and see what I'm getting.

 

[Vince2]

Hmmm... the best I have had is 33, typically 25-28 on the dish signal. I figured out my OTA problem (bad splitter) and now am getting some locals (except CH 2 and 12 and I don't know why, though they are mapped). Both boxes froze up this morning. An installer is coming tomorrow to see what he can tweek to get my dish signal up.

 

[sat4me]

Still waiting to hear from a VOOMER in Marin or Sonoma county , California. I am ready to jump but don't want to lead! :yikes I am in Santa Rosa. Mainly concerned about signal strength and line of sight. :shocked Thanks!

hello,

For anyone to be able to tell you what signal or if you have a line of site would be IMPOSSIBLE with out seeing exactly what the surroundings you have.

I'm not in your area however I used to install satellites dishes all over the west coast and can tell you that the VOOM satellite does "sit" low in the sky and the possibility of a no-line-of-site is higher than with D* or E*

The VOOM dish needs to point in the GENERAL direction of FLORDIA and the elevation of the dish will be approximatly 14-16 degrees with an additional 20 degrees of signal alignment.

So, if you are surrounded by tall trees that are much taller than your home and if they were to "fall" would cover your house than you MAY not be able to see the bird.

Cool thing... it doesn't cost you anything to have VOOM come out and tell you. You do need to order it as if you're going to have installed, but if the installer can't make it work.. no $ out of your pocket except for your time.

I have VOOM and beleive me it's well worth it so far!

Good LUCK!

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

Yep I'm sure you are right. I guess it's time to give it a go.

 

[jason22]

I live in eastern Oregon......Voom dish is at 14 degrees elevation....shooting just over my neighbors back porch!!!.......but satellite signal is great. I just wish I could get my OTA's.....towers only 15 miles away. I can see them from my roof, but no matter what configuration of antenna I try. none will ever lock in

Did you try a Factory Reset? ........ If your receiver was set with a poor signal or no signal the first day, no matter what antenna you use afterwards, you will not get the channel. I have a DirecTV receiver and was able to get perfect OTA signal, then I hooked the antenna to the Voom receiver, did a FR and I got all the OTA channels, before doing that I was getting CBS, the only channel that I got the day of my installation.

 

[shelly]

I live in Carmel Valley on the central coast of CA. My angle for the 61.5 is 15 derees. I am getting low-mid 60's for signal strength. No ota antenna, though, as I live in a bowl surrounded by hills and can't even get analog local tv with an antenna, so I figured that I wouldn't even try. Not a big deal as I get E and W networks from BEV.

Shelly