According to titantv, wcov(fox) is broadcasting in HDTV. Anybody receiving this channel in high-def?

Just received a reply from WSFA. TitanTV lists them as going live 5-1. The station manager e-mailed in reply to my e-mail that they have just received their construction permit and hope to be on the air by October or November. I guess PBS still plans to be on the air in May. Other than that,
not much happening here (except faux HD Fox says they will be on the air in June--I guess widescreen 480p is better than nothing). Stan

Fox network doesn't have any HDTV programming.

Some Fox network affiliates upconvert Fox's 480p to 1080i, but it certainly isn't HDTV quality.

Originally posted by arxaw
Fox network doesn't have any HDTV programming.

Some Fox network affiliates upconvert Fox's 480p to 1080i, but it certainly isn't HDTV quality.

That's what I meant by faux HD Fox. At least I get NBC and CBS high def
(on a hit and miss basis) via antenna from B'ham. I'll have to be satisfied with that for the forseeable future.

I am on the far side of Lake Martin from Montgomery and just bought a Mits 65813. What can I expect in OTA signal from Montgomery. TitanTV keeps giving me Bhm stations and I just don't think I can get those channels from here.

What is the status of the Montgomery stations?

What antenna will I need if it is possible? I live near Stillwaters and the Blue Creek Marina.

Thanks

WNCF--ABC (32-1) is broadcasting at apprx. 58kw. They are passing through the ABC HD signal (all of ABCs primetime dramas and sitcoms are in HD) as well as DD 5.1 (that was a pleasant surprise). Their tower is
south/south west of Montgomery. I am about 15 miles north of Montgomery and I am receiving a strong signal from the backside of my antenna (oriented towards B'ham for CBS and NBC). You might or might not be able to get WNCF--you'll just have to try. I am getting a very strong signal from APT (100% on my receivers signal strength meter). They have one channel (27-1) dedicated to HD programming, and one channel (27-2) which is a mirror of their analog channel (26). WSFA should be on the air at full power around February. WAKA (CBS) is not even on the radar screen. You should have no trouble with the APT signal and possibly receive the ABC signal. If WSFA-NBC comes on the air at full power, as planned, you should have no problem receiving that signal. With a good deep fringe antenna you might be able to have the best of both worlds (I get B'ham from the front side of my antenna and Montgomery from the backside. (WCOV-FOX is broadcasting but at a very low power--my receiver has locked onto that signal only once. They are not passing FOX's
480p signal.)

I am picking up both FOX 20-1 and ABC 32-1 up fine, very strong signal. I am not getting PBS, but I really don't watch it at all so I'm not trying to find it. I am anxiously awaiting WSFA coming on the air. WAKA is worthless. I am in Millbrook the antenna is in my attic and is pointing S/SE at about 160 degrees. Good luck snagging signals.

Originally posted by Tigerman73
I am picking up both FOX 20-1 and ABC 32-1 up fine, very strong signal. I am not getting PBS, but I really don't watch it at all so I'm not trying to find it. I am anxiously awaiting WSFA coming on the air. WAKA is worthless. I am in Millbrook the antenna is in my attic and is pointing S/SE at about 160 degrees. Good luck snagging signals.

Where are you located? I am in Elmore (between Wetumpka and Millbrook)
and get strong signals from both WNCF (32-1) and APT (27-1). APT registers 100% on my signal strength meter and WNCF is 69% I've only gotten FOX one time (but FOX doesn't do HD at this time-only 480p with plans to start HD next Fall). WCOV doesn't even pass on the 480p signal.
(The HD on APT is outstanding--although, for the most part it is a demo loop
with some different programming thrown in--the PBS national feed.) I'm looking forward to WSFA also. I'm getting NBC and CBS from B'ham on a very irregular basis (depending on atmoshperic conditions).

(From all indications WAKA is holding out as long as possible.)

I live in Millbrook off of Browns Rd right off Hwy 14. I could probably snag PBS but I really don't watch it. I have picked up FOX and it is coming in strong, but I know the picture is 480p.

APT is good demo material if nothing else. The nature documentaries are great eye candy. I guess I could get FOX if I oriented my antenna towards Montgomery but then I would loose the HD signals from the NBC and CBS stations in B'ham. If WCOV would increase their power I should be able to get it from the backside of my antenna (like WNCF and APT)-but I watch very little on FOX anyway. Initially, WNCF was low power and I didn't get them, now they are up to 58 kw--still low but I get a strong signal now. At least, us in central Alabama have something to talk about finally. I've gone from two channels when I first got my HDTV two years ago to 10 channels (of course, 6 of those are satellite).

but I didn't want to hang a big antenna outside my house. If I was more isolated I probably would do it. I am looking forward to WSFA coming online early next year (2-1-04??) Maybe one day FOX will go HD and start showing programs in at least 720P. I'll probably have moved back to Birmingham before WAKA gets off their butt and does something.

I live in Montgomery & can get 32 & PBS. IT is a shame that we cannot get CBS SEC football in HD, but I at least the Tide will be on ESPN-HD for the next 2 weeks. It is surprising that 32 was the first to go HD in Montgomery.

Originally posted by tomtb2
I live in Montgomery & can get 32 & PBS. IT is a shame that we cannot get CBS SEC football in HD, but I at least the Tide will be on ESPN-HD for the next 2 weeks. It is surprising that 32 was the first to go HD in Montgomery.

That surprised me too. I thought WSFA would be the first. I get CBS from B'ham, but only at night (and not all the time). You're right it hurts to know AL is in HD on CBS and we've got to watch a crappy standrad def signal (and we still will not have it next year if WAKA sticks to their plans--and maybe not even the next year). But, we are moving slowly into the digital
age. (ESPN HD is our saviour this year--wish they could work out a deal with the SEC for next year's games).

I'm not getting 32-1 tonight. I assume it's weather related. Anybody else having problems? Also, I lost the APT digital signal a few nights ago. Is there a problem with them or is it just me? I was getting the APT signal at 100% on my receiver's signal strength meter. Thanks.

32-1 was back this morning. Still no APT.

I had no issues picking up 32-1 last night. I did notice PBS was off early yesterday morning but was back on by the evening when I got home. I don't know what the issue was w/ that.

The next morning 32-1 was fine but I'm still not getting APT. Apparently, they must have reduced their power. As it was I was even able to get it with an indoor antenna.

They must either be dropping power at night or shutting down, it was on last night when I went to bed and was off this morning before I went to work.

I'm going to send an e-mail and see what's going on (if I get a response).
I wish somebody from APT would browse this board to keep us up to date.

APT is only on from about 10:30am to 10:00pm.

Since about last Wednesday, I haven't gotten a signal at any time of the day or night. Up to that time I had been getting a signal at 100% on my signal strenght meter. Thats why I think they must have lowered their power.

I received a reply to my e-mail to APT from Charles Grantham, Director of Engineering for APT. The problem was with thier PSIP signal. He said that they had entered it into the system correctly now. When I rescanned,
I once again had APT digital (27-1, 2).

Is there power down low again. I have not been able to pick up anything at 26-1 or 27-1 in the last couple of days.

I'm not getting them either. I e-mailed them but I haven't heard back. It may still be a PSIP problem. I'm showing 26-1 and 27-1 now. My signal strength is showing 100% but there is no picture or sound. (I'm also showing the channel numbers for several APT stations that were added to my guide after that reset this PSIP signal a few day ago. Hopefully, they will get things worked out soon.

Antenna Web is now showing PBS as being under review, they must have dropped power when they switched to 26-1 from 27-10 and 27-1. Have you heard anything back from them yet?

No, I still haven't heard anything. I've gotten a brief signal a couple of times when I have checked the channel, but, generally, I'm not getting picture or sound (but 100% on my signal strength meter). Not sure what's going on. I'll send another e-mail and see if I can get a reply. I have to hand it to WNCF, except for one time when I lost it, their signal has been solid as a rock. Hopefully, I can say the same thing about WSFA when they finally get on the air, hopefully, in February. Not much I can say about WAKA.

I got a reply from Charlie Grantham, Director of Engineering. He said a board went out in their PSIP generator and they are waiting on a replacement to arrive in the next day or so. At least the power hasn't been lowered, and we should have the signal back in a few days.

32-1 ABC (Channel 51) Avearage about 75%
20-1 FOX (Channel 16) Average about 98% - been 100% when fine tuned
26-1 PBS (Channel 27) Average about 100%
26-2 PBS (Channel 27) Average about 100%

I had the Samsung tuner SIR 160 OTA and a Yaggi. I was able to sometimes pull in Dothan's Channel 4-1 CBS But traided the SIR with my dad because I got a Toshiba SAT receiver with built in OTA tuner. I must say I miss my Samsung SIR 160 OTA. I cannot pull in Birmingham or Dothan with the Toshiba. I also upgraded my outdoor antenna. I now use a Channel Master 4228 type hybrid with preamp. I can now pull in Fox 20-1 at 100% with it drop down to 95% every now and then.
I live on a side of a hill so I cannot pull any Birmingham stations. But I wonder if I could have with the Samsung SIR 160. Might just get me another one.

I live in Deatsville behind Holtville High School. I pointed my antenna (Per antenna web) to channel 30 out of Bham. It says I should be able to pull it in but like I said I live on the side of a hill. I think it is my receiver. It is one of the 169 time com mods. I might could see if my dad will let me borrow the SIR 160 again to see what I can pull in. I really wish the SIR 161 (for sat and local) had not taken out the firewire port or I would have snapped it up. That SIR 160 was a nice box.

Update
After trying to get best signal by turning my antenna I still cannot get enough signal for 32-1
32-1 has been very weak the past week. Have not gotten a good lock the past few days. 17-23%
20-1 has been a little weak but can lock on. 53%
26-1 has been broadcasting something that has thrown MYHD and my set top box out of wack for that past few days. That's two receivers getting 100% but something wrong with the signal. It was ok last night tho. 100%
26-2 has been fine. 100%

Slapout/Holtville

32-1 has been very strong and stable for me for a while. This week it has been almost perfect with only a very rare audio dropout. I can't get 20-1 at all. My receiver locked onto it one time but that has been it. 26-1 is good now although for a while the picture was unwatchable. They seem to be having problems keeping a stable signal on the air. I would probably get 20-1 if I oriented my antenna towards Montgomery instead of B'ham but I only watch one program on Fox anyway.

I am still getting a strong signal from both PBS and ABC, I have noticed the signal strength on the FOX channel has dropped significantly. I still have a great picture, I'm not getting as strong a signal. I don't know if they turned the power down or what. I wish it were possible to pick up the Birmingham stations all the time, I could do that and get ABC here and be in hog heaven. Is WSFA still a go next month or had they dropped back to March?

Originally posted by Tigerman73
I am still getting a strong signal from both PBS and ABC, I have noticed the signal strength on the FOX channel has dropped significantly. I still have a great picture, I'm not getting as strong a signal. I don't know if they turned the power down or what. I wish it were possible to pick up the Birmingham stations all the time, I could do that and get ABC here and be in hog heaven. Is WSFA still a go next month or had they dropped back to March?

WSFA is now saying March. This is at least the fourth "live date" they have put off, but at least this time they are putting it off only a month so maybe there is hope. WAKA still says maybe by the end of 2004. I don't have much hope for them. At least this has given me the chance to discover that ABC has some pretty good shows ("The Practice." "Line of Fire," and several sit coms that surprised me). If WSFA and WAKA thought they were losing significant numbers of viewers to WNCF (instead of only a hand full) that would speed up their transition to digital. In the meantime I'll have to be happy with ABC, PBS, the little I get from B'ham and my D* channels.
If I could get CBS and NBC full time from B'ham I wouldn't care what WAKA and WSFA did or didn't do. Has 20-1 started transmitting Fox's 480p signal?

The past month or so I was having problems getting enough signal strenth from all channels. I got to messing with my Antenna and found that the cable from my Antenna to my preamp was bad. And also one of my wires where loose. I guess from all the turning. So now I can get a good signal. So check your cables.

So what's the latest on NBC specifically. I see where they are listed as TBD on antenna web. Have they started building the tower and do they have the equipment ready to make the jump to HD in March. Hopefully it hasn't been pushed back any further.

Anybody heard anything else about WSFA. The last they told me was that they would be on the air in March. I sent an e-mail to them a few days ago and haven't received a reply (I received quick replies on all my previous e-mails). On TitanTv they went from "under review" to information "currently not available." This leads me to believe that they are in the same camp as WAKA (the only difference is that WAKA says they will not be on the air anytime soon and WSFA keeps giving dates aned then not meeting them).
Hopefully, I am wrong and we will see WSFA soon but I am not holding my breath. I thougt WNCF might put pressure on WSFA and WAKA but, I guess
not. Stan

Stan:

April for WSFA. God only knows when for WAKA.

JimP

Jim, Thanks for the info just hope they come through. The first date thay set was 11-02 and there have been several since then (3 this year--2-04. 3-04 and now 4-04). I quess I don't have much faith in WSFA anymore, at least WAKA is upfront and you know not to look for their digital signal anytime soon. Hopefully, WSFA will come through in April-but I'm not holding my breath. Stan

26, 26-1 and 26-2 are all off the air as of this morning. Or at least I'm not receiving any signal for the 3. Also maybe, JimP can help on this one, is WSFA still shooting for April?

Saw my contact just this past Sunday about WSFA. He said as far as he knows, they haven't changed the date. I think that they had said the end of March(tomorrow) or maybe April 1st. Sure hope this isn't their idea of an April fools joke.

Just tried to tune in 26 on Voom satellite. Got a no signal tuned. Maybe their fixing whatever was causing their signal level to bounce around so much.

For those in the Montgomery area with PBS going black, there's an article of the wsfa website telling about something on the WAIQ tower literally frying. PBS is still able to broadcast from their other towers around the state, but not Montgomery. They're working on a temporary fix until a permanent fix can be made.

I guess we knew that something was wrong with WAIQ with their signal strength bouncing around, but I guess it took self distruction to get the station manager's attention. Or was it an AVSer? ;-)

Its possible that WSFA will go HD today. I'm unable to scan for new channels with my Voom receiver.(until they've modify the software). Is anyone else getting it? During the day, it may only show up as a digital station with SD and HD at nigh like some of the other digital stations have done.

and give it a whirl and see if I can pick it up.

I'll scan channel 14 when I get home tonight. (Been doing this about 3 days a week anyway) And I'll check in the morning before I leave for work. Also has anyone heard about UPN? There suppost to go live on channel 48 out of Troy soon to.

Scanned for 14 but nothing came up as of 6:00PM

Tigerman

14? is that for WSFA. If so, wouldn't it be some derivative of 12, like 12-1 or something?

Should show up as 12-1, but I haven't gotten anything yet. I scanned this morning again, but being its early if it was going to pop up today it would probably be later on .

Tigerman73

...and it would be somewhere on their website, which it isn't. Guess they didn't make it.

Tried last night and this morning. Nothing. Did'nt really think it would be. I just hope they are up and running before the Olympics.

From what I can tell it doesn't appear as though they have filed for an extension w/ the FCC to delay bringing it on. Their current extension runs through the 24th. Hopefully they'll get rolling shortly. On UPN from Troy it looks like all that is holding that one up FWIW is some money coming in to the owner of the station from his architectural work done at Ft. Rucker, he says that the HD equipment is ordered and ready to ship but he can't get it until his check comes in. I got a chuckle out of that one when I read it.

Is anybody getting WNCF-HD? I lost their signal since Saturday.

I haven't had any problems

No problems here. I would check your cables and plugs. I had that problem and found out it was a bad cable from the Antenna to the pre amp. It must have broken inside the cable because from the outside it looked fine. Do you turn your Antenna alot?

Any news on WSFA? I have been out of town for about a week (last Thursday I found I had a detached retina and had surgery last Friday at UAB) and scanned when I got home but no WSFA digital. Looks like it's getting down to a "race" between WSFA and WAKA. Stan

Tigerman
Can you see if WAKA has any kind of documentation regarding when they'll go live with their HD.

SD4934
Sorry to hear about your surgery. Hope everything went well.
According to my contact, WSFA was suppose to HD on March 30 or April 1st. Obviously, that didn't happen. Tigerman was saying that WSFA has an extention till the 24th.

Looking at the FCC website, WSFA still has not filed for any extentions on going HD. I would assume they are looking to go live shortly. WAKA filed for another extention on 2/24 to go thru 10/24. So the best guess would be late this year, they are still proclaiming no money.

Incredible about WAKA. Isn't CBS the most watched network??

They'll probably drag it out till the last minute.

Thanks for checking Tigerman

While I was down at my parents in Ozark, I had a lot of time to watch TV. I noticed that both ABC and CBS down there are transmitting HD (the NBC station for that area is WSFA). Looks like CBS is now available in southeast Alabama, southwest Alabama, north east Alabama and north
central Alabama but not in the capital city area. I guess we are at the mercy of the station owners. Stan

Many of my favorite shows are on CBS. My guess is that they know people will watch them in SD so why spend the money to upgrade to HD until they have to.

Stan. Anybody closer than Birmingham broadcasting CBS in HD?

Not that I am aware of except, possibly, an APT station-not sure of all the locations. The stations in the Dothan area would be 120-130 miles away.
Stan

I sometime could pick up CBS out of Dothan with my Samsung SIR receiver. And I live north of Montgomery. I really need to buy that back from my dad. He never really uses it.

This a response I got from WSFA:

Thanks for your e-mail. We have completed our digital transmission facility. We are working out a few of the bugs and should be testing soon. Then we must get final approval from the FCC to begin broadcasting on a full time basis.



The reason we are behind WNCF is that we applied to the FCC to change our digital channel from 55 to 14. Long term it is better for us and better for our viewers to be on 14, but it took many months to get that application approved by the FCC.



Also we are building a full power facility. WNCF and WCOV both have low power facilities that do not cover the entire viewing area.



We are sorry for the delay, but it will be worth the wait.



Hoyt Andres

Sounds a lot like what I was told (except the WNCF part) over a year ago.
Sorry if I am cynical but WSFA has been saying that their facility is almost complete and they will be on the air shortly since 11-02. Hope they mean it this time. Stan

Nothing has changed on the FCC website, so this might finally be the real thing. If it's going to happen it should be in the next few days.

Maybe WSFA will finally come through. Also, I haven't gotten anything from APT in a while. Are they still working on their problem?

Anybody getting APT in this area?

APT still have not fixed their tower.

Thanks. At least we still have WNCF.

Since Saturday is the 24th, the last day of WSFA's extension, I wonder if they're going live.

Getting test signal now. Three channels. 12-1 HD, 12-2 SD, and 12-3 Radar. Looks like they are gonna cut the bits down on the HD channel. But getting good strong signal up here.

Is it still on the air? I just entered 12-1 (even tried 14-1 but didn't get anything.

8:50 p.m. a test pattern on 12-1.

Getting good signals on 12-1 12-2 and 12-3, looks like they finally did it, hopefully we'll start getting some programming soon.

Still not getting anything. My antenna is still oriented toward B'ham but Antennaweb.org shows WSFA as the same compass orientation as WNCF.
I get a strong signal from WNCF and it is at relatively low power and WSFA is supposed to be full power (not sure about the test signal-they may not go full power until they start regular broadcasts). I'll keep trying.

I can get WSFA but not WNCF for several weeks now.

Originally posted by tomtb2
I can get WSFA but not WNCF for several weeks now.

I am getting a strong, consistent signal from WNCF and last night was getting CBS and NBC from B'ham.

Anybody getting anything on WSFA?

Any news about WAIQ?

Guess I'll have to start bugging Voom to add WSFA to the map. Oh joy.(said in my least enthusiastic voice)

As of this morning I was still getting test pattern on 12-1 and 12-2. Yesterday religious programming very pixelated w/o audio playing on 12-3. I would imagine that we might see some programming over 12-1 this week as they should be playing with the equipment getting everything fine tuned.

I entered 12-1 and got nothing. I entered 14-1 and am getting a test pattern now on 3 channels (or sub channels). They show in my guide as 12-1,12-2,12-3. Looks like WSFA has finally come through. Could this put some pressure on WAKA? (yea right!). Now if WAIQ could get their problem fixed. Seems like it is always a good news/bad news scenario here in central AL. But I will be happy with ABC and NBC HD (Olympics) for now
and try not to complain too much (WAKA has been pretty clear about their plans or non-plans for HD).

(I just checked the signal strength on 12-1 and I the "meter" on my receiver shows 100%.)

It may very well put pressure on them as fall rolls around. I can't believe they would continue to hold out now that all their competitors in the market have HD up and running, FOX going live w/ 720p this fall puts them in last place locally. Hopefully this will give them the kick in the pants they need to start it up.

The test programs they run every now and then on channel 12-3 I get no sound. JFYI if they are reading these post.

I e-mailed Hoyt Andres and asked him when we could expect full time broadcasting. He replied that they had temporary authority from the FCC to test their digital signal and are waiting for them to give them approval to broadcast programming. He didn't give a time frame.

According to the FCC filing, they were delayed orginally due to bad equipment, now that they are on they will test for approx 3 weeks starting at 10% of full power and work there way up. Once they are done they will await for approval to broadcast from the FCC. Where they are at in the testing I don't know. Those who know more about that maybe can add some info, it's possible they did some testing before we knew about the signal. It looks like it might be 3 weeks at most before they go live.

Originally posted by Tigerman73
According to the FCC filing, they were delayed orginally due to bad equipment, now that they are on they will test for approx 3 weeks starting at 10% of full power and work there way up. Once they are done they will await for approval to broadcast from the FCC. Where they are at in the testing I don't know. Those who know more about that maybe can add some info, it's possible they did some testing before we knew about the signal. It looks like it might be 3 weeks at most before they go live.

I guess now that we've waited this long, we can wait a little longer (at least they are testing so programming is imminent). Since we are recieving a lower power signal we shouln't, hopefull, have any reception problems with WSFA once they go full power.

I just got an email from the friend that works at WSFA asking about how the color bars look.

Since I'm on Voom and can't get WSFA until its mapped, I'd like to ask anyone else who can get WSFA to tell me how it looks so I can pass it along.

Thanks

Originally posted by JimP
I just got an email from the friend that works at WSFA asking about how the color bars look.

Since I'm on Voom and can't get WSFA until its mapped, I'd like to ask anyone else who can get WSFA to tell me how it looks so I can pass it along.

Thanks

Hi Jim, Not sure exactly what he wants to know but they look like color bars. The right colors seem to be there. Are you getting WNCF yet with
the VOOM hardware? Stan

Stan:

WNCF mapped about a week before WAIQ toasted their transmitter. WNCF looks fine during primetime. Can't say much about SD during non prime time as it appears stretched.

The colors look fine, tell them to run some programs and I'll be able to give better feed back..LOL. It looks good on my set as far as color bars go.

Tigerman
Will do. lol

By the way, are the color bars such that you can check your TV's color decoder setting? Is it transmitting at 420,720 or 1080?

1080 on 12-1, 480p on 12-2 and 3, 12-2 you can check the color and everything on 12-2. 12-1 is just the color bars from top to bottom.

PBS is back up and running tonight

color bars look good. 100% signal up here in Holtville/Slapout area.

Originally posted by Tigerman73
PBS is back up and running tonight

I just scanned and got PBS back. Are that at a lower power? My picture goes and comes and when the picture is there my signal strength meter shows 77%. Previously it was 100% Anyway, I will be a happy camper when WSFA begins broadcasting programming.

Tigerman

I'm not getting squat on 26-1 or 26-2.
Can you tell if they're on very low power?

They appear to be lower power than previously. I have a picture and then it drops out and then comes back.

26-1,26-2 reception comes and goes. Color bars on 12-1,12-2,12-3 look good. I am getting WNCF for the first time in several weeks. I will be glad when WSFA starts showing programs. WAKA sucks.

Later last night, I started getting 26-1 (didn't check 26-2). Checking the power/quality/ and signal to noise ratio, the signal was coming and going. Maybe when they turn up the power this time, they won't fry their transmitter. ;)

I'm getting WCOV, Fox?, and from what I can tell, it looks like standard def. Do they broadcast HD at all?

20-1 is Standard TV. No high def for fox until maybe Fall of this year. After taking a beating they saw the light and are suppost to produce some high def content.

PBS as of this morning looks to me to be operating at a lower power. I'm not having any problems w/ the picture myself. Fox is 480 until Fall when they are supposed to start broadcasting in 720p. Should happen by Sept, they are scheduled to show NFL in HD. It looks like things are coming together nicely. If only we get have someone w/ money to spend to buy WAKA. Anybody want to start a collection...LOL

Tigerman

How much they want for the station? ;)

My gut feeling is that being ahead in the ratings, they're not motivated to buy and install HD equipment until absolutly necessary.

Now if NBC could move ahead of them in the ratings, then WAKA might get motivated.

Hmmm. I very very seldom watch CBS. I mostly watch Fox and they are not HD as well. What shows they got? Only sitcom I like now is ABC's Lopes. and Fox's 70 show,COPS and their sunday lineup. rest is cable or online computer game. I might be missing something but nothing has caught my eye.

CSI, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Jag, Joan of Arcadia

One thing that is being over looked is even stations like Fox that have no high def content, I get a MUCH better picture up here than analog with their digital signal. Even over my cable local analog pic sucks. No one seems to be able to get a good tuned pic up here. That's why I would like UPN out of Troy to get on digital as well.

UPN was waiting on some money he had from some contract work the owner of the station did at Ft Rucker to come in and then he was going to go HD. He supposedly had ordered the equipment but the company he bought from was waiting on payment before shipping. They shouldn't be too much longer if the brief to the FCC for an extension was not a bold face lie.

Tigerman

Sounds too much like the dog ate my homework. lol

Probably, but I'm more interested in WAKA than the UPN station as I don't watch anything they have on.

My point I guess is I'm waiting on All channels to go digital because unless you live close to the towers you have to put up with all the analog problems. For us that live 30 or more miles away we get better picture even on 480I broadcast.
Channel 8 pic for me right now is fuzzy, has lines, and the sound has a buzz to it. I have a directional antenna with preamp. I could go out and tune them in better but I think if they were live I'd pick them up without having to turn my antenna.

You definitely will get a better picture w/ the digital channel. Hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer on UPN out of Troy. Anybody heard when WSFA is expecting approval from the FCC on going live w/ programming. Testing should be over with in another week.

Once again, I am not able to receive 26-1, 26-2, and 32-1. Anyone else have this problem? Last fall, I got them with an indoor antenna. I may have to switch to an outdoor antenna. Can anyone suggest a vendor in the Montgomery area? Also, what is the approximate cost?

Thanks

I've got a VF-90 from Rat Shack w/ a amp in my attic, I have no problem receiving any of the channels.

Yep. Raido Shack. Or order online.

Has anyone noticed a drop in signal strength for 32-1 and 20-1 in the last week or so? I am having problems w/ 32-1 tonight and 20-1 has dropped but is hanging steady. Just curious, also WSFA's 3 week testing period ends tomorrow. We should be getting some shows shortly.

32 must be on low power again as the signal I'm getting is too low to get a picture. :-(

Well WSFA has stopped testing and they are off the air until the FCC gives approval to broadcast. My signal has come back up for 32-1 and 20-1 is up a little. Anyone have any insight on when we can expect WSFA to be up and running??? Are we looking at days or weeks?

32-1 is back for me as is 26-1 (only got it sparodically or not at all for several days). I've only gotten 20-1 one time, and that was briefly, but it's not HD and I watch very little on Fox. Just hope WSFA get's their FCC approval to broadcast soon (was hoping for a HD Preakness but I guess not). Surely they will be on the air in time for the Olympics. Stan

Typed too soon. I said 26-1 was back but it's gone again and 32-1 is dropping out often. Oh well.

Is anyone having problems w/ the signal dropping in and out of 32-1 and 20-1 tonight. I have noticed the last couple of times it has rained they've dropped out. 26-1 is pretty stable. Also WSFA's temp extention runs out on the 23rd or 24th, we hopefully should have something coming up by Monday at the latest

Originally posted by Tigerman73
Is anyone having problems w/ the signal dropping in and out of 32-1 and 20-1 tonight. I have noticed the last couple of times it has rained they've dropped out. 26-1 is pretty stable. Also WSFA's temp extention runs out on the 23rd or 24th, we hopefully should have something coming up by Monday at the latest

Whenever it rains I have problems with 32-1 (or at least when the rain is hard and/or there are very windy condtions-light rain doesn't seem to cause a problem).

How long does it take to get FCC approval to begin broadcasting (I'm referring to WSFA)? I guess I don't understand the system but it seems a little cumberson (I know we're dealing with the government) to have to get permission to begin construction and then once the construction is completed to then get permission to begin testing what you have a permit to construct and then once the testing is through to get permission to begin broadcasting and I'm sure there are probably some other steps in there. Digital broadcasting has been mandated but the process to reach that end doesn't appear designed to make the process quick (or is this just an excuse broadcasters use to justify the dragging of their feet--I have a feeling it's probably a little bit of both). I guess I am getting a little frustrated again--the promise of more local HD is there but it always seems to be just over the horizon.

Yeh. Seems they should be live by now.

If anything, (at least for me) we seem to be regressing. 32-1 used to be a very reliable signal, now it is a very unreliable signal. 26-1 is much less reliable than 32-1. HDTV seems more and more like an afterthought for our local area broadcasters.

yeh. 32-1 seems to drop out alot for me here to.

Just hope WSFA comes on the air at full power (when they ever get on the air) and stays fully power. That would at least give us one reliable signal in this area.

WSFA applied to move the angle of their antenna, I don't know how long it'll take to move that but I would imagine the channel has to be going live soon. ABC has gone from a decent signal to if there are 2 drops of rain anywhere within a 100 mile radius of Montgomery, the signal starts dropping out. FOX's signal has been stinking it up as of late also.

Does make one ask what's going on.

Sounds like we're going to have to go cable for the locals, whenever dimhouse eventually brings out HD cable.

Hope I live long enough. :(

From Dimhouse web site I read they have HDTV. But you have to get a box and only has ABC and a few others. I get more with D*. Would be nice to be able to hook my HDPC up to it. If they offerd more channels I'd look into it. Wonder if that box has firewire?

I'll have to look at cable if the OTA situation doesn't improve and Brighthouse offers all of the networks (of course it may be a while before all of the networks in our area are broadcasting HD--of course I'm referring to WAKA). I wish Brighthouse would have a "lifeline" for HD networks (like I have for the SD locals). If so I could keep my sat and just have cable for the locals (and cable modem). I'm pretty sure you will have to subscribe to their digital package to get the local HD. I guess dropping sat altogether would be an option if they Brightstar would carry the national HD channels. Things were looking up for a while for us, but like I said earlier, we appear to be regressing. It's hard to understand why other areas of the state have all the major networks (ABC. CBS and NBC--there is Fox's digital signal also) and the capital city area is still lagging way behind. The signals that we do have seem to be getting progressivly worse. I still considering getting a HD DirectvTivo but I'm a little hesitant if cable may be in my future. I see I'm beginning a rant so I'll
end here. It does look like DirectTv will begin offering HD locals at some point, but looking at the DirectTv site, it doesn't appear the Montgomery area will be high priority (the SD locals aren't even provided at this time by DirectTv so HD will be available via cable, probably, a long time before via satellite in this area-- things are different in the Mobile, Huntsville, B'ham areas).

Don't feel too bad, I'm in the H'ville area and all we have is CBS and NBC. Fox and ABC are digital but not HD (and not even 480p to boot).

For a while, all this is going to be like trying to hit a moving target.

For now, a combination of Brighthouse cable and Voom Satellite(for its HD content and OTA capacity when it works) works for me.

Whose knows what combination or single provider will be most advantagous in 12 months?

The downside to all this that I should have managed better is that I should have leased my satellite equipment rather than have bought it.

Originally posted by taz291819
Don't feel too bad, I'm in the H'ville area and all we have is CBS and NBC. Fox and ABC are digital but not HD (and not even 480p to boot).

I would love to have CBS and NBC. We've got promises from our NBC station, even a test pattern for a while, but no programming as of yet. Our CBS station appears prepared to hold out until they are forced to do something. ABC is on the air with an HD signal but it is a very unreliable signal. Fox is on the air with a very weak signal (I know there is no HD and I don't think our affiliate is even transmitting the 480p signa). In any event the signal is so low that I don't receive it

I'm getting nothing from 26-1 tonight and a signal from WNCF that is unwatchable (more drop outs than picture), but I am getting good signals from the NBC and CBS B'ham stations. Sad when distant signals are stronger than local signals. Is WNCF at lower power than previously?
The signal used to be very good in all except the worst weather. Now it
seems if it is even a little cloudy the signal drops out.

I contacted BrightHouse to see what I would need to get their HD signal.
Right now I only have "lifeline"cable for my locals as well as a cable modem.
I thought I might have to subscribe to basic cable at least (if not the digital package). They said all I would need to recieve the WNCF now and other local signals when offered/available would be the HD box which would be an additional $9.60 a month. That would be a bit much for one channel but
if ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and others were available it wouldn't be too bad. Another problem I would have is that my tv is apprx. 3 years old and only has 1 1080i input (3 years ago I never thought I would need more than one) so I would have to get a component switcher (which would be inconvenient to an extent) or get a new TV (which would be expensive).
At least there are some options now but I am going to wait a while until a spend more money to see how things shake out. If the OTA situation improves I wouldn't worry about switching to cable.

Hey... some Alabama guys.

We live in Luverne, AL. About 45 miles south of Montgomery but the channel 12 tower is only 19 miles from my house. We can't get ABC with their low power and haven't even tried WSFA yet. I think Fox 20 is on the WSFA tower but not sure about their digital channel. Seems like I read where the digital tower was in Montgomery metro area.

According to WAKA, WSFA, and WCOV they advised me that they had signed a contract with Dish Network to offer SD locals beginning in June. It's in Dish's hands as of now. There is rumor that Dish plans on adding them this month but it's a wait and see deal. Although it's not HD at least it will give us locals better than what we get analog. We can't get cable in the area where we live so SD is better than nothing. With analog we have to use a rotor and amp which still doesn't do too well on ABC and is too strong for WSFA so the pic is still ugly on all of our local reception.

My plan is to keep E* locals only until the HD starts with our locals (which as you guys say-will probably be a few years before all are sending a respectable signal). We're having V* installed next week.

Surely there's something we can do. Maybe if enough customers hassle the locals we can get them movin'. Probably a lost cause though.

Sonnie

Have you tried a signal attinuator for WSFA?

I've had Voom since Oct 03. You're going to like it. ;)

Jim

Hey Jim...

Does that single out channel 12 and weaken the signal for it?

Yeah... I can't wait to get VOOM.

Sonny,

Not exactly. When you tune to a channel that's too strong, you can adjust the control(located before the input to the TV) to reduce the signal strength. This way, you can do the amplified antenna thing to reach distant stations and then adjust it down for one that's a lot closer.

I've got one I'm not using if you'd like to give it a try.

Thanks Jim... that's very considerate of you, but hopefully I want need it real soon here. We went to a family reunion today and I found out that my first cousin works at WNCF 32. I couldn't believe it. Obviously I started questioning her about digital and the hopes of getting the Montgomery stations up on E*. She stated that they just had a meeting yesterday to discuss these issues. They are working on the digital... she said they've been having some technical problems but said that they have been working on it steady. She said it seemed to be a mess. From what I could gather she didn't seem to know too much on that issue. OTOH... they are now starting to use the fact that they will be on satellite to help with ad sales. She said they gave her no definite date that they would start broadcasting on E* but she said they were talking like it was about to happen. She states she knows who to ask and will call me on Monday and let me know what she can find out. If she doesn't call then I'm gonna call her... I'm impatient.

Anyway... if we get locals on E* then I'll dish (or at least disconnect) the OTA VHF antenna. We'll keep our 508 for locals (a la carte) only and add V* for everything else. I'll let V* install the Winegard for DTV/HD for when they get those up and running.

It's disappointing that WAKA is holding out on DTV/HD like they are. We all need to try to somehow get a fire lit under their rumpidy dumps.

Jim, Has Voom gotten the mapping problem solved with its receivers for local reception? My contract with DirectTv is up in August and I might want to consider switching to VOOM. Have you heard any more about an HD DVR for VOOM? Stan

Stan
The mapping problem, which for those who might not know is where you can only receive the digital locals that are programmed into the systems downloaded listing of locals, includes ABC, Fox and PBS. It doesn't have NBC(I've notified them about this) and CBS, which isn't digital, just analog.

Voom is suppose to release the software update within the next couple of weeks that would include the scan feature for digital locals, which means no CBS(not digital) and the weak stations such as PBS are intermittant at best. They still need to be mapped in order for the program guide to carry the listings. I'll post when Voom updates the software for this feature.

The last I heard about the HD DVR is that it is due out in the 3rd quarter.
It's been leaked that its in beta testing.

Jim,
Have you heard anything on when WSFA might be going live? I thought you might have heard something from your contact down there.

Tigerman73

Last time I talked with him was a couple of weeks ago. At that time, he thought they were all ready to start broadcasting. Evidently, they're needing to get FCC approval about changing their antenna/direction or something to that effect.

He did say that he thought the station would make a big production about going HD.

I knew that they had applied to have their antenna direction moved like 10 degrees. I figured they would have that done by now. 32-1 is coming in strong tonight, they may have figured out what the problem was, cause they have cranked the power up tonight. This is the strongest most consistent signal I've gotten from them in over a month.

My cousin couldn't find out any news on the digital side of 32-1 (WNCF) other than they are working steadily on it.

She stated Montgomery locals were scheduled to be up and runnning on E* on May 20 but it was delayed until this month but still no exact date.

A Dish Network CSR says she can pull it up on her computer that Montgomery, AL. is scheduled for this month but no exact date. My zip still doesn't pull up any locals and neither did hers.

Sonnie, can you get the Dothan locals? I'm originally from Ozark. When I go down to visit my parents I notice that WTVY (4) and 18 (ABC can't remember the call letters) both list a digital channel # along with their analog channel. My parents just have an analog TV so I couldn't tune in the digital signal and am not even sure that they are broadcasting. By the way, enjoyed looked at the pics of your home theater. Stan

Yeah... 4 is digital for sure and FOX (not sure on channel) is also digital down in Dothan (or FOX may be in Ozark... can't remember). The VOOM install guy stated they both were up and he could usually get those tuned in pretty good within about 40-50 miles.

I'm about 60-70 crow flying miles from Dothan. I don't know if those antennas stretch quite that far but it might be worth a try. I'm thinkin' it wouldn't work. I haven't been able to get it with my Dish 6000 and a CM 1162 with CM amp.

We actually had a hard time picking up 4 when we lived in Troy. 8 was bad in Troy too... but that was analog and we had cable for locals... which was also pretty bad... lol.

Thanks on the HT pics... I have a much better digicam now but just haven't taken the time to snap new shots. Maintaining our website is like a full time job.

Yeah, that is a little far, but if the stations are full power you might have a shot. I've been attempting for a while to pull in the digital signals from B'ham (NBC and CBS from Red Mountain--about 90 miles). At times (only at night) I can pull them in but it is very hit and miss. I'm using a parabolic antenna mounted on my roof peak with a Blonder tongue pre amp. Not sure it's worth it though.

The parabolics are kinda hard to find these days aren't they?

My installer told me they'd be installing a Winegard with amp that would reach out to about 50 miles fairly well. I still don't know if that's gonna grab ABC 32 with their weak output... unless they've turned it up.

I don't think anybody makes a consumer parabolic any more. Mine is
one that had been in the store for a while. You shouldn't have a problem with the Montgomery stations when they get up to power. Right now, my antenna is oriented towards B'ham and I am getting the Montgomery stations from the back side of my antenna (when there is a reasonable signal out there). I was getting a strong signal from WSFA when they had their test pattern on the air (I live north of Montgomery between Wetumpka and Millbrook) and a good signal from WNCF before they began having problems. You might be surprised with the Dothan stations. You are closer to them than I am to the B'ham stations. I'm not sure what
Wingard antenna you will be gettingl, but for the Dothan stations (and that will be your only shot for CBS HD for the forseeable future) you will need a very directional, very fringe area antena to have a shot.
It might be worth it (unless WTVY is on very low power). If you could get CBS that would really make us in this area jealous. WAKA has said in so many words that they have no plans anytime soon.

Well I got VOOM installed today but we didn't even install the Wineguard antenna.... it's sitting in the garage. It's the Wineguard Sensar II amplified GS2000A with a 45 mile range. My Channel Master Quantum 1162 has a range of 60 miles (deep fringe) for UHF and we just used it but still I can't get any digitals at all. They have ABC and FOX mapped and a bunch of other channels (a couple of PBS channels and some others I'm not sure of) but there's no signal whatsoever. I made need to rotate it some... I have the Channel Master amp on it but I'm not sure if it amplifies UHF or not... maybe just VHF... I need to read up on it. I have a remote controlled rotor so maybe it's just getting the direction right.

The VOOM channels look really good... the HD's are excellent and the SD channels while stretched still look better than my E* SD's.

The only hang up I have is having to scroll thru all the channels even though I don't have them in my favorite list. The VOOM favorite list feature is lacking as it only seems to work for the guide. I like to scroll thru channels and I hate having to go thru channels I care nothing about... like DivineHD and Fuel and Auction and some other silly channels... I also have to scroll through all my OTA HD channels that don't pick up. Maybe they'll upgrade the favorite list feature soon... that's about the worst part of the whole deal I can see.

oops... getting way off subject here... sorry.

Sonny

Welcome to Vooming.

I'm just a little north of Montgomery off of 231 N. The PBS station is at fairly low power. I rarely get it.

As to scrolling through the channels, you do know that you can go to the program guide and go up or down a page at a time.

Did Bill Mashburn do your install?

Thanks Jim... I think I'm glad to be Vooming.

Yeah on the scrolling thing my wife likes to flip thru the channels and is not much on using the guide. You know with E* we can set our favorite lists and choose a list and while flipping thru the channels it only scrolls thru those on the favorite list.

Travis Miller from Wicksburg did my install... young fella. Where's Bill from?

Sonny

Bill is from Montgomery. He did my install.

Well it would have been closer for them to send someone from Montgomery.

Getting 4 channels from B'ham tonight and nothing from Montgomery. Did
notice on a link in another post (the the FCC web site) that the FCC denied
an extension request by WCOV (not sure what the extension was for unless it was a request to keep a very low power). I didn't see WAKA's name.

I got some pretty good coverage maps of the Montgomery digitals from a friend (the red dot is me - ignore the green line):

http://www.snapbug.ws/images/wsfa.gif
WSFA-NBC Off Air

http://www.snapbug.ws/images/wncf.gif
WNCF-ABC Low Power STA

http://www.snapbug.ws/images/wrjm.gif
WRJM-UPN Off Air

http://www.snapbug.ws/images/wcov.gif
WCOV-FOX Off Air STA

http://www.snapbug.ws/images/waka.gif
WAKA-CBS Off Air

WSFA got approval for the antenna adjustment, so hopefully we'll be getting something shortly. Where did you see where WCOV got denied an extention? I didn't see it on the FCC site. WNCF is up and down still, it looked like they jacked the power for the NBA games and then drop out the rest of the time.

Tigerman

Wouldn't you love to tell their advertisers(WNCF) that you can't get their channel? Bet they wouldn't be too happy paying for people to look at their ads and not being able to.

Originally posted by Tigerman73
WSFA got approval for the antenna adjustment, so hopefully we'll be getting something shortly. Where did you see where WCOV got denied an extention? I didn't see it on the FCC site. WNCF is up and down still, it looked like they jacked the power for the NBA games and then drop out the rest of the time.

The link was in another post in this thread. The subject line was: " FCC grants 29 extentions, denies 2". Not sure how to put a live hyperlink in this message but this was the link (I probably typed it wrong--you can do a search for the post): http//hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public.attachmatch/fcc-04-124A1.txt[/URL]

WSFA-DT is running test patterns again. Guess they have moved their Antenna. Wonder how long this test will take.

I'm ready for some programming.

Hmmm. Wonder if they will start pumping it out at prime time tonight...
Nahhh. They will come back and say they have to get FCC app again now that they have moved their antenna. Ha!

Yeah. This has been going on so long that I'll believe when I see it. WSFA always seems on the verge and then an excuse comes along.

Well did they start (WSFA-DT)? My Voom isn't mapped so I can't see it for now.

Originally posted by Sonnie Parker
Well did they start (WSFA-DT)? My Voom isn't mapped so I can't see it for now.
Just the test signals again. 14-1, 14-2, and 14-3. I do not have Voom but I have to do a local scan to get mine mapped on D*

What's going to happen is they'll test this signal for 3 weeks and then decide to move the antenna back like it was last time which will take another month on top. Then they'll test again for another 3 weeks. We're looking at October or November...LOL

Aaaaagh, now I get it.

You guys interested in getting together some night for an HD party?

They are finally running programming. Looks good so far

Time to rattle Voom's cage again about the local mapping.

Can Voom re-map our locals or is that something done before the STB reaches us?

I know they have the new software update that allows scanning for locals supposedly in beta testing but how is it changed before then?

You guys interested in getting together some night for an HD party?
If HD stands for "Happy Drunk" I can't do it... I will drink some coffee though. lol

Sonny,

Happy Drunk, not me either. Got some specialty coffee over at Fresh Market that I'd like to try out.

The local channel mapping is actually performed at Voom (based on information provided by Tribune) and from that point forward, downloaded each night along with the program guide information.

I rebuilt my computer (XP from Win98SE)since the last time I corresponded with Peter at Voom. Not sure I can retrieve his email address off of the other hard drive.
Will give it a try.

Hey... I could probably get into some specialty coffee.

I have the program Intellimover that will move all your settings, e-mails, contacts, etc. from Outlook Express if you use OE. That is if you have the other hard drive installed on the same computer or can network to it. It wouldn't work for me because I use Outlook 2003. If you use OE I'll be happy to put it on a special URL so you can download it. It will move all your settings for just about any programs. Very handy tool especially if you buy a new computer and don't want to have to reset all your settings and so forth for all your programs.

Maybe you can get his e-mail anyway. I'll call Voom also... maybe they'll react someway. I can e-mail Wilt also. Maybe all of us should call Voom and e-mail someone up there.

"Maybe you can get his e-mail anyway. I'll call Voom also... maybe they'll react someway. I can e-mail Wilt also. Maybe all of us should call Voom and e-mail someone up there."

Good idea. If we worry them enough, it'll eventually show up.lol

Just imported the address book and didn't see Peter's email address. I've got my system setup such that I can move the first input on the hard drive cable back to my old hard drive and boot from there. I'll email him tonight.

I called Voom and they answered before it even rang one time... unbelievable... new customer service number.

I got a CSR that obviously doesn't know too much. She kept putting me on hold. She told me that a technician would have to come to my house and test the signal to make sure I could recieve it. I explained that I could get it (which I hope I can) and they'd be wasting money to send someone out to test it. I would suggest if Millbrook can get it I'd think I could being only 16 miles from the tower. Then after another short hold she came back on saying that they will be escalating the mapping for WSFA-DT but it could still be a week or longer before we'd see it.

I'm still gonna e-mail Wilt when I get home. He got me my 3 remotes overnight. Actually I have 6 Voom remotes now since they sent them to me again. lol I did the right thing though and told them if they'd send me a Fed-ex label I'd drop them in the drop box back to them.

Sonnie,

I've been beating the bushes trying to find a HD color bar signal generator.

To no avail.

Not that Voom is complying with the HD standard, but I'd like to calibrate one of my color decoder memories correctly for HD. Sony's setting only has about 25% red push. ugh.

Any idea where I might be able to pick up a generator without breaking the bank?

Getting 100% up here in Slapout on WSFA-DT. Only thing I dislike is on the Radar channel the logo is a tad to big. It covers up some area's that might be in their viewing area. And on the High Def channel when they are not Broadcasting in High Def there are side bars. I really dont understand the reason behind that. Seems like they would do that on the regular channel.
And I hope when high def becomes the norm they will drop their standard def channel for more data to be pumped thru their high def channel. But they still may be testing things out so I'm not complaining. Glad to have something and it's live before the Olympic trials coming up. Any one know if that will be in high def?
I can get a better recording on my pc with digital signal better than I can with analog. So YAhh!!!! Will check out The Tonight Show tonight.

Oh, D* does not have any guide data yet as well for those channels. No biggie. I'm sure it takes awhile for the word to go out that they are live.

Hmmm... you got me on that one Jim. 25% is ugh for sure.

I suppose any you find online would require you eat 3 months worth of potted meat and crackers huh.

Have you called around in Montgomery to see if any of the repair shops will rent you one for a few hours? Of course they probably have color bar generators... just not HD.

Darryl... is WSFA intending on passing thru all HD programming from NBC?

Well they aren't showing HD yet as Law and Order: SVU is coming across in w/ 4:3 blocking instead of 16:9.

Hmmm... that's what I was afraid of. One of the fellows up there told me he wasn't sure if they would pass along the HD or not. Of course he went into this spill about 99% of their viewers not even owning HDTV sets yet.

Maybe they'll come to their senses soon... or maybe it's just they haven't got it set up yet and I'm being too impatient even before I get my Voom mapping.

They may still be playing with it, but hopefully they'll start passing thru the HD. It seems a waste of time to set up a channel to push 1080i and only show 480p. I can get that on 12-2.

Sonnie

TNTHD has law and order. Unfortunately, TNTHD has some kind of funky stretch mode going which make me think that its 4:3 SD upconverted to 16:9 HD. In other words, not true HD.

I really wish these stations would not stretch these signals. Its funny how they're trying to prevent burnin on sets that are burnin sensitive. But dare they remove those station logos, no way. lol

Yeah... I haven't figured out the TNT thing either. I was watching snips of Charmed last night (first time I've ever watched it) and noticed it looked slightly stretched. They advertise it as HD though. Now it looked halfway respectable but as you say it's not true HD.

I and several others have e-mailed TNT complaining.

ESPN was similar at one time but their stretch was extremely mind warping. They finally came to their senses and figured out people would rather watch their SD instead of their HD as long as they were doing the funky stretch. Now they do the fancy lookin' bars. But truth be known... I'd rather have that unless they figure out how to stretch good until they get all the programming in HD.

I would prefer WSFA-DT have one (The radar is ok) like channel 32 has. and if a high def broadcast comes accross just pass it on the same channel. Cant all digital receivers down convert to 480I if people cant display the 1080I. Hope they will pass the HD stuff soon.:)

As far as I know if you don't have a HD set you can downconvert to 480i. It seems illogical to me to take the effort to work 3 channels and then not pass HD on any of them. If you can pick up the digital channels I would think you've probably got an HD set. If you don't your still getting their analog on 12. What a waste of bandwidth, you could do 2 channels, 12-1 for 480i and then 12-2 could be your weather picture. I would think they would pass HD shortly.

What do you guys make of this?

It's from this link: http://www.tvradioworld.com/region1/al/tv.asp?m=mon

http://www.snapbug.ws/images/locals.gif

It will surprise me if WCOV-DT is going to be higher power than WSFA-DT. Even WAKA-DT is showing 1000kw. This just must be some bad info. Looks like they got WNCF-DT right though with 58kw. That's about wimpy.

Those are the figures for when the station goes full-power, not STA power. The figures are taken directly from the FCC for which the station was allotted.

Edit:
Depending on the height a stations transmitter is on a tower, 58kW should suffice, of course depending on terrain. I'm 62 miles from the Huntsville towers and I can pick up our crappy Fox digital channel and they're only broadcasting at about 4.2kW .

tax

62 miles and 4.2KW. What kind of antenna are you using?

I am having no problems picking up WNCF right now, they seemed to have stabalized their signal in the last week (knock on wood). WCOV may be at a higher power than WSFA, but my understanding was they are using the same tower but they will be lower so the difference should be minimal. Although right now I think they are transmitting at .0005kW as I haven't gotten a good signal from them in well over a month.

Yeah... I'm 15-16 miles from WSFA/WCOV tower and I have WCOV mapped on Voom but haven't been able to get a signal either. I have the CM1162 which supposed to reach out 60 miles on UHF and it's amplified too.

Originally posted by JimP
tax

62 miles and 4.2KW. What kind of antenna are you using?

It's actually 4.4kW, but who's counting when it's that low.

I'm using a Channel Master 4228 antenna with a Channel Master 7775 pre-amp. It's mount on a 35 foot mast (give or take a couple of feet). Also, it's on a rotator.

Our NBC affiliate (WAFF) is also 62 miles away at 46kW and they are my strongest signal (89%). WHNT (same distance) is at 1000kW and I get a signal of 64% with them, due to their strong signal overloading my receiver.

I can pick up WKRN out of Nashville (946kW) on occassion, they're 92 miles away. Normally my receiver sits at about 15% signal strength, which is not enough to get a picture. My receiver needs 25% signal. On most evenings it'll jump to 30% and give me a picture. I've seen it on some mornings at 64%, but that's due to great tropo-ducting.

I'll probably raise the antenna another 10 feet in a month or so to try and gain a better signal since they are a ABC affiliate passing HD and DD5.1 (our ABC affiliate doesn't, not to mention the whole 2.6kW they output, which I can't get a signal from).

You guys in central Alabama may be able to pick up WHNT (CBS affiliate in Huntsville, full HD and DD5.1) since they broadcast at 1000kW. Their digital channel is 59 and their analog is 19.

Should signal overloading be a concern of mine being only 15-16 miles from the tower and at full power those 2 stations will be at 600kw and 1000kw?

I think my CM is a 7777.

If I point my antenna away from them a little should that make it better?

Taz
Is that 35 feet from the ground or from a roof peak? I've also got the 4228 but with another brand of amplifier. I've been wondering if a taller mast would help with the WAIQ reception. Also a little nervous about being the local lightning rod. zzzzap.

Sonnie,
That's one heck of a home theater you got. Makes me want to convert to front projection. Still need to get together for that coffee.

Thanks Jim... we sure enjoy it.

Coffee.... hmmm hmm yes we do!

Originally posted by Sonnie Parker
Should signal overloading be a concern of mine being only 15-16 miles from the tower and at full power those 2 stations will be at 600kw and 1000kw?

I think my CM is a 7777.

If I point my antenna away from them a little should that make it better?

It may be. If it is, you can purchase a attuenator (sp?) to take care of it. My local PBS station is only a few miles from me, so I turn my antenna exactly 180 degrees, it helps.

Originally posted by JimP
Taz
Is that 35 feet from the ground or from a roof peak? I've also got the 4228 but with another brand of amplifier. I've been wondering if a taller mast would help with the WAIQ reception. Also a little nervous about being the local lightning rod. zzzzap.



That's 35 feet from the ground. It's about 7 feet above rooftop.

I've been out of town this week and just got back. So WSFA actually has a signal on the air. Are ya'll having any problem with the signal? Mine will be at 100% and then drop totally out. I was getting the test pattern without any problem before they changed their antenna orientation. Maybe I am going to have to give up on the B'ham stations (my only hope for CBS for a while) and readjust my antenna. I was hoping to leave it where it was and at least, at times, get CBS from B'ham. A rotor is not an option right now as I have guy wires on it (the antenna) that would interfere with rotation. Once WAKA gets on the air (if ever) I will probably take it down and get a less obtrusive mast mounted antenna. But anyway, are ya'll getting WSFA without dropouts?

I'm not having any problems at all with my signal. It is coming in strong and steady. I don't know how long this testing phase will last before they go dark and wait approval from the FCC to go live.

It has to be my antenna positioning. I hooked up an indoor antenna I had around the house and it picked up WSFA just fine. Climbing on the roof is not one of my favorite things (in fact I hate it) but I guess I'm going to have to. Is WSFA now at full power? (P.S. Anybody in the market for a parabolic antenna--it's free--just come and get it off my roof).

I have to turn my antenna all the time. When I move into my new house I'm adding a rotor. I already have purchased it. I to had 100% one time on WSFA-DT and then totaly droped out every few min. I turned my antenna almost SE and problem went away. I have been watching WSFA-DT a few days now and have noticed alot of pixalation on both 12-1, and 12-2. Just like PBS spliting the signal it degrades both channels and I do not like it. At least PBS has two diffrent programs. I dont see why WSFA-DT is doing the same on two. It is really going to downgrade the HD stuff when they start to pass it. That's where Local channels can do alot better for High Def stuff than Satalight or Cable because they can pump alot more data uncompressed. And I can tell the diffrence when they dont.

With my indoor antenna I get WSFA-DT at between 93% and 100%. I'm not getting APT or WNCF (I assume if they were any where near full power I would get them too). Once the weather improves I'll get on the roof (my antenna is on my roof peak) and rotate it towards Montgomery. I'd kind of like to get rid of the parabolic and put up a more conventional antenna. That 7 ft parabolic in the middle of my roof doesn't do much for the looks of my house.

After playing with my indoor antenna I am getting good signals form WSFA
(100 %), APT (60%) and WNCF (around 60%). Didn't think it would be possible with an indoor antenna. Of course, I'm not getting Fox, but I'm in no hurry to get on the roof and adjust my outdoor antenna.

FOX's signal is coming in for me at about 35%. They are the only one's I'm not able to get very well right now, they've probably really turned the power down in the last month or so. WSFA I get at low 90's, PBS I get in the mid 80's and ABC comes in the mid 80's when they have the power turned on.

I e-mailed WSFA and asked them when they would begin passing through the HD signal. The reply was: "We are in the second phase of our equipment testing. We will be signing off our DTV signal soon and waiting for FCC approval for programming to continue on a regular basis." This was from Hoyt Andress. He didn't say they would be passing throught the HD signal. Since that was my specific question I'm hoping that he meant that the HD signal would be passed through when they get final FCC approval. Not sure though. Sounds life WSFA will be going black soon and wait on another approval. This really seems like a convuluted process.

Wonder how long it takes to get FCC approval?


I sent an e-mail to Phil Witt at WCOV 20 and got this response:

Our NTSC transmitter is in Grady. Our SDTV transmitter is at our studio location and operates at low power. We may be transmitting HDTV (Fox) this fall but will still be transmitting from the same location, with
the same power level. Nothing has been decided about when or from where we will transmit a "full power" digital signal.

Seems like WSFA has been getting extensions and approvals for a couple of years (not seems -they have). When WNCF came on the air I don't remember going through all this. One day they were just there with a full HD signal. From Hoyt Anders response I'm afraid WSFA may just be planning a digital SD (or ED) transmission and not passing on the HD signal. In his e-mail reply all he referred to was the digital signal. He never made reference to HD, even though I specifically asked that. I may be wrong but I am getting pessimistic again. If they don't pass the HD signal I don't know which is worse--WAKA's non-plans or WSFA's half-hearted plans (if the HD signal is not passed). I may have to keep my antenna aimed for B'ham and depend on my indoor antenna for local digital. WNCF was first with HD but I assume WSFA has much deeper pockets (unless WNCF gets a lot of help from their parent company). At least we have something to discuss.

I emailed him a week or so ago and was told they would be passing the HD signal thru from NBC so we should have 1080i coming thru soon since they finished up testing apparently. I asked and he did say they would be passing the signal.

They have then got to go back and test passing HD signals, Then get approvel again for that. HA! Maybe we can catch the 2008 games in High Def.
It's all in the numbers. They are going to drag it out because not enough homes in the area have HDTV and it is costing them money. (At least in their minds)

Originally posted by Nnamd
They have then got to go back and test passing HD signals, Then get approvel again for that. HA! Maybe we can catch the 2008 games in High Def.
It's all in the numbers. They are going to drag it out because not enough homes in the area have HDTV and it is costing them money. (At least in their minds)

I'm afraid you are right. At this time the financial incentive is not there. At this time, except for us vocal few there is not much of an outcry from the public for HDTV. Most people seem satisfied with the signal they have. Even after seeing HD people say "that sure is a clear picture" or somethng like that and that's it. Maybe when all larger new TVs sold can directly accept unscrambled HD or HD OTA signals more people will be exposed to HD and HD will be as simple as plugging in the TV and plugging the cable into it we will see more demand for HD and the advertisers will take notice. Let's face it, most people don't want to fool with a TV antenna and a seperate HD receiver, they just want to turn on the TV and watch. Has the federal mandate gone into effect that all TVs of a certain size manufactured from a specific date have to contain a HD tuner
and will be able to accept unscrambled cable signals without the need of a box (I believe that's part of it) gone into effect yet? As much as we like satellite on this forum I'm afraid cable is going to be the main exposure to HD for a large part of the population. On slightly different note, what do you think will spur the sales of HD receivers. I know Best Buy, Circuit City, et. al. sell a good many HD capable sets (and even some with HD tuners) but not nearly as many HD receivers as HD capable sets.

I guess I'll have to eat some of my words. I had e-mailed Hoyt Andres back and asked if they would be passing along the 1080i signal when available. He said that they would pass the 1080i signal. Hopefully, we'll have the Olympics in HD.

That's good news at least... now just waiting for FCC approval will maybe test our patience again.

Seems like in Central AL it is aways a good news/bad news scenario.
Hopefully, it will be good news from WSFA (WAKA is another story).

Originally posted by Nnamd
Hmmm. Wonder if they will start pumping it out at prime time tonight...
Nahhh. They will come back and say they have to get FCC app again now that they have moved their antenna. Ha!

Ha! remember this one? Guess I was right. Hope I'm not right on my last one.

A little off topic, but I ordered an HD DirectTV Tivo tonight (actually I got on a waiting list for one). I've used a Replay for 3-4 years and not being able to use DVR funtions for HD is frustrating at times. Hopefully, it will have a more sensitive OTA tuner than my Samsung. I had thought about switching to Voom when my contract with D* was up but I'll be staying with D* (especially now that I can move from Pegasus to D*).

We've got Voom right now but we are finding ourselves not watching much of the HD on Voom. We seem to keep having issues with our STB's. I have been toying with switching to D* and getting a Tivo but I don't want to spend the $$$ for the HD Tivo right now... not until I'm sure if I want to stay with D* if we do switch. Previously we had E*.

I'm considering a Hughes SD Tivo with the Toshiba DST-3100 for HD as it is supposed to have a good NTSC and ATSC tuner. From what I can gather the Tivo is much better than E*'s DVR but I don't know much about the DST-3100.

Originally posted by Sonnie Parker
We've got Voom right now but we are finding ourselves not watching much of the HD on Voom. We seem to keep having issues with our STB's. I have been toying with switching to D* and getting a Tivo but I don't want to spend the $$$ for the HD Tivo right now... not until I'm sure if I want to stay with D* if we do switch. Previously we had E*.

I'm considering a Hughes SD Tivo with the Toshiba DST-3100 for HD as it is supposed to have a good NTSC and ATSC tuner. From what I can gather the Tivo is much better than E*'s DVR but I don't know much about the DST-3100.

There is a rumor floating around that D* will have 20 additional (or total)
HD channels by September (or in September). D* has a new bird up and has a bunch more space to add channels (including HD locals at some point). I've been using Replay with D* (not sure why I chose Replay over Tivo except I like rooting for the underdog) in order to be able to time shift my local channels which, except for the OTA locals I get via cable (since I have a cable modem, it's cheaper for me to keep "lifeline" cable than just have the internet alone. The SD Tivo D* units seem to work just as reliably as the stand alone Tivos. The price of the HD Tivo did give me pause but in other threads I see where D* is giving credits (programming and straight credits) for D* subscribers who buy the HD Tivo and activate it. I decided to go ahead and get on the waiting list for one--not sure when I'll get it. (By the way, I used to have E* also but switched to D* because of, at the time, more HD channels.) I have a Samsung receiver now and am not very familiar with the Toshiba, but you can post in the Hardware sections of this part of AVS Forum and I'm sure you'll find a lot of info about it and any other D* receiver.

Actually I've just been reading the gear reviews here at AVS of the different HD D* receivers and the Toshiba seems to have the nods up on it in comparing to the others. I have not read the one on the HD Tivo yet in the DVR section.

20 additional HD channels... hmmmm... sounds promising. New bird??? Does this mean a new dish will be needed? I keep being told that I only need the triple lnb dish (101/110/119) for future HD programming.

I haven't been impressed with much of the programming on the HD offered by E* or D* or V* thus far... other than some college football on ESPN-HD end of last year. Caught the last 2 BAMA games and last 2 Auburn games and of course the last game BAMA vs. Auburn in HD on ESPN. I sneakily got CBS-HD and enjoyed some of that programming (CSI and CSI-Miami and a few other shows)... and there was some HDNet movies I thought were good... but overall they both need more HD channels no doubt.

20 additional HD stations (or total) believe it when you see it. ;-)

Last September when I ordered my HD TV, both D* and E* were saying how they were going to double the number of stations within a few weeks. When they didn't do so by the time I got my TV in October, I ordered Voom. Actually, Dish also kept saying that they would have their PVR available in two weeks. They two weeked themselves all the way from September 2003 into some time in Jan 2004. lol I think part of this is that the it was known that the Direct TV recorder was coming out in March and Dish was trying to pull customers from going with Direct.

As a practical matter, unless they are originating much of their own programming(as Voom is), you don't currently have 20 networks that are broadcasting in HD.

Another point that may be important to you is the direction the dish has to be pointed. Due to the positioning of the satellite, I would have had to placed the Dish Network dish out in my yard away from the house in order to clear some trees. Voom points much more easterly so I didn't have to do the weird install. Depending on your situation, you may find one service or the other more viable due to the dish installed.

On yet another side trip, whenever you are actually ready to go with satellite, do check your cable service. Brighthouse as well as the main cable providers will all probably have HD and PVRs at some point in the future. When bundled with your internet service that you're probably going to want anyway, the pricing may be more attractive.

Originally posted by Sonnie Parker
Actually I've just been reading the gear reviews here at AVS of the different HD D* receivers and the Toshiba seems to have the nods up on it in comparing to the others. I have not read the one on the HD Tivo yet in the DVR section.

20 additional HD channels... hmmmm... sounds promising. New bird??? Does this mean a new dish will be needed? I keep being told that I only need the triple lnb dish (101/110/119) for future HD programming.

I haven't been impressed with much of the programming on the HD offered by E* or D* or V* thus far... other than some college football on ESPN-HD end of last year. Caught the last 2 BAMA games and last 2 Auburn games and of course the last game BAMA vs. Auburn in HD on ESPN. I sneakily got CBS-HD and enjoyed some of that programming (CSI and CSI-Miami and a few other shows)... and there was some HDNet movies I thought were good... but overall they both need more HD channels no doubt.

The new sat is the DirecTv 7S, it launched in May. It is in the 119 slot, so all you need is the elliptical dish. No one knows for sure, besides D*, how many new HD channels will be added. All we do know for sure is that Fox-HD will be added and a lot more NFL-HD games this year, though of course you'll have to subscribe to NFL-ST. Also, to get Fox-HD, you'll need a waiver from your local Fox affiliate if they are not O&O. You can put your address in on D* website to see if you pre-qualify without needing a waiver. Personally, I find myself watching a lot of HDNet and HDNet Movies, those are excellent channels.

Yeah... promises-promises is pretty much a standard thing with all these satellite companies.

I don't have any issues with any of the satellite locations and have a plain sight of view 360*.

I don't think we'll ever have cable here where we are. I am very close friends with the owners of Troy Cablevision who also provides the cable for Luverne. We have 5 families living on our dirt road and it's just not enough for them to run cable the extra 5-6 miles they would have to run it... especially knowing that probably only 2 of us 5 will use it (if they were to do HD that it and even that's not in their near future plans).

For anything half way respectable we are stuck with satellite.

My initial thinking is to get D* with the Tivo (for the wife and I) and a Director receiver (for our daughter) and then pick up the DST-3100 (as it seems to be the best of the non-recording HD receivers). The Tivo + Director + 3LNB dish will cost us about $30 after the $50 self-install rebate. The DST-3100 has been offered to me for $249 if Value Electronics will hold to it... if not then the most it will be is $299. The lady told me she'd still give me the deal at $249 even though we've went past the original bargain expiration date of 6/30.

On July 18th D* is going to start their NFL Sunday Ticket promotion which will give us 4 months free TC Premier and NFLST for $62.25 per month. That will give us the NFL HD at least which I enjoy watching if it's anything close to ESPN's Sunday night HD game and not just "Enhanced Widescreen".

Maybe D* is planning on making Fox News, FX, Fox Sports South, and Fox Distant Local all HD. That would be cool. Probably part of those 20 will be Starz, Cinemax, etc... probably E & W feeds for all the premium movie channels. I've seen a lot of speculation on some of the other forums but who knows what will really happen.

Sonnie

I had a problem with Value Electronics on a OTA HD receiver/DVD player that I had bought from them.

I wound up having to go to the disputed charge route with my credit card company to get my money back. This was only a few months ago, so I doubt much has changed since then. When I was in the middle of it, I found some others who had similar problems with them.

Thanks Jim,

I'll keep my guard up with them. I've seen mostly good reviews of them on the other forums but anything can happen. It appears this is about the only online source that anyone has had any success getting the $50 self-install rebate from. Plus they have the best deal on the DST-3100 even at $299... hopefully at $249. Of course I'll be using the credit card as well so if they try anything I'll have some protection at least.

Originally posted by JimP
Sonnie

I had a problem with Value Electronics on a OTA HD receiver/DVD player that I had bought from them.

I wound up having to go to the disputed charge route with my credit card company to get my money back. This was only a few months ago, so I doubt much has changed since then. When I was in the middle of it, I found some others who had similar problems with them.

That's comforting to know. That's where I ordered my HD Tivo (trying to avoid the 10% sales tax if I ordered through Best Buy or Circuit City). I had originally ordered from ABT electronics since I had ordered from them before and had a positive experience but I found that they were selling HD Tivos on E-bay for whatever price the market would bear and make those who ordered from their site wait. There is a dedicated thread to Value Electronics and HD Tivo in the Tivo Forum and they seem to be doing a good job in getting the HD Tivo out. Yea thouse 20 channels (if) will include Fox and CBS west and east coast feeds, etc. I really want StarzHD though, they seem to have more of the big movies than HBO and Showtime.

Sonnie,
I'd expect Fox's NFL-HD to look just as good or better than ESPN, since they both use 720p. Not to mention at least Fox is doing DD5.1 and not the crap that ESPN is doing (CircleSurround). Plus, since you're in B'ham, you'll get Fox network programming in HD also (lucky bastard you, :) ). I'm remaining fairly optimistic about D*, because I know they do have the bandwidth to bring a fair amount of new channels to the table.

IMO, NFL-ST in HD alone is all I really need for the fall, well, a lot of the games in HD anyways. I haven't read your previous posts too carefully, but D* combined with ANYTHING you can get OTA, you should be good to go.

ABC is my biggest problem right now, though hopefully I'll have that beast tamed by NFL season.

Good luck.

Stan:

You're not likely to get a bad Tivo anyway.

Enjoy.

I almost wish I did live in B'ham... I'm much further south though. I'm in the area of the Montgomery locals and I don't think our Fox station has any plans for HD right now. Our locals here are really dragging their feet.

Of course if D* does offer any of the distant locals in HD then I can use my lake house address in Palestine, AL. to get those. I can get B'ham locals this way now but they are SD via D* or E*. I was getting CBS-HD via E* but don't have the 61.5 hooked up now since I sold my 6000 receiver.

Originally posted by Sonnie Parker
I almost wish I did live in B'ham... I'm much further south though. I'm in the area of the Montgomery locals and I don't think our Fox station has any plans for HD right now. Our locals here are really dragging their feet.

Of course if D* does offer any of the distant locals in HD then I can use my lake house address in Palestine, AL. to get those. I can get B'ham locals this way now but they are SD via D* or E*. I was getting CBS-HD via E* but don't have the 61.5 hooked up now since I sold my 6000 receiver.

Hi Sonnie, I see over on DBStalks that you are making the move to D*. Was that the HD Tivo you ordered? Stan

Yeah... I purchased the HTL-HD, Hughes Tivo, and a Hughes Director with the 3LNB dish. It's sitting here behind me on the floor right now. I'm not gonna subscribe until 7/18 so I can get the NFL Sunday Ticket for the $62.25 per month and 4 free months of TC Premier.

We were on D* back when they first started for a couple of years then moved to E* and have been with them since... up until V*.

I'm excited about the Tivo. I've been reading up on it over at the Tivo Community and it sounds like it's much better than the E* DVR's.

I understand the Hughes HTL-HD has a good ATSC tuner in it too for when we do finally get full blown HD going in our parts.

I keep reading rumors of D* adding some HD pretty soon too.

Originally posted by Sonnie Parker
Yeah... I purchased the HTL-HD, Hughes Tivo, and a Hughes Director with the 3LNB dish. It's sitting here behind me on the floor right now. I'm not gonna subscribe until 7/18 so I can get the NFL Sunday Ticket for the $62.25 per month and 4 free months of TC Premier.

We were on D* back when they first started for a couple of years then moved to E* and have been with them since... up until V*.

I'm excited about the Tivo. I've been reading up on it over at the Tivo Community and it sounds like it's much better than the E* DVR's.

I understand the Hughes HTL-HD has a good ATSC tuner in it too for when we do finally get full blown HD going in our parts.

I keep reading rumors of D* adding some HD pretty soon too.

All it is, at this point is rumors. D* (unlike E*) doesn't make announcements until they are ready to roll out new channels. But, they do have the space now to add more HD channels. I guess you can sign up directly with D* and not have to go through Pegasus (I've applied to switch but it will probably be the end of August or 1st part of September before I am switched over--I don't plan to activate my HD Tivo until then--assuming I have it by that time. I'm counting on D* for some credit for the HD Tivo). But, yea. it sounds like there will be more HD content on D* around September.

Yeah I've spoken with D* already and they have indicated I would not have to use Pegasus.

I really hope WSFA get their HD ready by the Olympics... watching these trials and seeing all the advertising for HD is getting me excited.

Great being able to deal with D* directly (although, I have to admit, I haven't had any problems with Pegasus but I would rather deal directly than go through a middle man. Yeah, if we can just get the olympics in HD I will be a happy camper.l

WSFA has requested program test authority as of 7/12/03. Hopefully we'll see some movement soon and will at least be able to see some HD whether it's perm or not..

With NBC and ABC on board, maybe it'll nudge WAKA to get moving.

Originally posted by Tigerman73
WSFA has requested program test authority as of 7/12/03. Hopefully we'll see some movement soon and will at least be able to see some HD whether it's perm or not.. I thought testing was what they just did? Or was that testing of the standard def signal and now they have to test the HD signal?

They're testing the previous test to be sure that their test was properly tested, or something like that.

Well, when WSFA does finally begin broadcasting (not just testing) they should be totally problem free with all bugs worked out and have contingencies for any possible problem.

I hope it's HD testing cause come Saturday I should be able to try them out... if they are testing by then... or does it take a couple of weeks to get approval to test???

My father says he saw a commercial that WSFA was advertising the Olympics in HD on WSFA.

I haven't seen it myself but he promises he saw it.

I've e-mailed them just to see if I can get a response.

We can only hope.

I have Voom satellite whose methodology for tuning locals has to do with a downloaded map. They're suppose to release a scanning function for the HD OTAs.

Its starting to look like a race to see if WSFA and Voom will get their acts together before the Olympics.

Off Topic, Destin and Fort Walton Beach were great this weekend. woohoo

Although nothing else is happening at least I am now offically free of Pegasus.

From the horses mouth:


Sonnie –

Thanks for your e-mail. We are waiting for FCC approval to begin transmitting on our digital channel. We hope that approval will come shortly. Then we will begin broadcasting on digital channel 14 and we will have the Olympics in HD.



Hoyt Andres

Good news. Will this be the final approval?

Sounds like it just might be.

lol... as you posted above: "We can only hope."

Sounds good.

Any one having problems with Fox. I think I may have a bad receiver. I can pick up other locals ok. I can even turn fox in with myhd card that is on the same cable. But my Dish receiver seems to not see the signal. Is it possible for only one channel on a turner to go bad? It's a 169time mod to so that would suck.

Probably not a problem w/ your receiver, I haven't gotten a good signal on FOX since spring. I had a good signal all fall and winter and then spring hit and it's like they cut the low power in half.

I also can no longer get fox. I hope the problem is resolved before football season. Once again it is a shame that in Montgomery there will be no CBS SEC football in HD this fall.

WSFA 14-1 is live now. Getting a good signal on 14-1 DD 5.1, 14-2 DD 2.0, & 14-3 Weather. Using a Zenith HDV420 with indoor Zenith Silver Sensor ant.
I'm located about a mile fron Gunter AFB back gate. 14-1 has bars on left and right and cannot change ratio. I can change the ratio on 14-2. Watching a rerun of Jay Leno now. Looks great.

Still nothing on WSFA's website. Hope they're not just testing it.

At least the annoying little test box is not at the bottom of the screen yet. FCC page isn't showing approval yet, but w/ the gov't it might not be changed for 6 more months even after they are on the air. I guess we'll find out tonight if it's the real thing when NBC programming comes on.

I'll check channel 14 again when I get home. On FOX, Do you think they might be sending a invalid digital signal? One my Tosiba box cannot decode but my MYHD card can? It's just weird that i get 6% signal on my Tosiba but on MYHD card I get 75% and they are both on the same cable and the MYHD is the last connection on the path.

Something has been up w/ there signal since early May, I was once able to get them at 65-70 % on their low power, but since early May they have dropped out to where if I'm lucky they come in at 33% for 30 seconds before dropping out. The channel is unwatchable as it is.

When I got home from work I turned on the TV and checked out WSFA. Cool, there was a good signal. I guess we'll see how they handle HD tonight with ER (though I stopped watching ER a while back--I'll tune in tonight just to see if WSFA is doing HD) and Leno (by the way, Leno in HD looks great as I've gotten the B'ham signal enough to see it a number of times). I have been on a waiting list for the HD Tivo from VE for a little while and was prepared to be on the list a lot longer but I checked Circuit
City's web site and they had them in stock for the first time in a while. I figured WSFA being on the air was an omen so I cancelled my VE order and orderd from CC. Just in time for the Olympics in HD. This has turned out to be a good day. This is kind of rambling but I guess I am a little excited.

ER is on. No HD. I tried to check B'ham to see if it was HD there but I'm not getting a signal tonight, but ER is one of the programs NBC broadcasts in HD. Maybe somebody forgot to throw the switch. Maybe by the time Leno comes on they will figure it out (or is this still testing?).