Lexington, KY - HDTV [Text View] - Page 11

CyberWhip

10-03-06, 06:04 PM

gspiggle.....if you have DISH, their HD package is superior, in my opinion, to the other two choices. Dish has many more 10+ channels dedicated to HD than the other 2. I will say that local HD is only available on Insight unless you can get them OTA, which I can so it is not a big concern. Another warning is that I, along with some others, have issues with one particular satellite that is primarily used for HD (129 sat location) but I can use alternate satellite (65). In general I am very happy with the Dish package, get the vip622 dvr, it is awesome.

The next question is: when are they getting local HD channels? they have not been announced for Lexington yet for Dish nor DirectTV (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Last time I looked, Lexington was #63 in market size and that is usually a guideline of how they add channels unless there is a technical reason. Lousiville is 50 and they were just added, so one must think Lexington is getting close.

BenCJedi

10-03-06, 10:27 PM

Dish Network added Lexington locals to my dish package yesterday to the end of the year (for free). They are not HD, but nonetheless my only source for local was OTA. I'm a Dish customer since 1999 and they have YET to offer me any better receiver. I bought a Dishplayer 7100 out of pocket several years ago. It seems existing customers get shafted by having to commit and LEASE equipment these days. I would love HD via Dish Network. I only have the older Dish 500 and it is maxed out with two SW-21 switches. Do you need a Superdish, with new LNBs, with new switches, with new receivers? It would be cheaper for me to drop Dish and go DirecTV for equipment. The only saving thing from dish is having some distant network channels that would be impossible to procure. I am grand-fathered in, at least for now. I heard some threat of distant network channels being taken away.

Anyhow I'd be interested in hearing when HD becomes available over either satellite company for Lexington.

HDTVChallenged

10-04-06, 01:52 AM

Anyhow I'd be interested in hearing when HD becomes available over either satellite company for Lexington.

I doubt that either DBS co. will have Lexington locals before next summer.

Dave Powell WLEX

10-04-06, 04:39 PM

Regarding the person in Flemingsburg wanting to DX, there may be a problem. A couple of years ago a viewer there told me his reception of WLEX would go snowy at 8 pm every night. I had to think on that one. Back then, the Paxson (now ION) station turned on their DTV transmitter at that time. This is high power on Channel 22, right in Flemingsburg.

A receive antenna amplifier is designed to handle all UHF (and VHF) without rejecting any. The digital signal so close will overload the amp and the resulting intermodulation puts noise in the desired signals, including analog. Since to an analog receiver digital is just noise, the desired analog looks weak although the signal strength is normal.

You'd have to put a filter before the amp. Another complication is that the digital signal is spread equally across nearly six MHz, so you really need a bandstop filter, not cheap.

Dave Powell, Chief Engineer, WLEX-TV/DT

BenCJedi

10-04-06, 06:25 PM

Dave Powell! Welcome to the board and central KY thread! :)

I was wondering if the American Idol Rewind show that started last Saturday night has an HD feed. It was shown in standard def. I was just curious if it was available as an HD feed to pass out through your broadcast. At first it struck me odd that NBC was showing a FOX-network show, but then I read how Sinclair stations are broadcasting the 'Rewind' show.. so now I know WLEX is Sinclair-owned.

If that show is in HD and you have the capability of obtaining it that way, can you rebroadcast it as such (in HD)? 1080i has always looked better on my TV and you guys are the only station in the area doing that format.

jb_ky1

10-06-06, 03:13 PM

Dave Powell! Welcome to the board and central KY thread! :)
At first it struck me odd that NBC was showing a FOX-network show, but then I read how Sinclair stations are broadcasting the 'Rewind' show.. so now I know WLEX is Sinclair-owned.

Hey Everyone!
I am new here, im from Georgetown and just got a HDTV a few weeks ago and can get all the Lexington channels including WUPX, and sometimes at night I get WHAS and WBKI if I am lucky. But from what someone said last, and correct me if I am wrong, but isn't WLEX owned by Evening Post Publishing Company and not Sinclair?

Strangeite

10-06-06, 04:25 PM

Hello Forum. This is a wonderful resource.

I recently purchased a new HDTV and in my feeble attempt to pick up HD reception, attached an antenna from Radio Shack onto my dish, which is mounted to my roof. Since then, I have found the website (sorry can't remember what the address is, I am currently at work) that shows you the direction of the television towers and their distance. My confusion is that it shows WLEX tower in the complete opposite direction as to where I know it is located. I live less than one mile from WLEX and can see the tower from my yard.

Even stranger is that I can't pick up 18 at all. 36 comes in perfect and 27 alright most of the time. I get no 46 or 56 at all.

Thanks,

Strangeite

m_vanmeter

10-06-06, 04:37 PM

I'm sure someone with much more knowledge than I will give a better answer, but the WLEX "digital" transmitter is on either 27 or 36's tower. There existing analog tower is what you see. Confusing isn't it.

Strangeite

10-06-06, 04:59 PM

Thanks, that is confusing.

I went to antenna web and redid my corrednates, it looks like the lowest station I care about is 46.1, which is blue-uhf and 14.9 miles away. Any recommendations on where I can buy an antenna in Lexington and what kind? (I really really want to be able to watch the office in HD)

Seems weird that I got much better reception when I lived in Georgetown than I do in Lexington proper. Oh well.

Thanks everyone

HDTVChallenged

10-06-06, 06:40 PM

and correct me if I am wrong, but isn't WLEX owned by Evening Post Publishing Company and not Sinclair?

WDKY(FOX) -> Sinclair
WKYT(CBS) -> Grey Communications
WTVQ(ABC) -> Media General
WLEX(NBC) -> Evening Post Publishing

BenCJedi

10-06-06, 08:48 PM

Maybe Dave Powell can explain how WLEX is showing that American Idol Rewind show. I had read Sinclair stations were showing that. You'd think WDKY FOX would show it. Just struck me as weird to see a well-known-related FOX show on NBC last weekend. Looks like the same show is scheduled on WLEX for Saturday at 7pm this week as well.

American Idol Rewind
Audition 1 7:00 PM, 1 hr
Sat 10/07/2006
WLEX-HD 18.1 (39)
Reality/Music/Children
English, 2006
A look at the first round of auditions from Season 1 and the contestants' first taste of Simon Cowell's scathing comments.

BenCJedi

10-06-06, 10:58 PM

Is audio popping for anyone else on only WKYT-DT? There's a slight snap, crackle and pop noise continuously in the background. None of the other locals are doing that. I have two diferent HD tuner cards in two different PCs and both exhibit the popping in the audio. I don't think it is my equipment as both systems are independent, other than signal from the same antenna.

jb_ky1

10-06-06, 11:23 PM

I am getting the samething with WKYT also. Not sure what the problem is, but is has been doing that since Wednesday that I know of.

Juppers

10-07-06, 12:26 AM

netbugwang

10-11-06, 11:30 PM

hi guys, I am living on campus of UK, and the campus housing offers analog cable through Resnet. Can I use a QAM tuner card, say Onair HDTV-GT to pick up local HD signals from it ?

Thanks a lot

Juppers

10-12-06, 06:57 AM

hi guys, I am living on campus of UK, and the campus housing offers analog cable through Resnet. Can I use a QAM tuner card, say Onair HDTV-GT to pick up local HD signals from it ?

Thanks a lot

http://www.uky.edu/Housing/resnet/index.html

Give them a call and find out. I don't know if Insight provides those channels on that service or not.

NashDigie

10-12-06, 03:42 PM

Well, I saw this on the internet yesterday and it kind of threw me for a loop. WNKY-DT, the NBC affiliate in Bowling Green, KY, is going to start broadcasting a CBS digital subchannel in early 2007. A link to the article is below. I thought I would pass the information along.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/. . . (http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/tvstations/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003252127)

NashDigie signing off.

HDTV4usinky

10-13-06, 09:26 AM

Dave Powell! Welcome to the board and central KY thread!

I would also like to welcome Mr. Powell to the forum. He's a great guy. I was wondering if Mr. Powell could post a link to "A History of WLEX-TV" I have an old copy, it notes that it's "a work in progress" The copy I have doesn't include any of the digital transmitter information, hopefully Mr. Powell has had a chance to update the story. Thanks in advance!

netbugwang

10-14-06, 04:47 PM

http://www.uky.edu/Housing/resnet/index.html

Give them a call and find out. I don't know if Insight provides those channels on that service or not.
Juppers

Thanks.
Seems Insight anlog calbe has QAM siganl. I am going to buy OnAir HDTV -GT to receive them

bbonds

10-18-06, 09:43 AM

HDTVChallenged

10-18-06, 12:38 PM

Insight has all local channels in their HD lineup...is there some reason nobody subscribes to it??

Not sure what the point of this post is, :confused: , but I'm sure there are several folks lucky enough to be in Insight's service area and do subscribe. For the rest of us, the point is moot. Besides, are you really sure Insight is giving you "everything" available? ;)

bbonds

10-18-06, 02:36 PM

So I guess I'm on the wrong forum...I thought I was on Lexington, KY HDTV Reception... :rolleyes:

Juppers

10-18-06, 02:48 PM

Insight has all local channels in their HD lineup...is there some reason nobody subscribes to it?? Picture looks awesome to me, plus there's no better HD channel than Discovery HD. Why buy an expensive HDTV and use bunny ears????

I don't know what Insight offers HD wise, but with my antennas I can get all of the Lexington locals and all of the Louisville locals. And I don't have to pay someone for something that is broadcast freely.

bbonds

10-18-06, 03:21 PM

You get what you pay for...

HDTVChallenged

10-18-06, 06:52 PM

So I guess I'm on the wrong forum...I thought I was on Lexington, KY HDTV Reception... :rolleyes:

Right forum ... but a bad assumption that everyone that participates here is able to get Insight service. The Lexington DMA and OTA reception area is much larger than Fayette Co. :)

BTW, I was wondering if Insight has picked up "TheCW" in HD (aka WBKI-DT) yet, or have they been cut off at the pass by "TheCWkyt" in glorious 4:3, 480i? ;) For that matter, does Insight-Lexington have CBS at 1920x1080i DD5.1 or is it just 1280x720p DD2.0? :)

cpcat

10-18-06, 07:35 PM

For that matter, does Insight-Lexington have CBS at 1920x1080i DD5.1 or is it just 1280x720p DD2.0? :)

Don't know about Insight, but I have all the flavors here: CBS at 1280x720p, 1920x1080i, and even 1280x1080i from D*. :)

The only source for CBS DD5.1 I have is from D*. Neither WKYT, WYMT, WVLT, nor WJHL have upgraded yet AFAIK.

HDTVChallenged

10-19-06, 01:13 AM

Don't know about Insight,

LOL, well just for giggles I did go check their "current" lineup at www.insight-com.com using zip-code 40502, and it looks pretty light in the HD dept ... unless there's been more channels added recently. Still, if I were a city/apt dweller I'd look into Insight ... for the convenience factor if nothing else. OTOH, a good OTA rig plus DishNetwork Bronze HD package is probably a better (programming) choice right now.

CyberWhip

10-19-06, 06:33 PM

Insight has all local channels in their HD lineup...is there some reason nobody subscribes to it?? Picture looks awesome to me, plus there's no better HD channel than Discovery HD. Why buy an expensive HDTV and use bunny ears????

For HDTV, if you have a tuner, bunny ears or antenna for OTA locals is as good or better than Insight. This is digital not analog. If you want DiscoveryHD then you will need Insight or Dish (or Directv). This is one of those rare cases where you can get more than you pay for (for locals).

Gordon.M

10-22-06, 07:41 PM

For those wondering what is available via Insight in Lexington, I receive the following HD channels broadcast in the clear (not scrambled) so that I just use the QAM tuner built into my TV to receive them. You don't have to buy the HD package to get these:
WKYT 27-1
WTVQ 36-1
WTVQ Weather 36-2
KET 1-6 on 46-1, 46-2, 46-3, 46-4, 46-5, 46-6
WDKY 56-1
TheTube 56-2
? 69-4
WLEX 116-1

I haven't scanned for new channels in the last couple of months so I don't know if I left anything out or not. If you get their DVR and have HBO or Showtime you can also get an HD channel of those as well.

HDTV4usinky

10-23-06, 11:23 AM

While we are all on the Insight subject, WDKY has purchased fiber equipment to feed Insight both their SD and HD feed. This will replace the current fiber equipment used to send their SD signal. This should cure the problems that Insight customers have noticed with WDKY reception. I'm curious how the satellite companies decide to receive the low-V

Juppers

10-23-06, 02:38 PM

For satelitte, all the locals go to an uplink center in the area, which I believe is at WLEX. It is all fed OTA right now I believe. Maybe the WLEX guy is still around and can chime in some more.

netbugwang

10-23-06, 09:41 PM

HDTV4usinky

10-24-06, 09:12 AM

But the thing is 56-1 Aka WDKY, and 56-2 the Tube seem dead since last thursday

WDKY shouldn't be dead, I would call Insight and ask them what's the deal. WDKY OTA is fine.

bbonds

10-27-06, 11:38 AM

Anybody know of any good place to have ISF calibration done in Lexington?

Juppers

10-27-06, 11:49 AM

Anybody know of any good place to have ISF calibration done in Lexington?

I believe there are only 2 people in Lexington that are ISF certified. One is at Barney Miller's, and the other is at Bluegrass Home Entertainment. You should probably call both and see which has the most experience with your brand of set.

HDTVChallenged

10-27-06, 01:11 PM

I believe there are only 2 people in Lexington that are ISF certified. One is at Barney Miller's, and the other is at Bluegrass Home Entertainment. You should probably call both and see which has the most experience with your brand of set.

FWIW, I called Barney Miller's a couple of years ago and they weren't interested in doing calibrations on anything other than their own sales/installs ... I wound up doing my own work.

bbonds

10-27-06, 02:15 PM

Yeah, I called BM and they no longer calibrate Panny. I looked up BHE and they're not in the phone book...wonder if they still exist.

Thanks for the help guys!

Juppers

10-27-06, 02:21 PM

Yeah, I called BM and they no longer calibrate Panny. I looked up BHE and they're not in the phone book...wonder if they still exist.

Thanks for the help guys!

www.bghe.com is their website and their number is 253-3454.

bbonds

10-27-06, 02:26 PM

nevermind, I found BHE on Whitepages.com. I'll let you know what I find out from them.

Green Acres

10-30-06, 12:05 PM

I want to set up an antenna in rural Harrison County for my HDTV. Where do I begin looking for the right antenna and who installs them?

m_vanmeter

10-31-06, 01:24 PM

start with www.antennaweb.org - enter your full address information - when you get the results, click on the choice for digital TV only at the top of the list. let us know what you get for some informed help

civguy

10-31-06, 04:52 PM

Does anyone know an antenna installer around Paint Lick, Berea, Richmond, or Lancaster?

HDTV4usinky

11-01-06, 03:57 PM

Does anyone know an antenna installer around Paint Lick, Berea, Richmond, or Lancaster?

James Gray is an installer in Richmond, his number is 859-626-1072. I know if him, but can't vouch for him.

HillbillyB

11-01-06, 10:23 PM

Hi guys and gals, this is my first post from a long time lurker. I'd like to say that the AVS Forum is full of incredibly useful information (and some not so :)).

Though it seems most people here are OTA guys for whatever reason (location, cost, possibility of better PQ, enjoy setting up antennas, etc.), I'm an Insight HD subscriber and thought I'd post their current HD channel lineup with their digital box (or CableCard??) for anyone interested. They just changed their digital channels today and added a few.

906 NBC (WLEX)
908 ABC (WTVQ)
910 FOX (WDKY)
912 CBS (WKYT)
918 KET 4
923 ESPN HD
924 ESPN2 HD
925 TNT HD
928 HDNet
935 Discovery HD
937 Universal HD
945 MHD (MTV's HD)
949 HDNet Movies
952 HBO HD
954 Showtime HD

Juppers

11-02-06, 04:33 AM

So, aside from MHD, they matched Directv for more money. I really hope someone good buys out Insight soon.

bbonds

11-02-06, 01:41 PM

Satellite has to compress their signal even more than cable, so there's absolutely no way satellite will ever look better than cable.

bbonds

11-02-06, 01:43 PM

cpcat

11-02-06, 05:18 PM

Satellite has to compress their signal even more than cable, so there's absolutely no way satellite will ever look better than cable.

Absolute statements are often wrong and I think this one certainly qualifies.

HDTV4usinky

11-03-06, 09:16 AM

cpcat

11-03-06, 07:25 PM

I can't get Insight in Versailles. I do get all the locals in HD for free off a $50 antenna, this certainly seems to be getting more than what I pay for. Is Insight cable HD less compressed than off air? I guess I'm confused by the price-quality-get what you pay for argument.

The only way cable will be less compressed than OTA is through a fiber feed. I don't think any of the Lex stations are doing that.

Check that. Maybe WDKY is doing this, or it seems like I remember talk of it. That would make sense, as I'm not sure how well the low band digital would do for cable systems OTA.

HDTVChallenged

11-04-06, 01:25 PM

Check that. Maybe WDKY is doing this, or it seems like I remember talk of it.

The rumor is that Insight is "helping" WDKY with their ridiculously long Columbus(OH) to Lexington "studio" to transmitter link ... which helps to explain why WDKY was up on cable long before most other Sinclair stations across the country. So yes it would be a safe bet that Insight(Lexington) is getting a direct fiber feed ... OTOH, I doubt that there is any difference between the cable and OTA signals ... too complicated to set up. ;) Of course, the above *could* be just a rumor. :D

Green Acres

11-06-06, 06:59 AM

HDTV4usinky

11-06-06, 04:31 PM

The rumor is that Insight is "helping" WDKY with their ridiculously long Columbus(OH) to Lexington "studio" to transmitter link ... which helps to explain why WDKY was up on cable long before most other Sinclair stations across the country. So yes it would be a safe bet that Insight(Lexington) is getting a direct fiber feed ... OTOH, I doubt that there is any difference between the cable and OTA signals ... too complicated to set up.

Light on the rumors (well, maybe I'm adding more rumors).... Insight is receiving WDKY off air, the equipment has been ordered, but I haven't heard anything about it's arrival.

The STL feed from Columbus is pretty cool, but I think it's more a Broadwing, Time Warner deal. Maybe Insight handles the Lexington end of the DS3, I'm not sure. Insight does have a couple of fibers for the WKYT news share. The WDKY news is sent up to Columbus before it comes back here to be aired. This might not make any sense to us, except that the news needs to be upconverted for the HD channel, no reason to duplicate that equipment locally. Insight picked up the HD feed early because Sinclair left it wide open in the old contract, it was an oversight. Good thing for Lexington, Insight had the WDKY HD feed as soon as it was on air! From what I understand, the WDKY engineers have a pretty good working relationship with the Insight engineers.

HDTV4usinky

11-06-06, 04:49 PM

We just bought a farm in Harrison County KY just North of Cynthiana. We are about 45 miles from Lexington and also from Cincinnati. We would like to have an antenna installed to receive HDTV from both Cities. We don’t know where to begin. I am not able to install this myself and would like to hire an expert install the antenna. Can you recommend anyone??

It's kind of a stretch to say there even exists expert rural residential antenna installers anymore. There just isn't enough money in it. I would start with antennaweb.org to assist with your antenna choices. You will want a fringe UHF-VHF antenna if for no other reason for the DX ability they provide. What a choice location to pick up Lexington, Dayton, Cincinnati, and maybe even Lousisville and Portsmouth. You will want to get the sucker up in the air, maybe a 10' mast on a two story roof, or a 40' tower. Add in a rotor and some low loss cable (I'd go with RG-11, but only because I have some) The verdict is out on the preamp. no need to amp the VHF, but the UHF might want some help (could go with 2 antennas, one V and one U with a preamp)

The installers I know of work here in town, they don't need to deal with towers and rotors. Maybe somebody like Antennas Unlimited could get it done. Does anyone else have any ideas?

CyberWhip

11-25-06, 11:27 AM

Anyone else having intermittent low (or no) signal from WKYT 27 this week?
I have noticed it just a few times, on Tuesday during The Unit and on Thursday during the 6pm local news. I have 100% strength on wlex and wtvq at exactly the same time so I don't think it is my antenna. I also have 2 sources that say the signal is lower than normal at those times (65% or below). Right now I am getting about 90%. The weather was very clear and nice during the low readings.

HDTVChallenged

11-25-06, 12:28 PM

Anyone else having intermittent low (or no) signal from WKYT 27 this week?...

WKYT-DT has been "nominal" for me (well scratch that, I do recall few more dropouts than usual.) ... OTOH, WLKY-DT has been all over the map for the past couple of weeks. I suspect that there is some odd/enhanced propagation, probably some skipover a/o co-channel interference.

jb_ky1

11-27-06, 12:28 AM

Yeah... I have been having problems with getting WKYT-DT also... normally I would get it at 70-85% along with WLEX-DT, and WTVQ-DT at 99% here in Georgetown, but lately, its been nothing at all... Yet I can get WUPX-DT all the way in Menifee County ( I think that is where the tower is located at. )

HDTV4usinky

12-06-06, 04:17 PM

It looks like there's still hope for WDKY to get off of channel 4. Check out this link:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/issue.php?w=2006-10-26

BenCJedi

12-06-06, 09:35 PM

It looks like there's still hope for WDKY to get off of channel 4. Check out this link:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/issue.php?w=2006-10-26

As long as they use the same tower and their antenna radiates the same or better than now, I won't care if they change their channel designation.

gspiggle

12-07-06, 02:11 PM

BenCJedi

12-07-06, 07:41 PM

Is WDKY actively seeking to change their channel designation? I had a good stable signal for about 9 months from an indoor antenna in a loft in my garage, sitting on boxes of Christmas decorations. Got the decorations down and can't find the signal now. I wonder how many little factors came together to allow me to find the signal in the first place? I sure wish it were easier to get.

It was that one signature heirloom silver ordament of a santa clause oriented at a 30-degree angle in the 2nd box from the bottom that was enhancing your signal enough to get a lock. :)

I fooled around WDKY-DT signal hunting for more time than anyone should. If you look earlier in this thread I have pictures of a cymbal on the wall of the attic that gave the right enhancement for me to pull in WDKY-DT. This is when I lived in Lexington in an apartment. Out in Winchester it was literally a piece of cake to find WDKY-DT. I made almost no effort at all to get signal for it. The air is alot more pure outside of Lexington for WDKY-DT. Look earlier in the thread for my posts about my wireloop antenna I made for WDKY-DT. Anyone can make it and it is cheap and will make your signal hunt easier. Tack it to some wood moulding, so you can wave it around your garage to find the magic spot.

My new goal is to get WBKI-DT, but for that I am going to go with a Channel Master 7777 pre-amp and a Channel Master 4228 along with my wireloop to have the best of both worlds (VHF antenna + UHF antenna). Hopefully I am successful.

BenCJedi

12-11-06, 01:07 AM

For those that don't read the Lousiville thread, I thought I would also share my post here...

For some fun, I plotted most of the broadcaster's towers in the Lexington area. Here's the result:
http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/hdtv/Lex.Area.towers.jpg

If you'd like to generate your own map to see where you live in respect to these towers you too can map using GMT at:

http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/mapit/

For the Lexington towers plug in these at the top coordinates (#1):
-85.2344 37.9483
-85.445833 37.530833
-84.680278 37.788333
-84.402778 38.039722
-84.394167 38.034167
-84.325833 37.879167

For labeling them on the resulting map (#5)
-85.2344 37.9483 14 0 3 3 WBKI- analog
-85.445833 37.530833 14 0 3 3 WBKI-DT
-84.680278 37.788333 14 0 3 3 WDKY-DT
-84.402778 38.039722 14 0 3 3 WKYT-DT
-84.394167 38.034167 14 45 3 3 WTVQ-DT
-84.325833 37.879167 14 0 3 3 WKLE-DT

To find your own coordinate of your house/apartment:
http://www.juggling.org/bin/do/map-find?lat=%2B38.013143&lon=-084.386267&zoom=5&wid=.650&ht=.379&map.x=161&map.y=111&action=display

To add towers not included in the coordinates above use the call sign field in this form (for example WLEX):
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/audio/tvq.html

To convert the degree to decimal format for GMT:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/convertDMS

I did not include WLEX in my map above because it is on the same tower as WTVQ-DT.

jb_ky1

12-11-06, 11:44 AM

William Smith

12-11-06, 12:33 PM

WDKY is now about .25 miles from WKLE

BenCJedi

12-11-06, 03:03 PM

AND finally WDKY-DT at % 0, Nothing, notta, nuttin’ so I am hoping that they will move the channel assignment one of these days!!

This is the antenna I got:
Terk Indoor Amplified HDTV Antenna (Model: HDTVA)

You might try making an 83" wireloop antenna. That's the exact length of flat coax cable you'll need (around $5 for a brown 'spool' at Radio Shack) for the specific frequency for optimal tuning of VHF channel 4 (which is WDKY-DT)

http://www.kyes.com/antenna/rabbitear.html

It's easy to make. Cut off 83" of flat coax from end-to-end. Strip off a half inch on both ends and twist the copper ends together on both sides. This will make a big loop. Now in the middle of this loop, pick one side and cut it so only one of the wires in the loop is open. Strip about a half inch of insulation and a little from between the two sides so you have a little 'play' with the wires. Solder on an female F-connector to the two danging wires to screw in a coax cable to your receiver/tv. I used push pins on a 7' piece of wood moulding so I could move the antenna around easily instead of pinning it on different walls. This should help you find some trace of WDKY-DT. If you can find a blip, focus on that area. You can add flat pieces of metal equidistant from this wireloop. They should be cut about 5% longer and placed behind the antenna opposite the direction of WDKY-DT. These are reflectors and help focus the signal to your wireloop antenna. When you start messing with reflectors, it's time to go up in an attic and balance them across Truses.

Anyhow.. thought I would mention an inexpensive way you can troubleshoot WDKY-DT...

BenCJedi

12-14-06, 08:48 PM

No changes made to my setup and tonight WDKY-DT is acting like a ton of multipath is heading my way. Watching HD right now is like watching stop-motion-photography. My signal is in the high 60%'s (normal for me). Is the unseasonably warm weather responsible for wreaking havoc with VHF channel 4? I haven't ever seen WDKY-DT tune in so poorly in Winchester ever since I moved here in March. Looks like it's going to be tough to watch the OC Chrismakah ep in 10 mins..

Just checking to make sure I am not alone seeing all this (most likely) multipath phenomenon right now.

BenCJedi

12-15-06, 11:12 PM

WDKY-DT cleared up for me since last night. My signal is about 5 percentage points higher tonight (higher than ever seen), but the glitchy-breakups are gone. Maybe the Linux box (splicer) FOX uses was on the fritz last night and had nothing to do with the broadcast/reception part of it.

ragamuffin

12-16-06, 08:45 AM

WDKY-DT signal degradation... perhaps this may have been due to the recent Solar Flare activity this past week?

http://www.spaceweather.com/

This potential high intensity threat caused the Space Station and Shuttle crews some concern and to take some extra precautions.

demonspawn

12-16-06, 10:39 AM

i was wondering what was up i was having good luck with wdky up until last week now i cannot even hardly get it. wkyt same issue to lesser extent. but wdky is spotty at best most of the time in my area.

rndthm

12-17-06, 06:18 PM

Finally after a year of wondering how I was going to get wdky-dt. I finally changed my outdoor antenna to one that will pick it up. So far everything looks great.

steverichmond

12-17-06, 06:49 PM

Drycreek

12-17-06, 07:17 PM

It's a small world!
I logged onto this thread looking find recommendation for a good HDTV antenna, I was surprised to see posts about stions in my area. I live in Morehead and want to pick up the Lexington KY OTA HD channels. I've very new to HDTV and currently use Dish network for all of my programming. I expect to get my new HDTV this week and was disappointed to find the dish does not carry any Lex channels in HDTV. So, I'm considering putting up a external antenna. Here is what I get from antennaweb;
* yellow - uhf WUPX-DT 67.1 i MOREHEAD KY 196° 22.3 21
* yellow - uhf WKMR-DT 38.1 PBS MOREHEAD KY 117° 8.8 15
* violet - vhf WKYT-DT 27.1 CBS LEXINGTON KY 260° 47.8 13
* violet - uhf WLEX-DT 18.1 NBC LEXINGTON KY 259° 47.4 39
* violet - vhf WDKY-DT 56.1 FOX DANVILLE KY 246° 48.0 4

As you can see, I live several miles from the Lex towers. The area is flat and don't have any blockage in the Lex direction. What equipment do you guys recommend? I imagine I'll have to use a external antenna, and possibly a some sort of pre-amp. Can I expect to get a decent reception at this distance? Thanks.

Steve

I had a $100 radio shack combo ant. and a channel master 7777 preamp, and I could see ABC, NBC, and CBS sometimes. The signals maxxed out at 68% but was all over the place. Picture would drop often. I never saw fox except for analog 56. I played around a while with no better results and then the wind we got about three weeks ago tore my half-assed mounted antenna down. I live in clearfield. I always wanted to try the highly recommended channel master 4228 antenna but could only find them online. If you get anything working decent, please post results and equipment. Good luck

BenCJedi

12-17-06, 07:45 PM

Roger_M

12-17-06, 11:18 PM

I'm in Winchester and planning a project after the holiday to bring up my WDKY-DT homebrew wireloop antenna into the attic along with some additions -- a Winegard PR 8800 UHF antenna and Channel Master 7777 pre-amp to combine both antennas. I have the new antenna and the pre-amp, but can't touch them til afer Christmas. I pick up all the Lexington digitals fine, except for PBS which is a bit puzzling. I am going to take a stab at pulling in WBKI-DT (CW in HD), which is why I went with that particular Winegard (since it suppossed to be most sensitive for channel 19). I may find that I have to take it out on the roof, but am resisting due to asthetics and the neighborhood deed restriction against antennas larger than 24". I'll definitely keep the thread notified of my results, as they may help others outside Lexington.

I'm in Winchester too. I've not been able to get WBKI 19 out of Campbellsville. I've got a large deep fringe Channel Master Antenna with a Pre Amp but have not been able to get stations past the Lexington area except Morehead (67) and Hazard (57).

Just set up another antenna for the wife's Christmas widescreen HD TV for our bedroom. It's a small Channel Master Stealth 3010 external antenna and tested with my Set Top Box and pleased to see all Lex channels pulled in cleanly. :)

Receiving in:

WLEX 39 (18)
WKYT 13 (27)
WTVQ 40 (36)
WKLE 42 (46)
WDKY 4 (56)
WUPX 21 (67)
WLJC 7 (65)

BdoUK

12-18-06, 09:59 AM

Has anyone found a good explanation as to why WKYT's sports broadcast blur during fast action? I have had my HD set for over two years and WKYT's HD sports haven't looked that great. I know they are converting the CBS 1080i feed to 720p so perhaps something is going wrong there.

I shot an email over to the station asking if they were aware of the issue. If they get back to me I will post the information in this thread.

BenCJedi

12-18-06, 10:47 AM

HDTVChallenged

12-18-06, 12:39 PM

... Probably related to the "infamous" Harris pre-filter issue. Of course, it could be due to them trying to stuff a square peg into a round hole too. ;)

fordfisher

12-18-06, 06:02 PM

rndthm

12-18-06, 07:26 PM

I live north of frankfort and just put up a winegard ss2000 with amp outside on my two story house. Pointed it toward lex and picked up wtvq and wlex at 96% It didnt tune cbs or fox in at all. Is this what I can expect or should I try maybe moving the antenna? i subscribe to dtv hd and didnt realize that i wouldnt get locals in hd. not getting much for the extra 10 bucks a month. I mainly wanted to get nfl in hd. much of that is on cbs and fox.

I believe the antenna that you got will only pick up channels in the UHF and hi VHF band from channels 7 to 69. Wdky-dt fox is on channel 4. The antenna that I got to pick up all of them is from wally world. It is a outdoor antenna the brand is a rca and the model number is ant3036w it was around 79 bucks. and I also have a 25db preamp from radio shack.

BenCJedi

12-18-06, 11:03 PM

Hey guys.. is this the right map to describe the digital broadcast range for WBKI-DT?

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?n=DT497538.html

NashDigie

12-18-06, 11:34 PM

Hey guys.. is this the right map to describe the digital broadcast range for WBKI-DT?

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?n=DT497538.html

Yes, once the digital channel is fully constructed. What I mean by that is that right now, they are broadcasting at 1000kw, but the digital antenna is not at the top of the tower. Once they put the antenna at the top of the tower, that map will be the correct one. I am providing the current map below. I hope it helps.

http://www.fcc.gov/. . . (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?n=DS1139260.html)

NashDigie signing off.

HDTV4usinky

12-19-06, 10:35 AM

HDTV4usinky

12-19-06, 10:47 AM

I went to Best Buy over the weekend, and got a new, and pricey antenna, but I live in Georgetown, and now I get the following:

WKYT-DT at 89%
WTVQ-DT / WLEX-DT at 99%
WUPX-DT at 79%
WKLE-DT at 60%
WBKI-DT at 52%
WAVE-DT at 81%
WHAS-DT at 88%
WMYO-DT at 68%
WDRB-DT at 69%
WLKY-DT at 57%

AND finally WDKY-DT at % 0, Nothing, notta, nuttin’ so I am hoping that they will move the channel assignment one of these days!!

This is the antenna I got:
Terk Indoor Amplified HDTV Antenna (Model: HDTVA)

Best bet for WDKY is an outdoor VHF antenna. You might have some luck with an attic antenna, but there is still the problem with electrical noise. I'm using an outdoor Yagi, and my signal will still break up when our dishwasher is on. Some receivers are better at dealing with noise and multipath than others, I'm pretty sure mine is a gen 2 or 3... not gen 5 for sure! I would read this entire thread for info on receiving the Lexington digital channels, it's all in here somewhere :)

jstew9

12-24-06, 09:19 PM

WDKY

WDKY is taking hits on their STL microwave path. They worked on this late last night and then the problem cleared up without any real explanation. Solar flares? Interesting thought, but their TSL antenna is pointed northwest, nowhere close to the sun. The problem also continued long past sunset.... This morning, both the analog and digital signal are fine.

I know the WDKY engineers worked with our forum friend William Smith at KET last night, as both KET and WDKY transmit in the 7GHZ band from Lexington to Clay's Ferry. The WDKY engineers really don't think that KET is causing any problems, and they speak very highly of the KET engineers. The WDKY engineers thought they were on to something at about 6pm last night, but it didn't pan out. More information to come!Is this what is causing the constant digital dropouts to WDKY programming, even with a strong (90+) signal? I'd not watched TV for a week or so, and sat down tonight to catch up on some PVRs and all Fox shows are pretty much unwatchable. I noticed that as of tonight it is still happening -- stops and stutters and dropped information during Spiderman, with a rock solid signal meter reading (this is on a dish 962).

Anyone know if there is an ETA for fixing the issue. Preferably before 24 starts up in Jan! :)

BTW: Merry Christmas to everyone on the forums, I'm off to become Santa and start getting gifts ready as soon as my girls fall asleep.

BenCJedi

12-25-06, 01:50 AM

'Santa' brought me the Winegard PR 8800 UHF antenna and Channel Master 7777 pre-amp.

First some sleep and then my trials begin!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Juppers

12-25-06, 02:03 AM

Sneaking under the tree a little early aren't ya? :)

HDTVChallenged

12-25-06, 02:07 AM

Is this what is causing the constant digital dropouts to WDKY programming, even with a strong (90+) signal?

I think something else may be going on ... I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary recently, but then again there hasn't been much "first-run" programming either. OTOH, They did have a heap of trouble with the HD-STL (a/o the splicers) back at the old transmitter site (not that it mattered since I was the "only" one who could pull in the original DT. ;) )

ragamuffin

12-25-06, 09:28 AM

'Santa' brought me the Winegard PR 8800 UHF antenna and Channel Master 7777 pre-amp.

First some sleep and then my trials begin!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Merry Christmas indeed!

I have the 7777 pre-amp as well... and it helps tremendously when I attempt to pull in L'ville or Cinci stations... however, when this is in the signal path for the local Lexington channels, it provides too much signal... which is just as bad as too little signal... I'd suggest using the analog stations as a guide to determine if there is too much signal for your equipment... however, your mileage may vary due to the tuning portion of your receivers (digital and/or analog).

Roger_M

12-25-06, 11:13 PM

Just finished installing wife's new 32" widescreen TV in our bedroom. It's a Toshiba LCD flatscreen and I'm disapointed that there is no PIP or Guide with the TV. Guide meaning that each DTV station provides a TV listing for the next few hours. My Samsung Set Top Box for my living room HDTV does have a guide. What other brand should I have gotten to get my moneys worth?

Roger

BenCJedi

12-26-06, 12:11 AM

Merry Christmas indeed!

I have the 7777 pre-amp as well... and it helps tremendously when I attempt to pull in L'ville or Cinci stations... however, when this is in the signal path for the local Lexington channels, it provides too much signal... which is just as bad as too little signal... I'd suggest using the analog stations as a guide to determine if there is too much signal for your equipment... however, your mileage may vary due to the tuning portion of your receivers (digital and/or analog).

The attic install route I completed this evening has only afforded me the ability to pick up KET GUARANTEED. My homebrew wireloop antenna could never get much of a fix on their signal to lock (It is ironically great at every other Lexington digital, especially WDKY-DT... I need to start making wireloop antennas for like $15 for the cheapy apartment dweller as IMO they are the best chance for an indoor attempt at WDKY-DT in Lexington). Anyhow all is not lost since I picked up PBS and it is something I seriously want to watch more of.

The Winegard is great, however I was really hoping I had a shot at WBKI-DT. The best I can obtain is a bouncy 9-11% signal (bounces from 0 to 9/11%). I had the same experience with WDKY-DT when I lived in that old Lexington apartment before countless days of the anti-hair club for men. I MUST go outside on the roof with the Winegard to really have the opportunity to sniff WBKI-DT. If would probably be a gray-area sort of break of the deed restriction since technically I can get CW from WKYT, but it is standard def which I write off as poopy. The deed didn't stop many neighbors from parking boats outside their houses either.. I'll contemplate maybe a spring attempt for going outside. If I had to guestimate...85% of the area population doesn't give a hoot about SDTV, HDTV or herringbone/ghosting.. as long as they can make out what they are watching. The liklihood of WKYT ever offering CW in HD is probably next to nothing as they would have nothing to gain from an equipment upgrade and degrading their own HD channel. There's always the online source for Smallville in HD, but I wanted to pick it up proper. I may have some better luck if WBKI moves their digital transmitter higher up on their tower.

The CM 7777 pre-amp has not caused any Lexington overload for any of the stations for me out in Winchester. It could possibly be the decreased signal entering my attic. This is fortunate for me. My signal strengths between my homebrew antenna, the Winegard and the pre-amp is as follows:

WDKY-DT: 64-75%
WKLE-DT: 100%
WLEX-DT:93-100%
WKYT-DT: 87%
WTVQ-DT: 93-100%

Not detecting any Louisville or Cincy from inside the attic, though I did have a pretty clear picture of WBKI-analog-34 in one of my attempts.. lost it though by moving cables around. Nothing is tacked down yet.

I could try that jointenna thing to only allow WBKI-DT signal on the Winegard, but that means I won't be able to get KET again, unless someone can recommend a way to allow only the channels I want through. I have no interest in WLEX-analog anymore. Perhaps in 2009 when analogs suppossedly get turned off I won't have WLEX-Analog on channel 18 contributing to my trouble of WBKI-DT.

HDTVChallenged

12-26-06, 01:01 AM

Perhaps in 2009 when analogs suppossedly get turned off I won't have WLEX-Analog on channel 18 contributing to my trouble of WBKI-DT.

I doubt that WBKI will raise their antenna to full height before the analog shutoff ... unless the FCC insists. OTOH, if you can get a whiff of WBKI in the attic, chances are pretty good that moving it out to the roof would make the difference.

HDTV4usinky

12-26-06, 04:12 PM

WDKY hasn't has any STL interference since Dec 18th. The problem cleared up, the aliens returned to the mothership and moved on to a new target.

Do you really want an antenna mounted on the outside of your house? The feds say go right ahead, thumb your nose at your deed restrictions and mount the sucker high and proud! Don't take my word for it, here it is from the source!

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

I love how a power transmission line with three transformers and wires everywhere go unnoticed, but your little bitty antenna brings out the neighborhood mob. Better yet, the new WDKY tower was supposed to be big and ugly, as huge as the Eiffel Tower. It's funny how nobody can find the dang thing (unless the strobes are stuck in day mode overnight)

Oh well, enough of the rant. Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas gifts, mine was a 22" LCD monitor for the computer... I love my wife!

BenCJedi

12-26-06, 05:02 PM

I skimmed through that FCC FAQ and it doesn't specifically mention a limitation on terrestrial OTA antenna size. It mentions items of safety, but nothing specific for size, except for satellite dishes (and Alaska being excluded entirely from a size limit). The deed says 'antennas must be be no larger than 24"'. Whoever wrote this deed probably assumed no one uses OTA antennas and they only had small DBS dishes in mind. The FAQ says something about the right to 'distant' signals and how this ruling doesn't figure in to that. The CW is Louisville would be considered distant. There's too much grey in both the deed and the FCC ruling.

BenCJedi

12-27-06, 10:43 PM

My whiff of WBKI-DT got extra flavorful tonight when I plugged my Blackberry in next to my computer to the wall power outlet (it is not even plugged into my PC with the HD tuner card). Signal shot up to as high as 36%. After around 10 minutes of amusement and breaup every other minute/second I realized there has to be some tropo going on in the atmosphere. It's too coincidental.

http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/HDTV/WBKI-From.Winchester-01.jpg
http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/HDTV/WBKI-From.Winchester-02.jpg
http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/HDTV/WBKI-From.Winchester-03.jpg

Anyhow going outside with the antenna is going to improve things.. I may actually pick up WBKI-DT reliably out there. The antenna is not displeasing to look at. Maybe I can disguise it as a boat. lol

Did the call letters change to WHAS for WBKI? I know I was on digital channel 19 (34 was the virtual number that the tuner picked up). I compared to analog-34 and I was definitely tuned to the CW. I guess maybe WBKI gets their 10pm news from WHAS?

EDIT: Also interestingly WDKY-DT is a full 100% signal for me tonight which WKYT-DT is unwatachable and breaking up with really low signal. Some weirdness going on tonight!

NashDigie

12-28-06, 12:18 AM

Did the call letters change to WHAS for WBKI? I know I was on digital channel 19 (34 was the virtual number that the tuner picked up). I compared to analog-34 and I was definitely tuned to the CW. I guess maybe WBKI gets their 10pm news from WHAS?

Yes, they did make a deal with WHAS to have news at 10pm. They started having the news last December.

http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/HDTV/WBKI-From.Winchester-03.jpg

What does your blackberry have to do with digital channels? All I know about blackberries is that they are cell phones with web surfing, texting, and etc. capabilites. I really would like to know what it has to do with digital reception.

NashDigie signing off.

BenCJedi

12-28-06, 09:04 AM

Yes, they did make a deal with WHAS to have news at 10pm. They started having the news last December.

What does your blackberry have to do with digital channels? All I know about blackberries is that they are cell phones with web surfing, texting, and etc. capabilites. I really would like to know what it has to do with digital reception.

NashDigie signing off.

Forget the Blackberry having anything to do with my signal luck for WKBI-DT last night. It was just an odd coincidence that I had virtually no WBKI-DT signal and suddenly when I plugged in the Blackberry to charge (which always makes my PC monitor flicker/speakers buzz when an email is coming into the device), that my MyHD MDP-120 HD card in my main PC began to lock on to WBKI-DT signal. The signal was real shoddy as you can tell from the screenshot.

It occurred to me I should try tuning WBKI-DT on my other PC with the Fusion 5 Lite HD card last night, so I did. This card has a 5th generation tuner that rejects the multipath MUCH better than the MyHD card in my main PC. Sure enough I am getting a watchable picture as of this morning. The 32" Westinghouse LCD HDTV I bought for $479 at Best Buy after Thanksgiving also has a 5th generation tuner and sure enough, it is tuning in almost reliably. I say almost because I have random interruptions where the TV shows 'no signal' and then after a minute the signal is back around 80% and locked. I hope this situation persists and is not some random fluke with the weather because if it is withstanding I will have all the locals I really want and all antennas are nicely hanging out in the attic away from public view.

BenCJedi

12-28-06, 10:28 PM

I hung the antenna from the top of the attic tonight and got WBKI-DT at 68% or so signal strength. I am staying locked in quite nicely now. I get the occasional glitch when the electric heating units in the house kick on.

There are some repercussions to using the Winegard PR 8800 and Channel Master 7777 pre-amp.. I'm getting multipath for WTVQ-DT and WKYT-DT is too weak due to how the antenna is pointed. It may be a fine art being able to use the pre-amp to tune in WBKI-DT, yet get the right balance in amplification and orientation of WKYT and WTVQ to keep them stable. I'll have to rotate the antenna to try to keep WBKI-DT strong enough to remain locked and try to keep WKYT-DT and WTVQ-DT stable.

I had better luck this evening using the S-video output from my PC's vid card (PC with the Fusion 5 Lite HD card) to the 13" TV I hauled up in the attic on the other side of the house. That's about 50' of video cable from the computer room to the bedroom and up into the attic, but made tuning much easier as you can see.

http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/HDTV/WinegardPR8800_signal-attic-01.jpg

Here's a shot of my homebrew antenna just straddling some beams in the attic. It's just a wire pinned to a piece of wood moulding. 100% signal for WDKY-DT

http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/hdtv/HomebrewWireloopVHF4_signal-attic-01.jpg
http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/hdtv/HomebrewWireloopVHF4_signal-attic-02.jpg

I think I am real close to having all the digital locals including CW-Louisville (Smallville in HD was NICE tonight). I'll have to try some scans to see what else I can pick up with the antenna looking southwest from my location in Winchester.

Guess I don't need to cause a ruckus over deed restrictions anymore. :)

birdman06

12-28-06, 10:32 PM

Alright everyone.

Need some help.

I'm moving to lexington Sat. I'll be living close to the man o war/richmond road intersection.
Here's what I need from you folks.

1. What internet service is best? Windstream DSL? or Insight Cable?
Keep in mind I wont need a phone at my apartment....just want the internet....also.....dont want cable....just the internet.....Which has the best bandwidth?

2. Will I be able to receive all the big name HD locals with an indoor antenna? NBC, abc, cbs, fox......If so I wont need an expensive cable bill. Which is what I'm shooting for.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

BenCJedi

12-28-06, 10:58 PM

Alright everyone.

Need some help.

I'm moving to lexington Sat. I'll be living close to the man o war/richmond road intersection.
Here's what I need from you folks.

Welcome!

1. What internet service is best? Windstream DSL? or Insight Cable?
Keep in mind I wont need a phone at my apartment....just want the internet....also.....dont want cable....just the internet.....Which has the best bandwidth?

InsightBB! Having lived in Lexington from 1995 to March 2006, I had tried Alltel DSL and then moved across town behind Fayette Mall and got cable instead (about 5+ years ago). InsightBB will give you more 'bang for your buck' at $44.95/month. You get much faster download speeds (3000Kbps max) with an OK 512Kbps upload speed (which I read somewhere are suppossed to go up again, if they haven't already). For DSL you'll be paying more because Windstream, like Alltel did won't sell 'naked' DSL meaning they force you to pay for at least a $25-$30 for an analog phone on top of their DSL package. It may be $40/month intro (or whatever), but I think they lock you into a 1 or 2 year agreement and the charges go up after the promo period is over, so it'll cost you like $70/month or something for less download speed than Insight provides. If you're like me and operate quite fine with a cell phone alone, then having a useless analog phone service that is required for the DSL package is just throwing money out the window. The only real benefit DSL around here is if you are a gamer and need the greater upload bandwidth or want to run some servers at home without flack from the ISP about their terms of service and no-server-policy (as Insight will do to you).

2. Will I be able to receive all the big name HD locals with an indoor antenna? NBC, abc, cbs, fox......If so I wont need an expensive cable bill. Which is what I'm shooting for.

At your location you are moving to you'll be right down the road from ABC (WTVQ), CBS (WKYT) and NBC (WLEX). If you keep going down Man O War towards Hamburg Pavilian and over the Interstate bypass you'll approach the towers at the end of Man O War and Winchester Rd. Can't miss them! In the near opposite direction from your new home will be FOX (WDKY) and PBS (WKLE). WDKY is the tricky one to pick up due to them being on low band VHF. For inside an apartment, the wire antenna cut to 83" from tip to tip is your greatest weapon of attack. Not only is it very cheap to make, it is exactly the correct length for optimal reception of VHF channel 4 where WDKY broadcasts in the radio spectrum. I had a much better shot at WDKY with my own antenna than any of the numerous ones I wasted time with buying at Radio Shack and Wal-Mart. Though you are on the other side of the Lexington 'noise pollution', so if you want to try an indoor antenna/amp, I hear Wal-Mart sells a good one (I just can't remember what others mentioned here).

Good luck. I hope you find my experience with Internet and OTA reception in Lexington useful.

birdman06

12-28-06, 11:10 PM

Welcome!....Good luck. I hope you find my experience with Internet and OTA reception in Lexington useful.

Thanks so much for the information . I'll be calling insight first thing in the morning.

Now I just gotta head out and get some HD equipment.

I gotta be ready to go by the start of 24 in HD on Fox.

magnavox

12-29-06, 02:36 AM

Hello all,
I'm new to HD and was wondering if someone could answer a question for me. I'm on the North Side of Lexington (Mary Todd area) and installed my new TV today with a Philips (32 db amp uhf/vhf) internal antenna I picked up at walmart. First, let me say WOW, love the ota HD !!! but while I was watching CSI, wkyt, its weather station and the CW station just went away...No bars on my signal strength scale, just went bye bye.

Do they quit broadcasting at a certain time? I never checked my reception while it was working (because it was working I guess). It seems the other local stations 18 and 36 (I never got wdky) were pretty strong signals and the analog WKYT was working as well. I tried relocating the antenna and they never came back. I was wondering if they had issues last night or do I need to invest in an outside or attic antenna? I figured that being in town I could make due with an inside antenna.

Thanks for any help.....

Gruber22

12-29-06, 10:18 AM

Hey BenCJedi, what combiner do you use to combine your homebrew VHF antenna with your other antenna? A link would be great if possible or even just where you purchased it. Thanks!

Roger_M

12-29-06, 10:23 AM

but while I was watching CSI, wkyt, its weather station and the CW station just went away...No bars on my signal strength scale, just went bye bye.

I tried relocating the antenna and they never came back. I was wondering if they had issues last night or do I need to invest in an outside or attic antenna? I figured that being in town I could make due with an inside antenna.

Thanks for any help.....

WKYT (27) DT-13 seems to be working just fine this morning. I have never seen go away before but not saying they didn't last night. Try having your TV do a channel search again.

As far as a attic goes , I'd go for a Channel Master Stealth 3010 antenna. It's small and not bulky and can take a beating if you drop it. Mine receives all the local channels even WDKY (56) DT-04 and WUPX (67) DT-21 out of Morehead! Good luck!

BenCJedi

12-29-06, 10:52 AM

Hey BenCJedi, what combiner do you use to combine your homebrew VHF antenna with your other antenna? A link would be great if possible or even just where you purchased it. Thanks!

The Channel Master 7777 pre-amp is the combiner. It allowed me to take my homebrew wireloop that I made for VHF and combine it with the Winegard PR8800 UHF antenna. That gives some flexibility in how you point your antennas without signal overstepping itself from multiple antennas. The CM7777 amplifies both UHF and VHF. I believe it has the greatest gain for both bands in the entire Channel Master product line.

I bought the CM7777 at solidsignal.com
They have an open-box one up now for less $$$
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=OBO-ANC7777
or full price:
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=ANC7777

If you're interested in making a wireloop for Lexington, you simply need 83-inches of flat brown coax cable twisted on both sides, then open one side of the cable in the middle and attach an F-connector transformer, so you can screw in a coax cable.
Here's the science of the wireloop
http://www.kyes.com/antenna/rabbitear.html

Gruber22

12-29-06, 11:00 AM

Awesome, thanks BenCJedi for the quick response.

BenCJedi

12-29-06, 11:10 AM

Awesome, thanks BenCJedi for the quick response.

Forgot the link to where I bought it, editted in the post above yours. :)

You're welcome

magnavox

12-29-06, 03:50 PM

WKYT (27) DT-13 seems to be working just fine this morning. I have never seen go away before but not saying they didn't last night. Try having your TV do a channel search again.

As far as a attic goes , I'd go for a Channel Master Stealth 3010 antenna. It's small and not bulky and can take a beating if you drop it. Mine receives all the local channels even WDKY (56) DT-04 and WUPX (67) DT-21 out of Morehead! Good luck!

Thanks for the response. I'll look into the 3010. This morning the stations were back working ok and seem to have about the same signal strength as all the other locals (my tv has bars and doesn't show percentages).

I may return the inside antenna, I want to get the best reception I can get without creating too much work.....

BenCJedi

12-29-06, 03:58 PM

Thanks for the response. I'll look into the 3010. This morning the stations were back working ok and seem to have about the same signal strength as all the other locals (my tv has bars and doesn't show percentages).

I may return the inside antenna, I want to get the best reception I can get without creating too much work.....

There's always Insight cable ;)

I never tried when I was living in Lex, but if you have a QAM-capable tuner you might get the locals free (in HD) even if you don't have the TV service (such as if you only had cable Internet and no other services). I may have read something about free HD locals on Insight without anything more than Internet service on Insight at broadbandreports.com forums if you want to look into that more. Insight may not have all the locals in HD yet though.

magnavox

12-29-06, 11:42 PM

There's always Insight cable

I never tried when I was living in Lex, but if you have a QAM-capable tuner you might get the locals free (in HD) even if you don't have the TV service (such as if you only had cable Internet and no other services). I may have read something about free HD locals on Insight without anything more than Internet service on Insight at broadbandreports forums if you want to look into that more. Insight may not have all the locals in HD yet though.

Unfortunately, I have ATSC only. Pulling them in off insight would have been nice.....

cpcat

12-30-06, 09:53 AM

Hey BenCJedi, what combiner do you use to combine your homebrew VHF antenna with your other antenna? A link would be great if possible or even just where you purchased it. Thanks!

If you want to combine ch. 4 with 7 and up use a lo/hi diplexer. If you want to combine 4 and 13 with 14 and up use a vhf/uhf diplexer. See http://www.picomacom.com/specs/pico/C/C24.pdf

UHF/VHF diplexers are also available at RS.

Georgetown may be a little close in to use the CM7777.

Roger_M

12-30-06, 10:02 AM

hdinlexky2

12-30-06, 10:54 AM

Was just on cable channel 27 (weather) and the ticker announcement on bottom of screen mentioned that Time Warner was dropping WDKY due to failing talks. I checked DTV-04 (56) and a signal is there but no picture, just a " dial tone ". Is WDKY having financial problems?

Roger

WDKY DTV-04 (56) has a signal, but no picture or sound. I've verified this with over the air and QAM(Insight Lexington). I sure hope they get their act together in time for the BCS!

BenCJedi

12-30-06, 10:54 AM

Yeah, I also noticed that WDKY-DT has signal OTA, but it's like they turned off their programming. Does anyone know what is going on?

BenCJedi

12-30-06, 11:19 AM

Maybe WDKY will say something...

859-967-1629, or e-mail engineering@wdky56.com

HDTVChallenged

12-30-06, 12:47 PM

WDKY DTV-04 (56) has a signal, but no picture or sound. I've verified this with over the air and QAM(Insight Lexington). I sure hope they get their act together in time for the BCS!

LOL ... welcome to my world before the new tower went up. :) This used to happen for days, weeks even months at a time at the old site. It looks like something's broken between Columbus and Clay's ferry. The lights are on, but no-one's home.

PS: Frankly, I hope the Cable Cos stand firm against Sinclair's extortion attempts ... especially in the case of WDKY-DT ... Given the added difficulty of getting WDKY-DT OTA, TWC is doing them a huge favor by carrying them.

PPS: WDKY-DT was only on a couple of the old Adelphia/TWC systems in the region ... I think those were mostly just lucky instances

BenCJedi

12-30-06, 07:39 PM

I guess maybe the engineering staff at WDKY saw my email. Programming has resumed on WDKY-DT! :)

CyberWhip

12-31-06, 12:30 PM

I think the lost OTA signal and the message Roger_M are unrelated.

For a few weeks now, Time Warner and FOX stations have been renegotiating contracts and TW is threatening to drop FOX. Not just in Lexington but in several cities, maybe all cities that they provide services to. TW also did this to CBS in Ashland and they lost the channel for a couple of days.

Roger_M

12-31-06, 01:16 PM

Just finished installing wife's new 32" widescreen TV in our bedroom. It's a Toshiba LCD flatscreen and I'm disapointed that there is no Guide with the TV. Guide meaning that each DTV station provides a TV listing for the next few hours. My Samsung Set Top Box for my living room HDTV does have a guide. What other brand should I have gotten to get my moneys worth?

Roger

Did a check with the store I bought it from and the Salesman said that only the 42" and above HDTVs have the TV Guide installed, however, he mentioned that some of the newer TVs have software upgrades that were available and could be done in the store. I'll look further into this matter and post any new info.

Roger

HDTV4usinky

12-31-06, 01:55 PM

yup, something was wrong in Columbus, my guess is WDKY is getting ready to drop "The Tube" due to new digital EAS regulations (effective 1/1/07) and lack of equipment.

Anyway my thought is that I should let Time Warner drill for oil in my back yard, sell whatever they get for a profit, and not pay me anything. Now if they found oil and gave it away to everyone, I might not be as upset....... Sinclair is a public company, in business to make money and all that jazz. Last time I checked there are not many cable companies providing the locals for free, maybe I'm wrong, please let me know if I can get just the local channels at my house for free, I could loose the ugly antenna! I doubt that Time Warner goes broke over $0.15 a sub per month or whatever Sinclair is asking to carry WDKY. Hey, I know how they should handle this! I'm pretty sure Time Warner is paid about $8,000 a month by WDKY for the Columbus fiber, maybe they should give that up for free???? fat chance!

It would be unfair to Dish, Insight, DirecTV and everyone else that pays to carry the broadcasters if the broadcasters forced some to pay and let others have the candy for free, I would think Sarbains-Oxley would come into play as well. Publicly held companies must operate in the best interests of it's stockholders. Of course Time Warner is publicly held as well, so this is the game that must be played by both sides.

While we are doing things for free, why isn't PBS staffed by volunteers? Why do they ask for donations? How much of my tax money goes to pay for Public Radio which I never listen to? Why can't I get a new 50" plasma for free? Oh and the price for gasoline.... ouch! Okay I'm trying to be funny now, but we all have families and kids (and in my case grandkids) to take care of, there's no free lunch... I don't think I should have to pay for medicare if they cover smokers, because I don't smoke. How long would I stay out of jail if I tried to not pay federal taxes on what I feel is a valid argument?

What do I know, I just want my "24" in HD, and it would be great if a KY football game would be in HD on FOX during the next BCS......

I really like this thread, you all rock! I need to go adjust my cymbals to see if I can pick up Fox..... :)

BenCJedi

12-31-06, 02:46 PM

lol HDTV4usinky (cymbals.. that totally worked at my last apartment for WDKY-DT)

I hope The Tube isn't going away. I love that channel! I can always tune to it and catch something cool I had forgotten about. MTV and VH1 should have stayed with that format. Where have you read it is going away?

BenCJedi

12-31-06, 11:52 PM

How am I suppossed to ring in the new year watching standard def? I am very disappointed at WTVQ for forgetting to flip the switch from standard to high def after the news. I called their news line and pressed #2 for hot breaking news. The phone rang 25 times before I gave up and hung up. What if Bin Laden was discovered at Triangle Park in downtown Lexington right now? Oh well..

2009 can't get here fast enough.. though they'll still probably have the capability of switching and will still probably forget to flip the switch to high def. Can't someone invent a dang auto-switch that automatically switches it after the news? I guess most people don't care, but if you have high def, use it, right? WTVQ needs more complaints. I'm on-call NYE, someone at WTVQ should be too!

Nonetheless.. Happy New Year everyone! To more high def in 2007!!

HDTVChallenged

01-01-07, 02:38 AM

Anyway my thought is that I should let Time Warner drill for oil in my back yard, sell whatever they get for a profit, and not pay me anything. Now if they found oil and gave it away to everyone, I might not be as upset.......

Oh rubbish ... what "value" would the local broadcasters really have if they suddenly lost at least 60% of their viewers (the approximate percentage of folks that get them via cable in our market - another 30ish% get them from DBS.) ...

But we've already had all these arguments ad nauseum in the "programming section," so there's no real reason to re-hash them here. ;) :D

HDTVChallenged

01-01-07, 02:42 AM

How am I suppossed to ring in the new year watching standard def? I am very disappointed at WTVQ for forgetting to flip the switch from standard to high def after the news.

Yes disappointing ... fortunately, WHAS was solid for me this evening. They (WTVQ) probably do have an "auto-switch," unfortunately they don't work so well with live programming.

BenCJedi

01-01-07, 10:33 AM

It was gone as of last night. Any chance it is coming back? Another New Years dissappointment. :(

jb_ky1

01-01-07, 11:21 AM

Well that stinks!! I just hope they don't take it off of WAVE DT 3-3.

HDTV4usinky

01-01-07, 11:21 AM

"The Tube" is gone for now. From what I understand, and I'm a little fuzzy on this, WDKY really wasn't making anything from "The Tube." There is a new federal mandate for EAS on digital channels that kicked in on Jan 1. Sinclair asked "The Tube" to provide the equipment, and the money wasn't in their budget, so WDKY had to remove 56-2 or risk fines imposed by the FCC. The money might show up later, so "The Tube" may return.

It looks like Time Warner still has WDKY on their lineup this morning. Somebody must have worked over the weekend (or maybe nobody flipped the switch) but it was a nice surprise. Now if we want to get chastized for mentioning programming... Maury is parading around fat kids, Greg (dude in the leather vest) had fat women... Happy New Year!!!!

HDTVChallenged

01-01-07, 01:18 PM

There is a new federal mandate for EAS on digital channels that kicked in on Jan 1. Sinclair asked "The Tube" to provide the equipment, and the money wasn't in their budget, so WDKY had to remove 56-2 or risk fines imposed by the FCC. The money might show up later, so "The Tube" may return.

Ah ... perhaps there's some hope for getting rid of more dubious multicast adventures. As for "The Tube," I enjoyed it for about 1 hour (the "good old days" of music tv) but then I got bored.

jb_ky1

01-01-07, 02:49 PM

According to Time Warner Cables website, it said something about the last day of programming would be Jan 12th. But luckly in G-town WXIX is already on our cable lineup. If they take it off, I would like to see WBLU-LP 62 in its place. I can't even pick that station up. To bad they don't have a digital channel.

badams1

01-01-07, 07:43 PM

Hello all...got a question about HDTV while using an antenna.

I live in Georgetown, KY and recently purchased a Philips HDTV indoor antenna (45db amp) and it appears to work pretty well.

I get an ABC, NBC, Weather, (6) KETs, all in HD.

But what im wanting is a FOX station...according to their website FOX56 is broadcasting in HD now...but my TV will only grab the analog channel when searching.

Any ideas on what I could try?

Thanks.

HDTVChallenged

01-02-07, 02:17 AM

Any ideas on what I could try?

A real VHF antenna (WDKY-DT broadcasts on Ch4.)

Scroll backwards in this thread, there are many posts about WDKY-DT and how to get it.

TexasBrooks

01-03-07, 09:57 AM

BenCJedi

01-03-07, 01:46 PM

I'm a Direct TV subscriber in LEX and get my local stations HD signal through outdoor VHF antenna. I've been having issues with WKYT and WTVQ pictures being fuzzy for 10-15 seconds a minute and then the picture clears up. It's annoying to say the least. I have no problems with the FOX and NBC affiliates whatsoever or any of the HD channels provided by Directv(ESPN, etc.) Is this a satleitte or receiver issue? Has anyone ever had similar issues?

Welcome to the club of HD enthusiasts with keen vision. That's been going on for a long, long while, especially noticeable during sporting events with fast motion. I have 3 different ATSC tuners and they all do that for WKYT and WTVQ. Annoying is correct!

BenCJedi

01-04-07, 10:56 PM

Juppers

01-05-07, 02:39 AM

Outside is the key.

Strangeite

01-07-07, 01:40 PM

Hello Everyone:

I have recently purchased a HDTV and am evaluating my options. I have had Dish Network for over two years now and can't live without the dual tuner DVR but they are wanting $199.00 plus installation plus an HD fee for me to upgrade to a comparable HD box. I have looked at Insight and while they are not offering as many HD channels, I will get locals and a dual tuner box. Does anyone have any experience in comparing these two services (including the DVR experience with both)?

Thanks,

Strangeite

HDTV4usinky

01-08-07, 08:52 AM

Rain is a bad thing for receiving WBKI-DT in Winchester. I stupidly attempted to adjust my antenna in the attic and can't find the 'sweet spot' I had that afforded as high as 65% signal. I am only pulling in around 30% which is not enough for a picture. I'll have to wait til maybe Saturday when the weather clears up to look for the good position again. I guess this is an attic caveat (poor signal when lots of rain in the area)

Wet shingles make a great attenuator! Here's an idea, get your cymbals back out and hang them in the attic in front of your antenna in an effort to collect more of the RF and direct the signal toward your UHF antenna. I know it sounds goofy, but it's likely the cymbals will work better at UHF than they did at VHF. Of course I would vote for a rooftop mast and a rotor as the best solution even though it's not nearly as wife or neighbor friendly as working on an attic soultion.

Does anyone have a grandfather that remembers his dad installing a couple telephone poles and stringing a wire to receive AM? Antennas are a challenge, but there is some excitement and a small element of danger involved that makes this a fun challenge :)

BenCJedi

01-08-07, 10:56 AM

Wet shingles make a great attenuator! Here's an idea, get your cymbals back out and hang them in the attic in front of your antenna in an effort to collect more of the RF and direct the signal toward your UHF antenna. I know it sounds goofy, but it's likely the cymbals will work better at UHF than they did at VHF. Of course I would vote for a rooftop mast and a rotor as the best solution even though it's not nearly as wife or neighbor friendly as working on an attic soultion.

Does anyone have a grandfather that remembers his dad installing a couple telephone poles and stringing a wire to receive AM? Antennas are a challenge, but there is some excitement and a small element of danger involved that makes this a fun challenge :)

Great idea!! I've not been using that cymbal (I don't really like the way it sounds) and it has been sitting in the basement since I moved to the house. I may as well try to put it to good use (again). Ideally I will get a tripod and take the antenna on the roof, but looking over the neighborhood I would be only house with a rooftop antenna and that would be like raising a flag I guess. I'll start monkeying around with metallic objects in the attic and see if I get lucky.

ipodhappy

01-09-07, 05:18 PM

BenCJedi

01-09-07, 07:31 PM

I don't know if it is the cold weather or the fact I messed with my antenna setup in the attic (and set it back where I *think* it was before I started messing), but it is impossible to get any signal for WBKI-DT or even the analog version. Not even a blip. For analog I only get snow. It's like WBKI turned off their transmitters or stopped directing signal east. Someone closer to the tower.. how's your WBKI signal? Is it possible my pre-amp went bad and has some issue? Other channels were noticeably (initially unexplicably) much lower signal this week and of course the weather is much different than it has been too. I replaced the short cable that goes from the pre-amp to the distribution amp and unplugged the 13" TV I had in the attic to the last port and suddenly everything has great signal again except WBKI digital and analog. Any ideas?

Juppers

01-09-07, 08:20 PM

WBKI nice and strong here.

BenCJedi

01-09-07, 09:59 PM

WBKI nice and strong here.

Something changed about how the signal is propagating or how I am receiving it. I wish I knew which. WBKI is dead while everything else is loud and clear. I don't get it.

steverichmond

01-10-07, 08:05 PM

BenCJedi

01-10-07, 09:23 PM

Something changed about how the signal is propagating or how I am receiving it. I wish I knew which. WBKI is dead while everything else is loud and clear. I don't get it.

I figured it out.. the CM7777 pre-amp must have a short inside it. I turned it upside down so the connectors point up and mounted it that way on the pole and can now pick up WBKI analog and digital (and even stronger than before).

New problem... as a result of doing the above WDKY-DT is now exceptionally strong and is causing breakups/glitches very frequently. I think it is much more suceptible to mulitpath now. It freaks out one of my HD tuners in one my PCs and causes that PC to reboot. Is an attenuator what I need? Any idea of what I would need/should try?

BenCJedi

01-10-07, 09:39 PM

Hi,
I live 4 miles west of Morehead (no hills blocking my view west) and just set up a cm 4228 and a cm 7777 in my attic. I can pick up Wkyt, Wlex, Wymt, Wtvq fairly well. I'm using the PIO 5070's receiver and all my lexington signals a coming in with over 55%. I'm not sure how reliable this will be but I have not done much adjusting of the direction or looking for a hot spot. Thought I would post in case anyone in this area was contemplating doing this.

Thanks,
Steve

Thanks for the input Steve. I think people reporting what equipment they are using, location outside/attic install and stations they are picking up is extremely useful as it provides starting points for the newcomers in similar areas. If you do any tweaking with your setup please share your experiences.

According to google maps you are around 45 miles east of Winchester where I live. I am picking up all the Lexington locals as well including (now) CW Louisville. Your best bet at picking up WDKY-DT (FOX) is certainly a VHF antenna, which you can combine with your CM7777 (as I have). You can make a scientifcally ideal VHF antenna with 83" of brown flat antenna wire from Radio Shack ($5), some push pins, a 7' thin piece of wood and a 2-wire to F-connector transformer. Just twist both ends of the 83" cut to form a big loop, cut a slit and break the loop once in the middle and twist on the transformer to both ends so you can screw on a coax cable to your CM7777. Pin the loop antenna wire to the wood so you can easily swing it around in your attic to find the best position. It's extremely effective and should cost less than $10. I'm having something weird going on with mine tonight since I figured out a problem with my CM7777, but it may just be positioning now that everything is coming in loud and clear.

BenCJedi

01-10-07, 11:19 PM

The CM7777 in my attic is packing a punch. It is knocking the heck out of WDKY-DT.. the signal is extremely glitchy now that I "fixed" the pre-amp. My last test involved sticking a paper clip in the VHF port on the amp. I am getting 75% signal WITH A STINKING PAPERCLIP. I'm fairly certain that the CM7777 is over-amplifying the signal including the bad ones.

I guess I need a UHF/VHF combiner now. Where can I get one? I don't think I need my VHF signal amplified
- one caveat.. I may need amplification for WKYT-DT since it also VHF. Can I get my cake and eat it too?

I guess the short in my CM7777 was good after Christmas because it was exactly right to give the best of everything. Then something shifted in the attic (the heating unit in the attic for the second floor causes vibration that probably jiggled the coax around) and now the honeymoon is over.

I can use some suggestions from the experts here.

EDIT: Is this what I need?
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=CC7870&xzoom=Large#xview
Keep the UHF antenna with the CM7777 since I need it for WBKI-DT, WLEX-DT, WTVQ-DT & KET-DT and use this combiner for the wireloop for WDKY-DT and WKYT-DT? Will this work? I know at the very least my wireloop with the CM 3044 distribution amp allows perfect WKYT-DT and WDKY-DT. I just don't want the wireloop causing multipath with the UHF antenna. How can I make this all work?
Maybe more simply I need to cause alot of loss in the CM7777 on the VHF side. How do I do this?

Maybe this?
http://www.antennasdirect.com/attenuator.html

magnavox

01-10-07, 11:32 PM

Thanks for the response. I'll look into the 3010. This morning the stations were back working ok and seem to have about the same signal strength as all the other locals (my tv has bars and doesn't show percentages).

I may return the inside antenna, I want to get the best reception I can get without creating too much work.....

I got the 3010 and all my Lexington Stations now have great signal strength :)

Someone once told me that there was no such thing as a stupid question, so here goes....

When watching HD programming, the today show for instance, why are some parts of the show in full 16:9 and then they will do a segment that is in 4:3 or something close to it (black bars on the side)? Do they switch from HD to plain digital in the same show? Just trying to be sure that it isn't my TV doing it.

Thanks

fordfisher

01-11-07, 09:23 AM

Hi from Frankfort everyone ,
I recently put up a winegard amplified antenna on my roof and I pointed it toward Louisville because I couldnt get CBS from lexington. I needed CBS for the superbowl. I now get chanel 3 from l-ville chanels 18 and 36 from lexington and chanel 32 from l-ville. everything seems to be coming in at around 65-73% except 18 and I dont really need that. My problem is that I cant get fox with my antenna tweaked like it is. 41 goes in and out, not worth watching. Fox has the playoffs on sunday.
1 What is my best bet for frankfort, how should I turn the antenna on sat. night to get in fox?

2 Will I need to change my entire H20 setup to a new city? It seems to only allow two areas to pickup local HDs. Right now I obviously have L-ville and Lex as my two cities.

quick note, I am on a hill and seem to also pick up Cinci a little.
Thanx for the help

steverichmond

01-11-07, 10:51 AM

Thanks for the input Steve. I think people reporting what equipment they are using, location outside/attic install and stations they are picking up is extremely useful as it provides starting points for the newcomers in similar areas. If you do any tweaking with your setup please share your experiences.

According to google maps you are around 45 miles east of Winchester where I live. I am picking up all the Lexington locals as well including (now) CW Louisville. Your best bet at picking up WDKY-DT (FOX) is certainly a VHF antenna, which you can combine with your CM7777 (as I have). You can make a scientifcally ideal VHF antenna with 83" of brown flat antenna wire from Radio Shack ($5), some push pins, a 7' thin piece of wood and a 2-wire to F-connector transformer. Just twist both ends of the 83" cut to form a big loop, cut a slit and break the loop once in the middle and twist on the transformer to both ends so you can screw on a coax cable to your CM7777. Pin the loop antenna wire to the wood so you can easily swing it around in your attic to find the best position. It's extremely effective and should cost less than $10. I'm having something weird going on with mine tonight since I figured out a problem with my CM7777, but it may just be positioning now that everything is coming in loud and clear.

That sounds cool. Do you think it will work for me being 48 miles from their tower?

Thanks
Steve

HDTVChallenged

01-11-07, 01:12 PM

When watching HD programming, the today show for instance, why are some parts of the show in full 16:9 and then they will do a segment that is in 4:3 or something close to it (black bars on the side)?

Normal for "Today Show"... probably has something to do with camera availability a/o certain celebrities not wanting to be "exposed" in HD.

Gruber22

01-11-07, 01:57 PM

BenCJedi - As to your combiner question I ended up going with what cpcat suggested and ordered some of these HLSJ hi-low combiners. Link is below. At only $1.36 apiece I ordered 4 just to have extra (I tend to help friends with this stuff from time to time) and shipping was about $9. Already have them but I haven't used one yet - my first task will be for my parents setup near Turfland Mall - combining a 3016 for WDKY-DT with a regular 4 bay UHF for everything else.

http://www.audio-discounters.com/hlsj.html

EDIT: Well, crud, it just dawned on me that this combiner is VHF HI & VHF LOW. This may not work. You might want to get this UVSJ combiner (VHF/UHF) instead. I'll give it a go with the HLSJ tomorrow but it likely won't work.

http://www.audio-discounters.com/uvsj.html

Roger_M

01-11-07, 04:14 PM

I got the 3010 and all my Lexington Stations now have great signal strength :)

Someone once told me that there was no such thing as a stupid question, so here goes....

When watching HD programming, the today show for instance, why are some parts of the show in full 16:9 and then they will do a segment that is in 4:3 or something close to it (black bars on the side)? Do they switch from HD to plain digital in the same show? Just trying to be sure that it isn't my TV doing it.

Thanks

Dave Powell of WLEX CH18 once told me that the HD cameras are VERY EXPENSIVE! So we are going to see a lot of switching back and forth from HD mode to regular 4:3 picture for a few more years until the industry gears up for the next generation of television technology!.

HDTV4usinky

01-11-07, 07:50 PM

so much new activity here I don't know where to start! For our friend BenCJedi I would recommend the uvsj in the link provided by Gruber22. I have used this product to combine UHF and VHF into one cable many times. I would suggest that you are cautious about voltage on the cable feeding the preamp. You should combine signals on the television side of the voltage inserter.

steverichmond, the simple dipole idea that BenCJedi suggests might work, but it is very low gain. You should be able to find an inexpensive antenna with at least 3 dBd gain at channel 4, which will deliver twice the power to your receiver as a dipole. You will also have less multipath, as a higher gain antenna is more directional. I use a single channel yagi in Versailles, but that is mostly due to a strong channel 3 on my backside. If channel 3 isn't a problem (and it isn't in Morehead), Stark Electronics carries a 5Y-2-6 for pretty cheap. The URL is:

http://www.starkelectronic.com/acantena.htm#Y5

This has a 4.9 dB gain (does not specify dBd or dBi) it's $25 but I would watch out for shipping! I've heard that WDKY can be easily picked up past Flemmingsburg if you aren't in a hole with a 5 element yagi.

fordfisher, I don't see you getting wdky in Frankfort without a cut antenna for the same reason I had trouble in Versailles. Channel 3 in L'ville will walk all over channel 4. My cure was to get as much gain on channel 4 as I could, and then attenuate channel 3 into the grass. I used a 5Y4S Delhi antenna, and it worked well. I also have a channel 3 notch filter, like what the cable company used to eliminate HBO back before we all figured out how to climb the pole and remove the trap, but I don't need the trap with the ch 4 yagi. Are you able to pick up 56 analog? they are on the same tower, and if you get the analog, there's a good chance you'll get the digital okay. The low v is better in a valley anyway as it follows terrain better than UHF.

Oh if i left out the important information, I was formerly a MATV/SMATV installer in fine hotels (Holiday Inns mostly LOL) all across the U.S. This was back in the 80's and 90's, but the concept of how an antenna works hasn't changed from the old analog days :) Normally we utilized single channel antennas for VHF and strip amps (also single channel) to amp the channel (on channel) for distribution. UHF channels we converted to VHF and we used the midband channels for pay movies. we added CNN-HN ESPN Showtime and TBS wherever they fit, and all was good. It was a challenge to be drop shipped into a city and figure out what signals were there and what we needed to do to receive them. I could tell stories about things going wrong....... Anyway I would like to think i'm an expert in the thomas edison sense (99% perspiration 1% inspiration) and have an idea or two that are good (please ignore the bad ones) I'm a fan of Fox programming and can't wait to see Jack in HD! Oh I'm an OSU fan in mourning as well....

jb_ky1

01-11-07, 08:34 PM

From the Time Warner Cable Webpage...

Over the past few months, Time Warner Cable has been in negotiations with Sinclair Broadcasting to allow us to continue carrying WDKY-56. These negotiations are on-going and we hope to reach agreement soon.

If we don’t have an agreement with Sinclair, as mandated by FCC regulations, we may be forced to stop delivering WDKY-56 to you at midnight on Jan. 12, 2007. Many of you will still be able to access these off-air channels.

I can't WDKY-DT anymore... but is The Tube still gone?

fordfisher

01-11-07, 09:45 PM

[QUOTE=HDTV4usinky]

fordfisher, I don't see you getting wdky in Frankfort without a cut antenna for the same reason I had trouble in Versailles. Channel 3 in L'ville will walk all over channel 4. My cure was to get as much gain on channel 4 as I could, and then attenuate channel 3 into the grass. I used a 5Y4S Delhi antenna, and it worked well. I also have a channel 3 notch filter, like what the cable company used to eliminate HBO back before we all figured out how to climb the pole and remove the trap, but I don't need the trap with the ch 4 yagi. Are you able to pick up 56 analog? they are on the same tower, and if you get the analog, there's a good chance you'll get the digital okay. The low v is better in a valley anyway as it follows terrain better than UHF.

so is channel 4 channel 56 in HD? What is a low v? can I run the Delhi on the same cable as the winegard with a diopter?

and BTW sorry about that Ohio team. I cant remember their name. I mean I could of remembered their name from the game monday night but, well, they forgot to show up. ;)

BenCJedi

01-11-07, 11:09 PM

cpcat

01-12-07, 07:43 AM

I live in somerset, does anyone know of any options to obtain HDTV locals from lex. i currently have directv, but have no idea when they will offer hd locals. i am too far for OTA right? sad and lonely and feel left out!!!

You might check to see if ou are eligible for distant network HD feeds from D*. I am eligible here. It takes some time on the phone but it's worth it and it doesn't cost anything to switch it on assuming you are already paying for Lex SD locals.

Otherwise, assuming you don't have any cable offerings, it will require a very large antenna and even then there are no guarantees.

cpcat

01-12-07, 07:48 AM

EDIT: Well, crud, it just dawned on me that this combiner is VHF HI & VHF LOW. This may not work. You might want to get this UVSJ combiner (VHF/UHF) instead. I'll give it a go with the HLSJ tomorrow but it likely won't work.

http://www.audio-discounters.com/uvsj.html

Hi/Lo is cut between low band including FM (2-6, 88-108mhz) and channel 7 and up (including UHF).

U/V is cut between 2-13 (including FM) and 14-69 .

Gruber22

01-12-07, 01:47 PM

cpcat - it worked like a charm! they are now getting all digital channels and the analogs are pretty good as well. I had tried 2 different decent indoor antennas (a silver sensor and a decent $50 rat shack one) with no luck on wdky-dt. Weird that it only describes the HLSJ as VHF only. Thanks for the original link a few days back.

steverichmond

01-12-07, 09:34 PM

steverichmond, the simple dipole idea that BenCJedi suggests might work, but it is very low gain. You should be able to find an inexpensive antenna with at least 3 dBd gain at channel 4, which will deliver twice the power to your receiver as a dipole. You will also have less multipath, as a higher gain antenna is more directional. I use a single channel yagi in Versailles, but that is mostly due to a strong channel 3 on my backside. If channel 3 isn't a problem (and it isn't in Morehead), Stark Electronics carries a 5Y-2-6 for pretty cheap. The URL is:

http://www.starkelectronic.com/acantena.htm#Y5

This has a 4.9 dB gain (does not specify dBd or dBi) it's $25 but I would watch out for shipping! I've heard that WDKY can be easily picked up past Flemmingsburg if you aren't in a hole with a 5 element yagi.

Thanks for the help. I had the day off so I decided I would try and setup a vhf antenna and see if i could pull in WDKY. I picked up a cheap Rat Shack VHF and put it up. All is working well!!! I'm thrilled since I was able to setup everthing in my attic and keep my wife happy. Anyone in the Morehead area that is interested, my setup is;
CM 4228
Radio Shack VU-90 XR
CM 7777
I'm able to receive WLEX,WKYT, WDKY, WTVQ, (55% or higher) and all the Morehead stations.

This board has been very helpful. I thank you all.

jb_ky1

01-13-07, 11:01 AM

fordfisher

01-13-07, 01:05 PM

BenCJedi

01-13-07, 04:17 PM

I asked a couple of questions the other day and didnt get a response, so Ill try to narrow it down. Mainly if I put up a rat shck anttena for fox can I splice it into the same cable as my winegard ss2000? Thanx

Unless you are using a Channel Master 7777 pre-amp or Winegard AP8275 pre-amp I think you can use this doohickey that Gruber22 mentioned here
http://www.audio-discounters.com/uvsj.html
to combine a UHF antenna with a VHF antenna. If you're aiming for FOX and are going to combine antennas, make sure the Ratshack antenna is VHF-only and your existing antenna is UHF-only so you reduce the liklihood you'll cause multipath (ghosting in analog TV, macro-blocking and unstable breakups in the picture for digital)

Roger_M

01-13-07, 07:50 PM

Looks like WBLU-LP has filed an application for more power yesterday... Sadly nothing ever airs in HD on that channel... Just thought I would pass it along...

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WBLU

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TX1167579.html

I clicked on that link and I believe that they are going digital on CH 10. WCPO in Cincinnati is on CH 10 already but there might not be any conflict if power from both stations do not overlap.

jb_ky1

01-13-07, 08:16 PM

Sorry, I meant to say that WBLU is just increasing the power of the current channel 62. Although I would love to see them broadcast something digital one day.

BenCJedi

01-13-07, 10:52 PM

Sorry, I meant to say that WBLU is just increasing the power of the current channel 62. Although I would love to see them broadcast something digital one day.

I see a construction permit for WBLU-DT. The more digitals, the merrier. It looks like their plan is to increase their analog power to try to gain viewers and then go digital by the 2009 cutoff. I don't know a thing about their programming and could barely pick them up when I lived in Lexington. The Wikipedia has good info on their history though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBLU

I wish the Tube would come back. It was perfect for when I had 5 or 10 minutes to spare and didn't know what to watch.

jb_ky1

01-13-07, 11:32 PM

I know I have contacted the new owners of WBLU and asked several times to make the station more powerful so more people can get the station... guess they have listened.

Try getting WAVE 3-3? The Tube is on that channel... But it looks like you are watching it on youtube.com

BenCJedi

01-14-07, 12:04 AM

NashDigie

01-14-07, 12:35 AM

I was watching TheTube on WDKY-DT on their .2 subchannel til they cut if off on 1/1/07

When they cut it off, did they take the subchannel off or did they replace it with something else, because here in the Nashville, TN area, TheTube was on our MyTV 30-2 subchannel. When they took it off, they had a screen describing what was happening for awhile, then they changed it to a SD simulcasting of -1 channel.

I see a construction permit for WBLU-DT.

I checked and checked, but I didn't see a digital channel construction permit for WBLU. What I saw was that they were changing their analog channel 62 to analog channel 10, but no digital channel. With this new application though, I guess they changed their minds.

NashDigie signing off.

HDTVChallenged

01-14-07, 01:36 AM

When they cut it off, did they take the subchannel off or did they replace it with something else {?}

As far as I can tell, it (.2) is gone completely.

IIRC, The plan for WBLU was to "flash cut" to digital at some point on or after the 2009 analog cutoff. The last time I checked (which has been a while,) the rules were not clear (if even existant) for the LP's and TX's.

jb_ky1

01-14-07, 09:27 AM

I looked for something digital also and couldn't find anything... This is all I found.

They currently have a construction permitt for channel 10, but i've looked at that map of the coverage area, a little bit better than what is current, but the new application filed on Friday for channel 62 is much larger. It covers all of Georgetown, Midway, Versailles, Nicholasville. Almost covering Winchester and Paris

Current Effective Radiated Power on 62 (ERP): 4. kW ERP
Construction Permitt For Channel 10 Effective Radiated Power (ERP): 3. kW ERP
And the new application on 62 Effective Radiated Power (ERP): 42. kW ERP

BenCJedi

01-14-07, 10:33 AM

As far as I can tell, it (.2) is gone completely.

IIRC, The plan for WBLU was to "flash cut" to digital at some point on or after the 2009 analog cutoff. The last time I checked (which has been a while,) the rules were not clear (if even existant) for the LP's and TX's.

I may need to rescan, but .2 is still accessible for me on my digital PC card tuners, but it is just dead-air (black screen). I have captured some FOX shows since and the bitrate remains unchanged. It's typically 3 to 3.5GB per 42-minute TV show (same as before).

Roger_M

01-14-07, 12:48 PM

I may need to rescan, but .2 is still accessible for me on my digital PC card tuners, but it is just dead-air (black screen). I have captured some FOX shows since and the bitrate remains unchanged. It's typically 3 to 3.5GB per 42-minute TV show (same as before).

Ben,
Your PC remembers that you had sub channel .2 from before. I've done rescans after FOX dropped The Tube and now I come up with just one FOX channel.
Seems that FOX is still broadcasting at 720P as before when they had 2 channels. Only WLEX 18 has HD at 1080i which is the only station I now watch for the news! :)

HDTVChallenged

01-14-07, 01:17 PM

{...}
Current Effective Radiated Power on 62 (ERP): 4. kW ERP
Construction Permitt For Channel 10 Effective Radiated Power (ERP): 3. kW ERP
And the new application on 62 Effective Radiated Power (ERP): 42. kW ERP

I notice that there appears to have been a change in ownership/licensee as well.

I may need to rescan, but .2 is still accessible for me on my digital PC card tuners.

Yeah one of my receivers is still hanging on to the entry, but it just tunes to .1, The other one (that allows direct entry ... aka. 4.2 etc) comes up with nada. One would probably have to use TSReader to see what's really going on.

jb_ky1

01-14-07, 01:48 PM

Yup, they are owned by Equity Broadcasting and is a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that owns and operates 31 television stations. A lot of Class A and (LP) low power stations.

mothergoose45

01-14-07, 02:30 PM

Heres my situation. Any help or comments would be appreciated....
I live in danville on side closest to lexington (US127). I have a large field behind my house that streches as far as I can see. I have a Dish 942 and 962 with a Wineguard GS-2200 (aplified Sensar III, looks like a bar). I pull 27-1, 36-1, and 18-1 at 100%. Fox shows 62-67% sometimes but breaks up still. Most of the time it shows 0%. Antenna Web shows to aim at 40 degrees so I went up today and aimed it there. Nothing. If i stayed on the roof and put my hand on the antenna my wife said the signal went to 90% with a steady picture(dont have enough $ to hire someone to stand on my roof while i watch tv :) ). So what gives? I need fox for 24 and football bad. My folks live a quarter of a mile to the east down in a hole and pick it up fine with the same antenna.
Does anyone have any clue on what I can do? Would a channel master in the attic work? What about a Wineguard amped square shooter?

Help please...

fordfisher

01-14-07, 04:46 PM

For those that don't read the Lousiville thread, I thought I would also share my post here...

For some fun, I plotted most of the broadcaster's towers in the Lexington area. Here's the result:
http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/hdtv/Lex.Area.towers.jpg

If you'd like to generate your own map to see where you live in respect to these towers you too can map using GMT at:

http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/mapit/

For the Lexington towers plug in these at the top coordinates (#1):
-85.2344 37.9483
-85.445833 37.530833
-84.680278 37.78833
-84.402778 38.039722
-84.394167 38.034167
-84.325833 37.879167

For labeling them on the resulting map (#5)
-85.2344 37.9483 14 0 3 3 WBKI- analog
-85.445833 37.530833 14 0 3 3 WBKI-DT
-84.680278 37.788333 14 0 3 3 WDKY-DT
-84.402778 38.039722 14 0 3 3 WKYT-DT
-84.394167 38.034167 14 45 3 3 WTVQ-DT
-84.325833 37.879167 14 0 3 3 WKLE-DT

To find your own coordinate of your house/apartment:
http://www.juggling.org/bin/do/map-find?lat=%2B38.013143&lon=-084.386267&zoom=5&wid=.650&ht=.379&map.x=161&map.y=111&action=display

To add towers not included in the coordinates above use the call sign field in this form (for example WLEX):
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/audio/tvq.html

To convert the degree to decimal format for GMT:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/convertDMS

I did not include WLEX in my map above because it is on the same tower as WTVQ-DT.
Thanks BencJedi,
I mapped my house
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o111/fordfisher/mymap.png
I didnt realize how close I was to wdky. Im going to try this week to turn my ss2000 sse and see if I can get fox. I would like to know how many miles I am from wdky. Right now I am turned toward L-ville and I still get 36 at 80% maybe if I zero in on I can bring it in. Any suggestions other than what I am doing. BTW the antenna is on the roof.

demonspawn

01-14-07, 06:03 PM

wdky is real buggy here in northern franklin county

fordfisher

01-14-07, 06:27 PM

wdky is real buggy here in northern franklin county

demonspawn, what do you do for Fox? Is dky it?

BenCJedi

01-14-07, 06:29 PM

Thanks BencJedi,
I mapped my house

You're welcome! It certainly does help get an idea of where you are in respect to the towers so you know where you should be aiming. You don't even need a fancy-smancy GPS handheld to figure this stuff out. :)

demonspawn

01-14-07, 07:59 PM

i am not affiliated with fox i just live in northern franklin county and the signal is very un reliable!

fordfisher

01-14-07, 10:42 PM

I m sorry, I wasnt clear. I didnt mean to infer you were affiliated with fox . What I meant was what do you do to pick up fox channels in Northern Frankfort?

HDTVChallenged

01-15-07, 02:18 AM

I have a Dish 942 and 962 with a Wineguard GS-2200 (aplified Sensar III, looks like a bar).

This antenna is not very good for VHF-lo (WDKY is on Ch4), the dipole is just too short. You need one of those old fashioned, ugly VHF (or combo) antennas ... perhaps the 80" boom RatShack combo (VU-90X?) would suffice for all of the Lexington stations (provided it's mounted outside.) The CM3020 (at Lowes) might be overkill, but it'd probably do the trick.

In any case, "perfect" reception for WDKY-DT is quite elusive.

demonspawn

01-15-07, 08:48 AM

i have a ratshack forget the model the 70 dollar range antenna. it worked great with the amp at ratshack but it got surged and i have not been back up on the roof. so the antenna itself is all i have and 27 and 56 are spotty 36 18 and 46 are fine

sleddogn

01-15-07, 09:33 PM

I have a radio shack 60 inch combo antenna on a 10ft mast off the top of my chimney on my roof with a rotor, have been battling the fox signal since it came on line. I live off nichlosville road, right down from central baptist and the football stadium. About 70 percent of the time i can't lock onto the signal to watch it. Have tried 3 different hd tuners ( one first gen. sony directv combo receiver, series 2 directv hd tivo with ota tuner, and my new sony sxrd tv with hd tuner built in). I also have a signal booster that came with an old terk antenna. I've tried with and without the booster in line and on and off. The tuner in the hd tivo is a little worse than the tuner in the tv itself, but still get limited signal lock on fox 56.

William Smith

01-16-07, 10:02 AM

Ben,
Your PC remembers that you had sub channel .2 from before. I've done rescans after FOX dropped The Tube and now I come up with just one FOX channel.
Seems that FOX is still broadcasting at 720P as before when they had 2 channels. Only WLEX 18 has HD at 1080i which is the only station I now watch for the news! :)

Fox's network feed is 720p There is no advantage in converting the format to 1080i.

HDTV4usinky

01-16-07, 10:33 AM

WDKY-DT Fox 56 VHF Ch 4 transmitter location and service contour:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1063722.html

The transmitter is at I-75 & exit 97, near the KY river bridge.

WDKY is licensed at 26.5 kW ERP, which is the highest power licensed to a channel 4 DT in the country, and one of the highest powered low V (the others are mostly in Alaska or out west)

Common problems receiving Fox 56 digital include but are not limited to:

VHF VHF VHF. Lexington has been a UHF market for so long that few people actually own VHF antennas. A regular combo VHF antenna will work fine almost anywhere in the contour to pick up WDKY. A good VHF antenna has long elements. If you have a little antenna don't expect much from it on VHF.

Ch 4 interference. If your Tivo, VCR, video game, or other device has a channel 4 modulator, unplug it when you first try to pick up Fox 56 dt. You may be able to rechannel your device to channel 3, but this in and of itself does not preclude the device from interfering with Fox.

Electrical interference. Anything electrical can interfere with Fox 56 dt. Dishwashers, light switches, CF lights, electric fences, anything that generates electrical noise. The key to reducing this is to have your antenna outdoors, and use shielded coax with good grounding. the important word is reduce, you will not be able to eliminate electrical noise (we get lots of lightening here)

Pre amps are bad for low VHF. Use a good antenna! A pre amp will increase the electrical noise.

Ch 3 in Louisville. most antennas are great at rejecting signals from the side, but if the WDKY tower is off the front of your antenna, and WAVE 3 is off the back, you will have difficulty with Fox 56. Several ways to reduce this interference are: Use a cut antenna for channel 4, use a channel 3 trap, use a ch 4 BPF designed for digital. I use a cut antenna in Versailles, and I have pretty good luck with Fox-56. I've never seen a band pass filter for digital, but I've been out of the MATV installation business for many years. A "trick" that often worked was to purchase a cheap notch filter for the interfering channel ($15) instead of a BPF ($200) The downside to this is that the cheap notch filter didn't hit the offending audio very hard.

UHF. Fox-56 is currently broadcasting digital on VHF channel 4, but they may elect to switch to UHF once the analog stations shut down sometime in 2009 (or later) Fox 56 has the right to ask for a new channel because they are both out of core on analog, and on a low VHF. The feds must be aware of the low V problems, I'm sure they have heard from a viewer or two!

Read this thread! All of this is covered in spades. It takes some time, but most all of your questions for the Lexington locals have been answered in the past. Several broadcast engineers and ham radio operators have assisted with answering questions, and several novice HD viewers have posted their trial and error methods, most with excellent results. I'm pretty new to the thread, and I am very impressed with the knowledge base contained within the past posts.

Work at it. Our great grandparents would string long wires from pole to pole to receive AM radio. Not everything is as easy to use as your cell phone. Off air television is an adventure! I would like to inject a little caution though. My first boss died while working on a residential television tower due to a fall, and I had a relative that was electrocuted while painting a house. Safety always comes first! If you are not 100% sure you can work on your antenna safely, call a professional contractor! I've posted a few phone numbers in this thread. If you have a good experience with a contractor (or bad for that matter) please let us know here.

Read on, interesting reading from our government:

http://www.nab.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Filings1&CONTENTID=3946&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/shvera.doc

magnavox

01-16-07, 09:26 PM

WKYT (27) DT-13 seems to be working just fine this morning. I have never seen go away before but not saying they didn't last night. Try having your TV do a channel search again.

As far as a attic goes , I'd go for a Channel Master Stealth 3010 antenna. It's small and not bulky and can take a beating if you drop it. Mine receives all the local channels even WDKY (56) DT-04 and WUPX (67) DT-21 out of Morehead! Good luck!

I finally got my antenna mounted in my attic and everything is great now. I got a 3010 and amp off ebay, now I get digital 27,36,18,upx, about 5 KET's and the elusive DKY. I actually put it in this weekend before the Football games, it looked like I could walk out onto the field :D

I also get all the local UHF (18,27,36,56,46) stations, BLU, and Channel 3 comes in with a lot of noise. I'm getting some ghosting on some of the analogs but I don't mind that at all...

Thanks for the great advice !

Roger_M

01-16-07, 10:18 PM

I finally got my antenna mounted in my attic and everything is great now. I got a 3010 and amp off ebay, now I get digital 27,36,18,upx, about 5 KET's and the elusive DKY. I actually put it in this weekend before the Football games, it looked like I could walk out onto the field :D

I also get all the local UHF (18,27,36,56,46) stations, BLU, and Channel 3 comes in with a lot of noise. I'm getting some ghosting on some of the analogs but I don't mind that at all...

Thanks for the great advice !

Have you tried getting CH 67 (DT-21.1)? That's PAX out of Morehead. I can receive it on my CM 3010 here in Winchester!

BenCJedi

01-16-07, 11:30 PM

Have you tried getting CH 67 (DT-21.1)? That's PAX out of Morehead. I can receive it on my CM 3010 here in Winchester!

I have a feeling if I were not aiming to hit WBKI-DT from Winchester I could just turn my PR8800 around and pick up PAX, but with the current orientation the station isn't giving me even a taste of signal.

I talked to another guy at solidsignal and he agrees there's something wrong with my CM7777 pre-amp (it's got a cold solder joint or something), so a Winegard AP8275 pre-amp is on the way. They won't have anymore CM7777s til March. The AP8275 has a little more dbs for both UHF and VHF. I hope that gives me an edge for staying inside with the antennas. There's .8db more noise though with the Winegard pre-amp on UHF. WBKI-DT is spotty inside. It is either 80% signal and locked or 0% signal and dead. The weather has ALOT of influence on my setup for WBKI-DT. If there's a large band of wetness in the Louisville area and it is clear to the east, the storm front acts like a parabolic shield pushing signal out east. The last couple storm systems that have come through central KY like that forced EXCELLANT WBKI-DT signak out here.

I can't go on the roof with the current CM7777. It only works if I mount it upside down (and if I took it outside rain would be open to collect inside like a cereal bowl). I'll just have to see how the AP8275 does.

steverichmond

01-18-07, 09:53 AM

Thanks for the help. I had the day off so I decided I would try and setup a vhf antenna and see if i could pull in WDKY. I picked up a cheap Rat Shack VHF and put it up. All is working well!!! I'm thrilled since I was able to setup everthing in my attic and keep my wife happy. Anyone in the Morehead area that is interested, my setup is;
CM 4228
Radio Shack VU-90 XR
CM 7777
I'm able to receive WLEX,WKYT, WDKY, WTVQ, (55% or higher) and all the Morehead stations.

This board has been very helpful. I thank you all.

Ok, I'm running into problems with WDKY. (common subject) I bought the
VU-90 because is was available locally and I had some time available on my day off. My signal strenght is running anywhere from 30 to 43 percent and am getting some pixelization once in a while. I've never been a big fan of RS stuff and I'm considering ordering a Y5-2-6 (or a suggested better antenna) to replace my vu-90. I know moving my antenna outside will help but I really trying to avoid this. (wife don't want it outside). So here is my (very subjective) question; Will the Y5-2-6 or any suggested other pull in a better reception for WDKY than my existing vu-90? Any thoughts? Thanks!

HDTVChallenged

01-18-07, 12:55 PM

So here is my (very subjective) question; Will the Y5-2-6 or any suggested other pull in a better reception for WDKY than my existing vu-90? Any thoughts? Thanks!

I suspect your attic mount is the limiting factor here. Before you go and throw more money at the problem, you should at least try the VU-90XR outside/on-roof - if only to determine if it has enough juice. Unless you go with a cut-channel yagi (~7.5dB or more gain) you're probably not going to see much improvement on Ch4 over the RS.

It boils down to this: Maybe you'll get 3-4dB more gain from the antenna vs. 20dB or more of actual RF signal by mounting the antenna outside.

steverichmond

01-18-07, 02:00 PM

I suspect your attic mount is the limiting factor here. Before you go and throw more money at the problem, you should at least try the VU-90XR outside/on-roof - if only to determine if it has enough juice. Unless you go with a cut-channel yagi (~7.5dB or more gain) you're probably not going to see much improvement on Ch4 over the RS.

It boils down to this: Maybe you'll get 3-4dB more gain from the antenna vs. 20dB or more of actual RF signal by mounting the antenna outside.

Yea I think you are right. (I just did not want to admit it to myself)

If I was to mount it outside, I'm considering a gable mount in the back of the house like this one.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=RON4560

Does anyone have any experience with this type of mount? Would the 11 guage steel be strong enough? I could fab my own but who has the time? Thanks!

BenCJedi

01-18-07, 02:25 PM

Yea I think you are right. (I just did not want to admit it to myself)

If I was to mount it outside, I'm considering a gable mount in the back of the house like this one.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=RON4560

Does anyone have any experience with this type of mount? Would the 11 guage steel be strong enough? I could fab my own but who has the time? Thanks!

Steve, thanks for pointing out that mount. If I decide to take my antenna out on the roof, that may be the best option for me to mount the antenna keeping the look symmentrical and asthetically pleasing (since I would be breaking the neighborhood deed restriction due to the size of the Winegard PR8800 UHF antenna I bought). The hard part will be getting the nerve to sort of hang off the top of the house to secure the mount. Although a mount like this would only raise my antenna 6' from where it hangs in the attic right now.

steverichmond

01-18-07, 02:38 PM

Steve, thanks for pointing out that mount. If I decide to take my antenna out on the roof, that may be the best option for me to mount the antenna keeping the look symmentrical and asthetically pleasing (since I would be breaking the neighborhood deed restriction due to the size of the Winegard PR8800 UHF antenna I bought). The hard part will be getting the nerve to sort of hang off the top of the house to secure the mount. Although a mount like this would only raise my antenna 6' from where it hangs in the attic right now.

I recall seeing a link (somewhere, maybe this forum) to a FCC page that stated that it was ok to put a outside antenna reguardless of local restrictions. I'm sure I'm not doing it justice, perhaps there someone here has a much clearer understanding on the FCC laws reguarding antennas? Thanks!

jbrown4200

01-18-07, 04:33 PM

HDTVChallenged…

I’m a fellow Versaillian and just starting out in the HDTV world. I’m hoping that you can help me out…if you have some time

My new TV was being delivered last week…so I checked out ‘antennaweb’ and made my plans. Unfortunately, for some reason 56.1 never showed and I thought everything was UHF. I bought 2 40” (UHF only) booms from Rshack, installed them on the roof, and pointed them in the right direction and everything came in great (except for DKY). After reading a lot of posts, I realize I need to go get a VHF antenna…so I went back to Rshack and bought a 80” VU-90. But I still get nothing.

So I would like to try a few things that you mentioned…but I’m such an antenna idiot…I don’t understand them.

You said “use a cut antenna for channel 4”. What is a cut antenna? And where can I get one, or do I have to make it?

You said “use a channel 3 trap”. Where do I get one of these? And is that what I call it?

And now a few even dumber questions: Will the TV pick up DKY as 4 or 56.1? And how do I point my VHF antenna?

Again, my apologies to the board for my ignorance. Thanks for any help.

steverichmond

01-18-07, 04:40 PM

I recall seeing a link (somewhere, maybe this forum) to a FCC page that stated that it was ok to put a outside antenna reguardless of local restrictions. I'm sure I'm not doing it justice, perhaps there someone here has a much clearer understanding on the FCC laws reguarding antennas? Thanks!

I found it!

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

Enjoy

BenCJedi

01-18-07, 07:11 PM

I found it!

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

Enjoy

Here's the thing though... technically we all get CW network off WKYT-s digital channel (13.2). It's only standard def (of course) and being the HD nut, I want high def, so I go through the trouble of trying to get the CW Louisville instead. I am not sure if that FCC mandate would protect me since I am getting CW.. just at inferior quality.

Drycreek

01-18-07, 07:49 PM

Thanks for the help. I had the day off so I decided I would try and setup a vhf antenna and see if i could pull in WDKY. I picked up a cheap Rat Shack VHF and put it up. All is working well!!! I'm thrilled since I was able to setup everthing in my attic and keep my wife happy. Anyone in the Morehead area that is interested, my setup is;
CM 4228
Radio Shack VU-90 XR
CM 7777
I'm able to receive WLEX,WKYT, WDKY, WTVQ, (55% or higher) and all the Morehead stations.

This board has been very helpful. I thank you all.

Please tell me that 18.1 WLEX is not stable. I have a CM7777 AND a the largest combo ant from ChannelMaster. 18.1 shows signal of 64% to 76% but has frequent drops and at time completly unwatchable. I have not been able to find WDKY at all, only analog 56. I live at the base of drycreek. Do you live at a higher elevation?? Is the CM4228 for WDKY only??
P.S. Congrats.

Roger_M

01-18-07, 08:34 PM

There is a good article in Scientific American about HDTV in the Febuary issue. Very good reading for those interested.

Roger

fordfisher

01-18-07, 09:53 PM

HDTVChallenged…

And now a few even dumber questions: Will the TV pick up DKY as 4 or 56.1? .

Ditto that. :) :) I want to know the same. My H20 box doesnt show a chan 4 it only has 56-1DT and 56-2 So will I need to somehow get 4 on there? or when I begin searching w/ my antenna for dky will I jus t try on 56-1?

steverichmond

01-18-07, 09:54 PM

Please tell me that 18.1 WLEX is not stable. I have a CM7777 AND a the largest combo ant from ChannelMaster. 18.1 shows signal of 64% to 76% but has frequent drops and at time completly unwatchable. I have not been able to find WDKY at all, only analog 56. I live at the base of drycreek. Do you live at a higher elevation?? Is the CM4228 for WDKY only??
P.S. Congrats.

I live on Ellington Loop Road in the Ellington Estates subdiv. The Sharky water tower is about 1/2 mile from my house. The hills start behind me and I have a decent shot at Lex. The CM 4228 is for the uhf channels. (WLEX, WKYT, WTVQ) and the vu90 is for WDKY. my signal strenghts are WLEX 55%, WLEX 75%, WTVQ is 65% and WDKY 36%.(attice mount) I'm not sure about the locking thing you are talking about as my tuner only tells me the % of signal strength. I've tried connecting my ant lead to the Dishnetwork VIP receiver I have and it only finds the Morehead stations. According to the VIP manual the signal has to lock before it will reconize it. As far as stability is concerned, I've never seen any kind of break up on WLEX, WKYT, WTVQ but do occasionally see some break up on WDKY. (not bad though, just enough to annoy me) I can't really commit on the analog channels as I receive them via the dish and programmed them out off the tv tuner.

You being at the base of Dry Creek should enable you a fair shot at lex. I once read that in a deep fringe area, it is better to have a seperate UHF and VHF antennas to pull in relieable signals. Have you ever considered getting a CM 4228 and some deep fringe VHF antenna? You already have the pre-amp that will combine them.

steverichmond

01-18-07, 10:17 PM

Drycreek

01-18-07, 11:19 PM

Thanks for the great info. I started with the RadioShack ant. that you have and didnt mount securely, I was still experimenting. The wind destroyed my ant so I decided to try a CM 3671 which is a deep fringe ant. My DishNetwork 622 will receive all in difital but FOX. WLEX 18.1 is dropping way too frequently. I think you may have a superior view of Lex. If so and WDKY is dropping for you I dont think I will invest in a separate ant for VHF. Cable also has CBS, Discovery, TNT, and KET in HD if you have a QAM tuner. My SXRD XBR2 60" has a QAM tuner and with basic cable signal it picks up those I mentioned plus a bunch of audio stations. If TWC would pick up the other networks I would quit with all this trial and error stuff. It is also said that NPS is working on HD networks so we can receive them thru our DishNetwork boxes. Right now you can subscribe to Atlanta and SanFrancisco networks but only in SD.

BenCJedi

01-18-07, 11:39 PM

So the Winegard 8275 pre-amp showed up today. To my surprise it only has one antenna input. The guy at solidsignal told me it had both a UHF and VHF input as the CM7777 does. So anyway I tried my Winegard PR8800 and oddly enough I am getting 75% signal for WDKY in the attic with a UHF-only antenna. Perhaps this will work out better than the CM7777. I ran out of time to tweak and actually clamp it to the rod, so I will have to revisit this tomorrow. My short cable from the antenna balun to the pre-amp must not be great as you look at it the wrong way and all the signal goes away. I inspected the CM7777 and it smells like ozone burn. fishy

BenCJedi

01-18-07, 11:46 PM

Fox 56 digital shows up as 56.1 on my set.

On my MyHD MDP-120 ATSC PC card it tunes as channel 4
On my Fusion 5 Lite ATSC PC card it tunes as channel 56-1(4)
On my 32" Westinghouse LCD HD set it tunes as 56.1

'4' is the actual RF frequency channel, but to make it easier (or confusing) TV manufacturers, HD card manufacturers, receiver manufacturers, etc redesignate the channels in their tuning menu as the numbers given by their analog equivalents that we had always known up to the birth of off-the-air digital TV. FOX shouldn't be doing that as there is no way they are keeping RF channel #56.. it's one of the casualties that the government is seizing back to sell to telecom companies, the military or space aliens or something. WDKY is probably unsure if they are keeping channel 4 or going to ask the FCC for another channel number when the analog shutoff happens supposedly in 2009.

HDTVChallenged

01-19-07, 03:29 AM

Yea I think you are right. (I just did not want to admit it to myself)

If I was to mount it outside, I'm considering a gable mount in the back of the house like this one.

Location, location, location. :) When installing an antenna, one should first find "the" spot on the roof with the best signal strength ... there will be dead spots even on the roof. OTOH, you might get lucky and have a "hot" spot right where the gable mount would put the antenna. A "ground-up" (mast runs up from the ground) gable mount is stronger. There is (or was) a good instruction manual at www.channelmaster.com on various issues related to mounting outdoor antennas.

HDTVChallenged

01-19-07, 03:32 AM

Ditto that. :) :) I want to know the same. My H20 box doesnt show a chan 4 it only has 56-1DT and 56-2 So will I need to somehow get 4 on there? or when I begin searching w/ my antenna for dky will I jus t try on 56-1?

It should tune WDKY from 56.1 ... however, if you're trying to find a signal (via the OTA signal meter) you should be looking at Ch4. Clear as mud? ;) :D

steverichmond

01-19-07, 09:36 AM

Location, location, location. :) When installing an antenna, one should first find "the" spot on the roof with the best signal strength ... there will be dead spots even on the roof. OTOH, you might get lucky and have a "hot" spot right where the gable mount would put the antenna. A "ground-up" (mast runs up from the ground) gable mount is stronger. There is (or was) a good instruction manual at www.channelmaster.com on various issues related to mounting outdoor antennas.

Very good point. I know sometimes a foot or 2 can make a world of difference.

I've seen the roof mounts on various websites, (don't have a Chimney) however I'm concerned about putting a lag bolt through my roofing, I know one can apply tar type materials around them and eliminate any leaks. My luck would be, shortly after I do this Dish would start carrying my locals in HD and my wife would then want to take the thing down leaving a place on my roof

HDTVChallenged

01-19-07, 01:06 PM

Very good point. I know sometimes a foot or 2 can make a world of difference.

... You could get lucky, it's more of an issue with UHF. Thanks to the relatively large wavelength of VHF-lo, it might take moving to the other end of the house to get out of a dead spot. ;) In my case, height was the biggest factor.

Roger_M

01-19-07, 04:42 PM

Ditto that. :) :) I want to know the same. My H20 box doesnt show a chan 4 it only has 56-1DT and 56-2 So will I need to somehow get 4 on there? or when I begin searching w/ my antenna for dky will I jus t try on 56-1?

The real answer to that question is the your TV should be tuned to 04.1 to get to FOX 56, that is if you don't already have 56.1 listed as a viable station that the Scanner program picked up. Channel 56.1 is a "virtual channel" that is established by part of the signal sent out by the FOX signal tower. The "actual channel" is still just 04.1. Your HDTV remembers the virtual channel and uses that channel designation as a reference when using the channel select buttons on your remote.

I hope that helps you.

jb_ky1

01-20-07, 09:58 AM

BenCJedi

01-20-07, 11:02 AM

Is it still gone on WDKY-DT 4.2? I can't get it in Georgetown, but from what I am reading on here that is no longer around. But I did talk to someone at WTVQ and asked since WDKY dropped the serivce that WTVQ would look in to it. I really don't think they need another digital subchannel. To bad WLEX won't pick it up, they don't have any subchannels.

WLEX not having subchannels is a blessing in disguise. Out of all the locals here, they have the superior image quality because the alotted bandwidth goes solely to their only channel. That's why a 42-minute episode of Heroes is over 5GB instead of 3.5 to 4GB each for everyone else's programming around here.

HDTVChallenged

01-20-07, 12:23 PM

To[o] bad WLEX won't pick it up, they don't have any subchannels.

It's a good thing that WLEX doesn't have subchannels ... you should see what NBC-HD (not to mention "The Tube") looks like on WAVE-DT before you start crying over "The Tube."

jb_ky1

01-20-07, 01:57 PM

Juppers

01-20-07, 02:38 PM

Too bad WLEX doesn't pass on DD5.1 audio. And they don't seems to have the ability to do HD bugs for everything so amber alerts and bad weather force them out of HD during those events.

Roger_M

01-20-07, 03:25 PM

Oh trust me, I've know how bad it is on WAVE. When ever I do get WAVE-DT the tube plays well, you know like crap and also NBC-HD. But I can tell a difference when watching WLEX and WAVE. WLEX is so much better looking. Also goes with WKYT and WLKY. The picture and sound quality is so much better on WLKY.

I figured Living in northern part of Georgetown that I would be able to pull in the Cincinnati local channels instead of the Louisville channels. I just have a indoor antenna. Any one have any suggestions? :)

I've managed to pull in WKRC DT 31.1 from Winchester. You live closer so you should be able to pick up that station. You may have to turn you antenna around and point toward Cincinnati tho. ( I have an roof antenna.)

Roger

jb_ky1

01-20-07, 05:12 PM

I've managed to pull in WKRC DT 31.1 from Winchester. You live closer so you should be able to pick up that station. You may have to turn you antenna around and point toward Cincinnati tho. ( I have an roof antenna.)

Roger

Back in the fall I did pick up WLWT-DT 35.1... I did how ever get WKRC-DT but, just call letters to appear but I couldn't get a picture. I am trying every night.

magnavox

01-20-07, 08:37 PM

Have you tried getting CH 67 (DT-21.1)? That's PAX out of Morehead. I can receive it on my CM 3010 here in Winchester!

I get WUPX on 67. I don't think I've ever gotten PAX.....

BenCJedi

01-20-07, 08:41 PM

The band of snow/rain-mix west of Lexington is drastically helping my ability to pull in WBKI-DT in Winchester tonight. I've noticed a correlation between weather and my reception ability for WBKI-DT from inside the attic. If there's a 'wall' of preceipitation building over the Louisville area I get crazy, good enhancement out here.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/364013418_09e96342d2.jpg

Turns out my CM7777 pre-amp is fine. It's looking like one of my coax cables in the mix was bad.

magnavox

01-20-07, 08:57 PM

I'm getting a new HDTV (Sony KD34XBR970) that has a QAM tuner in it. Someone mentioned in an earlier thread that with a QAM tuner I can pick up the local HD stations right off the coax for Insight in Lexington.

If anyone is doing this, do they transmit at the same "resolution" as the OTA signals or are they compressed? If they are compressed, is it noticable? I was just trying to figure whether I had to get a run from my OTA antenna in my attic to my basement....

Thanks.

Roger_M

01-20-07, 09:02 PM

I get WUPX on 67. I don't think I've ever gotten PAX.....

OK, my old TitanTV records show WUPX as being PAX. Now it has changed hands to ( i ) .... dont know when the change occured. my bad.

BenCJedi

01-20-07, 10:37 PM

Too bad WLEX doesn't pass on DD5.1 audio. And they don't seems to have the ability to do HD bugs for everything so amber alerts and bad weather force them out of HD during those events.

Not tonight. Check it out!
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/173/364110542_fe6bdc0304.jpg

jb_ky1

01-20-07, 10:45 PM

OK, my old TitanTV records show WUPX as being PAX. Now it has changed hands to ( i ) .... dont know when the change occured. my bad.

On WUPX-DT, 67-3 and 67-4 are playing the same thing? Worship on both channels? Is this just me or what? I know a few months ago 67-3 was ion-west ( i network ).

Also still no luck of getting any Cincinnati channels. Altough I can get anolog channel 9-WCPO and 12-WKRC very well. But I don't think I will WCPO because their digital channel is a lovely VHF 10.

jb_ky1

01-20-07, 10:57 PM

Looks like WDKY is staying put on TWC.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/16508903.htm

Roger_M

01-21-07, 08:53 AM

On WUPX-DT, 67-3 and 67-4 are playing the same thing? Worship on both channels? Is this just me or what? I know a few months ago 67-3 was ion-west ( i network ).

If you like Religious Worship programming, you can try for WLJC on CH 7.1 (65) out of Beattyville! That signal is pretty strong here in Winchester.

HDTVChallenged

01-21-07, 12:52 PM

On WUPX-DT, 67-3 and 67-4 are playing the same thing? Worship on both channels? Is this just me or what? I know a few months ago 67-3 was ion-west ( i network ).

Try rescanning ... historically however, WUPX has been pretty inconsistant with their subchannel setup ... and their programming guide data (via Zap2It/Tribune) has always been "creative." I gave up on this station along time ago ...

BTW: PAX = Ion ... it was mostly just a name change.

Brinkley

01-21-07, 09:37 PM

BenCJedi

01-21-07, 09:48 PM

Hey everyone. Its been awhile since I have posted on here. This question may have been answered but here goes anyway. Does anyone know if and when the Lexington TV stations will broadcast their newscasts in HD? I know its not really compelling television for HD viewing. Just curious.

I don't know if WLEX is actually broadcasting their news in HD. It's difficult to tell due to them having no subchannels and 1080i, so their quality is great. I have the very first day of their evening news recorded and one of the supporting newscasters said "so pretty soon you'll be able to see us, warts and all in high-def". I don't think any of those people are too techy and probably assumed since they started broadcast in HD, that they too would show up in high def... nevermind if the camera crew is using high def camera's. I would guess not.

Juppers

01-21-07, 10:06 PM

That's a lot more money than just new cameras to make the news in HD. I don't think we will see that for many years.

jb_ky1

01-21-07, 11:08 PM

My guess if the news in Lexington goes HD, WLEX would be the first because they do have a nice "Digital Facility" that was built in 1999. I ran across a tape awhile back when WLEX turned 50 and they did an anniversary special and it had a clip of their new building and one thing that was said is "HD cameras ready for the day your television catches up." Don't quote me on that, it has been awhile since I have watched that. But I my guess they were talking about what the new building would have. :)

I don’t think any of the Louisville or Cincinnati stations newscasts are in HD yet.

Gruber22

01-21-07, 11:15 PM

Anyone heard if/when WKYT will carry Wheel of Fortune and/or Jeopardy in HD? I had read where WKRC in Cincy had recently started carrying the HD versions.

jb_ky1

01-22-07, 06:55 AM

Anyone heard if/when WKYT will carry Wheel of Fortune and/or Jeopardy in HD? I had read where WKRC in Cincy had recently started carrying the HD versions.

Doesn't Wheel and Jeopardy on WCPO? I would love to see WKYT to have it in HD. I also have noticed this, but sometimes WLKY and WKYT will air Wheel of Fortune at the exact sametime, and by the first commercial break WKYT is already at a commerical while WLKY is a minute behind.

HDTV4usinky

01-22-07, 10:06 AM

Channel 4 (5Y4S) Yagi

The cheapest channel 4 Yagi I have found is available at:

http://www.lafayetteelectronic.com/

This is the best antenna for receiving WDKY from Versailles - Frankfort. The WDKY chief engineer has a few of these on hand for waiver testing, he might part with one if you call. There is a distributer in town that has them as well, and you will save the shipping cost. I don't have the phone number on me, but I can get it. I would not recommend this antenna for anyone outside Versailles - Frankfort or other people near a direct path between the L'ville WAVE tower and the Clay's Ferry WDKY. I use this antenna in Versailles, and I will say that the video still breaks up with lightening and electrical noise. It's the nature of the low V beast! If you are in Winchester or Richmond, I don't see you improving much over a RS UV-90 or any other good UHF-VHF antenna by using a cut Yagi.

Channel 3 traps, I'm not real sure where to pick these up retail. Pico-Macom carries a device which may work well, and it looks like they will sell this to consumers directly:

http://www.picomacom.com/specs/pico/C/C22.pdf

If this passes UHF, it would allow this device to function as an antenna combiner.

Channel Master makes a "Join Tenna" model 0754 I don't know how well this will work to reject channel 3, but it would allow WKYT to pass along with the UHF on one side, and channel 4 to pass on the other.

Here's a PDF of a Channel Master catalog:

http://www.pctusa.net/channelmaster/prev/_pdfs/TVSCatalog.pdf

I have a channel 3 trap that I could loan out to someone in Versailles or Frankfort. PM me if you would like to try it. I do not need to use it with the Yagi.

steverichmond

01-22-07, 11:43 AM

Channel 4 (5Y4S) Yagi

This is the best antenna for receiving WDKY from Versailles - Frankfort. The WDKY chief engineer has a few of these on hand for waiver testing, he might part with one if you call. There is a distributer in town that has them as well, and you will save the shipping cost. I don't have the phone number on me, but I can get it. I would not recommend this antenna for anyone outside Versailles - Frankfort or other people near a direct path between the L'ville WAVE tower and the Clay's Ferry WDKY. I use this antenna in Versailles, and I will say that the video still breaks up with lightening and electrical noise. It's the nature of the low V beast! If you are in Winchester or Richmond, I don't see you improving much over a RS UV-90 or any other good UHF-VHF antenna by using a cut Yagi.

What are your thoughts for the 5Y4S antenna in Morehead? I would think it would have a bit more pulling power than the UV-90. Thanks!

Gruber22

01-22-07, 11:48 AM

jb_ky1

01-22-07, 11:59 AM

jb_ky1, you are correct, it is WCPO - my mistake. I did call WCPO this morning just to confirm and they started carrying the HD versions about a week ago. So hopefully WKYT might start this sometime soon also.

Sweet. I've tried all weekend to get the Cincinnati channels in Georgetown. I can't get any. I would love to see both of those game shows in HD.

HDTVChallenged

01-22-07, 12:27 PM

Channel Master makes a "Join Tenna" model 0754 I don't know how well this will work to reject channel 3, but it would allow WKYT to pass along with the UHF on one side, and channel 4 to pass on the other.

I'm pretty sure that CM has discontinued the VHF models (or at least the VHF-lo series.) WarrenElectronics had a stockpile of them for awhile but they seem to be running out.

HDTVChallenged

01-22-07, 12:31 PM

What are your thoughts for the 5Y4S antenna in Morehead? I would think it would have a bit more pulling power than the UV-90. Thanks!

Sure it's worth a try (if it turns out that your VU-90XR doesn't work outside ;) ) ... but just remember that your problems with Ch4 reception may not be an issue of signal strength (or antenna gain.)

HDTV4usinky

01-22-07, 04:47 PM

What are your thoughts for the 5Y4S antenna in Morehead? I would think it would have a bit more pulling power than the VU-90. Thanks!

I would agree with HDTVChallenged, if you get WDKY with some breakup from the attic, installing the antenna outside you will receive WDKY with less breakup. The VU-90 has 3.7dB gain on the lowband, a 5 element Yagi has 7.5 dBd gain. It's a little more gain, so I can't say it will not help. Is it worth the expense and trouble? The analog signal is available without the headaches when there are storms or during dry days with lots of electrical interference. I don't know how well the analog is out in Morehead, WDKY transmits analog power in a clover pattern, the weakest side is off to the east. If I had issues with the analog, the effort to receive digital would be worth the expense, otherwise I wouldn't make too much of an effort for only a slight improvement.

I'm ready to see Jack tonight in HD :)

BenCJedi

01-23-07, 12:20 AM

Speaking of WDKY tonight.. the abscense of The Tube subchannel yielded slightly higher bitrates than usual. With commercials editted tonight:

Prison Break - 4.08GB
24 - 3.38GB

well maybe not for 24. Maybe the show was alot of darks tonight, so less bitrate needed? Anyhow the great thing about our area.. if you're going to capture and archive native OTA HD series, most of our affiliates use low enough bitrates that an entire episode can easily be burnt on a single 4.37GB DVD+R disc. The flipside is slightly lower quality than other areas of the country watching the same TV series. I have a media PC using DVI-out to my projection HDTV to easily spin them up and play with Media Portal interface w/ TheaterTek DVD software. I can't seem to find a compatible ATSC tuner card that will work natively with WinXP Media Center Edition cause silly Microsoft requires a standard NSTC analog capture card alongside the HD tuner card. That's just dumb seeing I have no interest in NTSC signals. I can't seem to find any info about Vista having this retarded requirement. My home theater PC is not as convenient as I want it to be. Currently my HD cards live outside the media PC and capture on other hardware. An integrated HD tuner would be the way to go. .. just researching the least expensive, least frustrating way to do it. I better start reading this forum more. :)

bbonds

01-23-07, 10:38 AM

HDTVChallenged

01-23-07, 12:40 PM

Anybody else been noticing hiccups on WLEX HD channel? .

Yes. It looks like their satellite receiver is intermittantly dropping the network feed. This has been going on for a few weeks now.

FWIW, I've noticed that WAVE-DT has dropped back to SD a few times "due to technical difficulties" during primetime. I've been wondering if this is a network wide problem, but I haven't seen any widespread reports at "the usual" forum locations .

Roger_M

01-23-07, 04:10 PM

Anybody else been noticing hiccups on WLEX HD channel? Most notably I've noticed it the past three weeks during the Thursday night comedy lineup (Earl, Office, Scrubs, 30 rock)...gets kind of annoying.

The sound on WLEX HD was just terrible during the world news program last night! They must be having sound technical difficulties lately. Which station is carrying the SuperBowl this year?

steverichmond

01-23-07, 04:39 PM

The sound on WLEX HD was just terrible during the world news program last night! They must be having sound technical difficulties lately. Which station is carrying the SuperBowl this year?

CBS has the Superbowl. WKYT

bbonds

01-24-07, 08:56 AM

I sent an email to WLEX asking about their HD problems. Here's the response:

You are absolutely right! The HD satellite receiver (that we use to receive the NBC signal from their satellite) is becoming a real headache! NBC provides it to us, and after so many problems last week they sent a new one. The new one may be worse than the older one. They’re giving us more things to try.

Stay tuned…

Dave Powell, Chief Engineer, WLEX-TV/DT

shakin cliches

01-24-07, 04:02 PM

Hey guys -

I'm looking for some direction here.

I am in Midway, Ky. and looking to pull the OTA HD signals from Lexington. I would say KYT and DKY are the ones that I want the most, so VHF is important. Is there anyway I could get all the stations without putting a huge aerial on my roof?

I would prefer to either put something in the attic or maybe attach something (not too ugly) to the post that the satellite is attached to on the roof. The dish is on the SE corner of my 2 story house, so I could angle it off that post and get the right direction going.

I called BGHE and Antennas Unlimited and they both quoted me $400+ to do the install. Is there anyone yall know who would install an antenna that I purchased for significantly less?

Thanks for any and all insight.