They get out a lot farther than you think: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DC1327130.html

And speaking of AETN...can you believe they are showing a 2 hour Moody Blues special as part of their beg-a-thon using crappy STANDARD DEF VIDEO, and STRETCH-O-VISION? Hahahahaha.

Umm, yeah, they don't get out that far. Last time I checked, I can't receive them. Even with my massive MANT910 antenna that I was Monroe stations with. LOL And I thought they COL was in Camden????? That map doesn't reflect that.

Umm, no one was talking about AETN. So there. :P

Sure they do. My friend in Hot Springs can even get them. There are two KKYK's, KKYK-CA on Shinall Mt, and KKYK-DT in Camden. Sorry you cant get it, but you know how to fix that.

How can there be two?? They aren't both the same are they? The last I knew of it, it was the Camden one only. I had no idea of this Hallmark Mortgage place that owns the LR one.

I kinda feel like calling that 800 number and tell AETN that if they want my damn money, they need to start showing the programming properly instead of butchering the hell out of it.

Yea, well, that might work, except the poor kid from UCA answering the phone probably wont know what the hell you are talkin about. I just ordered their stretch-o-vision $90 Moody Blues concert DVD...From Amazon for $14. BTW, KKYK-CA in Little Rock is a Class A low power translator for the Camden station, but both are programmed from Little Rock. They are also simulcasting channel 58 analog on 20-2 if you speak Spanish.

Last night was the first time since they have been on the air (analog or digital) that Ive ever picked them up(KKYK 49-1 Camden).

Last shot I saw of the phone people, it was ALL old people. Anyway, yeah, not a signal to be grabbed. The TV kinda pauses on 20 for a second, but then keeps goign.

Last shot I saw of the phone people, it was ALL old people. Anyway, yeah, not a signal to be grabbed. The TV kinda pauses on 20 for a second, but then keeps goign.

Just watch it on DirecTv. Its on channel 49.

Ah, but the point remains that it is not in HD, thus will not be able to carry Cards games in HD. :)

Thats what Sports Pak and Extra Innings is for ;) Actually, I believe 20-1 did carry the games in HD at the end of the season last year (the few they carried). Wait, I think it was KARZ that picked up the Cards at the end of last season, not KKYK. Will have to wait and see I guess, I cant remember last year. Im getting old.

This is a really interesting concert. It reminds me when I was in high school, how listening to the "Rock" group, Moody Blues, with their orchestral accompaniment got me interested in listening to classical music as well as Rock. This concert is like a trip down memory lane. I never know they released a live concert with a full orchestra back in 2000. Glad I saw this, and glad Amazon actually had the DVD in stock.

Heh, I get KKAP at least some. Doesn't bode well for KKYK. :)

KKAP is a 1000KW, KKYK is 150KW...No comparison.

Thats what Sports Pak and Extra Innings is for ;) Actually, I believe 20-1 did carry the games in HD at the end of the season last year (the few they carried). Wait, I think it was KARZ that picked up the Cards at the end of last season, not KKYK. Will have to wait and see I guess, I cant remember last year. Im getting old.

I already have the Sports Pak, but that doesn't include KDSK broadcast games most of the time I don't think.

And if you think Extra Innings will do ANYTHING for you as far as the Cardinals are concerned, you should have learned by now. :) Those damn blackout rules kill watching Cardinals games. Somehow it doesn't affect Rangers and I am pretty sure Astros games even though we are technically in Cardinals, Rangers, Astros, and Kansas City. Not real sure about KC, but who cares, no one watches their games anyway. LOL Those blackout rules will ALWAYS confuse me.

I know you get the Extra Innings for other teams....Twins, right? So, it's not a complete waste of money for you. I, however, would never spend a single dime on it until they quit it with that stupid ass blackout stuff.

KKAP is a 1000KW, KKYK is 150KW...No comparison.
The things I saw on the link you gave me said KKYK was 15kw. BIG difference. :) But, yeah, they just cannot be taken seriously. I really really really hope KDSK has got a clue about them.

*IF* you subscribe to Extra Innings, then the blacked out Cards games will NOT be blacked out on the Sports Pak. I dont know if they KNOW that, but im not going to tell them. Actually, Arkansas is one of the only areas of the country where the blackouts are handled like they are. Thats the only reason I keep the Sports Pak. So I can watch the Cards games that are blacked out on Extra Innings.

MLB Spring Training - St. Louis Cardinals at Houston Astros from Osceola County Stadium, Kissimmee, Fla.
Sat, Mar 13, 12:00 PM / KARZ-DT1 42.1

There's also this:

http://mlb.mlb.com/stl/schedule/tv_radio_affiliates.jsp

that shows KARZ is a Cardinals TV affiliate.

dmatch

Yeah yeah yeah, dmatch. I didn't think to look there. *sticking my tongue out* EDIT: Oh, ok, so by looking at that, they have gone KARZ, so we should be good. They are HD on DirecTV, right??

Dave, I have had the Sports Pak for like 2 seasons now I think it is...maybe just last, not real sure....anyway, I haven't had ANY Cardinals games blacked out for me. Not sure if you just didn't realize it or not, but I have never paid for EI and have watched 90% of the games no problem. (I say 90% being conservative. I probably was able to watch all of them except the KSDK ones that I didn't know about.)

Depends what package you have. Some packages have one RSN (Fox Sports SW), and other packages have two RSNs, one of which is Fox Sports Midwest (a.k.a.) Cards...as well. I have an old package, with just the one RSN. In any case, I also follow the Milwaukee Brewers, and like watching the Giants when Linsecum pitches.

You talking about the Sports Pak or EI packages? I would think that everyone around here would get FSSW and FSMW by default....thats what I have. If you don't have that, dunno, maybe try taking it off and putting it back on? That might help. You have probably had it long enough that they changed something to let us get MW as well. Yeah, I knew it was something up there, couldn't remember if it was the Twins or Brewers. My apologies as I am sure you took the Twins remark as slander. LOL

Yeah yeah yeah, dmatch. I didn't think to look there. *sticking my tongue out* EDIT: Oh, ok, so by looking at that, they have gone KARZ, so we should be good. They are HD on DirecTV, right??

Dave, I have had the Sports Pak for like 2 seasons now I think it is...maybe just last, not real sure....anyway, I haven't had ANY Cardinals games blacked out for me. Not sure if you just didn't realize it or not, but I have never paid for EI and have watched 90% of the games no problem. (I say 90% being conservative. I probably was able to watch all of them except the KSDK ones that I didn't know about.)

I'm like Dave, having trouble remembering last year. But didn't the Cards games switch from KKYK 49 to KARZ 42 toward the end of the season? Maybe after the Equity bankruptcy? Seems that way to me, but I can't remember for sure.

I have Sports Pak, or whatever DishNetwork calls their version of it. I get all of the Fox Sports Midwest Cards games (130 I think). However, I don't get the Kansas City games. I might watch a few of those this year if I could because Edmonds is now with the Royals. Funny thing, though. I don't get the live St. Louis Blues games. If I want to watch them, I have to wait for the edited replay at 11pm. I guess NHL blackout rules differ from MLB's.

My mistake - Edmonds is with the Brewers. It's Rick Ankiel who is with the Royals this year.

After switching to KARZ (42) I think, if I recall correctly, they were grabbing the analog KSDK SD Cardinal game feed from satellite and the games were not in HD (at least the ones I noticed weren't). There is, and was, a HD digital feed on satellite. Let's hope they use it this year.

I guess we will find out tomorrow.

dmatch

Well we got our answer regarding Cardinals on KARZ-DT. Yeah, they are carrying the game, but in SD and a bad picture, even for SD. You can even see occasional sparklies in the analog signal. That is a sign of poor reception at the receive site (KARZ-DT). It really sucks.

dmatch

They always show the preseason games in SD, and from an analog satellite. The regular season games are sent from Fox Sports, on their digital satellite mux.

On another topic. I am seeing the worst signal quality on KLRT-DT (16/30) that I have ever had. KARK-DT (4/32) looks normal at ~86% but KLRT-DT is way down at only ~65% as opposed to a normal of about 90%. I know most of you guys are closer than me and may not see that much drop but was wondering if they have lowered power or if anyone else can see that it has dropped.

dmatch

I had to tweek my antenna the other day, as KLRT started dropping out. Dont know whats up with them.

Yeah, I recorded it since the wife insisted on going to wal-mart right when she knew the game would be on. This is the quality of picture I expected from kkyk and not karz. This is ridiculous. Looks like we are watching a tape of the '82 world series or something. I mean, don't you have to work pretty hard to make the image this bad?? How do you make the reds so hot they look pink? And how do you jack up the brightness that bad??

They always show the preseason games in SD, and from an analog satellite. The regular season games are sent from Fox Sports, on their digital satellite mux.KSDK didn't use Fox Sports for their signal last year. They put up their own analog (SD) and a digital (HD) signal in regular season, but I think you probably already know that.

And thanks for the feedback on KLRT-DT. I was about to rip into my system looking for a problem.

dmatch

Nm, I just saw the part where they said this one and the next will be SD but the rest will bd HD.

Wow, what a man. The fact that you could watch that horrible picture long enough to find that out is really impressive. Thanks.

dmatch

I wouldn't say I was "watching" it. I was listening to it and occasionally glancing up from the game on my iPhone (which is now dead because of the game, lol).

I just saved my TV settings, and recalibrated it to compensate for the unbelieveably high video levels. They obviously had to dig an old analog receiver out and figure out how to hack it into their switcher.

Well, I suppose that is one way to do it. Unfortunately, I don't think I can save settings on my TV's, so I would have to write them down. :)

On another topic. I am seeing the worst signal quality on KLRT-DT (16/30) that I have ever had. KARK-DT (4/32) looks normal at ~86% but KLRT-DT is way down at only ~65% as opposed to a normal of about 90%. I know most of you guys are closer than me and may not see that much drop but was wondering if they have lowered power or if anyone else can see that it has dropped.

dmatch

Are you still seeing the weak signal? We have changed nothing on our end and are still putting out full power. No issues that we are aware of other than what you and Dave have posted.

E

Thank you for the info errett. I'm going to write my signal problems with KLRT off to poorer reception in winter. It is strange though since KLRT has been one of the most if not the most reliable signal I can receive. I can get it fairly reliably again but I had to give up completely on receiving KASN by pointing directly at Shinall. I have to jigger my VHF elements offline from the UHF elements on my combo antenna to get KETS now. Before I had the luxury of just pointing between Shinall and PB but not anymore. Maybe spring will put me back where I was. I do not have line of sight to any LR transmitters. I actually think the leaves on the trees on the last hill blocking me and the dirtier spring/summer atmosphere direct a significant amount of signal to the hot-spot that my antenna is set in.

Anyway, thanks for the info.

dmatch

dmatch,
This might not be the source of your problem, but I once had a coax connector get corroded and it only affected reception on one station. I replaced it and the problem went away.

Yea, especially the one on the short coax leads from the antenna to the amp input, they can turn into band trap filters with dirty connectors.

Im not seeing any signal loss with KLRT, its still 100%, but like you say, before I could split the difference between Shinall and Redfield, but I had to bump the antenna 5 degrees further west towards Shinall, or KLRT would pop from 100 down to 30 or 40, and back to 100. It wasnt even long enough drops that the receiver gave me an error, it just did freeze frames, and then resumed. No problem tho, even pointing at 230 instead of 225, I can still get KETS and KASN ok.
Redfield is at 177 degrees and Shinall is at 265 degrees from my house.

I just chalked it up to multipath changing due to some construction, trees growing, whatever.

PBS Newshour just had an interview with the FCC chairman.

He is *HOT* on the idea of reclaiming most of the television spectrum for mobile broadband. He wants nationwide 100Mb/s broadband available (thats like 10x the current 3G speed).

He said the "broadcasters could share transmitters" to reduce costs and spectrum. Sounds a lot like that would cause an immense lot of pixellation when two HD stations tried to share a transmitter, loss of the subchannels (which the FCC touted as one of the main reasons for going digital). The only solution would be to implement the new h.264 mpeg4 ATSC spec, which would AGAIN render all current ATSC tuners inoperative, requiring us to upgrade to new ATSC tuners with mpeg4 capability. This guy is gonna screw us all, if he gets his way. And he isnt elected either. No way to get rid of him.

RE: Corroded connections:

Good advice. I had inspected and exercised all connections hoping it was what you guys are suggesting. Didn't find anything that even looked close to corroded. Still it helped a little, and got KLRT up from mid 60's to mid 70's, but still not nearly as high as KARK until pointing right at Shinall. That didn't increase KARK much (it was okay anyway) but got KLRT back near, but not quite, where it used to be in the early fall. I recall watching the signal qualities of nearly all stations (except VHF) drop off a little last fall and attributed it to what I suggested in my previous post (hot-spot changing due to bare trees on hill).

The mid 60's readings would have been adequate except that both KLRT and KARK signal qualities jump around a lot as compared to other signals which would give me those pesky freezes/drop-outs on KLRT (probably n+2 interference from each other). I have to have qualities in the mid to high 80s to ensure that the minimun quality doesn't drop below the 60 that is required to not have dropouts on those 2 channels.

I know a lot of you guys would prefer everything to be UHF. I don't. It is the ease with which I can get the VHF that allows me to get what I do on 1 antenna behind 3 hills. I've never had a problem on any VHF channel. Even now with the antenna pointed at Shinall I can get KETS at ~90% (by removing the "V" from the VHF elements (///). Even after doing that KTHV still runs in the high 90's and flirts with 100%. Can't get KASN (UHF) at all now.

dmatch

Thats odd, because if I point my antenna at Jonesboro, I can almost always get channel 48, but rarely 8. (Im not including PBS, since its so low powered, they probably cant get it in Hoxie.

PBS Newshour just had an interview with the FCC chairman.

He is *HOT* on the idea of reclaiming most of the television spectrum for mobile broadband. He wants nationwide 100Mb/s broadband available (thats like 10x the current 3G speed).

He said the "broadcasters could share transmitters" to reduce costs and spectrum. Sounds a lot like that would cause an immense lot of pixellation when two HD stations tried to share a transmitter, loss of the subchannels (which the FCC touted as one of the main reasons for going digital). The only solution would be to implement the new h.264 mpeg4 ATSC spec, which would AGAIN render all current ATSC tuners inoperative, requiring us to upgrade to new ATSC tuners with mpeg4 capability. This guy is gonna screw us all, if he gets his way. And he isnt elected either. No way to get rid of him.
Not a big surprise if you think about it from an capitalistic/economic point of view. Only about 15% of the population depends on that TV spectrum, and I would expect most of those "market units" are just plain poor and have very little political clout. If there is a bigger buck to be made I would expect just what is described as a "first" step to making it.

DTV was the camel's head under the tent flap. This would be just short of the camel's hump.

dmatch

At Night I can get KAIT 8, KTEJ 20, and KVTJ 48 with no pixilation from Thayer MO.

But of a daytime I lose 48 completely. And KAIT and KTEJ pixilate at times.

Maybe in 2011 when they move KTEJ from 50 kW to 419 kW it will work good all the time. Not counting the crazy aspect ratios!!!!

KAIT is 55 air miles, KTEJ is 60 air miles and KVTJ is 85 air miles.

Protect free Over The Air Antenna TV!!!
____________________________________________________________ _____
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davenlr has ESP. He replied before the post was made!:eek:

dmatch

PBS Newshour just had an interview with the FCC chairman.

He is *HOT* on the idea of reclaiming most of the television spectrum for mobile broadband...No surprise there. He used to work for Sprint and likely still has many ties to them. He won't stop chipping away at broadcast television until he either gets what he wants (the remaining cream of the UHF TV band), or obama gets 86'd and the next pres throws Genachowski out.

RE: Corroded connections:

Good advice. I had inspected and exercised all connections hoping it was what you guys are suggesting. Didn't find anything that even looked close to corroded. Still it helped a little, and got KLRT up from mid 60's to mid 70's, but still not nearly as high as KARK until pointing right at Shinall. That didn't increase KARK much (it was okay anyway) but got KLRT back near, but not quite, where it used to be in the early fall. I recall watching the signal qualities of nearly all stations (except VHF) drop off a little last fall and attributed it to what I suggested in my previous post (hot-spot changing due to bare trees on hill).

The mid 60's readings would have been adequate except that both KLRT and KARK signal qualities jump around a lot as compared to other signals which would give me those pesky freezes/drop-outs on KLRT (probably n+2 interference from each other). I have to have qualities in the mid to high 80s to ensure that the minimun quality doesn't drop below the 60 that is required to not have dropouts on those 2 channels.

I know a lot of you guys would prefer everything to be UHF. I don't. It is the ease with which I can get the VHF that allows me to get what I do on 1 antenna behind 3 hills. I've never had a problem on any VHF channel. Even now with the antenna pointed at Shinall I can get KETS at ~90% (by removing the "V" from the VHF elements (///). Even after doing that KTHV still runs in the high 90's and flirts with 100%. Can't get KASN (UHF) at all now.

dmatchIf you have any splitters, I would try replacing those, too. However, I do believe that there may be some n+2 interference going on between KLRT & KARK. Those channel choices were bad.

VHF vs UHF superiority obviously varies from place to place. There are folks here who can easily get all the UHFs from both Springfield & Fayettenam, but have difficulty getting the Vs from those markets. Knife-edge refraction also seems to work better (at least around) here, for UHF than VHF. Age, design and ERP of transmitters may have a lot to do with it, too. Example: KOLR VHF 10 is running a 40 year old transmitter at only 26kW ERP, a fraction of the power they need to run.

Not a big surprise if you think about it from an capitalistic/economic point of view. Only about 15% of the population depends on that TV spectrum, and I would expect most of those "market units" are just plain poor and have very little political clout. If there is a bigger buck to be made I would expect just what is described as a "first" step to making it.

DTV was the camel's head under the tent flap. This would be just short of the camel's hump.

dmatch

Well, It wouldnt bother me as much, if the FCC would 86 the SHRVA and allow us to subscribe to the major network affiliates of our choice. Consider this, 4,7,11,and 16 all on one transmitter, with 4 times the output power. SD of course. Then, for HD, we can subscribe to the major networks out of New York or Chicago, or Denver, or LA. The only downside are the small minority of people who use OTA for HD and do not subscribe to cable or satellite, but I suspect those are few. The FCC could require the satellite providers to offer the network DNS stations without committment, or a base package.

For AETN viewers, if there are any left, from their newsletter:

TRANSMITTER MODIFICATIONS INCREASE POWER FOR KAFT & KETG

Over the past few months AETN engineers have been working at our KETG and KAFT transmitter sites in Arkadelphia and Fayetteville, reconfiguring the transmission lines, adding new filters and converting the analog transmitters to digital to take advantage of the FCC ruling that allows AETN to operate with more power. This recently completed work essentially doubled the output power at the two sites, meaning many more people will be able to receive AETN's signal.



Work at KEMV in Mountain View has begun with electrical modifications and a generator installation. The analog transmitter modification will begin as soon as the generator work is completed The antenna work should start in a few weeks with the removal of the old antenna (which happens to weigh over 6 tons) and the installation of a new, more powerful digital antenna. The result of the transmitter modification will be a tripling of our output power and the new antenna will provide a much better coverage pattern.



There will be major power increases at the KTEJ-Jonesboro site later this year.

BTW, regarding the doubling of power at KETG, I get a stronger signal from KTAL in Texarkana. Both are unreceivable right now (no tropo), but getting 12% on both, and KETG is a LOT closer (also on a different band, but no other comparison except UHF available).

Hmm, has there really been no posts since the 17th?? Wow, interesting. Anyway, I went out tonight and bought the HR22-100 from Best Buy. I can now do the MRV between downstairs and upstairs. Now if only they can get the iPhone app working again I can start doing some setting up of recordings on the new box while looking at the old one. I know I can do it other ways, but I just thought it was weird the app wasn't working tonight. Anyway, so far so good with the new one. It is a tad slow with changing channels and the guide stuff, but I can deal with it.

If you have a receiver set up, you can just hit record on the receiver to set up a series link on your remote DVR. You cant program one DVR from another one. Surprised you didnt wait a couple weeks for the new high speed HR24. You will like the HR22 though. Its a tad slow on the menus, but has a great PQ. I have mine in the Living Room, but to be honest, I havent watched TV on a DirecTv DVR for months. I have SageTV set up with a HDHomerun2 (two ATSC tuners, a H24 DirecTv receiver, and a PCI FTA receiver tuner on PBSHD) and have plugins for Hulu and all the other internet services from Playon plugin, all running to my network, and using SageTv media extender in the Living room to watch it all from one box, or on the netbook via wireless. Im really happy with Sage. There isnt much it wont do. Ill probably hook the HR22 up to a second HDTV once baseball starts, so I can watch one game on Sage, and have the MLBMix channel on the top TV with 8 more games showing.

Gotta love technology.

Don't really care if I get the HR24 or not. Just wanted a DVR and MRV. That has been my goal for quite some time now, MRV. I don't think I will really notice the PQ on it cause I have it hooked up via component cables to my Samsung 32".

I don't really know what you are talking about on that first sentence, but if you mean just a regular receiver, no I couldn't cause I had the H20-100. It didn't have a network jack. And it doesn't make sense if you can watch and delete a show from a DVR on another one, but can't tell the other one to record something. No big deal though. My remarks about the iPhone app was just more of an observation that it was weird that it wasn't working. :)

I just can't go through all that with Sage or any other kinda application like you do. While i wouldn't mind it, the wife just would not go for it. She has a hard enough time turning the TV to the input for the Mac Mini to watch shows off of it, then remembering to use her phone for the remote on it cause it is an old one with no IR receiver. And she sure as heck wouldn't go for a second TV on top or near the big one. :) If I were single, I would not be paying a dime for TV at all and have my sh*t all rigged up the way I want it. :)

If set up correctly, SageTv's interface is just basically an HD version of DirecTvs, except you can have DirecTv, Comcast, OTA, and FTA tuners all integrated into the guide instead of having to switch inputs from one to the other on the TV. Of course you can modify if you like, or leave it plain.

As for the receiver, yea, I know you couldnt with your H20, but if you have a H21, or H23, or H24, you can program the DVR via the receiver remotely, but as you say, an Iphone (which there is no way I can afford) would work fine.

The iPhone is $99 for a new one.....$49 for a refurbished one. How can you not afford that? Just give up coffee from Starbucks or wherever for maybe 1 month and you have it made. Or, get a happy meal when you eat out instead of a full blown meal. You can get it in no time. Now, if you are talking about the asinine rate they charge for the Internet on it that you can't afford, I completely understand that. $30 is just too damned much. They should do like they are going to do on the iPad and have a $15 plan too for people who don't use as much.

Just a little update on the Arkwest IPTV here in Yell County. Was told directly by an employee yesterday that Arkwest will soon be running FIBER right up to my house. Said they are in the process of upgrading the whole county. Am I a lucky dog or what? Living way out here in the boonies and soon I'll be more high tech than most folks in the USA. I was told that the HD quaity will be superior, they will offer all the 1080p available and that the new internet speed will be sickening fast.

Hmm, has there really been no posts since the 17th?? Wow, interesting. Anyway, I went out tonight and bought the HR22-100 from Best Buy. I can now do the MRV between downstairs and upstairs. Now if only they can get the iPhone app working again I can start doing some setting up of recordings on the new box while looking at the old one. I know I can do it other ways, but I just thought it was weird the app wasn't working tonight. Anyway, so far so good with the new one. It is a tad slow with changing channels and the guide stuff, but I can deal with it.

Steve, I believe the DirecTV app for your iPhone has been updated. While I don't have an iPhone I do have an iPod Touch (same O/S as iPhone) and a couple of days ago I deleted the old DirecTV app then downloaded the current app and it works great, doing what you described. You might try doing what I did.

Just a little update on the Arkwest IPTV here in Yell County. Was told directly by an employee yesterday that Arkwest will soon be running FIBER right up to my house. Said they are in the process of upgrading the whole county. Am I a lucky dog or what? Living way out here in the boonies and soon I'll be more high tech than most folks in the USA. I was told that the HD quaity will be superior, they will offer all the 1080p available and that the new internet speed will be sickening fast.
Well now, aren't you just a "high tech redneck". LOL Lucky lucky.

Steve, I believe the DirecTV app for your iPhone has been updated. While I don't have an iPhone I do have an iPod Touch (same O/S as iPhone) and a couple of days ago I deleted the old DirecTV app then downloaded the current app and it works great, doing what you described. You might try doing what I did.
I just figured that if it was updated I would see it in my updates when I went into the appstore. :) I will give that a shot. Thanks.

I just figured that if it was updated I would see it in my updates when I went into the appstore. :) I will give that a shot. Thanks.
Yup, that did it. Weird, wonder why. Anyway, thanks again.

Arkyman,
Sounds like Arkwest is a good company. I wish they were in Carroll County, instead of at&t and coxcable. Our landlines here have been on "fiber to the box down the road" since the early 90s, but at&t won't even upgrade the remote terminal to DSL capability.

Did you notice any increase in signal strength of KAFT, after AETN doubled their transmitter power at Winslow? I can't tell any difference here.

Just said on the Cardinals games that all 130 games this season on FS Midwest will be in HD.

Arkyman,
Sounds like Arkwest is a good company. I wish they were in Carroll County, instead of at&t and coxcable. Our landlines here have been on "fiber to the box down the road" since the early 90s, but at&t won't even upgrade the remote terminal to DSL capability.

Did you notice any increase in signal strength of KAFT, after AETN doubled their transmitter power at Winslow? I can't tell any difference here.

I have not checked 13 in a long time. I'll have to look and see.

If you want to see the Cardinals on Apr 10th (Saturday game) vs the Brewers, email programming@fox16.com and let them know.
So far, it still shows TBA on their website and titanTV.

New DX log - KBTX (50) Bryan/College Sta Tx. Might be a good night. Things are starting to pick up.
Relog - KIAH (39) Houston, Tx
New: KPRC Houston, New: KTXH (19) Houston
New: KNWS (51) Houston

Also receiving KIAH, Houston up here this morning.

Sweet! I am receiving CNN, SyFy, Discovery, ESPN, ESPN2.........lol. Sorry.

New DX log - KBTX (50) Bryan/College Sta Tx. Might be a good night. Things are starting to pick up.
Relog - KIAH (39) Houston, Tx
New: KPRC Houston, New: KTXH (19) Houston
New: KNWS (51) Houston

I did better on TV on Wed morning than last night/this morning although managing to drag in KOTV (45), KMYT (42) Tulsa and WMAW (44) Meridian MS before/after sunrise.. FM logs were numerous from NOLA, to Tulsa, to DFW, to Houston between 10pm-1am. Too many DTV signals down here were clashing things were so intense.

I wish I knew what blocked signals from NWA and NE Oklahoma. I should have a fairly clear shot right up the Arkansas river, but I can never get a peep out of any of them. That FM station in Harrison kicks in here every morning. Must be something.

Have to go to work, but if you are reading this Fri AM, point your antennas toward Florida, and do a scan....Unreal.

Haley, how many of these did you get this morning?
WXXV Fox25 Gulfport, Ms
WGNO New Orleans, La
WAPT Jackson,MS
WMAU Bude,Ms
WEAR Eglin AFB, Fl
WFBD Destin, Fl
WMAO Greenwood, Ms
WMAH Biloxi, Ms
WUFX Jackson, Ms
WRBJ Jackson, Ms
WDBD Jackson, Ms

Thats all I had time for this morning before I went to work. Had both tuners scanning while I was getting ready. Wished I could have taken the morning off.

Have to go to work, but if you are reading this Fri AM, point your antennas toward Florida, and do a scan....Unreal.

Haley, how many of these did you get this morning?
WXXV Fox25 Gulfport, Ms
WGNO New Orleans, La
WAPT Jackson,MS
WMAU Bude,Ms
WEAR Eglin AFB, Fl
WFBD Destin, Fl
WMAO Greenwood, Ms
WMAH Biloxi, Ms
WUFX Jackson, Ms
WRBJ Jackson, Ms
WDBD Jackson, Ms

Thats all I had time for this morning before I went to work. Had both tuners scanning while I was getting ready. Wished I could have taken the morning off.

Since I got finally a new mast and rotor installed on the FM/lowband antenna (an old Rat Shack VU190) earlier this week, I've concentrated more on FM, especially the last two days. I did relog WIIQ (19), and WCFT (33) in Alabama and the impossible-to-receive-locally WABG (32)--WABG is running programming 24/7 on its "6-2" Fox subchannel and when I checked there was some Judge Show running. ABC World News This Morning was in HDTV. Yep, WMAO locked solid, but they are in 1-2 mornings a week. Today was a work day here, and I had some other things to take care of beforehand so that cut into the prime DX time after sunrise.

This was my first tropo log for Florida. I previously logged a E skip on channel 6 from Miami a LONG time ago, but this was something else. That VHF real time skip site had a BIG red blotch right from Little Rock to Florida. The other site, with the tropo predictions didnt show anything out of the ordinary.

You guys are receiving FL stations in AR?

Up here in Missouri, more specifically when I was at the Lake of the Ozarks before the DTV transition, during the summer I would receive channels 2, 3, and 4 from Miami/Dade Florida all the time-- and the most ironic part about it is that the stations would usually only come in during the day. (Around noon) The channel 3 that I would often receive was surprisingly able to over-power KYTV3, my strongest analog station at the time.

I've heard of E-skip, but that was nuts considering the great number of times I had gotten them. I received those stations many days for every summer since at least 2004.

E skip is usually only during the late afternoon I think. F layer skip (rare in the TV bands) would also during the day. Tropo would be common after dark, and for a few hours after sunrise.

E skip primarily is only good for tv channels 2-6 and FM and will usually be in the 500-1000 miles range.

F skip, if it makes it all the way to the TV channels, is good for up to a couple thousand miles or more, with double skips. Its the primary form of skip used for Short Wave radio, and is what causes "skip" on the CB channels. There will be a BIG dead zone between your location, and the signal you are getting.

Tropo skip is ducting in the lower (close to ground) atmosphere. Tropo is easy to differentiate from E and F skip in that there is usually no dead zone, i.e., if you get Florida on Tropo, you get the stuff closer as well. E and F skip might bring in Miami, but you wont get any other stations closer.

Haley could probably go further, but Im guessing if the signal from Miami was strong enough to overpower the local Missouri channel 3, and if it was fairly steady (with occasional short drop outs), it was probably F layer skip. The limited amount of E skip I have seen, is really fluttery, and short lived in comparison.

F skip is caused by sunspots, and follows an 11 year cycle (we are at the low end of the cycle now).

That VHF real time skip site had a BIG red blotch right from Little Rock to Florida. The other site, with the tropo predictions didnt show anything out of the ordinary.

What site?

... but Im guessing if the signal from Miami was strong enough to overpower the local Missouri channel 3, and if it was fairly steady (with occasional short drop outs), it was probably F layer skip...


Thanks! F skip sounds a lot better as an explanation than E skip. You're right, it definitely wasn't tropo... I'd get a lot more than those 3 channels then.

Now if someone can log digital F skips like that... they are simply amazing! :D

I'm sure it could be done; after all, I only ran into those channels by accident. I'm more of an amateur DX'er in it for fun; I didn't expect to run into anything during the day. LOL

What site?

Real Time:
http://www.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/ham/aprs/path.cgi?map=na

Prediction:
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html#hour24

Now if someone can log digital F skips like that... they are simply amazing! :D


Well, once F skip starts picking up, Im gonna be taking advantage of the lack of low band US stations to try to snag Cuba, and Central American stations on analog.

Well, once F skip starts picking up, Im gonna be taking advantage of the lack of low band US stations to try to snag Cuba, and Central American stations on analog.

Single hop E's to Cuba, Mexico, and Canada are possible. So are so-called double hop E's. F skip has been all but dead for several years on low-VHF The new solar cycle has started and activity has increased some (occasional activity on 15 and 10 meter Amateur bands). When conditions permit hearing Europe, South America, US West Coast, or Alaska on 6 meters (50-54Mhz) then it would be time to dig out the old analog tv, plugging it in to a low-band antenna and spinning the dials on 2-6.

Another site to bookmark is this one (50Mhz--North America)
http://www.vhfdx.net/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=NA

One caveat though, this map unlike the Mountain Lake map is from info supplied by 2 way ham radio reports instead of recording APRS data on 144mhz. However, if there is activity (E's or F2) most of the time, I've seen it listed here.

Did a quick search for "KATV" and "ABC" and didn't see what I was looking for, so sorry if this is a repeat question....

Our local ABC channel doesn't seem to be passing along the Dolby Digital Surround Sound to us??? For other channels, my receiver shows the Dolby signal, but on KATV, it shows that it is "faking" the surround sound, meaning it is taking a 2.0 (or 2.1) signal and converting it to 5.1. This particularly makes me sad for "Lost" because it is more difficult to hear dialogue.

I hate underpowered VHF DTV...
KAQY (11) Columbia/Monroe LA just lurks "under the water" below decoding threshold.

Meanwhile this morning NE Gulf coastal Texas FM's are/were being heard, KALB (35) Alexandria decoded (w/2 1080i "hdtv" streams). KABZ/"The Buzz" Little Rock nulled out and was hearing KHJK 103.7 LaPorte (Houston) TX and occasional analog RDS decodes before fading and colliding with Doug Rye infomerical show. "FM antenna" still pointed @ Houston.

NWA pests KFSM (18), and KAFT (9) decoding using DTV antenna array pointed @ NW AR/Tulsa.

Did a quick search for "KATV" and "ABC" and didn't see what I was looking for, so sorry if this is a repeat question....

Our local ABC channel doesn't seem to be passing along the Dolby Digital Surround Sound to us??? For other channels, my receiver shows the Dolby signal, but on KATV, it shows that it is "faking" the surround sound, meaning it is taking a 2.0 (or 2.1) signal and converting it to 5.1. This particularly makes me sad for "Lost" because it is more difficult to hear dialogue.

KATV only passes DD 2.0 (stereo) audio. They only got able to play back "tape delayed" HDTV network programming in late May 2009. WABG Greenwood MS was passing 5.1 audio in late 2005/early 2006, but I seldom have seen them since KARK went full power on 3/17/2006. KSPR Springfield MO also passes 5.1 audio but they recently took on another subchannel (relay of K15CZ--The CW) so their PQ has taken a hit.

KOLR (10) decodes from SW Missouri

KOLR (10) decodes from SW MissouriHeheh, breaking up for you, just like it does here. LOL
I guess you know that all the local Springfield newscasts are now 16:9. kytv and kspr's are HD. kolr & ksfx are only SD 16:9 upconverts to 1080i & 720p, but they do look sharper than their old 4:3 newscasts.

@bpeacock22,
For cheapskate stations that can't do DD 5.1, try running RCA analog audio cables to the stereo system and using DPL or DPL II. Dialog often sounds better that way.

Most receivers, my Denon at least, will do Dolby PLII with digital input (optical or coax) as well. It does greatly improve KATV's audio that way.

Repeats of CSI-NY on KTHV shown last night (10:35pm) shown in 16x9 and HD.

Radio ad on KHJK 103.7 Houston about 30 minutes ago (strong tropo again this morning) from AT&T UVerse touting 24Mbps Internet service in metro Houston. (yes, I'm still hearing that station now, although its tricky to null out KABZ 103.7 LR)

I've not heard about this advertised for UVerse in Central AR , then again many small towns in AR lack any DSL in AT&T landline service areas....

Yet, these same companies want to grab frequency spectrum from OTA broadcasters. Shouldn't they be lighting up the dark fiber first before going for most of UHF-TV?

HuntsVille, Al is coming in this morning (WHDF-DT)....Good DXing

Edit: Haley: rf channel 11 PBS from New Orleans is in. Think you said you were trying to get that one?

Edit2: KWEX San Antonio....Perhaps my farthest west.

Wireless plans get you locked into agreements and they can charge more for usage. They don't want to spend all that money laying fiber when providers can just retrofit existing cell sites to also carry a new WiMax-type wireless internet. Then get your customers locked into 2 year agreements for over-priced wireless cards/modems & over-priced plans (like tiered data plans so they can charge for every mb) and it's a win-win for them.

They touted "unlimited" internet for smart phones but now they realize they don't have the capacity & are screaming because they have to upgrade their networks. People are using their phones more & more to stream music & video. Soon data will be capped & you'll pay through the nose for over-usage.

HuntsVille, Al is coming in this morning (WHDF-DT)....Good DXing

Edit: Haley: rf channel 11 PBS from New Orleans is in. Think you said you were trying to get that one?

Edit2: KWEX San Antonio....Perhaps my farthest west.

I came very close to just staying up until past sunrise this morning, but after DFW took a dive, I called it a night at 4AM.

WHDF lit up the box this morning, and so did WGBC Meridian Miss--yet another station running two "HD" streams (FOX and NBC). Several DFW DTV's lit up about 3AM. Heard Corpus Christi, San Antonio, DFW, Austin on FM. A few IBOC decodes, and one this morning from WMAH Biloxi.

I saw a11 lurk but I was thinking it was Monroe (KAQY), NOLA DTV 11 must have been in while I was sleeping between 4-8AM.

KATV only passes DD 2.0 (stereo) audio. They only got able to play back "tape delayed" HDTV network programming in late May 2009. WABG Greenwood MS was passing 5.1 audio in late 2005/early 2006, but I seldom have seen them since KARK went full power on 3/17/2006. KSPR Springfield MO also passes 5.1 audio but they recently took on another subchannel (relay of K15CZ--The CW) so their PQ has taken a hit.

I don't suppose yet ANOTHER strongly worded letter to the channel will do any good? :P

...They don't want to spend all that money laying fiber...Haley wasn't talking about laying new fiber, he was referring to fiber that's already in the ground, but is not being used for broadband.

That is exactly the situation at my house. AT&T fiber terminates about a mile from the house in a remote terminal. It was installed in the mid 1990s before DSL was even being offered anywhere. All AT&T has to do to make broadband available in my area is upgrade the Remote Terminal from voice-only to DSL-capable equipment. The C.O. is already DSL-capable and DSL is available in the city limits, where they compete with coxcable for phone/internet. Coxcable & AT&T's broadband service areas are about the same around here.

AT&T 3G wireless is not available here and AT&T 4G (LTE) is still vapor ware.

Haley wasn't talking about laying new fiber, he was referring to fiber that's already in the ground, but is not being used for broadband.

That is exactly the situation at my house. AT&T fiber terminates about a mile from the house in a remote terminal. It was installed in the mid 1990s before DSL was even being offered anywhere. All AT&T has to do to make broadband available in my area is upgrade the Remote Terminal from voice-only to DSL-capable equipment. The C.O. is already DSL-capable and DSL is available in the city limits, where they compete with coxcable for phone/internet. Coxcable & AT&T's broadband service areas are about the same around here.

AT&T 3G wireless is not available here and AT&T 4G (LTE) is still vapor ware.

Last week, I was in Arkansas City visiting and stopped by the Desha County Courthouse there. A couple of county officials I spoke with said that it was only within the past year that the courthouse was connected to a T1 service. There is no residential DSL service availible in the Arkansas City exchange. AT&T is the local landline phone company there. Most of Drew County (outside of Monticello) lacks DSL service also.

Things are somewhat better in Dumas/Tillar/Winchester. Those communties in Northern Desha county are served by CenturyLink (ex CenturyTel) which has been more proactive in extending landline DSL service.

Most of the independent telcos in Ark. are way ahead of AT&T regarding DSL deployment in less populated areas. And with DSL extenders, distance from the C.O. is no longer an issue. It's about the only thing small telcos can do to hang onto customers.

I suspect that AT&T hasn't deployed more DSL where it could easily do so (like in my area), because they likely plan to sell off their land line business in rural areas, much like Verizon has already done in many places in the Northeast.

I'm having a constant pixeling problem with Arkwest IPTV. We have 4 tvs, each with their own seperate HD DVR. From my terminal in the yard, I have a bundled cable of 2 pair wires that feed my junction box on the side wall of my home. From there, I have 4 cat5 wires feeding 4 seperate modems. Each modem feeds my HD DVR's which are made by Amino, the Aminet530. HDMI from 530 to HDTV's. Each cat5 is fed by its own 2 pair wire and communicates with a seperate port back at Arkwest. My port numbers are 41, 42,43 & 44. So bandwidth to each DVR is not the issue, at least according to Arkwest who says I'm a 13 on signal. They say 6-7 is a weak signal but 13 should rock n roll with no drops ever. However, they show no errors on the ports back at their office most of the time ( a few times it has) yet we still have a constant barrage of pixeling issues. The PQ is awesome, but it gets annoying when you see quick pixeling or audio drops ever 2 or 3 minutes. They have swapped pairs, swapped modems, re-installed new cat5 wiring "again", changed the protector in the yard terminal and even completely changed the whole new box on the side of the house. They changed the protector and wall box yesterday after spending the last 2 weeks out here tyring to figure out whats going on. They've swapped pairs so many times from my home all the way back to their control room that it aint even funny anymore. They say we should be clear as a bell with never a drop here unless it originates from the broadcastersthemselves. The only modem that has more than one thing hooked to it is the living room modem which has a tv and internet, its a bonded modem. They use Comtrend NexusLink 5631 modems. Each ADSL2+Bonded router has 4 output ports for connections. You can have 1 HD and internet connection on each modem or two SD and one internet. We only have it on one as the other 3 modems only have a single tv connected to them. Its getting real discouraging at this point. I love their set up and if it worked like its supposed too all the time, I'd be on cloud 9 with my tv service. We dont plan on dropping them, deploying this stuff is new to them adn they told me that there are no schools to learn this stuff from because its so new and cutting edge, basically its trial and error. Arkwest is different than AT&t's uverse. Uverse uses and adapter to change over to coax to use the homes existing wiring in most cases. Arkwest runs cat5 from the wall box to the modem then onto the HD DVR, so its all cat5 all the way. That is why I'm able to have 4 HD streams while Uverse is limited to 2 HD streams. However, I"m starting to wonder is I am overloaded somewhere...but that really does not make sense if each dvr/tv has is own indidvidual port and feed, no tv shares bandwidth, its all on seperate wires. We had a lightning storm a while back and since then we have had these problems. We had Arkwest for over a month without any problems, but after the storm it all changed. My son said he heard a pop in one of the bedrooms near the tv and I'm thinking lightning ran in on us but who knows where it created the problem. I think they may have to completely install a new 2 pair cable from my yard terminal to the wall box. At this point, its about the only thing they have not tried. I think I will suggest that they just lay a new one out on top of the ground for a few days, hook it up and see what happens. If the problem stops then we know the 2 pair cable from my house to yard terminal is damaged. Its like electricity, you can have a bad leg in a wire and your equipment will still run for a while until it finally burns into, however your equipment may not run the way its supposed too at times with the bad leg, but it makes it almost impossible to find the problem. anyway, thought I'd fill you guys in on some of my recent problems. One of the guys who works for Arkwest lives just across the hill from me. He has HD DVRS at his home as well, his cable runs are farther than mine and he said in a years time he has never had 1 drop out that didnt originate from the broadcaster. So something has to be bad or damaged in my supply system somewhere. Otherwise, we would have seen these problems from the start, but they only showed up after the storm and lightning strike. Any ideas? there were 2 modems beside each other in the two rooms where they hooked them up. These modems are wireless capable and have antennas. I seperated them by a few feet thinking that they could be interfering with each other. However, that did not solve the problem. I'm stumped....and I think Arkwest is too. Still, the only thing that remains unchanged is the 2 pair cable from home to yard terminal. Dont know about you guys...but that cable is starting to stick out in my head like a sore thumb at this point.:confused:

It on all the TVs or just one? Hard to imagine underground cable getting damaged from lightning, but guess it could have entered from the electrical wiring and arced across to the dirt underground burning through the insulation.

It on all the TVs or just one? Hard to imagine underground cable getting damaged from lightning, but guess it could have entered from the electrical wiring and arced across to the dirt underground burning through the insulation.

Dave, its happening on all tvs. But it weird. You can tune all tvs to HGTV HD and the show will pixel up, but usually at differnt times on each tv. If it pixeled at exactly the same time on each tv, I could understand it more. But you may have the living room tv pixel right now then clear up and the bedroom tv pixel 10 seconds later on a different part of the show while the living tv never pixels at that point. Seems like the 2 pair is bad or its coming from Arkwest. Thing is, I've had the tech here in my home watching the living room tv while its pixeling and talking on the phone to the guy at Arkwest watching the ports. The guy watching the ports says he is showing 0 errors but the arkwest guy here in my living room is seeing the pixeling. What would make me pixel without showing errors? I know on my antenna set up that everytime I pixel on a network, my sony tv shows how many errors and what kind. So when you pixel you have errors and it should show, but with arkwest, the ports say no errors but the arkwest guy in my living room seeing all the pixeling knows better.

It does it on all 4 TVs and all 4 have independent fiber lines run to your house, or one fiber to your house, and split there? Whats the first cable/device/whatever that is common to all 4 tvs in your house, but not common to your neighbors?

Have you checked your power lines to make sure you arent getting spikes, or noise from a burned ground on your service pole or breaker box?

It does it on all 4 TVs and all 4 have independent fiber lines run to your house, or one fiber to your house, and split there? Whats the first cable/device/whatever that is common to all 4 tvs in your house, but not common to your neighbors?

Have you checked your power lines to make sure you arent getting spikes, or noise from a burned ground on your service pole or breaker box?

Acutally, the Arkwest guy mentioned to me the other day that his radio was fine until he pulled into my driveway, they he said it messed up badly. My transformer on my pole is old and rusted, it looks bad. He mentioned the possibility of power spiking as a source of interference but I could tell he did not want to blame the power company until he had exhausted all avenues on Arkwest part. He said they often drive the lines with their radios on AM to find such things.

I dont have fiber to my house. I have copper from my terminal back to the fiber connection house about a half a mile from me. They are running fiber to our houses in the next 2-3 years but currently have copper that feeds my home from the Fiber connection houses. At least thats the way I understand it, maybe I'm wrong about that, not sure.

Turn on a AM or CB radio, and see if you can hear a loud buzz, or intermittent bleed off of static. Ill wager a bet its external noise.

One more thing. Have you tried unplugging just the box where your son might have heard the pop? Might be one box messin it all up.

Turn on a AM or CB radio, and see if you can hear a loud buzz, or intermittent bleed off of static. Ill wager a bet its external noise.

I'll try that tomorrow


One more thing. Have you tried unplugging just the box where your son might have heard the pop? Might be one box messin it all up.

yes, I've unplugged all of them one at a time to see if they were interfering with each other. Also, Arkwest has replaced all of the Modems since then so if a modem was bad from a lightning strike, its been replaced.


Talked to one of the main guys at arkwest tonight. He said he had been looking at my ports with a new meter they had just gotten that could measure everything in the system. Said he had looked from the ports up to my DVRs in the house and found nothing going on. Said he would bring it to my home in the next day or two and check the from the drops in the home backwards to the ports at Arkwest and see if there is any reflectivness going on in the system. I'll give Arkwest one thing, they sure are trying to figure the problem out. Everytime I call them they are out here within the hour to work on my system. They at least get and "A" for effort, and eventually they'll figure out whats going on.

AM radio goes crazy in my yard. Constantly buzzes and when you move around you start hearing loud screeching spikes in the noise.

Where there is noise, there is pixellation :) Good luck getting that fixed. Maybe the power company has some spare unrusted, Non-PCB filled transformers for you.

Where there is noise, there is pixellation :) Good luck getting that fixed. Maybe the power company has some spare unrusted, Non-PCB filled transformers for you.

Yeah, arkwest said it should be fun trying to get entergy to do something for free. They said unless its leaking oil, they highly doubt entergy will fix it even if it is the main source of interference. They said I'd have to prove to entergy that their transformer was causing the problem and then maybe they'd think about changing it. Should be laws against such practices. If it dont work, change it.

I would think 12 gauge buckshot should make it leak oil.

You would think since its bleeding power to ground, they would want to change it. FWIW, there are FCC rules about power line emissions. I really pissed off NLR electric several years ago when one of their poles would constantly arc and wipe out 80 and 40 meter ham bands. When they came out, I wasnt home. They cut my long wire antenna into little 1 foot pieces while they were fixing the bad ground. I called the mayors office about it, and they came out and gave me a 1000 foot box of copper antenna wire to replace it, along with an assurance that the crew had been "disciplined". It was really pretty funny, but the noise went bye bye. Been quiet as a mouse since.

I would think 12 gauge buckshot should make it leak oil.

Thats an Excellent point Steve:D

You would think since its bleeding power to ground, they would want to change it. FWIW, there are FCC rules about power line emissions. I really pissed off NLR electric several years ago when one of their poles would constantly arc and wipe out 80 and 40 meter ham bands. When they came out, I wasnt home. They cut my long wire antenna into little 1 foot pieces while they were fixing the bad ground. I called the mayors office about it, and they came out and gave me a 1000 foot box of copper antenna wire to replace it, along with an assurance that the crew had been "disciplined". It was really pretty funny, but the noise went bye bye. Been quiet as a mouse since.

Well, to be fair, I have not even called entergy and reported the problem yet. I suppose I should do that before I get all wound up. I know the lineman who works my area, maybe I could get him to do me a favor, hes a nice guy. I had a frayed ground from pole to pole here on my farm, he told me that it didnt really need to be replaced since it was not broken into. Then he said, Oh what the heck, I'll replace it for ya. Maybe I should just mention the transformer to him instead of going thru their service center. He might come out and look at it and call it in as bad and in need of replacement.

BTW, that was a real crap move by that crew to cut up your antenna. People that do stuff like that while your not around are sorry SOB's not to mention they dont have any backbone.

Verizon isn't bullish on that proposed FCC Frequency Grab....

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/451209-Verizon_CEO_Does_Not_Back_FCC_Spectrum_Reclamation_Proposal. php

Anyone notice a couple of the promos on the 6pm news on KARK appear to be SQUISHED? Like they were made for 16:9 and being squished to 4:3? This might be an accident, or perhaps they are getting ready for a 16:9 shift?

Anyone notice a couple of the promos on the 6pm news on KARK appear to be SQUISHED? Like they were made for 16:9 and being squished to 4:3? This might be an accident, or perhaps they are getting ready for a 16:9 shift?

I'm not sure what all goes into converting your local news cast from 4:3 SD to 16:9 HD, but I'd want to be the first to do it. Its something you could run for years to come. Just like they used to claim...we were the first to give you sky cam or we were the first to employ doppler radar.....so could they say..we were the first to bring you your local news in High Definition. Seems like being the first to go full blown 16x9 HD would show a nice return in overall viewership. I know KLRT claims its HD. I have not watched it in a while but the last time I watched, it was still 4:3 with bars. The PQ was much clearer than the other affilliates but IMO only 480p and not true 1080i HD.

Hard to imagine underground cable getting damaged from lightning...This happens frequently. Lightning hits a tree, building, pole, etc. and travels into the ground and into buried cables and drop wires.


AM radio goes crazy in my yard. Constantly buzzes and when you move around you start hearing loud screeching spikes in the noise.Dead giveaway it's probably a bad transformer. Either call Entergy or follow steveken's instructions :) If you call, tell 'em that at night, you've seen sparks around the transformer at times and your AM radio is full of intermittent static.


Anyone notice a couple of the promos on the 6pm news on KARK appear to be SQUISHED?...NWA stations squish some commercials. And then there's AETN, where you never know if an entire program's going to be squished or stretched. :(
Some commercials on Springfield stations are also squished and all their local news programs are now in 16:9. Two of the 4 stations are HD - the other two are only upconverted 16:9.

I'm not sure what all goes into converting your local news cast from 4:3 SD to 16:9 HD, but I'd want to be the first to do it. Its something you could run for years to come. Just like they used to claim...we were the first to give you sky cam or we were the first to employ doppler radar.....so could they say..we were the first to bring you your local news in High Definition. Seems like being the first to go full blown 16x9 HD would show a nice return in overall viewership. I know KLRT claims its HD. I have not watched it in a while but the last time I watched, it was still 4:3 with bars. The PQ was much clearer than the other affilliates but IMO only 480p and not true 1080i HD.

KLRT has never claimed to do HD news. The only station in town to even do partial HD newscasts is KTHV, who do occasional special stories in HD.

[QUOTE=RockyF;18499433]KLRT has never claimed to do HD news.

I thought they used to run adds about 2 years ago saying they were the only LR station to bring you news in HD.:confused:

[QUOTE=arxaw;18499430

Dead giveaway it's probably a bad transformer. Either call Entergy or follow steveken's instructions :)

Actually had a lineman stop by the house looking for someone else last Thursday. Told him about the problem I was having. He said he bet the night light was the problem. However I told him it happens in the day too when the light is off. He looked at the transformer and said he didnt see it leaking any oil anywhere but it was rusted pretty bad. I said something about replacing it and he said, Oh you dont want that, the new ones suck compared to the old ones like you have. He did say there very well could be an EMI problem and that he would report it. He told me to call in as well and report the problem. Told me a story about a guy with a ham radio a few years ago having similar problems. Said it turned out to be a $35,000 piece of Entergys equipment near the guys home. He said long story short, the equipment is still there and the guy had to learn to live with the interference. If the problem truly is from their equipment, it would explain a lot of interference problems I've had thru the years on my tv. Can and Will EMI effect C-band? I had C-band for over 10 years and never once had an interference problem with it. My IPTV problem has to be at least coming from the box on the side of the house or farther back into their system. The reason I say that is because all 4 tv's pixel out so its coming from the feeds into the house. I highly doubt at this point that there is a problem from the modems onto the HD DVR's. Did have one HDtv having an audio problem, sounded jerky while the other tv's were fine. I put on a new HDMI cable and it solved the problem. I had a thought once that my pixeling issues could be originating in the HDMI cables. However, I hooked the HD DVR's up on HDMI and component at the same time to the tv's. Still got pixeling and disruptions thru the component cables as well, so it was not the HDMI cables or connections. Also, I had one of the DVR's turned around tonight installing a new HDMI cable. I noticed when the tv began cutting out and pixeling that the little green light where the Ethernet cable plugs into the port would go out momentarily. So, to me that says my signal is dropping out at times, which would be on Arkwest part and not mine. Last but not least, it could be these 4 bonded modems, Comtrend NexusLink 5631's. When Arkwest takes a look from the ports all the way up to my HD DVR's, they say they show no errors. However, the modems could be the trouble spot. I guess I'm going to have to put my common sense farmer know how into this deal and figure out where the problem is. Apparently Arkwest is not going to figure it out.

Very doubtful interference would affect C band (4Ghz downconverted to 1GHz). Its simply to high a frequency, and to strong a signal, and probably being sent through shielded coax, were as your IPTV is sent (I guess) on unshielded twisted pair or network cable. If you can find the source of your interference (if thats what is causing it), and it turns out to be the twisted pair, then you can enclose it in conduit where it runs by the source of the interference.

If its dropping your link light on the modem, however, that should show up in the logging function, if any, that the modem has.

[QUOTE=RockyF;18499433]KLRT has never claimed to do HD news.

I thought they used to run adds about 2 years ago saying they were the only LR station to bring you news in HD.:confused:

Well, maybe they did, I don't remember ever seeing that, but I didn't always watch them, or at least their promos two years ago. I do know they never have actually done the news in HD, I worked there from the launch of the newscast in '04 until mid-'06, and I've been back since January. But then, the promo folks do occasionally make statements that aren't always right. During the Olympics, we ran ads saying our news ALWAYS starts at 9pm, I guess to get folks who watch KARK when their newscast would be running late, but the fact is, we have Fox network overruns all the time pushing our newscasts to later times. Just this week there were two, with the Glee premiere on Tuesday, and a long running baseball game last night. :)

and a long running baseball game last night. :)

Long running baseball game? You mean where the pitcher ended up playing outfield, and the outfielder pitched for the first time in his life, since they RAN OUT OF PLAYERS? God that was a long game. I watched the whole 7 hours of it.

Long running baseball game? You mean where the pitcher ended up playing outfield, and the outfielder pitched for the first time in his life, since they RAN OUT OF PLAYERS? God that was a long game. I watched the whole 7 hours of it.

I didn't watch the game, I just happened to flip over to Fox 16 about 9:30. I knew the game was supposed to have started at 3pm, so my first thought was that there had been a rain delay or something. Then I glanced at the score, and saw it was the 19TH INNING! :) Sorry, I'm not that into baseball, but even if I was, I would have been asleep long before it reached 7 hours.

Didnt have anything else going. It was pouring in Dallas, so the Nascar race was cancelled (and doesnt look good for this afternoon either).

[QUOTE=Arkyman;18500575]

Well, maybe they did, I don't remember ever seeing that, but I didn't always watch them, or at least their promos two years ago. I do know they never have actually done the news in HD, I worked there from the launch of the newscast in '04 until mid-'06, and I've been back since January. But then, the promo folks do occasionally make statements that aren't always right. During the Olympics, we ran ads saying our news ALWAYS starts at 9pm, I guess to get folks who watch KARK when their newscast would be running late, but the fact is, we have Fox network overruns all the time pushing our newscasts to later times. Just this week there were two, with the Glee premiere on Tuesday, and a long running baseball game last night. :)

Maybe so. It could have been something they could have had in the works then scrapped it. Oh well, it doesnt really matter anyway. I do wish the LR stations would go HD during the news cast. It doesnt bother me to watch it in SD but then again everything is much better in HD:)

[QUOTE=RockyF;18501226]

Maybe so. It could have been something they could have had in the works then scrapped it. Oh well, it doesnt really matter anyway. I do wish the LR stations would go HD during the news cast. It doesnt bother me to watch it in SD but then again everything is much better in HD:)

Get a DVDO Edge, and make it HD yourself :) Works great.

[QUOTE=Arkyman;18502664]

Get a DVDO Edge, and make it HD yourself :) Works great.

Have you tried this Dave? How well does it work with 480i signals delivered via s-vid or composite? See any improvements with HD or blu-ray as their site claims? I would honestly consider this for my living room 60" hdtv if it works well with SD. Where is the cheapest place on the web to pick one up?

On their website, they claim precision de-interlacing on sources such as cable, satellite and Over the Air broadcast. Dont see how it can do that with OTA since there is no input for Antenna and it does not have an on board ATSC tuner. They cant honestly do anything with OTA broadcast if there is no input for it?:confused:

Been looking around at HDTV's. Sams has the new 55” Vizio VIA XVT Tru-LED LCD 1080p 240Hz SPS for $1,887 free shipping to your door! My 60" SXRD is still in good condition but this newest Vizio has my attention. With the "Via" feature you can stream movies and all sorts of stuff from sources like vudu and netflix. Its very intriguing, if they offered this baby in a 60" or bigger I'd be in trouble. But the fact that its a first Gen Via tv and my SXRD is still in good shape keeps me from going after this new 55" from Vizio. Hopefully by the time my SXRD crashes on me, Vizio and other brands will have had time to make many more advancements.

[QUOTE=arxaw;18499430

Dead giveaway it's probably a bad transformer. Either call Entergy or follow steveken's instructions :)

Actually had a lineman stop by the house looking for someone else last Thursday. Told him about the problem I was having. He said he bet the night light was the problem. However I told him it happens in the day too when the light is off. He looked at the transformer and said he didnt see it leaking any oil anywhere but it was rusted pretty bad. I said something about replacing it and he said, Oh you dont want that, the new ones suck compared to the old ones like you have. He did say there very well could be an EMI problem and that he would report it. He told me to call in as well and report the problem. Told me a story about a guy with a ham radio a few years ago having similar problems. Said it turned out to be a $35,000 piece of Entergys equipment near the guys home. He said long story short, the equipment is still there and the guy had to learn to live with the interference.

Neither that ham, nor you have to "learn to live with the interference." If you can establish that it IS Entergy's equipment causing the problem, notify the FCC. The FCC will COMPEL Entergy to repair the problem, or face very serious fines which continue daily. Electric utility companies are no more exempt than anyone else from causing harmful interference to radio and tv reception.

[QUOTE=Davenlr;18502669]

Have you tried this Dave? How well does it work with 480i signals delivered via s-vid or composite? See any improvements with HD or blu-ray as their site claims? I would honestly consider this for my living room 60" hdtv if it works well with SD. Where is the cheapest place on the web to pick one up?

Yes. It sharpens the picture, and gets rid of the dot crawl on horizontal lines that appear to make the picture flicker. I tried it on a converter box using video composite input. Quite noticable, but of course, not HD. Really improves DVDs tho. Its biggest improvement is cleaning up, sharpening, line detailing and upscaling of 720p to 1080p. I honestly cannot tell a difference anymore between 720p and 1080i channels (except for AETN of course, which hacks and preprocesses the signal).


On their website, they claim precision de-interlacing on sources such as cable, satellite and Over the Air broadcast. Dont see how it can do that with OTA since there is no input for Antenna and it does not have an on board ATSC tuner. They cant honestly do anything with OTA broadcast if there is no input for it?:confused:

It uses the composite or Svideo output of your tuner. It does not contain its own tuner. For OTA you would need a component or HDMI output from your TV's internal tuner, or a standalone HD ATSC tuner for HD upconverting.



So in a word, I think it would really improve the pq on a large screen. The auto-switching HDMI is great, it allows zooming while maintaining aspect ratio, for those channels that like to show the closed captioning data on the top line of your screen. If you have any other questions, hollar. I got mine from Amazon.com

[QUOTE=Davenlr;18510305]
I got mine from Amazon.com

Beachcamera has it for $499 and free shipping. Is that a good deal? I'm very tempted to pick one up for my living room. IPTV has alot of mosquito crawl on SD channels, I'm thinking the Edge could clear this up for me which would be very nice. Heres the link to Beachcameras offer.



http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product.aspx?omid=118&ref=nextag&utm_source=Nextag&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ABEDGE&sku=ABEDGE

[QUOTE=Davenlr;18510305]
I got mine from Amazon.com

Beachcamera has it for $499 and free shipping. Is that a good deal? I'm very tempted to pick one up for my living room. IPTV has alot of mosquito crawl on SD channels, I'm thinking the Edge could clear this up for me which would be very nice. Heres the link to Beachcameras offer.



http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product.aspx?omid=118&ref=nextag&utm_source=Nextag&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ABEDGE&sku=ABEDGE

Yea, Beach and HiDef Lifestyle both sell through Amazon. I got mine from HiDef Lifestyle for the same price with free shipping. Either one should be ok, they both have the same rating.

BTW, I just found another use...I can "unstretch" those channels that think 4:3 material should be 16:9 (TNT, AETN, etc). Im doing it right now, and it looks much better.

[QUOTE=Arkyman;18514938]

Yea, Beach and HiDef Lifestyle both sell through Amazon. I got mine from HiDef Lifestyle for the same price with free shipping. Either one should be ok, they both have the same rating.

BTW, I just found another use...I can "unstretch" those channels that think 4:3 material should be 16:9 (TNT, AETN, etc). Im doing it right now, and it looks much better.

I bought an LG 47 LCD from Beach last year for my mom and dad, they are a good place to buy. I just wanted to make sure 499 was the lowest price being offered on a new one. Thats pretty darn cool that you can actually unstretch strechovision:) Trying to convince my wife that we could really benefit from the dvdo in the living room on the 60"....dont know if shes buying my pitch yet or not. Went to Anchor Bays website last night and showed her the demo and what its capable of doing. She was impressed with its capabilities but wasnt thrilled about me wanting to spend $499 on another tv component.

Its actually $100 cheaper than I paid three weeks ago. I paid $599 for it. Go figure.

Every weekend I see this on my wildfeeds list:
1pm ET - Arkansas @ Florida - AMC 15 Ku Tr 2/upper horizontal 11749 MHz SR 13021

So, every weekend, the Razorbacks baseball team is up on satellite, yet NONE of the Little Rock stations carry the games. Why can none of the stations pick up college baseball? Why is it not on any of the Regional Sports Networks?

Every weekend I see this on my wildfeeds list:
1pm ET - Arkansas @ Florida - AMC 15 Ku Tr 2/upper horizontal 11749 MHz SR 13021

So, every weekend, the Razorbacks baseball team is up on satellite, yet NONE of the Little Rock stations carry the games. Why can none of the stations pick up college baseball? Why is it not on any of the Regional Sports Networks?

Frank Broyles caused alot of this because he refused to allow the hogs to be broadcast for many years because he was afraid folks would stay home and watch on tv instead of buying a ticket to the game. I've got news for old franky boy and jeffy long, that damn football stadium only holds 72,000 people and there are a hell of alot more hog fans in the state of Arkansas than that! The way Frank always viewed it......If you were not Rich and couldnt afford the tickets and trip up to Fayetteville then you didnt were not entitled to watch the hogs!

Every weekend I see this on my wildfeeds list:
1pm ET - Arkansas @ Florida - AMC 15 Ku Tr 2/upper horizontal 11749 MHz SR 13021

So, every weekend, the Razorbacks baseball team is up on satellite, yet NONE of the Little Rock stations carry the games. Why can none of the stations pick up college baseball? Why is it not on any of the Regional Sports Networks?
Because it's just like any other baseball in this state and the reason we can't get a real team here.....because people just don't give a crap about baseball around here for some reason. They'd rather watch a bunch of dumbasses play football or watch stupid ass basketball than watch baseball. It's the same reason hockey failed here. Hell, I'm surprised arena football has stuck around. I guess there's enough rednecks that like college football to support arena football too.

Frank Broyles caused alot of this because he refused to allow the hogs to be broadcast for many years because he was afraid folks would stay home and watch on tv instead of buying a ticket to the game. I've got news for old franky boy and jeffy long, that damn football stadium only holds 72,000 people and there are a hell of alot more hog fans in the state of Arkansas than that! The way Frank always viewed it......If you were not Rich and couldnt afford the tickets and trip up to Fayetteville then you didnt were not entitled to watch the hogs!
I kinda wish it still wasn't broadcast on TV. :)

Turns out the ballgame WAS on the RSN (FSFlorida), but tape delayed in SD. I watched em lose anyway:) A lot of the rest of the SEC baseball games are on various RSN's also.

If the football or basketball team was ranked #4 (some polls #2), like the baseball team is, you would never hear the end of it. Heck, the baseball and track and field teams are year after year much better than the football and basketball teams.

dmatch

KTUL - Tulsa, OK has increased their coverage with a new digital antenna.

Post here: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=176338

Article here: http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0410/730212.html

Just wondering, anyone else started seeing ads on the right of the page beside some posts here recently? I didn't use to unless I wasn't logged in, now I see it like all the time.

KTUL - Tulsa, OK has increased their coverage with a new digital antenna.Oh wow, 19kW.

Just wondering, anyone else started seeing ads on the right of the page beside some posts here recently? I didn't use to unless I wasn't logged in, now I see it like all the time. I Don't see ads. I keep adblock plus (http://https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/1865) running all the time.

Oh wow, 19kW.

15 kW. ;)

(The STA for 18.9 kW was for the old antenna.)

- Trip

Im running Adblock Plus as well. For some reason, however, since they added that "feature" for the imbedded help links or whatever it is, I no longer have links of the messages to reply with quote. All I can do now, is go to the bottom and use the quick reply box. I wish they would just leave things alone.

15 kW. ;)

(The STA for 18.9 kW was for the old antenna.)

- Trip

Even more anemic.

Im running Adblock Plus as well. For some reason, however, since they added that "feature" for the imbedded help links or whatever it is, I no longer have links of the messages to reply with quote. All I can do now, is go to the bottom and use the quick reply box. I wish they would just leave things alone.You probably have an adblock wildcard filter blocking too many things, because I see the [Edit] [Quote] [Multi-Quote] and [Quick Reply] buttons.

You probably have an adblock wildcard filter blocking too many things, because I see the [Edit] [Quote] [Multi-Quote] and [Quick Reply] buttons.

Bingo. I must have accidentally clicked the wrong button and was blocking everything :) Its funny, since it all showed up on the mobile version, which is what I normally run. I was trying the default skin, and thats where I noticed they were all gone.

*** I have deleted this post, thanks Trip for the heads-up on this

That liar posted his crap on R-I again!? It got deleted more than once after an AETN representative came on and called it all false.

I managed to get myself into an argument with R-I management over it who stated that his completely fabricated posts were his opinion and thus shouldn't be removed.

- Trip

Hehehe. Even if it was true, AETN couldnt screw up the PQ worse than it is now. Let em add 8 subchannels. Thank God for PBS HD National.

Hehehe. Even if it was true, AETN couldnt screw up the PQ worse than it is now. Let em add 8 subchannels. Thank God for PBS HD National.
I wish DTV carried it.:(

I hate FOX. Its the only network that doesnt have an unencrypted national feed. So now, Im stuck watch the frigging tornado team on channel 16 (we dont know how to have a weather subchannel) instead of the race, cant get it in HD from FOX, so Im having to watch it from PUERTO RICO in SD. Fox is a friggin joke. I sure wish Nascar would dump them.

So now, Im stuck watch the frigging tornado team on channel 16

I'm not going to lie... That is some scary weather down there! I seriously thought about going to Arkansas to storm chase today.

I like the idea of having weather subchannels being used for continuous severe weather coverage in these horrible conditions, but since the channels aren't on satellite or cable at time, it doesn't get to most of the viewers impacted, so it's kind of useless.

I don't mind the coverage as long as it's not over-the-top. If the weather's real bad, it's understandable to use the scroll and do break-ins during the commercials. As long as the coverage isn't like KCTV 5 from Kansas City; when I only had the KC DMA, I remember missing a whole episode of Letterman one year because of a Flash Flood Warning.

That's why it's nice to live in an area where you can get two or three DMA's.

I'm not going to lie... That is some scary weather down there! I seriously thought about going to Arkansas to storm chase today.


Hehe. Well, come on down. You can watch the tornados while I watch the race in SD. Seriously, Im sure its ok for some folks to poor to buy a weather radio, but if I wanted 4 weather channels, Id have it made here.

Last night was the topper tho. Taking after the Weather Channel, who pointed out a "debris cloud" on a weather radar of the F4 that hit Mississippi, our esteemed over the top channel 4 meteorologist Mike Francis saw "debris clouds" in EVERY FRIGGIN STORM last night. Geeze. I was listening to the scanner and police were reporting funnel clouds 5 miles from my house, and the TV stations (both of em I was watching) were so busy trying to keep video from their "mobile storm spotters" onscreen, they NEVER reported the funnel cloud at all. NOT ONCE. I could see it PLAIN AS DAY on the NWS velocity radar, and knew it was gonna hit I40 and Kerr Rd, 10 minutes before it hit. Geeze. Hams (the publicity type). All of em.

At least for part of the evening, Fox 16 played the race in a split screen mode with the coverage in a smaller box. I switched over a bit ago, and the race was full screen and in HD, but now the radar is full screen, but I guess the race is over. At least it's Saturday night, when the race was about the only important thing on. Missed several shows last night, even Smallville, as Fox 16 was also running on CW.

Their quest for ratings is getting ridiculous. Yes, 16 attempted to show the race in a box, but believe me, even on a 46" screen, it was so small, as to not be very watchable.
I ended up tuning in Fox Puerto Rico, used the processor to do a smart stretch, enhanced detail and turned on all the noise filters. It was quite watchable. The thunderstorm knocked out the DirecTv satellite for about an hour total, and at the end of the race, was strong enough to even cause pixellation on C band, but it hung in there long enough to get the race complete.

The FCC really needs to reconsider their ban on receiving out of market network stations.

... it's nice to live in an area where you can get two or three DMA's.Uh huh.

Things were scary here for a bit, but the worst area skirted East of Star City. Watercooler talk this morning indicated some flash flooding in town last night. Electricity was out here over an hour, there was brief dime-sized hail. With the power out, I listened to the county (public service) frequency (propagation was too iffy for Skywarn reception on ht w/"ducky" antenna here).

Wow...KARZ is showing the Cards game from an weak analog feed so full of sparklies... What do they have down there, a 6' dish? If it wasnt such a PITA, Id hook my old analog receiver up just to see if I could get a better signal.

Wonder why St Louis channel 5 would rent an entire satellite transponder to send a weak analog signal when they could be sending a digital HD signal for less rental costs?

They do send a digital HD signal on AMC 6 and the last game I saw on KARZ was in HD. However, that signal is very weak and unreliable today for some reason so I guess they (KARZ) went back to the analog feed.

Digital on AMC 6 3789 H 14029

dmatch

Digital on AMC 6 3789 H 14029

dmatch

Wow, you arent kidding. Signal is bouncing between 0%, 10%, and 22% and back to 0% on my 6' dish. My 10' wont go over that far because of an oak tree :)

My 7.5 ft. dish does about the same thing. Runs from 0 to about 40 on quality (need 30 to view) then back down to nothing periodically (for few seconds maybe a minute it is viewable then it craps out).

dmatch

Arkansas Razorbacks baseball supposed to be live next Friday and Saturday on ESPNU.

Need some help with ota I am not expert.
lately I just dont watch much tv so I went to just ota viewing.
My problem is with my setup.
I had put a db4 antenna in the attic a long time ago since I had dtv and during severe weather I wanted to see something :)

Well at the time I did this I had 3 tv's and under the antenna I put a 3 way splitter and can cable to the 3 tv's.

I pretty much forgot about it.

Well in the last month a buddy gave me a dtv box and I stuck it on my std def tv. I have 2 hd tv's with built in tuners for the digital signals. I tried all of them and they worked. I was surprised.
I did notice since I was following the antenna guide on where to point that I show KETS(2) but I have never seen it. I just have a blank channel…funny thing the ext reveiver shows several channel 2’s 2-1 2-2 2-3 on scan but none of them have a pic or sound.

Trying to get this to work at its best I noticed some weird stuff. 1 HD tv looses things like over the weekend KATV (7-1) RTV(7-2) and 7-3 just lost signal. But on the ext box on the std tv still had signal.

They all get KARK(4) KATV(7) KTHV(11) KLRT(16) that looks very good one day but KTHV might show some breakup the next. KARZ(42) last night looked like I was watching some weird show, chr walking down the hall, looked like they were in slow mo then run to get back in sync.

=============
sorry about the long post of my crap. Here is what I need to find out.
Is this antenna able to get or should get most of the channels I am talking about?
I am in west LR and hilly, how do I determine signal strength and if or what about some type of amp?
I guess it would have to be some type of unpowered amp if that makes since.
=============

Davenlr do you remember the tornato that tore up down town lr about 8 or 9 years ago.
Channel 4 NEVER cut from their coverage of the ice skating finals.
BUT weeks later they were talking about their great coverage and even had some moron talking about how they saved their life. (must have cost $40 to get them on the air and lie like that)
Overall channel 4 sucks as the worst channel about anything in my opinion.
Only 1 channel had any info live and helpful ...channel 7

A dB4 isnt going to do a good job getting KETS, its a UHF only antenna and KETS is on VHF (and in Redfield, a totally different direction). Only suggestion would be to point the DB4 directly at Shinall Mt, and use a VHF hi band antenna and a channel 7 channel master join-tenna to get KETS.
Adding an amp in wLR will probably overload your tuners.

snip ....

They all get KARK(4) KATV(7) KTHV(11) KLRT(16) that looks very good one day but KTHV might show some breakup the next. KARZ(42) last night looked like I was watching some weird show, chr walking down the hall, looked like they were in slow mo then run to get back in sync.

snip ....
KTHV is also VHF so what Davenlr said regarding your UHF only antenna would apply to it also. I managed to attach about 3 feet of wire to my daughters UHF only antenna and managed to get KETS and KTHV for her that way. It was kind of like adding a VHF dipole to the UHF antenna. However, it was very hit and miss with just how the wire was arranged, because in certain positions it would kill some of the UHF channels. The wind also messes with it quite a lot.

BTW, I see the same thing as you do on KARZ and also have slighly garbled sound on it and do not think that is a reception issue. I presumed it was a combination of the way it is encoded and my particular TV (Vizio 32 inch HD) not handling it right.

dmatch

well after thinking about it channel 2(kets) is NOT something I care about.
I think that ARK(4) KATV(7) KTHV(11) KLRT(16) KARZ(42) and the RTV retro channel 7-2 are my main goals.

Like I said I get these but some times they act flakey.
The external box I am using on the std tv is a Channel Master CM-7000 Digital to Analog TV Converter Box Channel Master CM-7000 at the time I had heard it was the best for dragging in weak signals. Maybe that is what is wrong. I have the antenna aimed at 280 deg.

I did notice on the antennaweb thing that the antenna listed red blue and violet.
All ranges, except kets were 6 to 7.1 miles. Kets was listed at 25 and a compass heading of 152...that explains kets

so since everything I want to watch is supposed to be directional at 280deg and all are within 6-7 miles shouldn't all of the channels perform equally well?
But this whole thing goes against what I understood of the 3 channel 7 stations should all be half way between little rock and pine bluff and should be on a different compass heading or am I missing something. None of the charts list them???
ok I just found this looking at their site.
"Until it collapsed January 11, 2008, both signals were broadcast from the KATV Tower near Redfield, Arkansas. Its analog license continued to reflect this site while the station was broadcasting in analog from a temporary site, and in HDTV on a subchannel of KWBF (channel 42, now KARZ-TV). It began broadcasts on February 1, 2009 from a new digital transmitter located on Shinall Mountain, near the Chenal Valley neighborhood of Little Rock."

So now everyone is located on the west of town....this should make everything a lot easier. I remember in the rabbit ear days, turn it left for 7 and right for 4 and 11..


dmatch you may have something there. I was watching it on a vizio lcd last night and saw this. really my first time of seeing it slow mo but I just don't watch a ton of tv.
one last thing he mentioned...I put this up to help when I lost sat signal about 4 or 5 years ago. I believe everything was analog and I was splitting the aiming trying to get west lr and pine bluff. I bet my antenna is aimed wrong, will check it tonight.


my buddy just emailed me and said that the channel master gives strength and rez on the channels so I will look at that tonight to see what I am getting
edit=======
well I looked at channel str and all but 24 showed 100% but if I remember correctly most digital are 0 and 100 with not much between.
I did think of something that I will have to change this weekend and it might just solve all my problems.
When I put up this antenna it was early talk of the dtv transition and we had 7 on redfield and I was pointing the dish as directed to try and get it with the other locals, meaning I was pointing at something between 152 and 280.
Now I should be pointing at 280 ...man its hard to remember that long ago since I can't remember last week.

I need a little help from fellow OTA antenna guys.....

I live in Jacksonville, about 24 miles from the 4 major networks. About a year ago I bought a Winegard HD 7694P, VHF/UHF antenna (VHF elements 11, UHF elements 17) and put it in my attic. It has worked great most of the time, but I seem to get a lot of multipathing from the KARK signal, bouncing around 55 - 80 on my TIVO signal strength meter. KATV and FOX and KTHV work pretty good, but even with those I get a little of pixelization some times.

I notice at Solid Signal web site, they have two other larger antennas that look to me to be the same 'style'. The Winegard HD 7082P and 7697P, both with more UHF and VHF elements. Would either of these improve my reception a little bit?

Appreciate the help....

They would be more directional, however, two things affect reception in your situation...the attic is the biggest problem, it cuts signal in half and has nails and who knows what else causing reflections. Second major problem is you constantly have C-130s flying between you and the transmitter at a low height. Those reflections will cause all sorts of problems.

My suggestion: save your money and move your current antenna outside and feed it with RG6QS coax.

What dave said. The 7694 should be sufficient for your location. Out of the attic, of course.

Do not get a 7082. It has huge long elements which were optimized for old lowband VHF channels no longer being broadcast on in this area. It can also increase your chances of FM radio harmonic interference on KTHV.

I sure will be happy when FOX does its last NASCAR race soon, so I dont have to watch the races in SD, or worse, not watch it at all, since FOX16 doesnt seem to be able to do the weather crap in HD. What a joke. At least with all the other networks, I had an HD feed I can watch from somewhere else.

I sure will be happy when FOX does its last NASCAR race soon, so I dont have to watch the races in SD, or worse, not watch it at all, since FOX16 doesnt seem to be able to do the weather crap in HD. What a joke. At least with all the other networks, I had an HD feed I can watch from somewhere else.

This is a limitation due to the way FOX delivers the broadcast stream to us. FOX is working on a way for it's affiliates to be able to insert graphics over the HD feed, but I am not sure when we will have it available to us.

E

This is a limitation due to the way FOX delivers the broadcast stream to us.
E

Understood, but is it really nessessary to overlay radar graphics? Would not a warning scroll, then back to HD suffice? I can see interruptions if a tornado is bearing down, but an entire race in SD for a thunderstorm? I know you dont make those decisions, so not laying it on you. Thanks for the info.
Dave

Well, directv made the MRV a fee service now apparently. And apparently it's $3. Not sure the wife will like that. And for some reason it is making it so I have to call in to activate it. It says not elligible for some reason on the site. Oh well.

The reason it shows to be unsupported, is because you do not have the DECA modules and/or your H20 which is unsupported, will need to be replaced. There is a flat $149 fee they are charging to come out and replace non-compatible receivers/DVRs with new ones that are compatible, and installing DECA adapters on the rest, as well as a DECA adapter, bandstop filter, and power inserter to bridge the DECA network to your home network.

If you wish, you can request they activate it in UNSUPPORTED mode, where you can continue to use your home network, but you will still have to pay the $3, and you wont get any official help from DirecTv if it doesnt work correctly.

FWIW, I am using 100% DECA networking here, with a HR24, HR22, HR20, H24, and H21. It works flawlessly, and uses NO home network bandwidth unless you are downloading a VOD.

My HR20-700 worked just fine when it was in Beta mode. I don't know why they wouldn't support it. That's kinda silly cause it has a network jack, it does all the downloading of crap from the Internet, and some of the MediaShare stuff works, so why wouldn't MRV work? LOL

I am not going to fool with that DECA crap. What I have works fine and sure as I put something else in the mix, it will screw it up and I will have to spend months fighting with tech support people getting it to work when a regular ethernet network is sufficient.

I was, however, thinking of going ahead and just ditching the SD DVR we got for my son to get an HD receiver that supports the MRV stuff. He rarely really records anything on it that would make any difference like on my receiver, plus he wouldn't be forced to only watching it in his room. Sometimes he wants to see it in the living room and I tell him we can't. I just dunno if DirecTV would be willing to swap the SD DVR for an HD receiver without some sort of dumbass fees.

Well, they will turn on MRV for you using your home network. By unsupported, they are simply saying if it doesnt work, they wont send a tech out to fix it.

As for upgrading from SD DVR to HD receiver, just check the website for the cost of a HD receiver. Depending on your payment history and your time with them since your last upgrade, it will show either free, or $99. Of course, it will restart your two year commitment as well. Thats why I bought a HR24 instead of leasing it. I dont like two year commitments. I have no idea what I will be doing two years from now. Might not even watch TV anymore.

Just keep in mind, if you plan on spending $99 for a HD receiver, that if you ordered DECA, they would install it, you would get a replacement HD DVR that was Deca compatible, a SWM dish, and it would only be $49 more than just the upgrade alone.

All DECA does is you insert the DECA box between your SAT cable and the SAT in on your receiver, and then plug the 12" ethernet cable from the DECA into your ethernet port. Somewhere in the system, you will also have a DECA box that plugs into your router (if you wish) for VOD and Mediashare. The nice thing about DECA is that it keeps 100% of the multiroom video off your home network.

The cost of the upgrade is really a good deal right now, since you probably would get a new dish, new LNB, new DVR, all for a little more than just that receiver swap.

And to stay on TOPIC: There has been SQUAT for DX so far this month, really boring.
KTVH 26 Hot Springs appears to be about 1/2 the strength it used to be, I can hardly get it now.

Don't need half the stuff they would give me. Only thing that would do for me is to set up the stupid DECA stuff and give me a "compatible" HD DVR. I got the rest of it when I installed at the new house. Just not worth the trouble, really. May not even futz with the SD DVR to HD receiver transition either. I don't really care if he gets to see the stuff he wants to see in HD. I will wait until he bitches about the SD quality. LOL

Razorback college tournament (baseball) game vs Vanderbilt, on live right now, G17, 11960 H 30000 DVB-S (HD).

Heads up for DirecTv subs with HD:

If you sign up for autobillpay (or are already on it) call DirecTv and ask for the "Free HD for 24 months" promotion, and save yourself $240.

Attempting to do that right now. She doesn't seem to know about it.

EDIT: Ok, nevermind, she got it. Now to make sure NFL Sunday Ticket gets off auto-renew like I asked. Got MRV on too. They said it wasn't able to be done by me on the net cause no DECA and no newer green labeled SWiM LNB. Evidently there is a difference. $100 to update it all and get me up to being able to be supported by them if something should happen. Not real worried about it. If something does happen and it sucks up bandwidth, then I'll call for an install of it all.

Wrote Fox16 last night about the insane amount of screen they waste to pull back on their news alert graphics. Last night it was election results. Most of the screen was their flashy background, with the results running in a lower third. The programming was in a centered box, probably about 25% the size of my screen...and it was letterboxed within their frame. Here was the conversation that followed:

Hi Ben- sorry for the inconvenience our televised election results caused you last night. FOX16 takes its responsibility to report news as it happens very seriously. Yesterday's election here in Arkansas was a significant and newsworthy event, large enough to draw national attention. Therefore it was our position that posting election results on-air every 15 minutes was merited. Again--we apologize for any inconvenience our actions caused you.

I wrote back:

I understand your responsibility in relaying important news, but that wasn't my point. My request is: put the technology in place to keep from having to scale back the programming. Other local stations are able to do so; would be great if Fox16 did too.

Her reply:

Thanks Ben... and yes, I agree with you.
We're currently looking into that technology!

/sigh

Yea, from what Ive gleened of their technology, Fox comes preencoded from the network, and allows enough bandwidth for a -2 channel to be added locally, but any modification to the original HD signal requires that the local affiliates switch to SD to run their graphics.

Ive complained endlessly about this during weather maps in the corner days. It wouldnt bother me so much if FOX didnt have their heads up their butts, and scramble all the network feeds, id just tune in to their uplink directly, but they are the only network to do so. So for the time being, I just dont watch FOX if they have weather maps, SD programming, or election results.

I will give Fox16 this...they try to just run weather bulletins during commercials, when they aren't the imminent-tornado-approaching kind.

KARK runs local graphics without disturbing the HD signal. Don't know about KTHV or KATV.

It has to do with the Fox splicer. Until Fox comes up with a solution (which they are working on), the affiliates can't do anything about it. Both Fox affiliates up here, KFTA 27 & KSFX 28, have the same problem.

This new AVS Forum app on iPhone is pretty cool.

This new AVS Forum app on iPhone is pretty cool.

Yeah, it kinda is except for the part about charging for the push notifications. :( I would hope it would be able to push some other way. Maybe if enough people DON'T pay for push they will not charge. :)

guy I don't know what I am doing.
I live in west little rock and have a db4 antenna in my attic. I can point it at 289deg like antenna web shows and my pics look perfect most of the time. But some times I get blocking and stutter. This does not happen ofter but enough to make me mad.
I first talked to a friend that said ok in attics with asphalt shingles you are messing up. Another person said ok its fine. Then one said splitter? Yes I have 3 tv's ...ok there is your problem...wait wouldn't that be all the time? Well come to think of it,,,yes it would.
SO why am I getting this? The signal meters on my tv and on the one tv with a converter box all show 100% signal strength.

Second question.. one channel I would like to see is KASN-DT 38.1 its at 156 deg I can see it but its blocky and breaks up real bad.
No way I can split that and point the antenna at 222 deg. If I do all my channels are there but very poor signal and breaking up and mainly a failure. One friend said take the grill off the back of the antenna, the other said that won't help.
Is there any way to get it all?

You can buy a join-tenna for channel 39 (UPN) and use a second antenna pointed that direction. The join tenna will add channel 39 to the rest of the Shinall stations. Removing the reflector may solve all your problems, as your breakups with 100% signal is likely due to overloading and possibly multipath. Removing the reflector will drop the gain about 2.5db and might help you, it all depends on which direction your multipath is coming from, and how strong it is.

thanks dave.
I will put the reflector when I get home and see how it acts.

Hey dave do I know you?
Didn't you run a bbs in years past and work for emergency services?

etrin, removing the screen and tweaking the antenna aim to find a sweet spot may get the Shinall stations and KASN in Redfield. If it's in the attic, getting it out of there may help significantly with reception.

thanks dave.
I will put the reflector when I get home and see how it acts.

Hey dave do I know you?
Didn't you run a bbs in years past and work for emergency services?

Yep.

Well I pulled the reflector and my picture seems to be more stable.
I tried the split the difference on the aiming to get both and my pic on the channel 16-1 and 42-1 were not that great, 16-2 had problems and stuttering.
So basically I have 3 options.
aim at Shinall and forget 36-1
get a second antenna and a join-tenna ..cost too much
move the antenna on a pole outside and SEE if that helps.

there might be a forth is there an omnidirectional antenna that might get both?



Dave long time no see. Jerry here, not sure if you remember me. Lets see you were the one that told me about Directtv and the 18 in dish, you mean 18foot,,,no inches LOL
I went to Montgomery Wards the day it went live and got the then RCA model. How much did that cost back then $600 and we got 2 bills Direct and ussb

USSB - there's a blast from the past, I remember those 2 bills

yea and the $1.50 coupons for ppv that you had to mail in with your payment


I was looking at jointennas and stuff...seems that they are discontinued or something is up.
solid signal say no longer available.
but they sell a Winegard CC-7870 2-Way TV Antenna Joiner


Warren
14-29 0585-1
30-49 NLA
50-69 0585-3

We are currently stocking the following UHF channels:

15,19,20,21,22,24,28,29,50,51,53,54,55,56,57,59,63


can someone point me in the right direction on reading about "MULTI DIRECTIONAL" antennas? When I look up db4 antenna its listed as this but when you read the site info it says all directions.
SO whats the difference in multi directional and omni directional?

Multidirectional = one direction with -3db points from 10 to 30 degrees from the pointed direction. Bidirectional would be the DB4 without the screen, i.e. it will pick up equally well from the front direction and the back direction. Omnidirectional will pick up from all directions at once.

Steveken has some success with a Phillips MANT onmi antenna in West Little Rock. I have one, and its rather difficult to get to work in North Little Rock, due to the multipath from the buildings downtown.

Channel Master was sold to some other company, and all their new stuff is cheap, and I wouldnt recommend it to anyone (except the 7777 amps, which so far, appear to be the original design).

I hate to say it, but with the choices made by the local broadcasters around here (VHF channels, multiple directions), you are probably better off with cable or satellite delivery for locals, if you absolutely need all of them without interruption (except for big thunderstorms). At least KATV saw the light and moved to Shinall and UHF. KTHV lucked out and got a GENEROUS power allotment for channel 12 (11-1), much higher than most VHFs. KETS is to cheap to use UHF (higher power bill), or move to Shinall. They would have been better off just broadcasting from their studio in Conway. So, now you need TWO VHF antennas in two directions, and three UHF antennas in three directions (if you want the Gospel Huxter channel). Little Rock is a mess.

Yea, wish they still had USSB. I could do without paying $90 to Directv just to get the premiums for even more. I never watch the regular channel crap anyway.

I am just tired of paying out the ass to get any kind of tv. That is why right now i am just messing with ota since I watch so little.

well I had Direct and a few years ago my last bill went up to $156 for everything. this was and is bs price for what we really get.
Anyway I changed to dish. It was $116 for everything. Then the dvr went out, and while trying to get it fixed I got a NEW price of $141.
anyway it was going to cost me $32 in fees to send it in for replacement and pissed me off big time. I told the person on the phone I would not pay it.
Well then return it (at my expense) and they would send me a std receiver.
ITS YOUR RECEIVER you pay for it. NO ITS a lease unit...ok since its lease and not rent I can purchase it when the lease runs out (last year) how much...no you can't buy it.
THEN ITS A RENTAL AND YOURS you pay to fix it.
NO

take this unit and your service and stick it. When you cancel they pay to ship it back ROFL
and they tried to charge me $149 for the next<<<month of service after I cancel. OVERALL they suck

so lets try u-verse
(3 - 4 times a day it would start disconnected and reboot every 50 minutes)
the lineman came and said ....does this work??????? looking at the meters you don't have service.
2 days of rewiring and well it works but now it reboots every 40 minutes.
so another lineman and he got it back up to every 60 minutes and it did this 1-3 times a day.

In the end they removed all charges from my bill and I sent the hardware back.

I would just like to see everyones bill like I saw in 1981 with storer cable.
full service with hbo, showtime, tmc and cinemax was $34.
And thats what it should be now.
This sports pay out the butt so some moron can make 50 million and we pay sports fees on nick at night is BS. Unbundle and let the sports jocks pay to watch what they want.
=====================
yep I did think of comcrap but their cheap package, Digital Economy Service, I can't even find a channel listing, and its $29 a month.

enought ranting....sorry for the long BS post

I disagree with having to pay for locals, but it does take a bit of luck.

I've got a homebrew DB4 stuck up in my attic in WLR aimed at Shenal. Then I built a folded dipole cut for Ch. 7 (KETS) that sits on top of it aimed at RedField. Both downfeeds connect into a single ballion that then hooks into my primary downfeed that then goes into a splitter. I get 2, 4, 7, 11, 16, 38, 42 plus all the gospel blasts

Works like a charm.

Now, I will say it works better now than my old house a short 1.5 away. I'm about 20 feet higher at this house and I'm not on the north side of a hill anymore (now I'm up on a ridge).

etrin,
It's a crap shoot, but as byrdnest said, combining two antennas (without a jointenna) in different directions often works.

You might try adding an HBU-22 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0035A6AUG/), aimed at Redfield, combined with the 4bay aimed at Shinall. Run short lengths of coax from each antenna into a hybrid splitter/combiner (http://i46.tinypic.com/nysemd.jpg) to combine the two antennas onto one coax down to the TV. If it doesn't work, reverse the balun leads on the HBU-22. If it still doesn't work, try reversing the direction of the 4bay & HBU-22.

Outdoor antennas nearly always work better than indoor/attic.

Just curious, what kind of TV is your antenna connected to? Some tuners deal with multipath problems much better than others.

I see that the antenna you are talking about is $23 so I can give that a try.
How or which way do you aim that thing LOL

run short lengths of coax from each antenna into a hybrid splitter/combiner

what is short, max length, and should they be the same length?

this will give me something new to play with this weekend

I put in the second antenna. Yep they are both in the attic.
And it works great. I have all of the 2's and 36 came in perfect.
so I guess without trying to get some fringe channels I am set.

I used 5' of cable between each antenna and the combiner.

thanks everyone for the help

Cool. Love it when a plan works out. You point the new one at Redfield? If so, you should get New Orleans, Monroe, LA, and Greenwood/Greenville,MS on spring and fall nights a couple nights a week.

etrin, glad it worked.

Which one did you point at Shinall and which one at Redfield?

Once again that pathetic little station has shuttled the World Cup game to channel 42 while it shows its impressive lineup of infomercials. I would not mind it so much if the picture quality on 42 was not so bad. It's like watching the game with smudged glasses. I have resorted to watching the game on Univision. I know it is not USA vs anybody, but it is down to the quarterfinals. ABC should revoke their affiliation. OK, I feel better now.

I had the db4 pointed at Shinall so I left it.
I aimed the HBU-22 as close to 154deg as I could.
I had a hell of a time with this antenna trying to do a temp install to see if it even worked.
I just took some wire and hung it from 2 rafters. Since its over 5 feet long it was a pain.
I am not sure how to do this better but I will have to, explained below.

***
just a question I was thinking (I know bad idea ) and to mount antennas in the attic just take a metal coat hanger and make a flat J
make 2+ of them and screw them to the rafters, and just lay the antenna in it. How does that sound?
***


plugged in 2 six foot cables to go to the combiner and went to the TV.
One tv is old and I have a dtv box on it. It found every station and has worked perfect since day 1.

I went to one hd tv, vizio and it scanned and found every station and the pic looked fine. That is when I said it was great.
The next day the 2's just disappeared from the tv, searching for signal and no signal. They are still visible and ok on the old tv with the DTV box.
I had it rescan and this time it didn't not even find any of the 2's.
I poked my head in the attic and the antenna twisted on the wires and it looks like its aimed about 180or more..I did not have time to do anything about it this weekend but will try and mount it better in a day or two

Guys-

Looking for some field reports. We experienced a failure with our main transmittter early this afternoon. We are on the air with our standby digital into the main antenna. This is the first time we've had the opportunity/need to run the low power tx into the main antenna and I am curious as to what folks are seeing signal wise. We should be back up to full power barring unforseen issues as items will be arriving in the morning to correct the issue with the main tx.


A

I'd be curious to know what TPO you're running now versus what you normally run to make 1000 kW ERP.

- Trip

...just a question I was thinking (I know bad idea ) and to mount antennas in the attic just take a metal coat hanger and make a flat J
make 2+ of them and screw them to the rafters, and just lay the antenna in it. How does that sound?Not a good idea. Easier to hang an old broom handle or other pole-like object from the roof rafters and simply bolt the antenna to it. Do the same for the other antenna, keeping them as far apart as practical. About 4-6' or more would be good.

The DTV converter box likely has a better tuner than the vizio. The converter boxes had to meet minimum performance specs, but AFAIK, built in TV tuners don't.

Most Sonys, Samsungs & LG/Zenith have excellent built in OTA tuners, for difficult reception areas (like LR).

Guys-

Looking for some field reports. We experienced a failure with our main transmittter early this afternoon. We are on the air with our standby digital into the main antenna. This is the first time we've had the opportunity/need to run the low power tx into the main antenna and I am curious as to what folks are seeing signal wise. We should be back up to full power barring unforseen issues as items will be arriving in the morning to correct the issue with the main tx.


A

Allen,

I am in Benton and I noticed breakups late this morning. Lasted all afternoon and I currently have no signal at all. Typically you guys are my strongest signal and run at about 90-95% on my AM21 OTA tuner attached to my Directv receiver via a indoor antenna.

Guys-
I am curious as to what folks are seeing signal wise.
A

Pansat9200HD: 100% signal, 100% quality in North Little Rock, Camp Robinson Rd area.

DirecTv AM21 tuner (same antenna as above, others for comparison):

KETS 52%
KARK 67%
KATV 78%
KTHV 95%
KLRT 90%

Dish Network TR40 Converter box (same antenna):
KETS 90%
KTHV 88%
KATV 98%
KLRT 93%
KARK 88%
KASN 83%
KARZ 95%

Looks to me like low power works better than high power when you are in the metro...FYI, all the above readings are from a Televes DAT75 UHF/Winegard VHF-Hi yagi feeding a CM 7777 preamp, and split with a generic 6 port splitter to each receiver. Antennas are pointed at 225 degrees (Shinall is actually at 267 degrees).

Guys-

Looking for some field reports. We experienced a failure with our main transmittter early this afternoon. We are on the air with our standby digital into the main antenna. This is the first time we've had the opportunity/need to run the low power tx into the main antenna and I am curious as to what folks are seeing signal wise. We should be back up to full power barring unforseen issues as items will be arriving in the morning to correct the issue with the main tx.


A

With heavy rain causing outage of most channels via Dish Network, OTA still works. Getting KATV a bit lower (2-3%) than the others but its no problem to decode down here (Palmyra area of Lincoln County).

Update 7 July 2010 5:44AM--

Signal levels here of LR UHF OTA via Shinall
(Dish Network Vip211 w/internal OTA tuner, old-style CM 4228 8 bay/CM7777 preamp)

KARK 89%
KATV 74%
KLRT 90%
KARZ 84%

Decoding threshold is about 60%, no dropouts due to SS generally above that except for electrical QRM (on VHF).

This evening is the 6th anniversary of the famous VHF-HI Sporadic E event between AR and New England.

http://fmdx.usclargo.com/hibandes.html
(via Mike's TV and FM DX Page)

Guys-

Looking for some field reports. We experienced a failure with our main transmittter early this afternoon. We are on the air with our standby digital into the main antenna. This is the first time we've had the opportunity/need to run the low power tx into the main antenna and I am curious as to what folks are seeing signal wise. We should be back up to full power barring unforseen issues as items will be arriving in the morning to correct the issue with the main tx.


A

On the Tivo HD-93%, normally 100%
On the Sony DHG-HDD250-88%, usually about 98%

This is in Benton.

I wonder what happened to KATV. I was looking for channel 2, still gone on the vizio but ok on the sony. And channel 7 was looking for signal.
I was going to say my antenna install was a failure. Then when it came back there was still a lot of breakup

I have 2 broom handles and going to do new things this weekend :)

KATV returned to full power operation at 14:31 today. I thought you guys would like to see some calculations and the coverage map of our low power transmitter at 1800 watts TPO into the RF system and the main antenna. The calls I received seemed to be mostly rabbit ear folks and folks that have a bit of a challenge to begin with, terrain, extreme distance, etc. Cable operators seemed to do fine. That said, we were at a small fraction of our typical 1 Mw ERP. I am much more comfortable making full power. You'll note that the calculations don't take into account the 25% V-pol we run as the FCC dosn't consider V-pol for propagation. In any case, enjoy.

A

COMPLETELY off topic here, but I just wanna pick some brains. In my new house, the ceiling fans all have those silly candelabra sockets in them. I don't like the yellow light the bulbs that were put in them put off and wanted to put some cfl's in them. The only candelabra cfl's doing the 5000k daylight color I could find in Home Depot were 60 watts. The bulbs that came out of it were 40 watts. The 60's are obviously too bright in here considering I am used to the 40's even though they are under the max wattage for the sockets.

Is there any kind of adapter socket that will take me from candelabra to a standard sized socket? Or do you guys know of a place I can get 40w candelabra cfl's with non-yellow colored light? Or what would you suggest I do in this instance? I know I could probably swap out the light kit, but I just really want to keep the look of the ceiling fan consistant, so I am hesitant about doing this. I know finding a matching light kit might be difficult at best. Just needing some help here as this is kinda bugging me. Thanks.

http://www.conservationmart.com/p-486-sylvania-dimmable-decor-5w-cfl-candelabra-bulb-29742.aspx

well this is getting a little wreird.

Ok I put the second antenna to get 2 and 38. It worked at first. Then 2's went away on the vizio.
Old dtv converter box 2 and 38 are fine
vizio 2 and 38 fine.

Next day vizio 2's no signal 38 fine
converter box 2 and 38 fine

so I get up in the attic to look and the antenna is nose heavy and pointing down about 20 deg (the mast position on the thing is way back from center of gravity.

I look at a compass and its pointing about 140deg

So I loosen the bracket and turn it to 155deg I believe redfield is at 154 from my location by the antenna site.

I look and its still pointing down about 10 deg. I go back down to the tv's and rescan and both find all channels

on the vizio 38 is breaking up a little 2's look fine.
on the converter box 38 looks fine 2's are breaking up a little
later 2's on vizio can't find signal

This is a mess.

Help me out here is it the antenna drooping or the aiming or ?????
I checked and I do have a bigger hammer in the garage :)

Antenna should be level or pointing slightly upward. What are you using for a mast?

Also, a lot of vizio tuners are crap.

Thanks for the light help, guys. Was actually hoping to find something local, but if all else fails, I will give an Internet order a try. Never have tried light bulbs over the 'Net. LOL Guess I have been afraid of breakage. Anyway, thanks again!

There goes KARK again...Big a** weather map for a ..... Flash Flood Warning in WASHINGTON CO.... Ill wager a real dollar, that unless someone is illegally receiving a satellite spot beam, there isnt a single person in range of KARK's signal that gives a rats behind if its raining in Rogers since no one in ROGERS can even get it. Wonder if Francis is gonna jump in with LIVE COVERAGE next?

A quick checked showed KATV also taking advantage of the weather in Rogers to cover a good portion of the STANDARD DEF Wheel show. KTHV, KETS and KLRT apparently have some sense, and are showing programming as usual without the unneeded weather 4 hours away distraction.

Thanks for the light help, guys. Was actually hoping to find something local, but if all else fails, I will give an Internet order a try. Never have tried light bulbs over the 'Net. LOL Guess I have been afraid of breakage. Anyway, thanks again!

Call Tec Electric in Maumelle with the model number of those Sylvania bulbs, and see if they stock any of them. Ive got some really nice stuff there, like CFL rated step timers to replace light switches, and globes to fit off brand ceiling fans. They have just about anything you can imagine if it deals with lighting. Its on Maumelle Blvd just west of 430.

There goes KARK again...Big a** weather map for a ..... Flash Flood Warning in WASHINGTON CO.... Ill wager a real dollar, that unless someone is illegally receiving a satellite spot beam, there isnt a single person in range of KARK's signal that gives a rats behind if its raining in Rogers since no one in ROGERS can even get it. Wonder if Francis is gonna jump in with LIVE COVERAGE next?

A quick checked showed KATV also taking advantage of the weather in Rogers to cover a good portion of the STANDARD DEF Wheel show. KTHV, KETS and KLRT apparently have some sense, and are showing programming as usual without the unneeded weather 4 hours away distraction.Can't the stations down there do syndicated programming in HD yet? We get wheel and most other syndicated fare in HD from two podunk markets. And all 4 of Springfield's local newscasts are 16:9, with two of the 4 in HD.

Coxcable in Eureka carries KARK, etc., but I don't think they do, over in Fay/Spgdl/Rgrs/Btnvlle.

[Rogers is in Benton County ;) ]

Can't the stations down there do syndicated programming in HD yet?

Yes and No (these are the syndicated shows that are produced in HDTV that I am aware of).

Wheel (via KATV) no
Jeopardy (via KATV) no
Oprah (via KATV) no
Dr Oz (via KATV) yes
Dr Phil (via KTHV) yes
Ellen (via KTHV) yes
Entertainment Tonight (via KARK) yes
The Insider (via KARZ) yes

Can't the stations down there do syndicated programming in HD yet?
Coxcable in Eureka carries KARK,

[Rogers is in Benton County ;) ]

Whats in Washington Co, Bentonville? Anyway, I dont think its that they cant do HD syndicated programming, I think its that they are to CHEAP to pay for the HD version.

How in the heck does CoxCable in Eureka pick up the signal from KARK? They actually pay for a fiber feed? I know they cant be picking it up OTA, and picking it up off DirecTv or Dish would be illegal, as far as I know.

Whats in Washington Co, Bentonville? Anyway, I dont think its that they cant do HD syndicated programming, I think its that they are to CHEAP to pay for the HD version.

How in the heck does CoxCable in Eureka pick up the signal from KARK? They actually pay for a fiber feed? I know they cant be picking it up OTA, and picking it up off DirecTv or Dish would be illegal, as far as I know.

I think COX gets KARK/KATV/KTHV via a microwave feed from Harrison. Berryville AR didn't get those Little Rock stations on cable until 1989-90. I remember my late grandmother getting KFSM analog via COX but it had all the signs of making a long trip OTA (sparklies, etc), of course she never watched it since she was in the habit of watching KOLR (Springfield MO) for CBS. (KFSM isn't carried via COX in ES/B'ville these days).

So what are we all doing? It sure is quiet around here. No skip, 100+ degrees. I think my antenna is melting. I know the battery terminals on my lawn mower did. My XM radio in the work truck DID overheat. Display just quit working. Audiovox said units shouldnt be used where the temperature was over 95 degrees. I asked them if I needed to mount the receiver inside a 12V fridge in my truck, since its over 95 degrees in the shade at the lake... They laughed. I bought a new radio :)

I think COX gets KARK/KATV/KTHV via a microwave feed from Harrison. Berryville AR didn't get those Little Rock stations on cable until 1989-90. I remember my late grandmother getting KFSM analog via COX but it had all the signs of making a long trip OTA (sparklies, etc), of course she never watched it since she was in the habit of watching KOLR (Springfield MO) for CBS. (KFSM isn't carried via COX in ES/B'ville these days).I believe this is correct. And crazy as it is, the only NWA station coxcable Berryville/Eureka carries is KHOG-29 (abc). They carry three ABC affiliates.

Whats in Washington Co, Bentonville?Fayetteville and most of Springdale are in Washington County. Lowell/Rogers/Bentonville and a bit of Springdale are in Benton County. It all looks like one big fugly suburb nowadays. Coxcable NWA carries the Fay/FSM/Eureka stations and two ABC affiliates in HD; Fayetteville KHOG & Tulsa KTUL.

I have a roof antenna and I was able to get KARK channel 4 with some cutting in and out until about 4 months ago. Now I get nothing for either Channel 4 or 42. I get the other local channels very well using a converter box.

I have a digital TV upstairs with a small inside antenna and I can get KARK with it.

Any ideas.

I have a roof antenna and I was able to get KARK channel 4 with some cutting in and out until about 4 months ago. Now I get nothing for either Channel 4 or 42. I get the other local channels very well using a converter box.

I have a digital TV upstairs with a small inside antenna and I can get KARK with it.

Any ideas.

can you get the other LR channels? What antenna is on the roof? What kind of feedline? How many splitters? What kind of small inside antenna is working? Where are you located? Need a little more info to answer your question.

I have a Radio Shack VU-190XR VHF/UHF/FM roof antenna. This antenna is pointed at the angle where most of the stations are located including KARK.

I have a Philips MANT510 small antenna on the set upstairs.

I have coax cable on the roof antenna to a CD/DVD tuner box and to an analog TV.

There are no splitters.

I receive all LR stations except KARK at channel 4 and its sister station channel 42.

I was able to receive these two stations until about 4 months ago.

I am located in the Lakewood division of North Little Rock, AR.

Please enter your address here (http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=1) and post a link to the TVFool results page back in this thread. Your address will not display on the results page.

I went to TVFool and here is the link
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d9fbe3f5a59d36a

I am located in the Lakewood division of North Little Rock, AR.

You are probably getting multipath from that bldg at North Hills and MCCain. Try pointing your antenna about 225- 230 degrees. I cant point mine directly at Shinall or my tuner overloads. Thats a very high gain antenna for Line of Site. Let me know how it works out.
Im over by Camp Robinson Rd on a hilltop.

I have a Radio Shack VU-190XR VHF/UHF/FM roof antenna. This antenna is pointed at the angle where most of the stations are located including KARK.

I have a Philips MANT510 small antenna on the set upstairs.

I have coax cable on the roof antenna to a CD/DVD tuner box and to an analog TV.

There are no splitters.

I receive all LR stations except KARK at channel 4 and its sister station channel 42.

I was able to receive these two stations until about 4 months ago.

I hate to nit pick a newbie but the "channel 4", "channel 42", "channel 7" designations are virtual channels (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Virtual_channel) that map to the old analog channel numbers via PSIP that is mandated by the FCC. A few stations use the old historic channel assignments as their actual transmitted channel (frequency), but most stations with a few exceptions don't transmit on their old analog channel assignments, and PSIP is a way to grandfather their old channel positions even though they are actually bogus as the actual RF transmitting is concerned.

"Channel 4" (KARK) is actually channel 32
"Channel 42" (KARZ) is actually channel 44

Therefore both are UHF channels. It should be noted I receive both these stations 24/7 near Star City with a 8bay bowtie/preamp. Your TV/receiver is getting overloaded and/or multipath reception.

You could turn the antenna slightly "off beam" and that would help reduce some of the signal level. In metro LR, the issue isn't signal strength but multipath. I can personally attest to that during my short time living there (this was when I was analog/NTSC only).

I tend to agree, your rural/fringe antenna is way too much antenna for that close in and you may be getting too much signal + strong bounced signals (multipath). I take it you're *not* using any kind of amplifier on the roof antenna, correct?

Trying a slightly different antenna direction or maybe attenuating the signal some might help. A splitter can make a quick & dirty attenuator.

What brand tuner are you using? Have you tried the upstairs TV on the downstairs coax?

I rotated my antenna around at various angles and it did not have any effect on the channels. I left it at about 230. I have a Magnavox tuner and everything worked OK until April.

I decided to manually input channels 4 as 32 and 42 as 44 and that worked, but the signal was not good. Apparently in April something changed with my tuner or the signal so that it no longer recognized the 4 and 42 that it originally scanned.

I went back and put my antenna back at 270 and now the channels are fine and I get 4 at 32 and 42 at 44 while I can put in 7 and get 7 as well as the other channels at their old numbers.

Thanks for the suggestions and help.:)

KETS seems to have a problem. No signal here and it is usually very reliable. Anyone else notice a problem?

dmatch

KETS seems to have a problem. No signal here and it is usually very reliable. Anyone else notice a problem?

dmatch

Only plugging in at 80% here (normally pegs out at 100%). Obviously on low power. So low if fact, my DirecTv OTA tuner cant even lock a signal, but my Pansat and TR40 converter box are.

Cant you pick up KEMV?

I rotated my antenna around at various angles and it did not have any effect on the channels. I left it at about 230. I have a Magnavox tuner and everything worked OK until April. A better converter box would be a big help.

However, if rotating the antenna had no effect on reception or signal strength, you may have another problem. Likely suspects are a bad coax, corroded connector(s) or a bad balun (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/2_Balun_matching_transformers.jpg/220px-2_Balun_matching_transformers.jpg) at the antenna.

KETS seems to have a problem. No signal here and it is usually very reliable. Anyone else notice a problem?

dmatch

I forgot to check this when I got home from work last night, but this morning they are coming in at about 56%, which is lower than usual, but still locking on with minor dropouts.

Only plugging in at 80% here (normally pegs out at 100%). Obviously on low power. So low if fact, my DirecTv OTA tuner cant even lock a signal, but my Pansat and TR40 converter box are.

Cant you pick up KEMV?Thanks for the confirmation, Davenlr, RockyF. I can get KEMV as good as KETS now, :( , both about 10-15% quality (need 30 % for lock).

KEMV has to come in from the back side of the antenna and the LR stations would be a no-go then but I might reconfigure the antenna just to see what is possible for KEMV.

dmatch

KEMV has to come in from the back side of the antenna and the LR stations would be a no-go then but I might reconfigure the antenna just to see what is possible for KEMV.

dmatch

Didnt they crank up the power and install a new antenna for KEMV? I used to get it on analog 6 real clear, but cant even get a % reading on it since they went to digital. Might have been better off staying on channel 6 :)

Yes, KEMV did get a new antenna and a major power upgrade. A power issue at the KETS site last night necessitated the use the backup transmitter until things were resolved.

According to this:

http://www.aetn.org/about/dtv/urgent

AETN has tripled the power of KEMV and nearly doubled KAFT and KETG.

dmatch

...AETN has tripled the power of KEMV and nearly doubled KAFT and KETG.I could tell no difference in SNR on KAFT after their transmitter boost. And it didn't help a bit with VHF impulse noise interference, which still plagues it - but not the UHFs here. Maybe 100kW ERP would help, but who knows... :(

KETG is the same strength here as always, about 10% higher than ch 15 in Texarkana. Still no signal from KEMV, although KETG off the back corner might cancel it out. Ch 26 in Hot Springs appears to have dropped considerably as well. I figured a doubling of power would solve a lot of the no reception problems, but from what Ive seen with AETN it really isnt helping at all.

Finally, after what seems like months, there is a good tropo opening to Texas and Louisiana this morning...

Dave, I think the actual performance of VHF DTV is way below what was predicted. And power levels sufficient to overcome all the NOISE & FM interference should probably be multitudes higher than they are, in many cases. I doubt the higher power levels would cause as much interference as they predict, either.

Been getting tropo off & on here lately, too. Sherman, TX, Tulsa, OKC. All UHF of course.

I agree. I can see the KTHV tower from my antenna site. They break up terribly when there is a thunderstorm between us (about 15 miles). The UHF's don't.

On the plus side, using a portable TV with a rod antenna, I can actually get KTHV better inside the house than any station other than KATV (which I am guessing is because Allen has that vertical polarity added to his signal).

thats weird. I'm on the edge of reception for thv and I get it as strong as the other LR uhf channels. Always in the 90% range. All my channels from LR regardless of band break up during a bad lightning storm. Now I do see a difference with aetn (vhf) which I usually dont get anymore vs Ufhs like Kasn

Program Alert: If you want to watch the ABC coverage of the Little League World Series Saturday at 2pm, dont tune in the KATV. For whatever unexplainable reason, KATV decided to show a whole afternoon of infomercials. The ball game shows to be on KARZ in HD. Maybe KARZ should just become the ABC affiliate, and then KATV could just show informercials 24 hours a day from that big old 1000KW tower.... Slapchop!

Program Alert: If you want to watch the ABC coverage of the Little League World Series Saturday at 2pm, dont tune in the KATV. For whatever unexplainable reason, KATV decided to show a whole afternoon of infomercials. The ball game shows to be on KARZ in HD. Maybe KARZ should just become the ABC affiliate, and then KATV could just show informercials 24 hours a day from that big old 1000KW tower.... Slapchop!

As one who sits in postion to recieve both ABC affiliates, katv 22 little rock and Khbs 21 Ft smith, I have always preferred khbs over katv when it comes to sports. For years katv would show the early SEC football game on saturdays. After that game they would show nothing but infomercials and trash. I could always tune to Khbs and join the weekely abc college football game in progress. Just one of many reasons why I count on katv for very little when it comes to important sporting events. If memory serves me right, didnt Katv pull this same stunt last year with the little league world series? My wife and I got hooked on the new series "V" last year. However they are really streching the time between seasons. On a sarcastic note:rolleyes:....I suppose the question should be asked........Is "V" really on hiatus?... or... did katv just decide to show only part of the episodes in exchange for BS programming?:rolleyes:

V is an American science fiction television series first broadcast on ABC on November 3, 2009.[1][2] A re-imagining of the 1983 miniseries created by Kenneth Johnson, the new series chronicles the arrival on Earth of a technologically advanced alien species which ostensibly comes in peace, but actually has sinister motives.[3] V stars Morena Baccarin, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Charles Mesure, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Scott Wolf, and is executive produced by Scott Rosenbaum, Yves Simoneau, Scott Peters, and Jace Hall.[4] The series is produced by The Scott Peters Company, HDFilms and Warner Bros. Television. On May 13, 2010, ABC renewed V for a second season.[5] A return date has not been confirmed, though it is speculated to return in November.[6]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_%282009_TV_series%29

As a side note, the original miniseries and the 1983 series was shown over the summer on SciFi channel (or another cable channel, not sure.

I have 13 episodes on my "V" directory from KATV:
Pilot on 11/3/2009, followed by 3 more episodes in November, then nothing until March 23, when there were 9 more episodes on KATV with the last being on May 19th.

I have 18 episodes of the original series, recorded off SciFyHD during a non-stop "V" weekend.

I have 4 episodes of V: The Final Battle from SciFiHD November 2009

and I have the 4 hour original Mini-series which aired on SciFyHD November 2009.

Hopefully, they will continue it this fall. Good plot. I havent watched any of the new ABC series episodes yet, just all the originals. Guess I need to do that one of these days :)

The only episode of the V remake that KATV pre-empted was the season finale, which aired on election night, and KATV started their election coverage at 9pm. They did run the episode in HD overnight, but I was sure to pad my Tivo on both sides for that airing, as they are pretty unpredictable when it comes to their rescheduled pre-empted shows.

In my personal opinion, I thought that FlashForward was the better of the two new sci-fi shows ABC aired last year, but I enjoyed V enough that I'm glad it got a second season.

Program Alert: If you want to watch the ABC coverage of the Little League World Series Saturday at 2pm, dont tune in the KATV. For whatever unexplainable reason, KATV decided to show a whole afternoon of infomercials. The ball game shows to be on KARZ in HD. Maybe KARZ should just become the ABC affiliate, and then KATV could just show informercials 24 hours a day from that big old 1000KW tower.... Slapchop!

Why does this not surprise me in the least.... Actually, since "MyNetwork TV" is no longer officially a network, this would be a great opening for KARZ to make their case when the ABC affiliation contract w/KATV expires.

KATV could air infomercials every Sunday afternoon without even a bit of hassle from fans of the World Cup, NBA, LLWS, MLS, etc. Heck, they could even pull together an extended morning newscast from 7-10AM.

Good and bad news for Saints fans this fall in SE Arkansas. KTVE (El Dorado AR) is relaying their sister station KARD (FOX- West Monroe LA) on subchannel 10-2. KARD normally carries the Saints instead of the Cowboys.

However, its a 4x3 feed stretched instead of a SDTV 16x9 or SDTV 4x3. Although the Zenith converter can fix this issue, the receiver on my Dish Network (E*) OTA tuner (vip211) cannot.

Haley. Are you up on the dishnetwork boxes? Im wanting to know about the 922 and the eastern/western arc stuff. From what I gather, the 922 is the top of the line, but doesnt have a box available yet to view the "slingbox" HD output from TV2. Can you use a computer to view it? Do we need two dishes to get HD locals here? OR can we get them all from the Eastern Arc sats?