Hello
The analysis menu on the 536 is under Menu --> Analysis (I think) then enter the system name... in my case Loudoun County... I entered LO and it found it in my favorites ... Im very vague now because Im downstairs and my radio is upstairs so Im not looking at the menu anymore as I should to properly guide you.
BTW these are the meanings
S = SIGNAL
Q = QUALITY
A = ACTIVITY
Thanks for the suggestion. I will build a test yagi and try pointing as suggested.
I would try both suggestions for your antenna aim.
If you have a good directional antenna with good rejection to the side, the west site may be your best aim but I did not look at the sites actual antenna aim direction so you really want the nearest one that aims at your home location.
Trial and error may be the best answer. I must aim at a reflection from a nearby building in the winter months when the leaves have fallen from the trees! That reflection gives me perfect decodes in the winter months but makes things horrible when the trees are green in the summer.
That's a crude example of how picky an 700 MHz or higher signal can be!
They reflect off of objects and are also attenuated by leaves on a tree in the summer. You can often use that knowledge to your advantage with a directional antenna.
An indoor antenna can be tricky though as it will pickup reflections from objects in your home. It only takes a few milliseconds of timing difference to throw off a digital signal unless one is well attenuated. That is the trick, try and attenuate all but one towers signal for the least simulcast distortion.
Lots of patience and trial and error!
edit: as pro92b mentioned, an aim slightly off center direction may give you a better decode rate as you are still aiming at the site within the antenna's beamwidth but are also further nulling out the northern sites. Now if that site to the west is using directional transmit antennas (as most simulcast sites do) then it may be aiming its signal away from you so the northern sites may give you the better signal as darunimal suggested. I think the FCC site for that stations call will show you the antenna aim and height and all that stuff. That can come in handy for calculating which site may actually give you the best signal. You need to keep clicking the links until you are actually on the FCC site though as the license info displayed at RR does not contain that much detail.
Edit2: I tried following what I said above and I could not see the transmit antennas aim direction unless I overlooked it. I know I've seen it listed for other simulcast sites though.
That could mean they are using omni pattern antennas or they simply did not submit this info but it is usually listed so the frequency coordinators know if the proposed site may cause interference to a neighboring site. I only look at Site 3 though so the antenna aim direction could be listed for some of the other locations that I did not look at. Site 3 may be using an omni antenna.
