Signal strength software needed

[Mugsy]

I need some simple "signal strength" software to help me properly align my outdoor antenna.

Unfortunately, the only such software I've found is ONLY for Hauppaugh tuners, and that isn't what I'm using. I've just purchased an "antenna rotator" to adjust the direction of my antenna for the best possible reception for each channel (no more sacrificing a few stations because they just happen to be coming from the wrong direction.) Because of this, simply going by "which direction picks up the most stations" isn't what I need.

The signal strength indicator built into WMC isn't terribly useful, since it doesn't show the affects of adjustments in real time, and only shows the strength while scanning ALL channels.

Does anyone know of any decent signal strength software that'll show me in real time the best position(s) for my antenna?

[Space]

I've never used ATSC (just cable), so I am unaware of any such software myself.

You don't mention what ATSC device you are using, but I would assume that most devices would come with their own signal monitoring app. I know that SiliconDust devices have a signal monitor.

If you are unable to find any software, perhaps you can just connect the antenna to an ATSC TV (if you have one) and use the monitor on the TV (assuming it has one) to pick the best antenna direction for each channel.

[rmeden]

What tuner are you using? I know HDHR has a signal strength tool.

[Mugsy]

Thanks for the replies.

My card is an ancient ATI HDTV Wonder. Old, but works great so I see no need to spend any money on a new card (but may have to eventually as support for PCI is discontinued by most MoBo's.)

Great idea "Space" on using another device with signal strength readout. I have a portable HDTV that can show Signal Strength on a per-channel basis. It's not terribly accurate, but at least it's something. Thx.

[dmagerl]

I always found the resolution of the digital signal strength bar graphs was never adequate when aiming antennas.

The way I did it was to rotate the antenna until signal was lost. Rotate it back the other direction until signal is lost again. Then aim the antenna halfway between those two points.

[CyberSimian]

I need some simple "signal strength" software to help me properly align my outdoor antenna.

There is a utility called "ScanChannelsBDA_UK.exe" that does this (I think). Some points:

(1) The "BDA" part in the name suggests that it will work with the tuners that WMC also works with (same interface).

(2) The "UK" part might mean that it works only for the DVB-T broadcasts in the UK. The versions that I have do not understand DVB-T2 (high definition), and so do not display the channel info for DVB-T2, but they do still recognise the carrier wave for the DVB-T2 MUX, and (I think) display the signal strength. So this utility MIGHT work in your part of the world.

(3) If you goggle for this utility, you will probably find various different versions. I believe that it was open-sourced and then forked multiple times, so there is not a simple progression of higher version numbers being more advanced. So you might want to download several different versions and try them all. You might also try goggling for the name with the "_UK" part omitted, just to see if there are any versions not specifically intended for the UK.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[Mugsy]

Thanks CS. I found a version of that app updated as recently as this past February (plus older versions) here:

http://nate.deepcreek.org.au/dev/scanchannelsbda.rails

Running the program straight didn't appear to do what I need, but I found these instructions (plus an older version) at another location that appear to show how to make it do what I need:

https://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/ho ... dvb-t-only

I'll have to read through it all later to know if it works. Thanks.