Solved! Indoor antenna help

[dstaples1120]

I installed a indoor OTA antenna in my living room and after my first initial scan I got 10-13 channels, which is all I need. I noticed after a few days the signal seemed to deteriorate slightly on some channels. So I tried to play around with it (changing the way it was facing, changing heights, locations etc) well it made the whole thing a lot worse. Could barely pick up 1-2 channels and they where not very clear. I bought an amplifier thinking they may be some interference. First try was awesome, picked up even more channnels than ever. All I did after that was zip tie some of the cables and tuck them behind the TV since my Tv is mounted in order to organize everything. And low and behold back to my original problem. Picked up one station that I didnt care anything about. I cut the zip ties and straightened all the cables out like it was but still could only pick up 1 channel, sometimes no channels, every now and then 3 channnels but couldn’t watch them due to poor signal. Again this is me moving the antenna around...trying everything I could think of. Can anyone explain to me what’s going on??? Why does it work perfect the first time and then suck the rest of the time.

 

[jsmithepa]

Things to take into consideration: Do you live in a dense urban area? Do you live on the first floor of a multi-storied? Night signals tend to be stronger than daytime.

 

[americanaudiophile]

Did you rescan for channels when you reoriented the antenna?
A signal amp will boost signal strength which is why you got more channels. It won't reduce interference. If a signal is just strong enough to be detected during the scan it might not actually work or work reliably. When the signal starts to get low you get audio dropouts and then pixelation.
If you are in an multi-dweller building an indoor antenna may not work. I have rebar in my walls that shields an antenna from TV and FM like it was designed to do that.