Well, the main problem at the campsite was a wonky 25-foot coax cable we used to connect to the pedestal. I never checked the cable before we left and when
Scrapper mentioned crimped connections, I checked the connecting cable today. Turns out the center lead on one end was rather short and, when hooked to the tester, I could bend the cable and cause a a flip-flop between a short/open condition and a pass condition.
Additionally, I found out why my testing went awry. It appears that the circuit board interferes with the loopback signal used by the coax tester. This is the reason I was getting a "short" status when using the tester with the brown "CABLE" cable attached to the RV-7542 and the red cap on the outdoor RG6 connector.
Sadly, my neighbor's old DVD did not have a coax output so I had to scrounge around in the basement for a signal generator. I found my sons' electronics storage box and created my own NES-Tronix Signal Generator:
Lo and behold, I got Zelda on the TV:
With everything back in working order, I decided it was time to understand the behavior of the RV-7542 and the TV's channel scanning. After all, why spend only 7-hours trying to sort this problem? With 25+ digital OTA stations at my location, I wanted to see the results of the scanning process based on the selection of the TV's channel scan source setting. Here's what I found:
Test 1
RV-7542 setting: Power on
TV input setting: Antenna
Channel scan source: Antenna
Result:
- Digital signals found = 28 (OTA) but almost 10 were a bit "iffy" without rotating the antenna
- Analog signals found: 1 (NES-Tronix)
Test 2
RV-7542 setting: Power off
TV input setting: Antenna
Channel scan source setting: Antenna
Result:
- Digital signals found = 6 (OTA) but 2-3 were a bit "iffy" without rotating the antenna
- Analog signals found: 1 (NES-Tronix)
Test 3
RV-7542 setting: Power off
TV input setting: Antenna
Channel scan source setting: Wall (Cable)
Result:
- Digital signals found = 0 (OTA)
- Analog signals found: 1 (NES-Tronix)
So, I'm drawing the following conclusions from this mis-adventure:
- Our problem at the campsite was (a) abundant ignorance and (b) not verifying the connecting cable before leaving;
- I did not understand that the Klein coax tester would be flummoxed by the RV-7542 circuit board;
- The Rayzar's antenna amplifier really does a very nice job of bringing in more OTA stations;
- The (Insignia) TV's channel scan depends on the setting of its scan source setting;
- Scanning using the "Antenna" as the scan source setting "discovers" both OTA AND cable sources;
- Scanning using the "Wall (Cable)" as the scan source setting "discovers" only cable sources;
- I'm still not springing for satellite!
Thanks to all for helping me through this issue. It is only through the wisdom of others that one realizes how much they DON'T know!
Linear Mode
