I still have TV reception issues. Why would the TV in the basement and the one on the second floor receive different channels?

They’re both hooked to the same antenna and they get different channels?

Yes. Just two; since they don’t overlap, if I want to watch Fox (a rare occurance), I run downstairs and if I want to watch an old movie, I run back up two flights of stairs.

I was simply curious since no one (including the guy from whom I bought one TV, in August and who was here to install it), is as mystified as I. Other than that, it is a good aerobic exercise unit.

It’s not a bad workout plan. When I was using antennas I got Syracuse channels in the North end of the house and Binghamton channels in the South end. And better reception when the leaves were off the trees. He might have one angle right.

@Adirondackwannabe; Thank you. That is the only solution that makes me happy. I have a large cluster of channels in Albany to the NW (which is a sprawl if you include Troy and Schenectady) and a few scattered ones east towaryds MA.

Do you have the same type of digital decoder on both sets? Are the decoders internal to the TVs? Are the TVs the same make and model?

@zenvelo: The TVs are not the same make and model, but both high-def and similar cost for the same size LCD screen.. I don’t know what a digital decoder is and I don’t know whether they (whatever they are ) are internal.

The direction of the broadcast channels makes the most sense as an explanation. I am in a rural area and probably at least 25 miles from the nearest transmitter. They are spread out in something called the tri-cities area…Albany and its two neighboring citilets.

Ghosts?

Gremlins. Definately gremlins.

@gailcalled Broadcast signals are all digital, and even receiving a signal over the air using an antenna requires you to have digital decoder (similar to a cable box) either on the set or built in to the TV. If you don;t have one, you probably have it built in.

It could be the length of the cable from the antenna to the set, an since you have two TVs, where is the cable split? The cable itself acts as part of the antenna, so the one on the lower floor may be receiving a signal differently than the one up stairs.

If the TV man has no ideas, and this really bugs you, how about calling a local ham radio club and ask if anyone could help you figure out your reception issues.

Try swapping the tv’s if the problem follows the tv it is the tuner. If it does not it is the feedline.
@zenvelo is right the cable can act as part of the antenna. It can also act as a filter especially if it is damaged in any way.

@ARE_you_kidding_me; That’s a really interesting suggestion, in the abstract. I’d have to hire a giant strong guy to swap the TV’s. Up and down three flights of stairs..unbraiding all the many cables neatly wrapped…

Initially both TV’s received all the channels. One day mysteriously, after receiving Fox for years, it disappeared in the basement TV. Then a subsidiary of CBS that shows only old movies vanished from the upstairs one when I click the auto channel up-and-down button. if I program the individual numbers of the channel into the remote, the signal does appear. (The movies are terrible so I don’t miss the channel.)

At the moment it seems a daunting project…paying some guy to clomp up and down all those stairs carrying 46” TV’s. I am interested only in the intellectual problem. Losing Fox on one TV is no hardship.

Out of interest, how can I tell where the cable is split? The coax. cable runs from the roof antenna directly into the upstairs TV as far as I can tell.I will have to investigate how the basement cable enters the house after the snow has melted and the snow fences are down. But that one is the longer of the two and the furthest from the roof antenna.

@zenvelo. The cable itself acts as part of the antenna, so the one on the lower floor may be receiving a signal differently than the one up stairs. That makes the most sense. In the last four years I began to receive mysteriously five different shopping, cartoon, and infomercial channels also at the high end of the non-cable channels. Often the pixels waver and/or break up.

I finally had a look at the outside cable. One coax. cable from roof to hole in wall to second floor TV..call it X length; it splits there and the second piece (2x length) goes down exterior side of house to basement where it goes through a hole in wall to second TV.

Fox and ABC vector the same on the antenna directional finder, and ABC comes in just fine.

I am retiring this mystery officially, until a very strong person shows up who is willing to swap the TVs. In the abstract I find that an interesting experiment.