Forum Discussion

fixedelectric's avatar
fixedelectric
New Contributor
2 years ago

Is Cox scrambling OTA TV signals to get more customers away from free TV?

I have sent letters to the FCC asking to rent equipment or if they can see why my OTA TV gets scrambled on weekends from around noon time Saturday until early on Monday afternoon. I have a very good rotary antenna on my roof that I installed years ago. I am a master electrician and new digital TV OTA (over-the-air) has a better picture than cable. After sending a couple of letters to the FCC I noticed that my TV was no longer getting pixelated signals but that only lasted a few weeks.  Last night 6/7/2023 my picture started up again with pixelization on all channels. This morning I rescanned my TV and was receiving 58 channels. This afternoon I am getting zero! ** can this be possible without outside interference? I am betting that Coc cable has something to do with this! Any thoughts?  

8 Replies

  • Darkatt's avatar
    Darkatt
    Honored Contributor

    There is no way that Cox can scramble OTA signals, since this signals are broadcast from the network broadcast station themselves, and have nothing to do with Cox Communications. I would look for some kind of localized EMI or RF interference. 

    • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
      WiderMouthOpen
      Esteemed Contributor

      I think signal ingress from the HFC network can effect HAM radio so it stands to reason it could effect OTA signal too. However it wouldn't be on purpose and the inference would work both ways so Cox would be behooved to fix it. It is more likely that the interference is from something else though.

  • DRVEGAS's avatar
    DRVEGAS
    Valued Contributor

    How can you be getting scrambled channels using an OTA antenna?  Are you referring to the Cox cable local channels or your OTA channels?  What city are you in?

  • Lovemylab's avatar
    Lovemylab
    Contributor III

    I don't know any practical way Cox could scramble OTA signals. Have you checked the tower directions recently? In my area (Omaha) several of the stations quit using the towers northeast of here and switched to towers almost due south. With a Yagi design you can't pick those up without rotating the antenna. I actually swapped to a less directional antenna. (I've worked with rotors before, especially for long range FM. It's convenient with a single device but not so handy with multiple devices. These days the Yagi provides a dedicated feed to one room, and the dipole feeds the old amplifier which feeds the coax running around the house.