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I'm getting channel 5 to come in on my living room TV through a rooftop antenna. This station is not coming in my bedroom. I'm using a splitter in the basement.

I've tried different antennas, cables, and even an amplified splitter but still can't get channel 5 in the bedroom. I also tried plugging in a small TV antenna directly into the bedroom TV, but still no-go. If I plug the bedroom TV into the same jack where the living room TV is plugged in, I do get reception of this station.

Any ideas on how to get this to come in or why it's doing this?

UPDATE: I finally got this resolved by using a 2-way splitter for the tv that was having issues and directly connecting one of the “out” ports to the TV in question and the “in” to the rooftop antenna. Then I connected a coax cable connected to the “in” port of another splitter that has “out” ports that connect to the other TVs in our house. I also adjusted the antenna to get the best signal.

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  • To receive VHF TV, I'd need a time machine...
    – keshlam
    Nov 10, 2015 at 15:20
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    Use amplifiers always at the point of best signal (e.g. near the antenna), keep in mind that all kinds of passive splitters attenuate the signal and that sometimes there are splitters hidden in houses that you don't know of. Also make sure that the TV is actually able to receive by feeding it the best signal possible (again near the antenna). Might also be that your cable to the bedroom is just bad.
    – PlasmaHH
    Nov 10, 2015 at 15:31

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Based on the symptoms so far -- this isn't a dodgy tuner, or a bad cable. This leaves one possibility: something in the bedroom is spewing RF garbage on VHF channel 5, and moving the TV further away from it causes it to pick up less of the garbage, allowing it to "hear" the TV station on that channel.

Can you try moving the TV from the living room into the bedroom? If the living room TV can't pick up channel 5 while in the bedroom, even with an antenna directly attached, then that would lend serious credence to the RFI theory. From there, it's a matter of unplugging things until channel 5 comes back in...

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  • The living room TV acts the same way in the bedroom. I will check if moving the TV to a different area in the room makes a difference.
    – thecoolmacdude
    Nov 11, 2015 at 2:22
  • When I move the TV closer to the bedroom window, I get better reception. It might be our wire shelving in the master closet behind the TV messing with the reception.
    – thecoolmacdude
    Jul 12, 2016 at 1:31
  • @thecoolmacdude -- can you try unplugging things in the bedroom until channel 5 comes back?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Jul 12, 2016 at 1:48
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Inside each TV is a tuner that separates individual channels from your antenna signal. Some tuners are better than others in tuning in channels that are either too weak, too strong, too noisy, frequency range etc.

If your TVs are different brands, from different years and sometimes different models from the same manufacturer, chances are that they use different tuner circuitry and one is simply better than the other at picking up that channel.

If your tv has the ability to view signal information then try to see what's different in that channel that might be causing the problem.

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  • I've gotten both TVs to get the low band VHF station when moving my bedroom TV into the living room and plugging it in there.
    – thecoolmacdude
    Nov 10, 2015 at 17:05
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    @thecoolmacdude Missed that part. Is the cable that runs to the bedroom longer than the one that runs to the living room? It could be the cable induced loss is greater in that run? Or maybe it passes by more power cables that cause interference? Also are there any ports on the splitter that are unused? If so have you tried placing terminators over any unused ports or cables? That sometimes help. As does randomly placing aluminum foil in places and holding a wire whle standing on one. Antennas seem to involve a lot of magic :)
    – OrganicLawnDIY
    Nov 11, 2015 at 3:48
  • I was able to get better reception when I'm next to the antenna in the attic, for some reason...but then when I go back down the ladder away from the antenna, the reception fades. The splitter has terminators on all the couple unused ports. I need to try and see if aluminum foil helps. Would you recommend putting that on the antenna or around the antenna up in random places in the attic?
    – thecoolmacdude
    Nov 13, 2015 at 2:55
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    I really don't know. For me it's a lot of trial and error. Sometimes foil or a grid can act as a reflector other times I think you use it to block reflected signals and other noise.With one indoor antenna I once had I wouldn't get some channels unless I had foil taped to cardboard mounted over it dangling at just the right angle. If touching the nut on the f-connector on the coax improves reception sometimes grounding the antenna can help. Also a pre-amp like the RCA TVPRAMP1R can be useful for long runs.
    – OrganicLawnDIY
    Nov 13, 2015 at 3:43

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