DB8 UHF-Antennacraft 3bg22-7777amp-joiner problem

[jeffreym]

Hi:
I was using a DB8 UHF for HD until the warden told me it had to go from the house. Rather than junking it, I took it up north to Central Michigan DEER CAMP and added an Antennacraft 3bg22 with a winegard cs-7750 coupler/joiner (signal recombiner) and a CM 7777 uhf amp. After putting it up on top of a 60 ft. pine tree, I get great VHF reception, but NO UHF reception. In hindsite, I should have tested everything, but of course I didn't. Is there any reason why this setup should not work. Is it possible that the UHF amp is not compatible with the recombiner and is not passing the signal? If I could get to it, I could pull the amp, but it will have to wait until spring (snow, rain, dangerous). Any Ideas?
Thanks,
Jeff-

[SolidSignal_Mike]

One possibility is that the CM7777 is set to "Separate" You can change this by removing the face plate and flipping it to "common".

My solution is to eliminate the winegard joiner, and and run the 3BG22 to the VHF input and the DB8 to the UHF input, and be sure to set the amp to separate for this. This will eliminate the 3.5 dB insertion loss from the joiner.

The other factor that may be hindering your reception is that the DB8 and 3BG22 should be at least 3-4 apart if possible.

-Mike

[jeffreym]

What does the Combined/Separate switch do?
Also, the TV only has one cable type input. It doesn't even have any RCA jacks. Seems wastefull to run two cables and then have to manually switch them in back of the TV. Perhaps I should remove the amp and just run the two antennas into the combiner. Also, I do have the DB8 about 4 feet above the VHF unit, I was aware of that.

The weird thing is...I'm not getting ANY UHF. Not just weak UHF, but NO UHF.
I was getting perfect HDTV UHF at my Howell location (closer to quality signals), but after adding in the combiner and VHF unit....zip.

Central Michigan University has a UHF PBS station running and its only 18 miles away. With a DB8, I should be getting TOO MUCH signal one would think.
Thanks,
J-

[jeffreym]

I just realized that the amp is a 7775 UHF only and not a 7777 uhf/vhf. I originally had only the DB8 running throught the amp for HDTV UHF signals. When I added the recombiner It was supposed to keep the UHF side intact and allow the addition of the VHF antenna down via one RG6 cable to the tv.
J-

[SolidSignal_Mike]

If your PBS station is that close than there is a good chance your over driving your tuner with too much signal. Are you getting any analog UHF in? Did you get UHF Signal when you had the combiner hooked up but NOT the pre-amp? Try replacing the combiner with a two way splitter, if that fixes it, then its definately the combiner. As an alterative I suggest this model from Pico Macom, the UVSJ VHF UHF Combiner for a 0.5dB max insertion loss. Most cominers give you a 3.5 dB loss.


-Mike