Freezing or flickering

[stanlessteel]

New to the ota game. Just recently got one of those square looking antena. New coax and a decoder because I have older tvs that will not pick up digital signals. This system was bringing about 4 channels that are watchable pretty clear, but over time the channels are starting to flicker like its out of tune. Its really strange because its nice weather, not a cloud in the sky, no wind that could be moving the antena. Any help with my annoying problem would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[stanlessteel]

Yes, my decoder has a signal meter. It jumps around, from around 65% to about 35%. If i bought a booster or maybe also get a motor to move the antena in the direction of the station i want to watch, do you think the flicker would go away ? Latidude 44.182 Long-78.104

[stanlessteel]

I have a 50 foot run of R-G6. Will head to the flee market today and see if i can find a proper preamp. Thanks again !

[jvvh5897]

What you are describing is likely signal dropout due to a long path with knife edge obstruction(s). That is, because of the curvature of the earth, long paths around 75 miles or so between transmitter and receive location are likely to have what is a relatively low ridge or hill end up as being in the path the signal has to take. That ridge or hill acts as a knife edge to diffract the signal into its shadow--the amount of fill-in in the shadow will depend on the density gradient of the air. ie how quickly the air temperature changes with altitude, how much water is in the air and what the frequency of the signal is. Except for the frequency, the factors for diffraction depend on the weather in a complex way--morning and evening sees the temperature of the air change with altitude because of the angle of the sun and that can change diffraction you get. A front passing creates gradient changes as well.