Sansui TU-919 + Winegard HD6065...why no DX-ability?

[bebopdeluxe]

Well...just had the HD6065 installed on the roof of my house (at least 30 feet off the ground), complete with a Channel Master rotor. When combined with a Sansui TU-919, I would have thought that I would have a decent shot at pulling in stations from 60-70 miles away (I live in the western suburbs of Philly...in an area with no material change in topography or no massive amount of trees or tall buildings)...but - after going to www.radio-locator.com and identifying some stations west of me in PA, in northern MD or central NJ, I have had little success in getting any stations in outside of the stations in the Philly market.

Will a custom Radio X tuner job (which I am currently in the queue for...thanks, Mike) make THAT big of a difference in pulling in signals from 60-70 miles away? While the signal that I am getting for my local stations is unquestionably better, the whole reason why I went through the process of finding the Winegard HD6065 (which is discontinued and not that easy to find) and having it installed with a rotor on the roof was to pull in more than the antenna farm that is 3 miles away...

*sigh*

[Punker X]

As close as you are to the Antenna Farm, its really unpredictable how it will affect the tuner. Used to run the same set up, and have a 300 watt Christian station at 88.9. It is about a mile away, and makes it almost impossible for me to get any other station that in that general area of the dial.

Too many variables, direction of the antenna farm, frequencies they are broadcasting at, the power of the broadcast, the direction of the station you are trying to receive, and their power. Hills, mountains or other obstruction in the direction of the station will also affect the range. Weather and tropospheric conditions also have an affect on reception.

A tune-up and IF modification will help, but may not cure the problems.

[mjs1]

Hi bebopdeluxe

I think that there is still lots of hope. I have a small collection of unaligned Sansui tuners including a TU 919 and an aligned and modified TU 717 which I use at my home in the country with only a dipole. My modified 717 is fantastic, clearly outperforms them all, and should be surpassed by your 919 once Mike works on it. Alignment alone should make a difference, I can't remember if you had this done on yours. I remember reading that in modification, there is somewhat of a choice to be made between sound quality and DXing capability. Please let us know what choices you are offered (if I am right), how you chose, and what you think when you get it back. I was thinking of modifying my 919 (I too am running an AU 919 for my main system) but I have been so happy with my 717 that this has been a low priority. Maybe I should get an antenna instead?

Marc