WDKY HD is on Dishe's line up I watched it last night for House and Bones.

Gruber22:

The latter for all four.

- Trip

Gruber22:

The latter for all four.

- Trip

Wow, really? That is a bit surprising, I would not have guessed that. The virtual channel stuff was OK during the transition, but 3 years from now having to tune in channel 18 on 39 - I guess I'm just old school with that. Some of these locals have a lot invested in channel number recognition (LEX18, for example) so I can't see them using their new number later on but you never know. I know the channel scan (first time tv setup) somewhat eliminates that confusion but what about a problem channel that doesn't make the scan that you have to tweak with an antenna? How will people (most people) know what channel to turn on as they tweak?

I know WDKY has no choice with 56 (no longer a valid tv channel after the cutoff) so I am a bit surprised they still call themselves FOX56 rather than something else without the channel number. So I guess they will also still use a virtual 56 after the cutoff? Interesting.

(oh... by the way....thanks, Trip for the info!)

Mapping to the analog channels will continue until the FCC says otherwise. 18-1 will map to channel 39.

- Trip

WDKY HD is on Dishe's line up I watched it last night for House and Bones.

Really? Is this Eastern Arc-only? I'm getting no local HD channels on Dish in Lexington, and would love to get WDKY since it's the only I can' get OTA.

Wow, really? That is a bit surprising, I would not have guessed that. The virtual channel stuff was OK during the transition, but 3 years from now having to tune in channel 18 on 39 - I guess I'm just old school with that. Some of these locals have a lot invested in channel number recognition (LEX18, for example) so I can't see them using their new number later on but you never know. I know the channel scan (first time tv setup) somewhat eliminates that confusion but what about a problem channel that doesn't make the scan that you have to tweak with an antenna? How will people (most people) know what channel to turn on as they tweak?

I know WDKY has no choice with 56 (no longer a valid tv channel after the cutoff) so I am a bit surprised they still call themselves FOX56 rather than something else without the channel number. So I guess they will also still use a virtual 56 after the cutoff? Interesting.

(oh... by the way....thanks, Trip for the info!)

I think it would only confuse everyone if the stations changed their name, LEX 39, 13 Newsfirst, FOX 4, WTVQ 40 News... :)

Although I think WLJC identifies themselves as Channel 7.

Looks like maybe Lexington HD locals are on the list for a Directv launch sometime in 2009.

Fingers crossed...

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=148850

Hi

I hope that this is posted in the right spot. I live in Georgetown,Ky
and have time warner cable and a hd cable box. It is connected to
the tv with a hdmi cable. The hd channels come in fine some come
in letterbox and some full screen depending on the channel. My
question is mainly about the sd channels. Most come in 4:3 ratio
with the bars on the side but certain channels (sci-fi and usa) in
particular come in with bars all the way around. Is this normal or
is there a setting I am missing?

Thanks

[QUOTE=shakin cliches;15439546]Looks like maybe Lexington HD locals are on the list for a Directv launch sometime in 2009.

Fingers crossed...


First glimmer of hope. Let's hope this happens and sooner rather than later.

Looks like maybe Lexington HD locals are on the list for a Directv launch sometime in 2009.

Fingers crossed...

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=148850

I had the guy who started the post PM me and confirm Lexington is one of the DMA's getting locals. I'm guessing it'll be sometime in the summer, being D* already has most of the 1st quarter regions posted.

I had the guy who started the post PM me and confirm Lexington is one of the DMA's getting locals. I'm guessing it'll be sometime in the summer, being D* already has most of the 1st quarter regions posted.

Glad to hear he confirmed it.

What markets have they announced for Q1 2009?

Do we know if all 4 affiliates in Lexington have come to agreements on carriage rights for Directv?

Glad to hear he confirmed it.

What markets have they announced for Q1 2009?

Do we know if all 4 affiliates in Lexington have come to agreements on carriage rights for Directv?

gotta keep an eye on this webpage.
http://directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=3620002

it's unknown who they have agreements with but I'm hoping it's at least with all the major networks.

gotta keep an eye on this webpage.
http://directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=3620002

it's unknown who they have agreements with but I'm hoping it's at least with all the major networks.

Thanks for the link. Hopefully, we'll hear something at CES.

WYMT aired a nice live Q&A on the DTV transition tonight. Their Chief Engineer, Phil Hayes, was very helpful and fielded a ton of questions.

Phil Middleton deserves credit for seeing the value in devoting prime airtime to this.

I recently bought a Westinghouse SK-26H520S LCD TV that has a QAM tuner. I currently have it hooked up via regular coax cable with a basic cable subscription with Time Warner. After doing a scan, I discovered I have the following local channels in HD:

WLEX - Channel 110.1
WKYT - Channel 88.1
WDKY - 105.9
KET HD - 83.1

as well as a few cable channels in HD. A couple of questions: Where's WTVQ? and is this normal through cable with a QAM tuner? I'm not complaining about my HD at no extra cost at all, just wondering.

Oh - just noticed my profile says Dayton OH - it's a long story, but I split time between the Lexington & Dayton areas.

I recently bought a Westinghouse SK-26H520S LCD TV that has a QAM tuner. I currently have it hooked up via regular coax cable with a basic cable subscription with Time Warner. After doing a scan, I discovered I have the following local channels in HD:

WLEX - Channel 110.1
WKYT - Channel 88.1
WDKY - 105.9
KET HD - 83.1

as well as a few cable channels in HD. A couple of questions: Where's WTVQ? and is this normal through cable with a QAM tuner? I'm not complaining about my HD at no extra cost at all, just wondering.

Time Warner does not have WTVQ (or any ABC affiliate for that matter) in HD. They have just added WLEX in the last year. You can probably get some guidance in this thread as to how to get an antenna set up to pull WTVQ from over the air.

This is normal as many cable companies use QAM modulation in their compression of HD channels. There is some discussion as to whether it is required in retransmission consent agreements for them to provide the HD versions of local channels for free.

Cool, thanks shakin cliches.

I recorded my first primetime DTV show last night on CWKYT and just finished editing out commercials and the resulting filesize is the same as when CWKYT was in HD resolution for the show. This tells me that WKYT only changed the resolution of the CW subchannel and did not give-up anymore bitrate to the CBS primary channel.

What is the point of them reducing the resolution of CW and not giving up the bitrate? All they did for CW is make the picture 4:3, less sharp, but less lossy and in DTV instead of high def resolution. They may as well have kept CWKYT high-def and done nothing. There's only so much bitrate available in the stream and to not give any additional to CBS is just a wasted effort for the people that complained their sports on CBS looked crappy. If they see any benefit after the change, they are imagining it. The empirical data backs-up 'no change' in quality for CBS.

The size of the mpg material is identical (if not slightly larger) for an hour-long\commercial-edited primetime show. Null-packets stripped, so pure A\V content from the edit.

EDIT: I sent an email to Mike at WKYT asking about all this. We'll see what he says. Maybe they are going to tweak bitrates next. If not, I asked if they may as well switch CWKYT back to high def resolution. Hoping for the placebo affect for CBS viewers ;)

I just ran an analyzer program on LEX, KYT, and TVQ. Here's what I found:

subchannel WLEX WKYT WTVQ
.1 18.1Mbps 11.2 10
.2 -- 4.9 4.2
.3 -- .4 4.5
Null .6 .4 4.5

This was during daytime, and the numbers did change based on what the encoders were doing.

WTVQ has a third subchannel now? I better re-scan. What's on it?

I just ran an analyzer program on LEX, KYT, and TVQ. Here's what I found:

subchannel WLEX WKYT WTVQ
.1 18.1Mbps 11.2 10
.2 -- 4.9 4.2
.3 -- .4 4.5
Null .6 .4 4.5

This was during daytime, and the numbers did change based on what the encoders were doing.

You have a computer based tuner? Using Windows and OTA? Do you receive other Lexington-area stations? If the answer to all of those is yes and you have some time to kill and want to give me a hand with something, let me know...

- Trip

You have a computer based tuner? Using Windows and OTA? Do you receive other Lexington-area stations? If the answer to all of those is yes and you have some time to kill and want to give me a hand with something, let me know...

- Trip

I have had ATSC capture boards for over 4 years now. I have 3 different ones. Whatcha need?

Can you run TSReader Lite on any of them? I need HTML Exports from as many stations as I can get to put technical data on my website with. I seek all data except EIT and Thumbnails.

I'd be most grateful for such data. =)

- Trip

I have TSReader Lite (but that's not what I used on readings I posted earlier). I went to HTML export and there were a lot of options to check. Are there certain ones you need?

BTW, TVQ doesn't have a .3... that number should have been the null packets.

I use every option except EIT and Thumbnails. I then use the data in it to update my site, and post the raw captures as well for people who want more details.

I have outdated information on WKYT, and older captures of WDKY and WTVQ, but I am missing everything else in the area, and certainly wouldn't mind updating those that I have. =)

Thanks. =)

- Trip

Give me a couple days and I'll see what I can do.

At least now I know it wasn't my imagination that TVQ's picture is just as bad as KYT's. Between the two of them they're barely averaging more than LEX for one primary channel. Between the two of them, their null bits add to almost what one uses for its primary.

I get distorted or static like audio when broadcast overlays grahics or words on HD channels. It not horrible but definitely noticeable and happens all the time on football & basketball games where they are constantly putting stuff up on the screen. Any ideas?

I get distorted or static like audio when broadcast overlays grahics or words on HD channels. It not horrible but definitely noticeable and happens all the time on football & basketball games where they are constantly putting stuff up on the screen. Any ideas?
If it was an analog TV I'd say your brightness is too high. Assuming it's a digital TV, I'm at a loss.

Wow. Looking at the data I was just sent, it appears that even though WKYT-DT has dropped 27-2 down to 480i (there's been a nice bump in bandwidth on 27-1, by the way), they've kept the 5.1 audio on it. That's a configuration I've never seen before--480i and 5.1 audio.

- Trip

Well, looks like I won't be watching 24 in HD tonight :(

Well, looks like I won't be watching 24 in HD tonight :(

Why is that?

They didn't switch the channel over yet. AARGH. So frustrating.

What's worse is that I love Lost as well, but if I moved back to London and got cable, I wouldn't be able to pick up Lost in HD because WTVQ isn't on Time Warner yet. Man, do I wish I could get an outdoor antenna and mount it outside of my dorm room in Berea.

I got a beta copy of Windows7 Ultimate from Microsoft the other day and set it up last night in one of my capturing PCs to see how the Fusion5 Lite HD card would work with QAM in Media Center. For sucky video card restrictions in that PC I am unable to test QAM in Windows7 Media Center, however I got the standalone app to work after some elbowing and did a scan of Time Warner cable in Winchester. Here's the HD channels that come up clear QAM (not encrypted). I didn't bother listing all the standard definition digital channels.

831 - KETKY
834 - KET2
835 - KETED
836 - KET1 HD
920 - ESPN HD
1035 - ESPN Radio (just some score board and radio talk)
1036 - ESPN Radio (just some score board and radio talk)
1037 - ESPN Radio (just some score board and radio talk)
1038 - ESPN Radio (just some score board and radio talk)
1039 - ESPN Radio (just some score board and radio talk)
1042 - Discovery HD Theater
1050 - PPV HD Previews
1058 - FOX HD
1062 - Disney HD (might be SD)
1091 - TNT HD
1101 - NBC HD
1144 - ESPN2 HD
1150 - TBS HD
1160 - A&E HD
1161 - FX HD
2030 - ESPN RADIO (just some score board and radio talk)
2070 - Disney (same as 1062,but in espanol)

They didn't switch the channel over yet. AARGH. So frustrating.

What's worse is that I love Lost as well, but if I moved back to London and got cable, I wouldn't be able to pick up Lost in HD because WTVQ isn't on Time Warner yet. Man, do I wish I could get an outdoor antenna and mount it outside of my dorm room in Berea.

WTVQ in HD hasn't been available on Time Warner in the almost 3 years I have been in Winchester. I wonder if WTVQ wants the buck$ for TWC to show their HD version of their programming.

Can you sneak on the roof late at night and put one of these on the roof?
http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/photos/MVC-838S.JPG

This antenna was extremely affective for me in college (back when there was no ATSC in the air). If you can get it outside, it is even better. Shove it on the outside of your window and hope it faces the right direction toward Lexington.

I recorded American Idol (HD) last night with both Time Warner Cable (TWC) in Winchester and over the air (OTA).

The 2-hour shows with commercials:

TWC: 12GB transport stream before edit

OTA: 17.5GB transport stream before edit.

Both are 720P. Less bitrate for the cable version than over the air.

^^^ Did you account for null-packets in OTA stream? I'd be shocked if FOX was actually using the entire bandwidth.

^^^ Did you account for null-packets in OTA stream? I'd be shocked if FOX was actually using the entire bandwidth.

I didn't actually. When I stripped down the cable version it was just under 8GB for the entire show.I'll have to do the same and see the result.

I recorded American Idol (HD) last night with both Time Warner Cable (TWC) in Winchester and over the air (OTA).

The 2-hour shows with commercials:

TWC: 12GB transport stream before edit

OTA: 17.5GB transport stream before edit.

Both are 720P. Less bitrate for the cable version than over the air.

Maybe TWC is stripping null packets from the ts. I watch both ota and TWC HD, ota sometimes looks worse to me especially during football, but that could just be a difference in my two sammys.

Maybe TWC is stripping null packets from the ts. I watch both ota and TWC HD, ota sometimes looks worse to me especially during football, but that could just be a difference in my two sammys.

For the heck of it, I just edited the OTA source exactly the same as the TWC source and got the exact same result.. 8.26GB total for the show. TWC must be stripping out the null packets (which is fine with me) as the capture will hopefully be less error-prone to transcode. When there's the tiniest glitch OTA oftentimes VirtualDub will cease encoding. Could run the stream through mpeg2repair first, but I usually don't. With the TWC version I don't guess I will need to even worry about that.

So Smallville looked especially ugly on CWKYT this Thursday. I'm suspecting bitrates were altered though I've not done the usual edit\strip to see how the filesize compares to before WKYT down-rezzed CW yet.

Just edited tonight's Ghost Whisperer (1hr) and the null packet-stripped commercial-free edit was 3.62GB. A prior episode from weeks ago was 1.64GB. This confirms bitrates have been changed for CBS-HD. Hopefully sports fans are happier now. To watch my CW shows in HD I have to wait and get them online now, but on the plus side the couple CBS programs I watch look better.

Also noteworthy... with the changes WKYT made the Media Center is now correctly obtaining program information for CW shows. Prior to the changes MCE showed CBS program listings for CWKYT.

Has something changed at Fox56. I previously had no shot at picking it up in West Lex off of Harrodsburg Road but recently I was able to pickup the BCS games and football game yesterday at around 68%. Now when any door opened or appliance kicked in it would block out but up until recently I could not get much of a signal.

Just curious how the AFC Championship game looked last night on WKYT. I was in Atlanta and forgot to record the game.

Was watching it and then poof, Fox went off the air around 9:35 ish. Wonder if they'll re-broadcast it?

Was watching it and then poof, Fox went off the air around 9:35 ish. Wonder if they'll re-broadcast it?

Just checked my capture and you are right.. halfway through the signal just vanished. Bummer

Yep, my DVR'ed 24 was toast at the same spot. Hulu already has last nights episode posted - (link) (http://www.hulu.com/watch/53670/24-1200-pm---100-pm#s-p1-so-i0) - they have a 480p option on the right hand side that looks pretty good with full screen option.

poof, no "24"!!!!! The story from the station is that the fiber from Columbus died. Maybe we will get a refeed before next Monday's show? "24" aired in analog over a t1 backup feed. Reduced quality but it aired. WDKY needs better digital backup facilities, Feb 17 is coming fast!

hot of the WDKY press:

"Will be be running a rebroadcast of "24" in its entirety this Sunday 6-7pm."

hot of the WDKY press:

"Will be be running a rebroadcast of "24" in its entirety this Sunday 6-7pm."

Just saw that messaged scrolled across the screen on Two and a Half Men

WTVQ has opened up a 3rd sub channel ...which I reckon will be their 24/7 weather channel ...on Jan. 22 it showed up even without doing a scan on my converter box and my HDTV ...and has anybody watched the Bananas comedy stand up show on WTVQ's 2nd sub channel ? ...comes on Saturdays at 3:00 pm ...I highly recommend it for it's clean AND hilarious humor...

What's the latest on WDKY CH 56 ? ...have they gotten permission to make the switch to UHF 31 ?

I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere however I wanted to ask. I live in Wilmore KY and do not have the ability to mount an outside antenna do to the fact that I live in an apartment, I cannot receive WDKY (FOX) at all and admittedly that would be the channel I watch the most because of sports. Several websites I have gone to say I *SHOULD* be able to receive FOX with just a set-top box because of my location, is there any recommended UHF/VHF set-top antenna that would help me receive the channel? Like I said I understand that the outdoor antennae is the best solution but that is not possible for me.

What's the latest on WDKY CH 56 ? ...have they gotten permission to make the switch to UHF 31 ?

Not yet, I've been watching for it.

I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere however I wanted to ask. I live in Wilmore KY and do not have the ability to mount an outside antenna do to the fact that I live in an apartment, I cannot receive WDKY (FOX) at all and admittedly that would be the channel I watch the most because of sports. Several websites I have gone to say I *SHOULD* be able to receive FOX with just a set-top box because of my location, is there any recommended UHF/VHF set-top antenna that would help me receive the channel? Like I said I understand that the outdoor antennae is the best solution but that is not possible for me.

I doubt it. You need a low-VHF antenna, and those are typically huge. You might try rabbit ears, fully extended and set with the ears horizontal, but if that doesn't do it for you, nothing of reasonable size probably will.

- Trip

Greetings,

I've got a vexing problem I need to fix before the Superbowl this coming Sunday.

I have DirecTV via an HR-20 STB. I use an attic antenna for locals since they're not available yet via DirecTV.

I get 100% signal strength most of the time on WLEX-18's digital HD channel, but randomly, at least once a minute, and sometimes more, I get momentary dropouts of picture and sound. The picture freezes, breaks into blocks, and then resumes again.

For the life of me, I can't figure this one out. If you watch the signal strength meter on the HR-20, it varies between 95-100% signal strength, but when the dropouts occur, it goes straight to 0%, then right back to 100%.

Any idea why this is happening? It's occurred with two separate antennas, and the other HD OTA channels don't give me problems (except for Fox, which I can't get, but that's another issue!)

Greetings,

I've got a vexing problem I need to fix before the Superbowl this coming Sunday.

I have DirecTV via an HR-20 STB. I use an attic antenna for locals since they're not available yet via DirecTV.

I get 100% signal strength most of the time on WLEX-18's digital HD channel, but randomly, at least once a minute, and sometimes more, I get momentary dropouts of picture and sound. The picture freezes, breaks into blocks, and then resumes again.

For the life of me, I can't figure this one out. If you watch the signal strength meter on the HR-20, it varies between 95-100% signal strength, but when the dropouts occur, it goes straight to 0%, then right back to 100%.

Any idea why this is happening? It's occurred with two separate antennas, and the other HD OTA channels don't give me problems (except for Fox, which I can't get, but that's another issue!)

I been having the same issue with WLEX since I installed my antenna about a year ago...tried 3 different types of antennas and at different heights with and without signal boosters ...times the signal stays on great for a few hours but then takes notions of breaking up and freezing ( most of the time when that happened I have to change channels and go back to resume viewing) ....I don't have a bit of problem wit the other 16 channels ....a friend of mine has the same issue.

Try to reduce WLEX signal down to 95% if you can and see if dropouts still occur. Too much signal is almost as bad as too little.

Some good news for WTVQ...

http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/666826.html

WTVQ-36, has purchased equipment that will soon allow it to run weather crawls and similar items in HD instead of standard definition.

The equipment, which is on site, is expected to be installed by early February.

Had the hiccup issue with an external antenna near MOW and Harrodsburg Rd. Just moved to near Keene in Jessamine County. Whole new system, antennas installed in the attic. I receive all locals with no problem, however the hiccup issue with WLEX remains.

Had the hiccup issue with an external antenna near MOW and Harrodsburg Rd. Just moved to near Keene in Jessamine County. Whole new system, antennas installed in the attic. I receive all locals with no problem, however the hiccup issue with WLEX remains.

I haven't had any trouble with "hiccups" on WLEX, but I have noticed that my signal strength/quality readings are "fluttering" a bit on WLEX, whereas it used to be rock solid at ~95%. No such issue with WTVQ-DT from the same tower/antenna.

My guesses in no particular order: Receiver overload or co-channel interference from the other station on Ch39 in SW Ohio.

OTOH, the darned "red-alert" beeping on WLEX's crawls have got to go ... or I'm going to have to turn on CC to avoid missing large chunks of dialog. Beep all you want, but there's no need to completely obliterate the sound track.

Had the hiccup issue with an external antenna near MOW and Harrodsburg Rd. Just moved to near Keene in Jessamine County. Whole new system, antennas installed in the attic. I receive all locals with no problem, however the hiccup issue with WLEX remains.

What antenna are you using? Just curious of your signal strength for Fox56.

Some good news for WTVQ...

http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/666826.html

WTVQ-36, has purchased equipment that will soon allow it to run weather crawls and similar items in HD instead of standard definition.

The equipment, which is on site, is expected to be installed by early February.

That's funny because I was just complaining to my friends about that with the impending snow storm tonight and how my favorite HD shows will be butchered with logos and crawls about weather warnings. Also when ABC takes HD programming out of HD to SD to run the crawls they often forget to flip the HD mode back on when they are done. Hopefully the new equipment eliminates them having to switch modes and all can stay in HD all the time.

Now how do we get the stations to not be so paranoid about weather conditions and minimize the screen litter?

OTOH, the darned "red-alert" beeping on WLEX's crawls have got to go ... or I'm going to have to turn on CC to avoid missing large chunks of dialog. Beep all you want, but there's no need to completely obliterate the sound track.

I agree THAT IS VERY OBNOXIOUS! They always do it at the very beginning of the Nightly News as Brian Williams is giving the overview of the big news for the day. Yes we know about the analog shutoff already. No need to beep all about it! WLEX also likes to put those school closing banner messages on top of the name of politicians being shown or when the person on camera is not speaking clearly, so they overlay the banner over the on-screen captioning. Can't that banner be half as thick?

I just found out a former colleague and friend I used to work with is now employed at WTVQ. I asked her what the deal is between Time Warner Cable not carrying WTVQ-DT. I'll let you know if our $uspinions are correct. I also mentioned the volume difference of audio between network programming and commercials. It's pretty universal to experience the jump in audio levels for commercial breaks, but I figured I would ask if that could be equalized to the same volume of network programming (hey, ya never know) :)

I've been having the same dropout problem with WLEX for a few months now. I've tried everything and it matters not. Does anyone know if they have an engineer on staff? I keep thinking they'll notice and it'll get better, but I'm ready to start bitching. Also, they used to be a solid 100 for me, but now they float around 95.

On the WTVQ front, I hope this doesn't mean that now they'll be able to block half my screen with some stupid graphic to tell me endlessly about school closings that I presume I could find out about with a simple phone call. Their SD PQ is so poor I can't stand to watch the channel (they seem to have more SD than others as well) but still ...

On the WTVQ front, I hope this doesn't mean that now they'll be able to block half my screen with some stupid graphic to tell me endlessly about school closings that I presume I could find out about with a simple phone call. Their SD PQ is so poor I can't stand to watch the channel (they seem to have more SD than others as well) but still ...

My friend said their Snowwatch reporting takes us less screen than the other locals with their school closing reports, so it's better. :)

I agree THAT IS VERY OBNOXIOUS! They always do it at the very beginning of the Nightly News as Brian Williams is giving the overview of the big news for the day. Yes we know about the analog shutoff already. No need to beep all about it! The audio (beep) notification of the analog shutoff crawl is an FCC requirement. It is not supposed to totally obliterate the audio, but it is required.
WLEX also likes to put those school closing banner messages on top of the name of politicians being shown or when the person on camera is not speaking clearly, so they overlay the banner over the on-screen captioning. Can't that banner be half as thick?ALL programming gets squeezed above the school closing information (when done correctly--probably 98% of the time). If closings are going over the graphic, something is wrong.
Next... if you're talking about the banner over closed captioning, that's impossible. When you turn captioning on, it will display over everything. WLEX has a dedicated caption encoder that moves ALL captioning higher on the screen, because captioning (also by FCC rule) can not cover any "emergency information" (and school closings qualify) on the screen.

I've been having the same dropout problem with WLEX for a few months now. I've tried everything and it matters not. Does anyone know if they have an engineer on staff? I keep thinking they'll notice and it'll get better, but I'm ready to start bitching. Also, they used to be a solid 100 for me, but now they float around 95.
There have been occasional dropouts/glitches on some syndicated shows (that happen when the shows are recorded) but nothing transmitter related. No transmitter changes have been made either. So far all the complaints of dropouts, if not attributed to antenna type/aiming, have been attributed to viewers using Dish Network or DirecTV OTA tuners on their DVRs. Hooking the antenna straight to the TV has fixed the problems. WLEX has three engineers on staff.

So buying an amplified set-top antenna instead of the basic type that you just plug into the back of your TV and go (what I've had for several years since I moved into this place in college) would not even be worth it for me?

I've also heard from various people in the area, most of them with out-door antennes VHF capable that they're not receiving WKYD either, and I've had a lot of people tell me that it isn't even broadcasting a digital signal at the moment, From what I have read here that is a complete falsehood?

chaser-

The answer is "it depends". Depending on where you live you may/may not need an amplified antenna. You may/may not be able to use a set top antennna. You WILL need a UHF/VHF combo.

WDKY *IS* broadcasting a digital signal.

Should have known, I live in Wilmore KY, actually on top of a hill as your comming into town, but WDKY is the only one I don't get, even though all the websites I've gone to that give you signal strength and such say I *SHOULD* be able to receive it since the tower is only roughly 18 miles from my current residence.

Do you have a UHF/VHF antenna?

It says it is, and it actually has both Rabbit ears and the circular antenna on it as well, its about 8 years old, and its a little unpowered thing, the rabit ears at maximum sweep with the atennae folded down ar about four 1/2 feet across, it is a Philips/Magnavox MANT200 and says it has a 75 output.

Its just a little frustrating especially when, before I hooked up my converter box (an Insignia NS-DXA1) it was a channel I got just fine thank you.

There have been occasional dropouts/glitches on some syndicated shows (that happen when the shows are recorded) but nothing transmitter related. No transmitter changes have been made either. So far all the complaints of dropouts, if not attributed to antenna type/aiming, have been attributed to viewers using Dish Network or DirecTV OTA tuners on their DVRs. Hooking the antenna straight to the TV has fixed the problems. WLEX has three engineers on staff.

Myself and friend both have the antenna hooked straight to the TV ..he owns a Sony HDTV LCD and I have a Vizio HDTV LCD ...the drop outs and freezes on WLEX will happen even during their local news ...times tho' there'll be no problems for hours ...and don't have to any particular type of weather

...and just today a co-worker mentioned the WLEX signal had the same habit ( he owns a Samsung HDTV LCD ) on his TV .. I have contacted WLEX's engineers and both times they were very friendly and helpful ...first they thought my signal was too strong and the 2nd time after the first suggestion didn't pan out they suggested positioning the antenna at different angles but still no fix ....I live in Stanton and the other two people I mentioned live in Western Irvine and Montgomery County so this problem is not due to one certain area ...I keep having a hunch that since WLEX is the only local station that broadcasts in 1080p ( or is that 1080i ? lol ) that might have some effect ...

Myself and friend both have the antenna hooked straight to the TV ..he owns a Sony HDTV LCD and I have a Vizio HDTV LCD ...the drop outs and freezes on WLEX will happen even during their local news ...times tho' there'll be no problems for hours ...and don't have to any particular type of weather

...and just today a co-worker mentioned the WLEX signal had the same habit ( he owns a Samsung HDTV LCD ) on his TV .. I have contacted WLEX's engineers and both times they were very friendly and helpful ...first they thought my signal was too strong and the 2nd time after the first suggestion didn't pan out they suggested positioning the antenna at different angles but still no fix ....I live in Stanton and the other two people I mentioned live in Western Irvine and Montgomery County so this problem is not due to one certain area ...I keep having a hunch that since WLEX is the only local station that broadcasts in 1080p ( or is that 1080i ? lol ) that might have some effect ...I've used a 2Ghz splitter through multiple VCRs, a SD DVR and now the dtvPAL, so I assume the splitter isolates the set from the recorder when using the set's tuner. To test today I hooked up a rabbit ear antenna (normal is roof mounted medium large combo) direct to set. Was able to tune TVQ and LEX with a solid enough signal for viewing. In a measured 5 minute period, TVQ had no issues, LEX had at least 7 glitches.

The audio recovered immediately however, so I had a thought and set the PAL to PCM, thinking recovering the DD 5.1 might be an issue. So far it looks like maybe it was. So still a bunch of video glitches with associated audio dropouts, but the PAL recovers faster without the long (~5 sec) audio drops. I can't remember if the long audio drops (very consistent with the PAL tuner) were also there through the set's (panny 700u) tuner.

Although preliminary, haven't actually sat and viewed a program with the PCM setting through the PAL, the least than can be said is that the PAL exacerbates the problem, but there is indeed a problem with the LEX signal here. If I haven't said it I'll say now that no other station has this issue.

Looking at the time frame, I can't help wondering if TVQ has made some changes that might affect LEX? When TVQ got their HD studio stuff is about the time I started having problems. Reaching I know, and I know nothing of the transmission end, but there is a coincidence of timing, and who knows what knobs they may have twiddled.

Some Time-Warner Cable customers in the LEX 18 viewing area are unable to see any of the local Lexington stations because of a problem caused by the current ice storm.

It is unclear exactly how many customers are experiencing the outages. To keep up to date on the current weather situation, LEX 18 is providing a live internet stream of all of our webcasts and any special reports that will air throughout the day Wednesday. To access the live stream go to the following link:

http://www.lex18.com/global/Story.asp?s=4827296

The audio (beep) notification of the analog shutoff crawl is an FCC requirement. It is not supposed to totally obliterate the audio, but it is required.

It does, at least on WLEX

ALL programming gets squeezed above the school closing information (when done correctly--probably 98% of the time). If closings are going over the graphic, something is wrong.
Next... if you're talking about the banner over closed captioning, that's impossible. When you turn captioning on, it will display over everything. WLEX has a dedicated caption encoder that moves ALL captioning higher on the screen, because captioning (also by FCC rule) can not cover any "emergency information" (and school closings qualify) on the screen.

Not talking about the CC from the receiver\TV. Talking about the embedded text that NBC news puts on the screen to help the viewer understand what the person on-camera is saying. *That* gets covered up by the weather advisory stuff\Storm icons on WLEX. They don't mash the picture in it's entirety up high enough, so when they overlay those graphics, it covers up that information. I can probably take a screenshot later. I can't get CC to work on my Windows Media Center PC for WLEX, so I have to rely on the sporadic embedded video text for interviewees in the picture, but it gets covered up by the obnoxious banner and not properly squeezed picture.

WLEX weather crawls have made me stop watching that channel completely. Seriously, everyone needs to send them crates of Raid to kill all the bugs roaming all over the screen. Luckily I can get wave 3 so I don't have to put up with all that foolishness.

OK, let's see how many things I can answer...

WLEX broadcasts in 1080i. There are no subchannels. I don't know why that would make a reception difference however. I have an attic-mounted antenna at my home in Richmond and a roof-mounted antenna at work in Lexington. The only time I see glitching is when I record something on my Dish DVR. WLEX is also broadcasting at full power on the DTV signal. Not only is WLEX on 'TVQs tower, they share the same transmission line and same antenna.

Ben- regarding the DTV transition crawls and "beeps"... the beeps aren't SUPPOSED to totally drown out program audio, but because of equipment requirements, the level adjust sometimes gets changed. It got changed to "correct" a couple days ago. Hopefully this problem will go away on 2/18.

Regarding weather crawls covering up programming... that is as designed. The only time programming gets squeezed is for closings & elections. All crawls are just put over program. I can only suggest contacting the station and expressing your concern, but the probable answer is "we're trying to get emergency information out to viewers".

Regarding the amount of text on the screen... I again suggest calling the station because someone made the decision to do that.

Not only is WLEX on 'TVQs tower, they share the same transmission line and same antenna.


Umm.. no. They have their own antenna on the same tower as WTVQ, below the WTVQ antenna. Transmission line is vague, please define. Regardless, they don't share it.


Regarding weather crawls covering up programming... that is as designed. The only time programming gets squeezed is for closings & elections. All crawls are just put over program. I can only suggest contacting the station and expressing your concern, but the probable answer is "we're trying to get emergency information out to viewers".

Regarding the amount of text on the screen... I again suggest calling the station because someone made the decision to do that.

Called, emailed, sent along the concerns through their production crew. No response, no change. The main problem is leaving the crawl and weather alerts up for days and not taking them down during primetime programming. Most other stations will leave the small alert bug in the upper right and bring out the big crawl only during commercials.

Umm.. no. They have their own antenna on the same tower as WTVQ, below the WTVQ antenna. Transmission line is vague, please define. Regardless, they don't share it.Trust me, you're wrong. The two stations share a DTV antenna that is just below WTVQs analog antenna. The transmission line is what carries the signal from the transmitter (located at the base of the tower) to the actual antenna.


Called, emailed, sent along the concerns through their production crew. No response, no change. The main problem is leaving the crawl and weather alerts up for days and not taking them down during primetime programming. Most other stations will leave the small alert bug in the upper right and bring out the big crawl only during commercials.The production crew doesn't decide those kind of issues. Also, one viewer complaining won't make things change. Ten viewers complaining probably wouldn't make things change. But that's all anyone can do is complain.

Sam is correct ( (and he should know).. WLEX and WTVQ do share the same antenna and transmission line.

A some of things that can affect the reception of WLEX as opposed to WTVQ...

1. Frequency lock between the two stations.
2. WTVQ not staying in the DTV mask.
3. Receiver AGC issues.. Some receivers have issues with adjacent channel DTV signals and and its even more apparent if the power levels are not the same. The receivers filtering isn't tight enough it will pass the energy from the adjacent channel into the demodulator or worse yet adjust the AGC for the lower RF signal and distort the higher power signal to create decoding errors.

So, I have cable tonight.. did WTVQ get on Time Warner Cable yet?

So, I have cable tonight.. did WTVQ get on Time Warner Cable yet?

I did a scan a few weeks ago (QAM) and there's still no WTVQ-DT on TWC. I discovered the other day that I know someone working there, so I sent her the question of "what's the deal with WTVQ-DT missing from TWC?". She's not responded yet.

It is done. =)

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-144A1.pdf

In a few months, WDKY-DT will move to channel 31.

- Trip

It is done. =)

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-144A1.pdf

In a few months, WDKY-DT will move to channel 31.

- Trip

Sweet! Anyone want to buy a low VHF antenna? :)

In this case, we agree that the public interest would be served by substituting DTV channel 31 for channel 4 at Danville, Kentucky, because it will allow WDKY-DT to better replicate the current analog service of WDKY-TV and thereby allow the station to maintain program service to the station’s current viewers. The Commission has recognized that in some cases, low VHF signals may not offer the best possible digital signal to viewers,5 and WDKY has documented that this has been its experience in operating on digital channel 4 at Danville. We also note that the predicted 41 dBu contour of the proposed operation on digital channel 31 not only encompasses the entire Grade B contour of WDKY-TV, but will also extend digital service to a number of persons, including Mr. Dobson, who do not presently receive a predicted signal from WDKY-TV.

I agree that UHF 31 is a better solution for this market, in general. However, per my prior simulations I do not expect Manchester, KY to receive UHF 31 broadcasts, despite this statement.

Accordingly, Mr. Dobson will continue to receive a signal from WDKY-DT on the requested channel 31.

I will continue to watch this with great interest. However, even though the opposition did not succeed, I will be sure to fight any future channel changes that I see as unfavorable, in areas which I am served. It may be harder to fight changes to VHF, however, as noise is effectively impossible to accurately model.

Yeah, the FCC's reasoning is faulty but they made the right call. "Right for the wrong reason" as it were.

However, I do want to take a moment to thank Mr Dobson for doing the right thing. I don't mean that sarcastically either. While I disagree with his position, he took the appropriate action to stand up for it. Too few do that anymore.

My hat's off to you! :)

- Trip

Sweet! Anyone want to buy a low VHF antenna? :)

I have one for sale too then.. wireloop - $5. lol
Glad I didn't bother to buy a VHF antenna and made my own instead. I must be psychic. ;)

Yeah, the FCC's reasoning is faulty but they made the right call. "Right for the wrong reason" as it were.

However, I do want to take a moment to thank Mr Dobson for doing the right thing. I don't mean that sarcastically either. While I disagree with his position, he took the appropriate action to stand up for it. Too few do that anymore.

My hat's off to you! :)

- Trip

Thanks.

I'm disappointed, but as my username implies, I'm used to it.

I am looking forward to trying to snag 31.

It is done. =)

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-144A1.pdf

In a few months, WDKY-DT will move to channel 31.

- Trip


Good news for many.

Greetings,

I've got a vexing problem I need to fix before the Superbowl this coming Sunday.

I have DirecTV via an HR-20 STB. I use an attic antenna for locals since they're not available yet via DirecTV.

I get 100% signal strength most of the time on WLEX-18's digital HD channel, but randomly, at least once a minute, and sometimes more, I get momentary dropouts of picture and sound. The picture freezes, breaks into blocks, and then resumes again.

For the life of me, I can't figure this one out. If you watch the signal strength meter on the HR-20, it varies between 95-100% signal strength, but when the dropouts occur, it goes straight to 0%, then right back to 100%.

Any idea why this is happening? It's occurred with two separate antennas, and the other HD OTA channels don't give me problems (except for Fox, which I can't get, but that's another issue!)


Here is an email I got from WLEX on the subject from last summer






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sean Franklin
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 8:59 AM
To: 'Chris '
Subject: FW: question wlex HD



Chris,

We have heard of this happening. It appears there is a problem with our reception and the HR20-100. There is a newer version of the DirecTV receiver that does not give us problems.

This seems to only occur on your side of town as well, you are correct, its probably some type of interference. We are trying to work with DirecTV to get the problem worked out.

Until then, I would suggest trying to get the newer receiver, or do not run your off-air antenna through your DirecTV box. If your television has enough inputs, run your antenna directly to the TV input.



Thank you,


Sean

I actually called Directv retention department last weekend and complained about this issue, the person was clueless as to the issue. She said she could send me a replacement receiver (HD DVR) but couldn't guarantee I wouldn't get another HR20-100. So I figured I would roll the dice and told her go ahead.

Got home from work last night and saw the thing sitting on the ice on my front porch. (Ice everywhere!! - Guess you all know that!) They had FedEx shipped it, but guessing ice storm delayed it a bit. Got it setup and running. The new one was HR20-700, with this model I am happy to report the WLEX dropout problem has gone away!!!!

Does this mean that WDKY-DT will still transmit on analog during the switch-over or will it be a black-out for those of us unable to receive the VHF broadcast till they get the switch-over done?

Does this mean that WDKY-DT will still transmit on analog during the switch-over or will it be a black-out for those of us unable to receive the VHF broadcast till they get the switch-over done?

Hard to say. If the transition date is delayed, as the House is trying to do, I imagine the analog will remain on the air until June 12 or until the move occurs, whichever comes first. That's no guarantee, just my guess.

If the transition is not delayed, they will be required by law to kill analog 56 on February 17.

- Trip

... And we are back ... total outage time: 4.5 days ... total gallons of water boiled: lost count. ... total amount of significant/relevant to the weather situation time of analog TV: practically nil ... although it was nice to be able to watch Lost on the tiny 2.5" battery operated handheld.

Seriously, the local radio stations (WHIR and sisters) were much more helpful than anything on TV.

It's good that WDKY is getting their Ch31 request as my low-band VHF antenna is now in shreds.

UHG!!!!!!!!!!

I'm at WHIR right now... just got the main transmitter back on line... WHBN has no power at the transmitter site.

WKLE site did not have power when I left Richmond this afternoon..It was on Generator power...

Western Ky is really bad..

William

Western Ky is really bad..


Yep, talked to relatives in Madisionville area on phone earlier today ... They've got a real mess on their hands ...

Only about 1/8" Ice on antennas up here(Decoded WDKY-DT solidly most of afternoon in fact), about 9" of snow, 1/2 inch of sleet just "bounced off" stuff(except the roads) ...

Anyway, noticed WCVN/WKON lost the feed for a few hours last Wednesday(Transmitters remained on air), hope things didn't go too badly at KET in Lexington ....

I wonder if WLEX will ruin the Super Bowl broadcast with the church closings crawl?

Supposedly, no. They are going to turn off all the crawl and bugs for the superbowl. Too bad they can't do that for normal primetime shows as well.

Well,they dumped the crawls,which is good,but the feed through Insight is a stuttering mess.Looks fine OTA.

Supposedly, no. They are going to turn off all the crawl and bugs for the superbowl. Too bad they can't do that for normal primetime shows as well.

I hate them stupid crawls over prime, too. They are so big and take up so much of the screen! arg!

I'm at WHIR right now... just got the main transmitter back on line... WHBN has no power at the transmitter site.

WKLE site did not have power when I left Richmond this afternoon..It was on Generator power...

Western Ky is really bad..

William

Hey William - are you guys turning off stuff to save generator fuel? I noticed the lights weren't blinking the other day, but then they were at night.?.?


Hard to say. If the transition date is delayed, as the House is trying to do, I imagine the analog will remain on the air until June 12 or until the move occurs, whichever comes first. That's no guarantee, just my guess.

If the transition is not delayed, they will be required by law to kill analog 56 on February 17.

- Trip


Probably won't be delayed, but even if it is delayed, channel 56 is out of core, so it will likely have to shut down no matter what. Would be awesome to have it on up till June or till the new channel is ready...
But hey - CH31 at 1MegaWatt (1000KW)... Hmm.. WDKY will be broadcasting at a whopping 1 BILLION mW! Wait till the marketing dept. gets hold of that.. Compair to the current Ch4 transmitter at 26.5KW (.0265KW) lol. (yeah - really there's not a big difference between the two, but it looks cool on paper...)

1 BILLION mW ummm you are too funny. How many picowatts is that?

I'll try to have photos and updates from the WDKY channel 31 change as they come along.

Sorry for the lateness of the post. I've pumped about 800 gallons of diesel fuel over the last 4 days by hand, and I haven't had power or internet or heat at my house for 5 days. I might have to buy a pump with a motor, even if it's out of my own pocket. On the up side, I feel like I'm the Incredible Hulk, sore muscles everywhere.

Probably won't be delayed, but even if it is delayed, channel 56 is out of core, so it will likely have to shut down no matter what. Would be awesome to have it on up till June or till the new channel is ready...

Umm, the point of this delay in the transition is that stations can leave their out-of-core channels on. That's why Qualcomm is upset.

Sorry for the lateness of the post. I've pumped about 800 gallons of diesel fuel over the last 4 days by hand, and I haven't had power or internet or heat at my house for 5 days. I might have to buy a pump with a motor, even if it's out of my own pocket. On the up side, I feel like I'm the Incredible Hulk, sore muscles everywhere.

Ouch. Hope you're doing alright. Take yourself a rest at some point! :)

- Trip

Hey William - are you guys turning off stuff to save generator fuel? I noticed the lights weren't blinking the other day, but then they were at night.?.?







Our tower lights are night only. In Western KY we have been shutting down the KET DTV transmitters to make the fuel last longer as getting fuel out there is a real challenge. By shutting down the KET transmitters we can extend the time we keep NOAA weather, DES, State Police and others such as local 911 up and running.

Those of you looking for another (or a 1st) big screen (52") TV, you might want to check with Barney Miller starting this afternoon. They supplied FIVE 52" LG LCDs for the "Party with the Pros" Super Bowl party at the Marriott. The TVs were brand new out of the box. They've probably been powered up for about 10 hours. Two were hooked up to antennas and three were connected to Insight and used the QAM tuner.

I would think they'd be at least "open box" pricing.

All 'Chuck' fans out there, please call WLEX at 859-259-1818 and ask they don't run any crawls for public closings\whatever during primetime tonight.

Chuck is supposed to be in 3D tonight with those nifty glasses that were available at Kroger for a couple Superbowl commercials yesterday. I want to watch Chuck without crap scrolling all over the TV. Ordinarily the crawls are annoying, but will be extra distracting with trying to focus on the 3D picture of Chuck tonight.

I made the point to LEX that they had the courtesy for sports fans not to run the crawls yesterday, so I asked for the same courtesy for their non sport-fanatic viewers. The girl I spoke to said she'd pass my request to programming.

Umm, the point of this delay in the transition is that stations can leave their out-of-core channels on.


I was thinking about the recent activity regarding the "delay bills" regarding WDKY ...

While I don't agree at all with delaying it past Feb 17 -- It seems to me WDKY's situation is one that does actually make sense for a delay, especially if WKRC gets off 31 early(been hoping to see a FEb 17 filing "silent" filing for them) and WDKY can get up to some degree on 31 by June 13(or whenever the actual "end" may be) or earlier, that way, folks using UHF antennas won't have to go out and get a lo-VHF antenna ....

When needed, and a CM4228 or other UHF antenna isn't "enough" to do the trick , those using UHF only antennas(as Lex is UHF only analog market) in Central KY will Just need a UHF and Hi-VHF antenna for WKYT (and/or WLJC for those that watch them) ...

I was thinking about the recent activity regarding the "delay bills" regarding WDKY ...

While I don't agree at all with delaying it past Feb 17 -- It seems to me WDKY's situation is one that does actually make sense for a delay, especially if WKRC gets off 31 early(been hoping to see a FEb 17 filing "silent" filing for them) and WDKY can get up to some degree on 31 by June 13(or whenever the actual "end" may be) or earlier, that way, folks using UHF antennas won't have to go out and get a lo-VHF antenna ....

This is actually what I've been arguing. Let the FCC be able to authorize continued analog operation on a case-by-case basis for stations like WDKY and others whose final facilities aren't ready for one reason or another.

- Trip

I Agree with that Trip, for cases like WDKY, even though they're out of core ....

Although, OTOH regarding their election in channel elections and the "timing" involved with the channel change petition .... ehh, never mind ..... ;)

Programming does not handle the decision to run closings. Ask to talk to a manager.

Re: WDKY... what are the odds their tower would support not only a 3rd antenna (56, 4, AND 31), but also the transmission line. I would think they order the channel 31 antenna, when it's ready to be put in place, turn off 56, replace that antenna, rerun the signal at the base of the tower, and then come up on 31 using 56's amplifier and transmission line. I'm not big on transmission though, but that should work. William, how would you do it?

Programming does not handle the decision to run closings. Ask to talk to a manager.

Re: WDKY... what are the odds their tower would support not only a 3rd antenna (56, 4, AND 31), but also the transmission line. I would think they order the channel 31 antenna, when it's ready to be put in place, turn off 56, replace that antenna, rerun the signal at the base of the tower, and then come up on 31 using 56's amplifier and transmission line. I'm not big on transmission though, but that should work. William, how would you do it?

You got it, Sam - the 56 antenna will come off and a 31 go up, using same transmission line. Lot of work. Let's hope it gets done soon, and lets hope HDTV4usinky doesn't get mad with his new hulk arms and start tearing stuff out! Yikes!

But hey - CH31 at 1MegaWatt (1000KW)... Hmm.. WDKY will be broadcasting at a whopping 1 BILLION mW! Wait till the marketing dept. gets hold of that.. Compair to the current Ch4 transmitter at 26.5KW (.0265KW) lol. (yeah - really there's not a big difference between the two, but it looks cool on paper...)

ummm you are too funny. How many picowatts is that?


Uhm.. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 - think thats 1quintillion pW...

Our tower lights are night only. In Western KY we have been shutting down the KET DTV transmitters to make the fuel last longer as getting fuel out there is a real challenge. By shutting down the KET transmitters we can extend the time we keep NOAA weather, DES, State Police and others such as local 911 up and running.

Cool. I hope y'all can get everything back to normal soon...

Is the change of CWKYT (27.2) to 480i permanent? What is the point of this? Why did I lose HD on CW?!?!?

Is the change of CWKYT (27.2) to 480i permanent? What is the point of this? Why did I lose HD on CW?!?!?

Plenty of discussion about the whys and wherefores of this change throughout this thread. The short answer is that the picture quality on 27.1 (and 27.2) was abysmal when they were trying to run two 720p sub-channels.

If you really want CW-HD, point your high gain UHF antenna westward toward WBKI-DT (Ch19.)

I wonder if WDKY will buy some of WKRC's DT channel 31 equipment?

I wonder if WDKY will buy some of WKRC's DT channel 31 equipment?

I doubt it. I think the WDKY analog gear is pretty new; most of it (other than the antenna) should be usable digitally.

- Trip

I wonder if WDKY will buy some of WKRC's DT channel 31 equipment?

Even though the WDKY transmitter is running on emergency power for the 7th day, there is progress on the channel 31 front. It looks like an antenna with some vertical output will be used, and a third HPA added to the Acrodyne transmitter. This will improve ATSC M/H capabilities of the signal. Sinclair corporate is already working with Dielectric to build the antenna, and the WDKY CE is working on a plan to fit a third HPA in the building, along with a third HVPS out back and more cooling. The third HPA will be from Acrodyne. It may come from another Sinclair site if an Acrodyne analog transmitter is available after the transition.

There's two big reasons to stick with Acrodyne equipment. Any Sinclair transmitter engineer can walk into any Sinclair site with an Acrodyne transmitter and work on it without much difficulty. People retire or move on for other reasons, so this is very helpful. Second, Sinclair owns controlling interest in Acrodyne.

I'll pass along more info as it comes my way.

Programming does not handle the decision to run closings. Ask to talk to a manager.

Re: WDKY... what are the odds their tower would support not only a 3rd antenna (56, 4, AND 31), but also the transmission line. I would think they order the channel 31 antenna, when it's ready to be put in place, turn off 56, replace that antenna, rerun the signal at the base of the tower, and then come up on 31 using 56's amplifier and transmission line. I'm not big on transmission though, but that should work. William, how would you do it?

1. Install new cabinet that was mentioned and all plumbing to marry in the other two cabinets. Install new mask filter as well.

2. Install low-medium power CH 31 antenna on the tower out of the way (500-600 ft) ( Dielectric TLP series antenna). Shut down channel 4 and switch the line to the this low power antenna.

3. Rig the tower for heavy work and shutdown 56. Replace the 56 antenna with the 31 antenna, and remove the Ch 4 antenna while operating on the low power 31 antenna.

4. Retune the 56 unit and hook it in.

5. Turn off the stations sweep the antenna and line and then connect entire system to the main antenna and go at throttle up.

I would leave the low power antenna and line on the tower and use it when the main antenna system or lights had to be serviced.

Cost of low power antenna should be under $20K anyway.

William

I wouldn't have thought of that. But why go to the temporary antenna? Why not just use channel 4 as the "temporary"? I'm assuming one antenna is top mounted and one is side, but don't know which is which.

Thanks William!

I think TV-56 is at the top, and DT-4 is on the side. Will the new DT-31 be at the top though?

What will happen to the WLEX-TV tower, WXZZ-FM is on it so I guess it won't be coming down. As well as the WKYT tower, DT-13 is on the side and won't be moving to the top?

WLEX tower isn't changing. There are others leasing space in addition to XZZ and microwave receive antennas (for news live shots) are at the top.

Speaking of towers, have they found any "significant" post-transition use for the WAVE 3 stick?

Speaking of towers, have they found any "significant" post-transition use for the WAVE 3 stick?

I think that is the tallest structure in KY right? At least the tallest TV tower ;)

I wouldn't have thought of that. But why go to the temporary antenna? Why not just use channel 4 as the "temporary"? I'm assuming one antenna is top mounted and one is side, but don't know which is which.

Thanks William!

It gives you a hard date for beginning operations on 31 and then people can re-scanning their receivers for the new channel. By using a low power antenna lower on the tower the station can maintain their on air signal to homes and cable headends that are not on fiber since they will have to shut down 4 when doing the tower work to avoid cooking the climbers..

Plus it gives them an antenna to use when doing future tower work, dealing with heavy icing conditions, or even using a low power transmitter as a standby so they can do the transmitter work.

I was assuming you guys would convert the analog Sigma to digital, change the antenna since the transmission line sections are the right length to work on either 18 or 39, and license the Russell Cave road site as an auxillary.

I don't know that a side mount standby antenna is in the cards. The Acrodyne transmitter is redundant to begin with, and tower climbers can make it to tier 4 without powering down the current antenna. The electronics for the AOL are located at tier 4, so the climbers don't make it to the top often as it is. The new antenna will cost something between $300,000 and $400,000 including delivery and installation, With Sinclair stock at $1.65 I wouldn't count on any additional corporate generosity. It would be neat to install a side mount antenna while waiting 150-180 days for the primary antenna build (let's please hope they can speed that up) but it would require the tower to be rigged twice at $70K or more each time. There are other issues as well, it looks like we shouldn't expect to see channel 31 fire up until July or August.

edit: they do power down the channel 4 antenna to work on tier 4, and will need to power down and remove part of the ch 4 antenna to get the gin pole to the top.

I don't know that a side mount standby antenna is in the cards. The Acrodyne transmitter is redundant to begin with, and tower climbers can make it to tier 4 without powering down the current antenna. The electronics for the AOL are located at tier 4, so the climbers don't make it to the top often as it is. The new antenna will cost something between $300,000 and $400,000 including delivery and installation, With Sinclair stock at $1.65 I wouldn't count on any additional corporate generosity. It would be neat to install a side mount antenna while waiting 150-180 days for the primary antenna build (let's please hope they can speed that up) but it would require the tower to be rigged twice at $70K or more each time. There are other issues as well, it looks like we shouldn't expect to see channel 31 fire up until July or August.

edit: they do power down the channel 4 antenna to work on tier 4, and will need to power down and remove part of the ch 4 antenna to get the gin pole to the top.


The low power antenna I mentioned only weighs about 400 lbs so a standard two way radio crew can handle it.

They come in 8 bay sections..

If your paying $70K to hang that antenna you need to shop around..

I was assuming you guys would convert the analog Sigma to digital, change the antenna since the transmission line sections are the right length to work on either 18 or 39, and license the Russell Cave road site as an auxillary.There hasn't been talk of it yet. It was my understanding the only reason we could do 39 is because we're co-located. Wouldn't 39 here and 40 at TVQ cause problems for receivers?

We've got other transmission priorities before we do auxillary transmitters.

You don't have to be co-located, just close by. The allocation rules say within 14 miles but I think it might be closer than that for the purposes interference analyses...

- Trip

There hasn't been talk of it yet. It was my understanding the only reason we could do 39 is because we're co-located. Wouldn't 39 here and 40 at TVQ cause problems for receivers?

We've got other transmission priorities before we do auxillary transmitters.

Some of the better reasons to consider a backup site..

1. Your co located on someone elses tower... What if they have to do major tower work such as re-wire the lights..

2. Your DTV is a single tube IOT.. no redundancy.

3. RF combiner with about 750kW running around in it including reject loads.

4. STL failures

5. Power at your site but not at theirs...


Also HDTV4KY, It will cost more to remove the Channel 4 TX line than to purchase a low power antenna.. Why not make better use of the $$$.

just some thoughts...

William

So I gather from the above discussion that with the now-practically-official cutover delay, WDKY won't go to 31 until at least June.

Is it feasible to have it done by football time in the fall?

So I gather from the above discussion that with the now-practically-official cutover delay, WDKY won't go to 31 until at least June.

Is it feasible to have it done by football time in the fall?
Don't forget the stations can choose to still cut off on 2/17. ;) And the delay (I think) is more DKY getting the appropriate parts than the "official" transition delay.

BTW William, the power (or lack there of) at TVQ is taken care of... standby generator is in place with auto transfer. As for the rest...??? Having our site as a backup (even LP) has been brought up, but not acted on.

WDKY wasn't going to be on channel 31 by February 17 anyway. If anything, this delay helps WDKY out by letting them keep the analog going until they get a tower crew in to replace the analog antenna, thus minimizing the time viewers have to be without it.

- Trip

LEX 18 To Go All-Digital On Feb. 17

http://www.wlextv.com/global/story.asp?s=9794566

Despite an extension to June recently approved by Congress, LEX 18 will join a majority of stations across the state and an estimated 50% of stations across the country that will turn off their analog signals on February 17.

^^^ Outstanding. :)

I still say that the only thing the Congresscritters have accomplished is to turn molehill into a mountain.

Where there was once one problem, there are now multiple.

LEX 18 To Go All-Digital On Feb. 17

http://www.wlextv.com/global/story.asp?s=9794566

Despite an extension to June recently approved by Congress, LEX 18 will join a majority of stations across the state and an estimated 50% of stations across the country that will turn off their analog signals on February 17.


I'll be interested to see what will happen to D* SD LIL channel 18 when this happens.

I'll be interested to see what will happen to D* SD LIL channel 18 when this happens.
Nothing. Direct gets a downconverted feed straight from 'LEX.

Any other stations in KY going all digital on 2/17 besides WLEX?

I've heard two others are cutting off and two aren't. If someone wants to call the stations to confirm such... :confused:

rumor i heard:
KYT stays analog till March madness is over...

DKY June 12 according to the crawl...


Is LEX still cuttin off? I know they said they were on Thurs, but since other stations are staying on, did they change their mind??

Only WLEX(NBC) and WTVQ(ABC/MyNet) have filed to turn off their analog transmitters on Feb 17.

In Louisville, only WDRB(FOX) and WMYO(MyNet) have filed to shut off analog on Feb 17.

I didn't see any filings for KET ...

I didn't even see new filings for WLEX, WDRB, or WMYO...

- Trip

I didn't even see new filings for WLEX, WDRB, or WMYO...

Use the "application" search tool on the CDBS (as opposed to the "TV Query" or other methods to get at the info.)

It'd sure be nice if they could streamline the search methods. :)

Here is when Lexington-area stations will turn off their analog transmitters:

WLEX-18 (NBC) June 12
WKYT-27 (CBS) April 13 (tentative)
WTVQ-36 (ABC) Feb. 17
WKLE-46 (PBS) April 15
WDKY-56 (Fox) June 12
WUPX-67 (ION) No firm date, but highly likely to be after Feb. 17.

http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/689551.html

Looks like WLEX-DT changed their minds?

Use the "application" search tool on the CDBS (as opposed to the "TV Query" or other methods to get at the info.)

It'd sure be nice if they could streamline the search methods. :)

Yeah, I'm looking where today's filings are, we have a whole system going in the DTV Allocations thread. There's no new forms from them that I can see.

- Trip

WLEX changed their minds. :mad:

WDKY also is affected by the antenna issue. WDKY, like WKYT, was moved into the VHF range, but it recently won approval from the FCC to move back up to the UHF range, to digital channel 31. Because of that, WDKY plans to hold off on its digital conversion until June 12, so it can alert viewers to the UHF channel change. The channel change should happen before June 12, said general manager Michael Brickey.


Nice to see this acknowledged publicly and see the commitment before June 12.

I think WDKY-56 may as well re-brand themselves as WDKY-31 since channel 56 will never exist after the analog shutdown is over with. I know it will be costly for new graphics and signage, but if the government bailouts go to the TV industry can't they use that as an excuse to get some funding? It'll spur some graphic artists and marketing people into working.. that'll help the economy, right? ;)

Being a graphic artist... I would say yes! FOX 31 has a nice ring to it, but would confused the hell out of a few people :)

Fox 31 - KDVR (http://www.kdvr.com/)

http://www.lyngsat-logo.com/logo/tv/kk/kdvr_denver_ch31.jpg

Fox 31 - KFXP (http://www.kfxp.com/)

http://www.kfxp.com/images/KFXP-DT-LOGO.gif

WDKY will be Fox 56 for the forseeable future. Stations are required to map to their analog channel numbers even long after the analog channel ceases to exist.

- Trip

Looks like WLEX-DT changed their minds?

???? Oy ... well I don't see any "retraction" from their Feb 5, 2009 applications in the CDBS.

That having been said, I would assume that the Herald talked to all of the station managers before printing any info that might be incorrect. .... humm then again .... ;)

Nice to see this acknowledged publicly and see the commitment before June 12.

Well then, I suppose I'll just limp by on my ice-storm re-engineered Ch2-6 yagi ... which is nearly a simple dipole antenna at this point.

HDC,

What you may be missing is that Stations that had previously filed for "early"(as in feb 17) analog shut off "in case" the transition date was extended nevertheless had to REFILE per new FCC procedures(a new Feb 17 notification form, and a new updated form 387) released in a public notice from FCC on Thursday, after Congress passed the legislation last week ... These new prodcedures are of course contingent on the "DTV Delay act" becoming law (i.e. signed by Obama, which he hasn't done as of yet -- If he doesn't sign it, but doesn't veto it either, then the question is exactly when does it become law- which it would per my understanding given Congress is currently in session)

The deadline for the new filing was last night 11:59pm EST ...

Here's the link to that public notice with the info and procedures involved from Thursday (PDF) :

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-6A1.pdf

But Feb 5, 2009 was Thursday ..... ?????

That having been said, I did notice that the WTVQ application popped up a couple of days after WLEX's

What a big giant mess this is turning into ...

But Feb 5, 2009 was Thursday ..... ?????

But it's the wrong form. The FCC is not accepting Notifications of Suspended Operations anymore for those killing analog by February 17, they want Notice of Termination of Analog Service by February 17 forms. WTVQ filed one of these, WLEX didn't.

- Trip

Edit : Oops, didn't see Trip's post when I first posted this ... sorry for the repetitive info involved ...

But Feb 5, 2009 was Thursday ..... ?????

That having been said, I did notice that the WTVQ application popped up a couple of days after WLEX's


Yes, but a new form (which WLEX didn't file) was speicifed to notify(or re-notify) FCC of their Feb 17 plans ...

They did that, in part to give stations who filed previously a chance to "change their minds" regarding the new procedures involved as FCC specified in the Public notice ... Stations didn't Know how FCC was going to do things until After that Public Notice was Released Thursday afternoon, and it took most stations until Monday to figure out what they were going to do per those new procedures ....



What a big giant mess this is turning into


I'd call it a STUPID mess ...

Substitute "ridiculous" or "fracked up" for "stupid" or whatever your favorite word for this situation ...

They really should have left well enough alone ... I really don't see how it's going to turn out "good" for those who wanted the delay ....

I'd call it a STUPID mess ...

Substitute "ridiculous" or "fracked up" for "stupid" or whatever your favorite word for this situation ...

They really should have left well enough alone ... I really don't see how it's going to turn out "good" for those who wanted the delay ....

I wonder if WLEX realizes that their paperwork is toasted. No sense waiting until the last moment (and over a weekend at that) to change all of the rules.

I wonder if WLEX realizes that their paperwork is toasted. No sense waiting until the last moment (and over a weekend at that) to change all of the rules.
It doesn't matter. WLEX is staying on analog and the current target date (subject to change) is June 12.

It doesn't matter. WLEX is staying on analog and the current target date (subject to change) is June 12.

My point being that the FCC seems to have gone out of it's way to jerk stations around ... the old paper work gotcha game.

Reminds me of an old Monty Python skit ... 'You 'ave a nice army here colonel, we wouldn't want anything to 'appen to it.'

In any case, if the FCC "list" is to be trusted, then WBKI, WTVQ and WYMT (but not WKYT) will be killing analog on Feb 17.

Stations started filing paperwork before the FCC issued any notices about what to file or what the rules were. It's not like the FCC changed it on them, the FCC never said anything in the first place and stations made assumptions about what the FCC would want.

- Trip

Nice to see this acknowledged publicly and see the commitment before June 12.

They will try, but the fcc still has to approve a construction permit before any work can be started.. Who knows how long that will take....

They will try, but the fcc still has to approve a construction permit before any work can be started.. Who knows how long that will take....

The FCC has been really good about approving these things quickly. I know of some stations who waited less than a week for approval, since their allotment (during the petition phase that it just passed through) was already hashed out technically and interference concerns resolved then.

Hopefully WDKY can move quickly toward final operation on DT-31. They do have to wait a certain amount of time (45 days maybe?) before the change of their DTV allotment from 4 to 31 takes effect and they can file.

I would be cautiously optimistic. :)

- Trip

Just "For the record" ... by my "mess" comment, I wasn't reffering to any particular filing with FCC for or from any particular station ... I was reffering to the delay in general ....

Update: Oh, regarding 31 ... I really don't think it would be a good idea for a Lexington station to be on 31 while WKRC is still there, no matter what sort of DA is "temporarily" used, such as with a STA until WKRC moves to 12 ...

Then again, I never thought WKOI-DT 39/WLEX-DT 39 being co-channel was a good Idea either ... WKOI's stick isn't all that far North of Cincinnati ....

Stations started filing paperwork before the FCC issued any notices about what to file or what the rules were. It's not like the FCC changed it on them, the FCC never said anything in the first place and stations made assumptions about what the FCC would want.

- Trip

Not that it matters now, but actually, I think they did, per some of the info in posts I linked below - Perhaps they only informed/contacted Broadcasters about it informally --- I certianly however never saw or found a public notice about it, or saw it in ECFS for several docket #'s/Proccedings I looked for it in (such as 87-268) ..

See here :

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15635302#post15635302

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15641724#post15641724


All those filings (before DTV Delay Act was passed by congress) with feb 17 shutdown notice did indeed occur around and after the time of those posts, and I doubt it was acoincidence ...

Update: Many of those filings certianly occured after the deadline talked about in those posts, still, I figured many of those filings were related to that ...

Yeah, they assumed the existing rules applied about requiring a 30 day notice before terminating analog if it occurred on a day other than the transition date. While I'm not privy to any station communications with the FCC and thus can't say for sure, it seems to me that there was no notice as to what to do.

- Trip

I haven't been receiving PSIP data from WDKY for several days now. I need it for a DVR. Anyone know anything?

I live in Midway and installed my VHF/UHF antenna over a year ago.

Not once have I ever received any signal from WKYT or WDKY.

Tonight, I was looking at my signal strength and I noticed that WKYT is coming in at 73% and WDKY at 60%.

I guess the conditions are pretty favorable for reception tonight, but I'm pretty surprised that I have never received anything (I check somewhat regularly), and all of a sudden I have a pretty solid signal from these 2 VHF stations.

Any thoughts?

On a maybe unrelated note, I've got 0% from WKLE all day.

I haven't been receiving PSIP data from WDKY for several days now. I need it for a DVR. Anyone know anything?
I checked during Daytona yesterday and there was no data... This is from an OTA antenna into my TV, so there's no other box that might be dropping it.

Time Check:

T-12 (or 36) Hours until WTVQ and WBKI analogs go dark.

The end is near!!!

... plagues of locusts and frogs!!!

... Dogs and Cats living together!!!!

For those of you that have devices requiring Gemstar’s TV Guide On-Screen Data. I was just informed that WKYT, the CBS station serving Lexington Kentucky, will not be transmitting TVGOS data in their digital broadcast.

so my analog signal for wkyt is good, when i use the digital tv antenna and i dont get signal. im from versailles ky.

WKYT analog is UHF, digital is VHF, you will need a VHF antenna.

well im able to get 36.1,36.2,36.3,18.1 and i just rechecked and the antenna is vhf /uhf compatible.

36.x, 18.x are both UHF channels. 27.x is VHF. Since you get 18 & 36, you're pointing the right way. What's your signal strength for those two? If your antenna is amplified (plugged into power), unplug the power connection and then scan. In digital if there is too much signal, your TV could show it as 'no signal'.

I am new on here and there is one thing I have never understood about the stations undergoing the digital transition. Why are so many stations staying with their iinterim digital broadcast channels after the transition rather than moving the digital signal to their original analog channel. The stations already have identity on their old channels. Are different antennas required for digital from analog even though on the same channel? I realize that WDKY will have to change channel since channel 56 will not exist any more.

Time Check:

T-12 (or 36) Hours until WTVQ and WBKI analogs go dark.

The end is near!!!

... plagues of locusts and frogs!!!

... Dogs and Cats living together!!!!

I got pinned down at work. Was there any special 'hats off' kind of message from either acknowledging the demise of analog? Or giving a salute farewell or something? :)

Are different antennas required for digital from analog even though on the same channel?

Yes, in the Lexington market, you will need a VHF/UHF antenna for digital broadcasts. None of the Lexington stations will be returning to their old analog channels.

For now, the digital channels are:

WLEX(NBC,18): Ch39 (UHF)
WKYT(CBS,27): Ch13 (VHF-high band)
WTVQ(ABC,36): Ch40 (UHF)
WKLE(KET,46): Ch42 (UHF)
WUPX(ION,67): Ch21 (UHF)

WDKY(FOX,56): Ch4 (VHF-low band), eventually moving to Ch31 (UHF)

I got pinned down at work. Was there any special 'hats off' kind of message from either acknowledging the demise of analog? Or giving a salute farewell or something? :)

Nope. They had a crawler running with various "the end is near" messages and the call in number for information. Then at precisely 2359 EST, poof! No fade to black, just snow. They did have a couple of "how to hook up your converter box" segments during the 5:30 and 6:00pm newscasts.

It does look like WBKI followed through as well, although I haven't pointed the antenna over that way to confirm.

And the CCI I usually see from WTVQ to Cincy TBN LP translator W36DG has disappeared! Imagine that ...

Actually, that's the wrong way to put it, as the way I looked at it since they moved from 61 a few years ago, it was W36DG causing the CCI :)

Another oddity today perhaps .... I'm still seeing stations such as WDKY 56/WKLE 46/WKZT 23(I think I saw that one today)/WKPC 15 popping in and out above the snow via everyday scatter, so doesn't seem like there's anything "wrong" with my antenna but sometime today, I seemed to have Lost WKON 52, which at only 78 miles away is pretty much allways there "above the snow" but weak ...

If anything "broke" I hope they don't have to fix it and can just leave it off ....

I am new on here and there is one thing I have never understood about the stations undergoing the digital transition. Why are so many stations staying with their iinterim digital broadcast channels after the transition rather than moving the digital signal to their original analog channel. The stations already have identity on their old channels. Are different antennas required for digital from analog even though on the same channel? I realize that WDKY will have to change channel since channel 56 will not exist any more.
The antennas are channel specific, but not analog/digital specific. Stations had the option years ago of returning to their vacated analog channel. The Lexington stations decided not to. One probable reason is digital stations have a "virtual channel". That virtual channel is what is displayed on televisions. So when you tune in WLEX-DT on channel 40, "18.1" shows up on your display. Likewise, WKYT-DT on channel 13 comes up as "27.x" on your display. So the "identity" doesn't need to change.

yesterday afternoon at about 14:15, WKON analog shutdown due to VSWR.

headed back to the site today..

Thanks Sam for the info. My question was intended to be directed to the broadcasters' antennas.

I guess I'm still baffled a bit why the stations wouldn't want to revert back to their old channel numbers since they already have an antenna for that channel at the top of their towers and have public identity as their old analog channel numbers. I guess the answer to my question depends on the individual stations' decisions.

I know that channel 12 in Cincinnati is going to move their digital signal back to channel 12 and free up channel 31 which they are currently using for their digital signal. I assume WDKY may have to wait until that occurs to start broadcasting on channel 31.

Thanks Sam for the info. My question was intended to be directed to the broadcasters' antennas.

I guess I'm still baffled a bit why the stations wouldn't want to revert back to their old channel numbers since they already have an antenna for that channel at the top of their towers and have public identity as their old analog channel numbers. I guess the answer to my question depends on the individual stations' decisions.

I know that channel 12 in Cincinnati is going to move their digital signal back to channel 12 and free up channel 31 which they are currently using for their digital signal. I assume WDKY may have to wait until that occurs to start broadcasting on channel 31.

My understanding is that it costs more in electricity to send a signal on WDKY Fox-56(analog) and cover the same geographic area as Fox-4(digital). The low VHF channels 2-6 have other issues (reception) that may negate that savings in cost.

WKYT's Analog-27 and Digital-13 would follow this economy story if it's true... But one wonders why WLEX Analog-18 and Digital-39 would not move back to 18 to save electricity costs? Perhaps the costs to retool the antenna is more than the cost savings in electricity over time?

Ragamuffin, the costs of electricity were also behind my question.

I guess changing over and using the old antenna isn't as simple as disconnecting the cable to the antenna from the analog transmitter and connecting it to the digital transmitter. It just seems to me that by reverting back to their old channels, the stations would have avoided some confusion. Channel 56 of course would have to move, but Channel 27 will sort of be left by itself in the VHF band after WDKY goes to channel 31.

Maybe someone with a connection to some of the stations will shed more light on this question.

WKYT's Analog-27 and Digital-13 would follow this economy story if it's true... But one wonders why WLEX Analog-18 and Digital-39 would not move back to 18 to save electricity costs? Perhaps the costs to retool the antenna is more than the cost savings in electricity over time?

With respect to WLEX (and WTVQ) specifically:

Remember that WLEX and WTVQ digital channels are sharing the same antenna which would make moving back to Ch18 somewhat problematic. ;)

The real answer is logistics and cost. There's just no point to moving back to the original analog frequency unless there is a specific technical or interference problem (or electricity bill reduction) that would be solved by doing so.

Ragamuffin, the costs of electricity were also behind my question.

I guess changing over and using the old antenna isn't as simple as disconnecting the cable to the antenna from the analog transmitter and connecting it to the digital transmitter. It just seems to me that by reverting back to their old channels, the stations would have avoided some confusion. Channel 56 of course would have to move, but Channel 27 will sort of be left by itself in the VHF band after WDKY goes to channel 31.

Maybe someone with a connection to some of the stations will shed more light on this question.
No it's not nearly that easy. One reason WLEX wouldn't want to use the analog antenna is the WLEX tower is ~400' shorter than 'KYT & 'TVQ. That means less range. And again, thanks to PSIP, viewers will still see '18', '27', '36', etc. They don't really need to know about '39', '13', and '40' unless they run into problems.

Since WKYT is high band VHF, there is little to gain by moving back to UHF in the short term. Channel 13 isn't nearly as difficult to receive without impulse noise as channel 4.

One of the factors to consider is ATSC M/H. WDKY plans to broadcast 500KW of vertical polarity and 1MW of power horizontally on channel 31. The primary reason to broadcast this much vertical power is for M/H devices.

WKYT might someday petition the FCC to move to UHF in order to satisfy the ATSC M/H audience. There is little reason for them to hurry, and in this economy it might very well make sense to take the "wait and see" approach. Many UHF antennas will successfully receive WKYT, and besides, there is only 6% to 8% OTA only viewers in the DMA. In the mean time, they get to save on their electric bill and expendables (tubes). I built a three element yagi for channel 13 using solid copper wire, twin lead, and PVC pipe. With this antenna, I receive WKYT perfectly. Since I had all the parts on hand, the build was essentially free. I followed the directions at this website:

http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/misc/dipole.html

I added a director and reflector to the folded dipole. This same antenna picks up WTVQ and WLEX, and I live under WKLE and WDKY so I really don't need anything more than rabbit ears for them.

WKYT's Analog-27 and Digital-13 would follow this economy story if it's true... But one wonders why WLEX Analog-18 and Digital-39 would not move back to 18 to save electricity costs? Perhaps the costs to retool the antenna is more than the cost savings in electricity over time?

Since both channel 18 and 39 are UHF, the electric bill wouldn't necessarily be much different using either channel. Both channels could be permitted to broadcast up to 1MW of power. WIKI has some info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_broadcast_station_classes

The info at the site listed above can't possible be correct, WDKY broadcasts at 26.5kW ERP on channel 4, the site lists 20kW as the max, so take the info for what it's worth.

Since channel 27 is UHF and channel 13 is VHF, the electric bill is greatly reduced if WKYT stays on channel 13. I would expect that WKYT is currently paying about $10,000 a month to broadcast on channel 27, and about $1500 a month for channel 13. Undoubtedly the channel 13 transmitter is solid state, and WKYT can expect it to last for many years without replacing anything more than a few inexpensive electrolytic capacitors as needed. That beats the heck out of replacing $150,000 worth of ESCIOT's every 6 years.

Since both channel 18 and 39 are UHF, the electric bill wouldn't necessarily be much different using either channel. Both channels could be permitted to broadcast up to 1MW of power. WIKI has some info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_broadcast_station_classes

The info at the site listed above can't possible be correct, WDKY broadcasts at 26.5kW ERP on channel 4, the site lists 20kW as the max, so take the info for what it's worth.

I fixed Wikipedia's listing there.

The power limits are:

UHF Nationwide: 365m 1000 kW

Zone I:
Low-VHF: 305m 10 kW
High-VHF: 305m 30 kW

Zones II and III: (Kentucky is in Zone II)
Low-VHF: 305m 45 kW
High-VHF: 305m 160 kW

They follow a sliding scale where the power decreases as you increase height. I've written a calculator for it and it's on my website here:

http://www.rabbitears.info/calc.php

It's the "Max Power vs HAAT" one.

I hope that helps.

- Trip

Thanks to all for the information and discussion in response to my question. As I suspected, the answer to why the stations are staying with their temporary digital channels isn't simple. If the figures mentioned for the savings on electricity for WKYT by staying on channel 13 are correct I can certainly see why they would want to stay there.

If WLEX is transmitting from WTVQ's tower, I assume there aren't any interference problems, at least ones that can't be overcome, by having antennas transmitting on channels 39 and 40 on the same tower.

If WLEX is transmitting from WTVQ's tower, I assume there aren't any interference problems, at least ones that can't be overcome, by having antennas transmitting on channels 39 and 40 on the same tower.

Antenna (singular). The outputs from the WTVQ and WLEX digital transmitters hook up to a combiner which then feeds the transmitting antenna. This wasn't the original "plan" for WLEX, but it did allow them to get on the air with minimal further delays after all the FCC hoop jumping to find a workable channel assignment.

I don't know if they plan for this to be a permanent solution ... but if it works, why mess with it. :)

So ... how bad was the carnage at WTVQ?

According to this report from the Herald Leader (http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/699181.html), not bad at all. Only 250 calls as of noon Wednesday (Feb 18.)

As predicted. The sky did not, I say again, did not fall. In related news, we have reports that the sun did, in fact, rise this morning. ;) :D

Antenna (singular). The outputs from the WTVQ and WLEX digital transmitters hook up to a combiner which then feeds the transmitting antenna. This wasn't the original "plan" for WLEX, but it did allow them to get on the air with minimal further delays after all the FCC hoop jumping to find a workable channel assignment.

I don't know if they plan for this to be a permanent solution ... but if it works, why mess with it. :)

So if the antenna were to break (ie come crashing to the earth when a flock of birds smack into it, for example), we'd lose both stations? Single point of failure!

So is the antenna at the utmost top position of the tower? How much does the guy that ascends the tower get paid to mount that antenna? :)

So if the antenna were to break (ie come crashing to the earth when a flock of birds smack into it, for example), we'd lose both stations? Single point of failure!

Yep ... or power outages or ... earthquakes or tornadoes ...

That having been said, it's not all that uncommon for stations to share facilities this way.

Yep ... or power outages or ... earthquakes or tornadoes ...

That having been said, it's not all that uncommon for stations to share facilities this way.

So basically in the event of a natural disaster that happened to cripple the towers, we have an increased chance of not being informed in Central Kentucky due to the sharing of equipment. At least only those 2 are sharing.

So ... how bad was the carnage at WTVQ?

According to this report from the Herald Leader (http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/699181.html), not bad at all. Only 250 calls as of noon Wednesday (Feb 18.)

As predicted. The sky did not, I say again, did not fall. In related news, we have reports that the sun did, in fact, rise this morning. ;) :D

That's really not a fair indicator. Many people could simply have just changed to a channel they do still get. We really won't know the fallout until the full switch happens and all the channels are on their final assignments and running at full power.

So basically in the event of a natural disaster that happened to cripple the towers, we have an increased chance of not being informed in Central Kentucky due to the sharing of equipment. At least only those 2 are sharing.

And did you know in New York all the stations are on the Empire State Building?

And in Chicago they're all on the Sears Tower?

And in Denver on the LCG Tower on Lookout Mountain?

It's a non-issue. If they don't have backups now, they will soon. They have backup analogs; when the analogs are gone they'll have backup digitals.

- Trip

And did you know in New York all the stations are on the Empire State Building?

And in Chicago they're all on the Sears Tower?

And in Denver on the LCG Tower on Lookout Mountain?

It's a non-issue. If they don't have backups now, they will soon. They have backup analogs; when the analogs are gone they'll have backup digitals.

- Trip

Hadn't thought about that. Good point! Just in a line of business where single points of failure are an initiative to eliminate, so I have been under that mindset lately. :)

So if the antenna were to break (ie come crashing to the earth when a flock of birds smack into it, for example), we'd lose both stations? Single point of failure!

So is the antenna at the utmost top position of the tower? How much does the guy that ascends the tower get paid to mount that antenna? :)
The antenna is not at the utmost top position of the tower. Actually all the stations have the analog antennas at the top and the DTV antennas slightly lower.

As far as single point of failure, I don't know anyone in town who is not single point of failure AFTER the transmitter (waveguide, tower, antenna). 'LEX and 'TVQ are the only ones where an SPF (single point of failure) can take out TWO transmissions. Although if the WDKY tower falls it could take out the KET transmitter (and visa versa).

As far as single point of failure, I don't know anyone in town who is not single point of failure AFTER the transmitter (waveguide, tower, antenna). 'LEX and 'TVQ are the only ones where an SPF (single point of failure) can take out TWO transmissions. Although if the WDKY tower falls it could take out the KET transmitter (and visa versa).

WDKY and WKLE aren't that close together :)

There is great cooperation within the Lexington broadcast community. They would rely on one another to recover from a disaster that takes out a tower. Nowadays it might be as simple as adding a .2 to another Lexington DTV broadcast until the damaged facility is restored. I would be more concerned about the studios that live under a tower, I bet that the Friday after the ice storm, baseball sized ice was falling all over the parking lots at WKYT and WTVQ.

Thinking about the .2 recovery method, the stations are all tied together with fiber through Insight, WLEX has a microwath path to WTVQ, WTVQ is across the street from WKYT, WKYT has a fiber to WDKY. It might be real simple to add a .2 (or .3 or .4) to another broadcast.

WDKY and WKLE aren't that close together :)I'm thinking of the falling tower taking out the guy wires of the other. It's been awhile since I"ve been up there, so I couldn't remember how close they are.

Does Insight in Lexington send out ANY HD content on clear QAM? I'm trying to pick it up on my Vista MCE w/ 2008 TV Pack and I'm not getting any luck. Was wondering if I'm looking for something that's not even there.

Does Insight in Lexington send out ANY HD content on clear QAM? I'm trying to pick it up on my Vista MCE w/ 2008 TV Pack and I'm not getting any luck. Was wondering if I'm looking for something that's not even there.

Insight sends out several channels in clear QAM that I can get via
computer tuners or my Sony TV. Essentially, the only channels
are the local ones - WDKY, WLEX, WTVQ, WKYT, and KET. When
I signed up in December, they told me all of the "basic" HD channels
would be available via clear QAM, but so far, none of the others
(Discovery HD, TBS or TNT HD, Weather Channel HD) have shown up.

I can look up the actual channel numbers if you need them; don't
have that handy at the moment. I also know at least three other people
getting the HD channels from Insight, one with basic only.

Just in case I'm missing something, let me verify my understanding of clear QAM. I have a QAM tuner equipped USB HD stick from Pinnacle. I have it plugged into the USB drive of my computer. It came with an antenna with a coax connection but I'm not using that, instead opting to plug a coax straight out of the wall (I have Insight Digital which puts basic on all outlets) into the USB tuner stick's antenna input.

That sound right?

Just in case I'm missing something, let me verify my understanding of clear QAM. I have a QAM tuner equipped USB HD stick from Pinnacle. I have it plugged into the USB drive of my computer. It came with an antenna with a coax connection but I'm not using that, instead opting to plug a coax straight out of the wall (I have Insight Digital which puts basic on all outlets) into the USB tuner stick's antenna input.

That sound right?

I assume you mean the USB tuner is plugged directly into a USB port (not drive) of the computer. That said, you should probably check the software on your PC and ensure it is set to scan for cable (or QAM) instead of ATSC. I don't have the Pinnacle stick (I've got an HD Homerun and DVICO tuners), so I can't say what other options there are. Have you tried scanning for channels yet?

Drive, port, blah... it's all the same after a night out. Good catch!

I haven't scanned for channels yet as I'm in the process of installing a fresh copy of Vista to eliminate any legacy issues.

I'll report back tommorrow... wish me luck! And thanks again for the help...

Insight sends out several channels in clear QAM that I can get via
computer tuners or my Sony TV. Essentially, the only channels
are the local ones - WDKY, WLEX, WTVQ, WKYT, and KET. When
I signed up in December, they told me all of the "basic" HD channels
would be available via clear QAM, but so far, none of the others
(Discovery HD, TBS or TNT HD, Weather Channel HD) have shown up.

I can look up the actual channel numbers if you need them; don't
have that handy at the moment. I also know at least three other people
getting the HD channels from Insight, one with basic only.

72-1 = WKYT
72-4 = KET2
72-5 = KETed
72-5 = KETky
72-13 = KET1
81-1 = WTVQ
81-2 = WDKY
81-3 = WTVQ2

That's what I got on my lil tv.

72-1 = WKYT
72-4 = KET2
72-5 = KETed
72-5 = KETky
72-13 = KET1
81-1 = WTVQ
81-2 = WDKY
81-3 = WTVQ2

That's what I got on my lil tv.

Also add:
116.1 = WLEX

Anybody receiving PSIP info for WLEX-DT 18.1?

Was getting 12 hours last week, then yesterday nothing at all.

Seems like WTVQ is now up to 24 hours of PSIP info along with KET.


(Using E* DTVPal DVR)

I lost WLEX as well yesterday on my DTVPal. I figured it was becasue I was playing with the zip code.

Are you having audio dropout issues and such with WLEX through the dvr tuner?

PSIP data is working fine for WLEX now.

PSIP data is working fine for WLEX now.
Yeah, back to a whopping 12 hours. :rolleyes:

I wish the the rest of the stations would follow KET & WTVQ's lead
and populate the PSIP with at least 24 hours. :(
And even better would be TVGOS, but I realize that's pretty much a pipe dream.

As it stands right now: (stations I receive)

12 hours 'max' in EPG(when working**)
Call DI CH
WLEX 39 18.1
WKYT 13 27.1, 27.2, 27.3
WDKY 04 56.1
24 hours 'max' in EPG
WTVQ 40 36.1, 36.2, 36.3
KET. 42 46.1, 46.2, 46.3, 46.4
ION. 21 67.1, 67.2, 67.3, 67.4

**At times WLEX shows 'DTV Program', which indicates that that is the default entry when actual programming info is not present.


On another related/unrelated note. Did anyone notice the outage of WKYT from about 1:40am-3:00am Thursday morning(Feb. 26th)?
This was of course during the delayed broadcasting of 'Criminal Minds' and 'CSI: NY', due to the lame azz college BB games earlier during primetime.
I hope they'll consider airing them again soon, rather than making the viewers wait for them in rerun slots.

Better yet, now that they have sub channels, why not air the pre-empted regular CBS programming on the CW sub ch.(providing that there are reruns on CW at the time of the 'new' programming on CBS).
Should there be 'new' programming on the CW at the same time, then show the pre-empted CBS programs on the 27.3 'Weather' channel. They could still show them delayed on the main WKYT channel at 1:35am as they do now, but how could it hurt to show them on the sub channels first?

(end rant) :)

I'd rather they show their regional contract stuff on a sub and leave the network alone, since they are supposedly a network affiliate :)

I'm in the Leesburg area and get several Cincinnati stations with a medium/large rooftop antenna. WKRC (CBS) is by far the best reception, but that may (will) change when they go low power VHF. I aim at Cincinnati and get locals from the backside. Worth a try for you in Georgetown maybe.

On another related/unrelated note. Did anyone notice the outage of WKYT from about 1:40am-3:00am Thursday morning(Feb. 26th)?
This was of course during the delayed broadcasting of 'Criminal Minds' and 'CSI: NY', due to the lame azz college BB games earlier during primetime.
I hope they'll consider airing them again soon, rather than making the viewers wait for them in rerun slots.

Better yet, now that they have sub channels, why not air the pre-empted regular CBS programming on the CW sub ch.(providing that there are reruns on CW at the time of the 'new' programming on CBS).
Should there be 'new' programming on the CW at the same time, then show the pre-empted CBS programs on the 27.3 'Weather' channel. They could still show them delayed on the main WKYT channel at 1:35am as they do now, but how could it hurt to show them on the sub channels first?

(end rant) :)
New around these parts? :)

Actually, they've (WKYT-DT) been through several versions of dealing with the "All basketball, all the time" vs. actual CBS programming dilemma over the years since 2002. Frankly, now that 27.2 is back to SD, I really don't see the point of carrying the CBS feed on 27.2.

Gray/WKYT has always put basketball first, and now that the dust is finally settling on the DTV transition, I fully expect that they will return to "business as usual." You can thank your friendly neighborhood UK sports fanatics for this.

This is why I have an antenna pointed at WLKY. :)

Thought this might be "fun" for posterity as Only have at most probably a few more months of this thanks mostly to those magic words, "Mobile DTV" ....

See attached screenshots from earlier tonight as a bit of a demonstration of how reception(more or less) of WDKY analog and digital often looks here over the last 4 years from 118 miles distant .... Note that it actually isn't uncommon to not be able to see WDKY analog at all, and yet decode WDKY-DT on 4 perfectly, for hours on end, including when nearby "hair dryers" are being switched on/off ....

VHF antenna is Winegard PR5030 at about 32FT AGL(specs say 5dBd gain on VHF 4 - Nothing special there), UHF antenna is XG91 at 37 FT ... I'm in a small, steep valley, TVfool predicts reception of Cincinnati locals(in same direction as Lexington) via 2Edge diffraction, WDKY-DT 4 is first on TVfool list "below" the locals(none of which are more than 39 miles distant), TVfool prediction for Wdky is v -97.2dBm/"tropo" ...

Update: Added New screenshot from 2pm TOh ID on 2/28/09 (WDKYdt4a.jpg)-- Monitored WDKY from 12:50pm to about 3:45pm today(except during a couple of short breaks when I was out of room), No glitches/dropouts - which is a fairly common thing to decode them hours on end solidly, sometimes on a daily basis, but it doesn't happen all the time ....

Also, btw, noticed a LOCAL HD commercial for a legal firm, including I think during a SD airing of "Mighty Joe Young" -- Wow! Don't think I've seen a local HD spot on the locals up here yet .... And, BTW, no station In Cincy/Dayton area yet has HD for Raymond, or 2.5 Men ... WCPO being an exception, The Dayton stations though are outdoing the Cincy stations on the Syndicated HD (for example, "ET" HD from WHIO Dayton, SD from WKRC), including involving the Sinclair operated stations even though they don't have HD news yet, for shows they have such as "Seinfeld", "Oprah", "Desparate Housewives" ....

Sorry for the double posts, but I had to say something about this .....

What a wonderful job KET has done with "Our Kentucky" ! I mean WOW!

On a well calibrated Direct-View CRT (Sony KD34XBR960), It really looked outstanding, here.

Maybe it's just because it's been a while since I've seen HD video "eye candy" content that looks quite that good, and maybe it was just the content involved ..... But I'm not quite sure if I've ever seen "On TV" some of what I saw tonight -- Especially perhaps, to my eyes, involving colorimetry, and white balance for nearly every, if not every shot ..... That's what color TV should look like, how did we live with Never Twice Same Color for so long ....

The videographers(and everyone else) really did a wonderful job on this ...

I did catch a bit of text info just before a couple of the breaks, and I take it XDcam were used ?

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-xdcam/cat-broadcastcameras/

And btw, also appreciate the pillarbars were added so proper AR resulted for the 4x3 SD upconverted video from the studios during the pledge breaks, I don't recall whether or not they've done that or not before ....

Oh, Also noticed from info during the break they have it available on Blu-ray ... Don't have a Blu-ray player here yet, but I'd bet it looks great there as well ...

Also, btw, noticed a LOCAL HD commercial for a legal firm, including I think during a SD airing of "Mighty Joe Young" -- Wow! Don't think I've seen a local HD spot on the locals up here yet ....

Yep ... I think WKYT got the ball rolling on the local HD spots, and just about all of Lexington locals are running them now. Despite all the early troubles and the multicasting issues, the Lexington stations have been consistently ahead of the surrounding DMAs wrt to HDTV.

Hello: I am new to this board but am desperately seeking answers! I have been receiving the local HD channels through insight basic cable for the past 2 years... I rescanned my channel lineup tonight to see if I picked up any new channels and now no HD channels are being picked up. Even if I manually type in the channels (18-1, etc) nothing comes up? Everything worked fine earlier tonight before I ran the channel scan. Any ideas what is wrong? Has insight changed something??

Hello: I am new to this board but am desperately seeking answers! I have been receiving the local HD channels through insight basic cable for the past 2 years... I rescanned my channel lineup tonight to see if I picked up any new channels and now no HD channels are being picked up. Even if I manually type in the channels (18-1, etc) nothing comes up? Everything worked fine earlier tonight before I ran the channel scan. Any ideas what is wrong? Has insight changed something??
Make sure when you do the channel scan that it is scanning the CABLE frequencies (check your user manual). As far as manually typing in the channel, I believe if they're not mapped you have to put in the actual channel number (ie: 18 is actually 116-1 on Insight). For a complete list, look above on this page, the list is about 4-5 posts down.

Wel, I reran the channel scan this morning and it picked up 116-1 but that was it. Up until last night when I re-did the channel scan, I was picking up NBC on 18-1. All of the other channels are still not coming in...even if I manually type in the channels from the above post. Very strange. Any other suggestions?

Wel, I reran the channel scan this morning and it picked up 116-1 but that was it. Up until last night when I re-did the channel scan, I was picking up NBC on 18-1. All of the other channels are still not coming in...even if I manually type in the channels from the above post. Very strange. Any other suggestions?
Going back to basics...
1) Cable is connected between the wall & the TV.
2) You have Insight cable (using the TV you can go to channel 08, 09, 10 and see the locals)
3) The TV will pick up clear-QAM modulated channels.
4) You are scanning for digital cable signals.
5) Make sure all connections are tight.

You actually aren't getting NBC (WLEX) on 18-1, that's just what's displayed. Insight puts out WLEX on 116-1, but data in the signal will have your TV show it as 18-1.

New around these parts? :)

Actually, they've (WKYT-DT) been through several versions of dealing with the "All basketball, all the time" vs. actual CBS programming dilemma over the years since 2002. Frankly, now that 27.2 is back to SD, I really don't see the point of carrying the CBS feed on 27.2.

Gray/WKYT has always put basketball first, and now that the dust is finally settling on the DTV transition, I fully expect that they will return to "business as usual." You can thank your friendly neighborhood UK sports fanatics for this.

This is why I have an antenna pointed at WLKY. :)

Their stock of games will decrease immensely come next year when ESPN takes over the SEC games and the old JP Sports network is phased out.

Their stock of games will decrease immensely come next year when ESPN takes over the SEC games and the old JP Sports network is phased out.

Actually the deal has a local broadcast option so the games will still be on WKYT. The only real difference will be in areas outside the south who will be seeing those games on one of the ESPN networks instead of a pay-per-view/Gameplan package. As far as WKYT is concerned only the graphics and the announcers will change.

Actually the deal has a local broadcast option so the games will still be on WKYT. The only real difference will be in areas outside the south who will be seeing those games on one of the ESPN networks instead of a pay-per-view/Gameplan package. As far as WKYT is concerned only the graphics and the announcers will change.
I was under the impression the package would open back up if 'LEX or 'TVQ wanted to bid on the games.

WSTR (Cincinnati) Has been airing some of the UK Basketball games, (Lately in HD) something they've done for the most part for a long time ... I take it that will probably be gone next year? :Update : Also, what about the UK games on WAVE? :end update

BTW, WBDT Dayton+WSTR Past season also aired the Raycom HD SEC Football games, including UK games ....

I was under the impression the package would open back up if 'LEX or 'TVQ wanted to bid on the games.

I think you're right. The message I was replying to read like the original poster thought that the games would be only on cable/satellite.

I'd say that WKYT (a.k.a. Gray Television) will really try to get the rights if they do open up again. They have a large audience on WYMT as well as WKYT so they can generae more ad revenue than other Lexington stations.

When did Seinfeld on WDKY go HD? Am up late (when I should be sleeping) and happened to tune in and noticed the picture is sharper and widescreen. Cool

Any idea when WDKY switches to channel 31.

Any idea when WDKY switches to channel 31.

Probably several months. The FCC won't even let them file for a construction permit until a certain amount of time passes after the approval (45 days maybe?).

Then they need to order equipment and schedule a tower crew and so on and so forth.

- Trip

Probably several months. The FCC won't even let them file for a construction permit until a certain amount of time passes after the approval (45 days maybe?).

Then they need to order equipment and schedule a tower crew and so on and so forth.

- Trip


Aaaaaaaw poop :( ................................................:p

I think you're right. The message I was replying to read like the original poster thought that the games would be only on cable/satellite.

That was the case. I am absolutely shocked that ESPN allowed a local option given the money they're putting into this.

WDKY allotment change to channel 31 was published in federal register Feb 6th, and went into effect March 9 :

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-2573.pdf

WDKY can(FCC says they "shall do so") now(within 45 Days after March 9) file a minor change app for a CP(FCC form 301) for 31 ...

That was the case. I am absolutely shocked that ESPN allowed a local option given the money they're putting into this.

Not really much of a surprise.... they'll get the ad revenue anyway.

Here is the info from the SEC site's FAQ (http://www.secsports.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=8&url_article_id=11433&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2) about the deal

(4) How will the new CBS and ESPN agreements affect the local institutional packages?

An advantage of the CBS and ESPN agreements is that our member institutions retained the ability to have local packages.

(5) What about the distribution of events on platforms other than ESPN and ESPN2?

While at the current time ESPNU is not as widely distributed as it will be in the future, we are confident that the combination of the strength of the SEC and the proven ability of ESPN to maximize distribution of its platforms will result in increased carriage of SEC content across all ESPN platforms over the term of this agreeement.

(6) What impact will these agreements have on football start times?

CBS will maintain its exclusive 3:30 pm ET window. The over-the-air syndication window will remain at 12:30 pm ET, while the games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and regional syndication will generally be played in prime time.

And another one from the release about the deal (http://www.secsports.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=8&url_article_id=11428&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2)

ESPN Regional Television will become the new over-the-air syndication home for SEC football and basketball games. In addition, ESPN and the SEC will work together to offer multi-sport packages (including football, men's and women's basketball, Olympic sports and conference championships) of SEC content for regional cable syndication.

Anyone heard anything recently about when Directv might begin carrying local channels in HD via satellite? Last we've heard was a couple of months ago that it might happen possibly during the 2nd qtr of '09 but silence has been deafening lately.

It don't appear to be scheduled yet.

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=3620002

No equipment has been delivered yet, much less installation scheduled.

No equipment has been delivered yet, much less installation scheduled.

Very discouraging! We wouldn't mind nearly as much if our HR20-100's OTA tuners would hold a station but we continually get picture pixilations and audio drops which frequently makes watching live/recordings very unsatisfactory. Picture and audio off satellite tuners is fine. Commitment expiring soon, could be about time to re-consider cable or Dish.

Very discouraging! We wouldn't mind nearly as much if our HR20-100's OTA tuners would hold a station but we continually get picture pixilations and audio drops which frequently makes watching live/recordings very unsatisfactory.

Sounds like a location (too far) or inadequate antenna issue to me.

Sounds like a location (too far) or inadequate antenna issue to me.

Unfortunately, the HR20-100 OTA tuners are lemons regardless of location or antenna. Common known problem with that unit.

I had problems with my OTA receiver on my Dish 612... pixelization, dropouts, etc. Since I don't watch much network TV live, I rely on the DVR. Calls to Dish didn't help. I ended up padding down the feed into the 612 and that SEEMS to have fixed it.

BTW, my OTA reception on two TVs was fine.

Commitment expiring soon, could be about time to re-consider cable or Dish.

Does Dish carry Lexington locals in HD yet?

Does Dish carry Lexington locals in HD yet?
Dish carries at least some locals. It's possible they have all of them.

Unfortunately, the HR20-100 OTA tuners are lemons regardless of location or antenna. Common known problem with that unit.

In that case, DirecTV should swap him out with an HR2x-xxx + AM21 combo with few hassles. If it's a lemon, then there's nothing to lose. (Said the dude that still using a HR10-250 for OTA work. :D )

In that case, DirecTV should swap him out with an HR2x-xxx + AM21 combo with few hassles. If it's a lemon, then there's nothing to lose. (Said the dude that still using a HR10-250 for OTA work. :D )

Were it only that easy!
I recently had over an hour "conversation" in which I was transferred three times (supposedly to areas that could help but apparently only to other csrs to get rid of me) only to be told by the last rep (and his supervisor) that the ATSC OTA tuners on the HR20-100 were "...analog tuners and will not work for HD; and nothing could done about it. Very sorry, is there anything else we can help you with?"
I told him that he did not know what he was talking about (since the ATSC tuners are digital) and that I'd call back and talk with someone who did. I plan to call back and talk with Retention early next week.
This is only the latest in a series of bad experiences I've had with their tech support csr's. Their supervisors seem as poorly trained as the csr's. Perhaps its a company strategy to save money.

Update to previous post:
Talked with Directv Retention today. Actions initiated to get me a HR2x-non100 replacement unit next Monday. Guess we'll see what happens.

Update to previous post:
Talked with Directv Retention today. Actions initiated to get me a HR2x-non100 replacement unit next Monday. Guess we'll see what happens.

Break a leg. Seems like a bit of overkill for the situation ....

Not really much of a surprise.... they'll get the ad revenue anyway.

Thanks for the info. Nice of the SEC to buck the trend and insist on continued OTA service. I have a hunch that the limited distrubution of ESPNU was a pretty strong liability to any ESPN efforts to do otherwise.

According to the latest blurbage from the FCC:

WKYT and KET are killing analog(s) on April 16 (happy after tax day)

WDKY, WLEX and WUPX are staying on to the bitter end (June 12.) I assume WDKY-DT will remain on Ch4 for awhile.

In Louisville it looks like all the non-KET, non-WBKI stations will wait until June 12.

WDKY, WLEX and WUPX are staying on to the bitter end (June 12.) I assume WDKY-DT will remain on Ch4 for awhile.


Is there any new news on WDKY - i.e. when they plan to change to channel 31?

Is there any new news on WDKY - i.e. when they plan to change to channel 31?

At this point, I can only speculate, but I'm sure there are elves monitoring the FCC's tea leaves for any developments.

EDIT:

Don't Panic, but .... Going back to the original rule making, WDKY had 45 days from Jan 23 or Jan 29 to file a minor change (Form 301.) This would have been Mar 15 (unless we're talking "business days.") I haven't been able to find anything new at the usual FCC places (CDBS or the TV query tool.)

What this means (if anything,) I don't know ... navigating the FCC sites always seems to require some otherworldly talent that I apparently don't have. ;) :D

Looks like WTVQ-DT power increase to 635kw is now a CP. Won't happen until June 12th I guess?

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WTVQ#10002

Is there any new news on WDKY - i.e. when they plan to change to channel 31?

Don't quote me here or hold this as absolute, ...but, didn't I read here or elsewhere, that until WKRC (Cinn. ch. 12) moves it's digital channel back to 12 from the now temporary ch. 31, that WDKY can't move to ch. 31?

And from what I gather, WKRC is not moving back to ch. 12 until the analog cut-off of June 12th.

On another side note/RANT. Why can't WLEX get their act together on the populating of PSIP guide info?
All to often, all that is in the guide during primetime hours is 'DTV Program' in half hour blocks.
Anybody have a good email addy to the 'proper' person regarding this?

I guess this peeves me off, because someone at WLEX is already responsible for giving the likes of TV Guide, Titan, etc. the proper schedule(all local programming shows up fine on those services), so why the lack of attention with the PSIP guide info?