For those who like RTN, you're about to love WMFP-DT 62-1:

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2009/05/12/daily.10/

- Trip

so they're finally adding something to that blank 62.2 sub-channel. Finally!

Note that I said 62-1, not 62-2. The article says "primary feed."

- Trip

I think that the WYDN-DT transmitter is located on WBZ-DT's Needham tower, and Bob Yankowitz might know more about the situation with WYDN-DT. Have they dropped down in power over the last few months - I can barely ever receive them in Pawtucket now, whereas I used to get them with a fairly good signal. And it looks like according to the FCC database that they have dropped down in ERP significantly. I get a strong signal from the other stations on the tower (WBZ, WCVB, WGBH, WGBX, WSBK) however.
Probably the leaves on the trees coming out. Our transmitter supervisor tells me he was able to receive them in Franklin, MA during the winter, but lost them with the warmer weather.

WYDN-DT is located on our tower in Needham, but they have not reduced their power at all. My understanding is they will be increasing power with the installation of a new, higher-powered transmitter, possibly this summer, but as it is not my station, I do not know the details.

I have 1edge 2edge here so that must be why
Pardon my ignorance, but what is 1edge, 2edge?

...

... My understanding is they will be increasing power with the installation of a new, higher-powered transmitter, possibly this summer, but as it is not my station, I do not know the details.
Maybe they have to reduce the power during the time they are installing the new, higher-powered transmitter?

What about 62.2 ?

R - 1edge and 2edge means the signals have to go over a hill or large obstruction like a mountain. The signal gets diffracted.

Maybe they have to reduce the power during the time they are installing the new, higher-powered transmitter?
A good thought, but that's not happening. No installation work has yet begun. And, we know for a fact they have not reduced power.

Their bitrate seems to vary considerably depending on the program being broadcast. Right now, Dancing with the Stars is on and a hefty 92% of their bandwidth is video, with a mere 5% null packets. This afternoon, when they were airing soap operas, video was only 53% of bandwidth with 44% nulls.

Yeah, it sure does seem to be variable. Although I don't think any of the primetime dramas are seeing anything like the 92% utililzation you saw on dancing with the stars. It seems pointless to have so much variability when all they do is null-pad. Seems to me that they ought to be running at max bitrate all the time because it shouldn't cost them anything to do it that way.

Jimmy, you have that antenna that looks like a big Bat right? How much is the range on this antenna? (RCA ANT1050).

Is it UHF and VHF?

http://i42.tinypic.com/2wn3bbc.jpg

Can anything be done about the letterboxing on WSBK-DT's "Community Auditions" airing? Is it supposed to be in HD? It's like watching TV in a tunnel!

Robert: It's still like this. Can anything be done at the station?

I have this one myself. Yes, it can handle VHF, but it's better at UHF. Mine seems to work a bit better when it's lying flat horizontally. Mine rests at the top of my south-facing second floor bedroom. I'm in the south end of New Britain, CT (southern Hartford County). I get 9 stations most of the time. If I turn it slightly, it'll wipe out ION from New London but will improve ION from Block Island/Providence.

Since this is the Boston/Worcester thread, I'll ask you this: What channel is WGBX using for their digital signal? My Insignia converter box hesitated big time on channel 44. It's never had a hint of signal there before. Nobody in Connecticut is using channel 44 for digital, as far as I know.

WGBX is on channel 43 for digital

Their bitrate seems to vary considerably depending on the program being broadcast. Right now, Dancing with the Stars is on and a hefty 92% of their bandwidth is video, with a mere 5% null packets. This afternoon, when they were airing soap operas, video was only 53% of bandwidth with 44% nulls.

The more frame-to-frame image variance the more bandwidth needed. Most 1920x1080 programs would be reproduced with source quality with less than half the allocation.

Jimmy, you have that antenna that looks like a big Bat right? How much is the range on this antenna? (RCA ANT1050).

Is it UHF and VHF?

http://i42.tinypic.com/2wn3bbc.jpg

Thats the antenna i have in the upstairs bedroom facing south it gets me most boston stations 60+ on the meter i cant get WYDN with it
I can't get 50 out of Hudson NH 14 miles out west of me no matter where i put it.
Yes its does VHF and UHF
I also have a radio shack VU120 antenna that drives my 2 other TVs that gets all the Boston/Manchester NH stations Rock solid and sometimes WJAR at night:D But again WZMY-50 is a NO GO

See the pics I posted on the other page with the antenna I made....gets WZMY great. But only that one!! (booo). Signals at my locale are all south-south west but my room is facing the east, but i do get 2.1, 2.2, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, 7.2, and 25.1 all solid. Still missing the CW 56 and TV38. 38 analog rock solid, 38 digital natha, 56 analog solid, 56 digital natha. Without a box connected. I can get WBPX (ION) with the antenna in my kitchen window at half strength. Also WMFP in the same spot.

my strongest station of the bunch is WBZ at 60%-78%

These are all listed as 1edge and 2edge but they all come in stable with half the meter filled. That's pretty good for living at the bottom of a hill! :D

The spot where WGBH,WBZ,WCVB, WHDH, and WFXT come in is in the strangest place too.

This is with some old junky amplified antenna I had for years.

nicoge21,
i gave up on Wzmy

i did notice last night that the guide data from WMFP is now showing regular programs but the station is still airing infomercials

And to think WZMY-DT is the MY affiliate for the Boston/Worcester market? Funny how those of you within 15 miles of their tower can't receive it. I'm maybe 22 air miles from the WCTX-DT (MY) channel 39 site in Hamden, CT and I receive them fine with the same batwing indoor antenna as pictured above.

And to think WZMY-DT is the MY affiliate for the Boston/Worcester market? Funny how those of you within 15 miles of their tower can't receive it. I'm maybe 22 air miles from the WCTX-DT (MY) channel 39 site in Hamden, CT and I receive them fine with the same batwing indoor antenna as pictured above.

WZMY is only 7.3KW and will be no higher they are on DT 35 and WTMU old analog 60 now DT 34 is a much stronger station nearby plus theres a large hill due west of me that interferes with wzmy,Wtmu is rock solid
also WPXB old analog 21 DT 33 ION is a medium power station

Hi Folks,

Looking for advice on picking an Indoor antenna...needs to be pass WAF, since it will be in a bedroom. I'm about 35-40 miles from Boston Stations ( no idea how far from NH stations ) and have a number of hills in between.

Regards,
-t

And to think WZMY-DT is the MY affiliate for the Boston/Worcester market? Funny how those of you within 15 miles of their tower can't receive it. I'm maybe 22 air miles from the WCTX-DT (MY) channel 39 site in Hamden, CT and I receive them fine with the same batwing indoor antenna as pictured above.

Boy, I'm surprised that you can't get WZMY in Salem. I'm much farther away here in Haverhill, and I get WZMY almost as strong as the Boston stations with my antenna aimed SW for Boston/Providence. WZMY and the other NH stations are either off the back of my antenna or the rear quarter of the antenna. They all come in fine.

Maybe in the future if WZMY decides to increase power and co-locate then we'll all be blanketed with enough signal to get it....

Or they can be a sub-channel on WFXT.

Maybe in the future if WZMY decides to increase power and co-locate then we'll all be blanketed with enough signal to get it....

Or they can be a sub-channel on WFXT.

if they were to sub off WFXT then the main channel will go down hill'Look at WHDH's 7.2 This tv the pic is awfully grainny.
I would like to see MYTV maybe moving to 62.2 as 62.1 is going RTN soon and they have a much better coverage area.

That would be nice. I can lock WMFP in perfectly in certain parts of my house. I doubt they'll do anything like move to a sub though.

I sent shooting star an email earlier i'm waiting to see if they answer. I asked if they have any plans for after the transition.

if they were to sub off WFXT then the main channel will go down hill'Look at WHDH's 7.2 This tv the pic is awfully grainny.area.

The Fox splicer prevents such degradation. Your concerns are unfounded.

- Trip

That would be nice. I can lock WMFP in perfectly in certain parts of my house. I doubt they'll do anything like move to a sub though.

I sent shooting star an email earlier i'm waiting to see if they answer. I asked if they have any plans for after the transition.

Been there done that. They went digital only back in December While WZMY-DT was on 35 they did have a nightlight on 50 for a few weeks.

No plans to go HD. No plans to increase signal.

Granted they don't even have the best programming anyway. "The weather with Al". Al Kepralian!! They show alot of advertisement programs and some old sitcoms and a few newer shows including WWE smackdown which is probably their most watched show. Brings alot of viewers for them

and yeah, that's really cheap to not even at least go HD. If only I could get the rhode island station that plays smackdown every week up here. (WNAC is it?)

WNAC-DT (FOX) of Providence is a secondary MY affiliate.

And to think WZMY-DT is the MY affiliate for the Boston/Worcester market? Funny how those of you within 15 miles of their tower can't receive it. I'm maybe 22 air miles from the WCTX-DT (MY) channel 39 site in Hamden, CT and I receive them fine with the same batwing indoor antenna as pictured above.

FWIIW, I get WZMY with basic Comcast cable twice, as both an analog and a digital station, on my Tivo with cable card. The station does not appear on another Tivo with a direct cable feed but no cable card. Unfortunately, the TVGOS listings are missing on the Tivo with cable card. I called Tivo a few months back, they said they would implement TVGOS listings, but nothing ever happened.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jagec82
Can anything be done about the letterboxing on WSBK-DT's "Community Auditions" airing? Is it supposed to be in HD? It's like watching TV in a tunnel!

Robert: It's still like this. Can anything be done at the station?
Community Auditions is not shot in HD, but it is 16:9. Unfortunately it is not shot 4:3 safe, so if we were to blow it up for the DT side (even if we could) those viewers with converter boxes and others who see a center-cut image would lose significant program material. This program is provided to us by an outside program supplier; we do not have any control over it.

Email I got back from WZMY

Thank you for contacting us about the digital transition.

We are operating at 7,300 Watts ERP because that is the highest we are licensed to operate at. There are additional stations broadcasting on channel 35 in the New England area and if we raise our power, or they do, we will interfere with each other.

Regards,

Keith Webb
Chief Engineer
MyTV New England (WZMY.TV)
Boston's Home of MyNetworkTV
11 A Street
Derry, NH 03038-1721
(603) 845-1054


but who else is on channel 35? Could it be up near vermont or Maine? the transmitter is in Hudson.

WVIT-DT 35 and WPME-DT 35.

- Trip

RTN is now on the air, but on 62.2, not 62.1 as was being reported. Being buried like that on .2 is probably not good for them, as it may not get cable coverage.

That's what I originally said. They put it on the blank sub-channel.

WGBX 44.1 44.2 44.3 44.4 popped up on my scan just now. All solid with only a few drop outs.

.....

I miss the weather from 7.2 (but like the shows on THIS network)

I just can't watch THIS Network. The Logo is so obnoxiously large and bright, my eyes keep being drawn to it. Too distracting. And it's a shame as I often see an intersting movie when scanning through the channels.



Bob

Please forgive a few dumb questions from a digital novice.

Can all 6 channels on a digital tier carry a Hi Def signal, or does the bandwidth required for HD reduce the number of channels available? If 6 are not possible, what is the practrical limit of Hi Def from a single broadcaster? Is it limited only by the bandwidth available or the transmitting power of the station as well?



Bob

The pipe is only so big. Generally, a single 8VSB channel can only reliably carry one HD signal, plus one (maybe two?) SD signals. I suppose there may be a way to try to shoe-horn two (at most!) HD signals on the same 8VSB channel, but the degradation of quality would be almost surely very noticeable.

I believe you can fit 6 SD signals on a single 8VSB channel, but surely not 6 HD signals.

Can all 6 channels on a digital tier carry a Hi Def signal, or does the bandwidth required for HD reduce the number of channels available? If 6 are not possible, what is the practrical limit of Hi Def from a single broadcaster? Is it limited only by the bandwidth available or the transmitting power of the station as well?

1 High Definition channel is the practical limit per RF channel. ABC O&O stations have added an HD sub and the results were terrible. At present (at least for KABC), the main ABC quality is impaired, but the sub channel can't be called HD at all.

With 1 HD main, 1 SD sub is acceptable, but two 2 SD subs will erode the main HD channel. This is somewhat subjective, but certainly more than 1 HD channel isn't possible (isn't HD quality) on one RF channel.

If all the channels are SD, including the main, some broadcasters around the country have up to 7 total channels.

Thanks bicker1 and Falcon_77. I had a feeling there would be limits to the HD, but didn't think it would be just 1.

It's also important to note the two different broadcast HD formats, 720p & 1080i, require different bandwidth. A full resolution 720p signal is 12% less bandwidth than a full resolution 1080i signal.

Thus, a 720p HD broadcast could use less of a digital channel's bandwidth, and look considerably less impaired than a 1080i signal would with the same reduction.

Me and my folks are moving to Bradford in about 2 or 3 months, I wonder if I'll get any better reception. So far everyone in haverhill on here has had success but I wonder how bradford is in terms of being on the fringe.

I ran the address through tvfool and this is what I got, doesn't look to good.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d249d6cb4e1f271

Will WBZ's 4th of July show be in HD this year?

Will WBZ's 4th of July show be in HD this year?
I'm afraid not.

Me and my folks are moving to Bradford in about 2 or 3 months, I wonder if I'll get any better reception. So far everyone in haverhill on here has had success but I wonder how bradford is in terms of being on the fringe.

I ran the address through tvfool and this is what I got, doesn't look to good.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d249d6cb4e1f271

Depending on where you move to in Bradford, you should do well. Most areas in Bradford are good except down by the river where the elevation isn't that great. Good luck with the move.

it's near 495 towards plaistow NH

^^^
That would be Haverhill then - not Bradford

^^^
That would be Haverhill then - not Bradford

Actually, Bradford is part of Haverhill. It is south of the center of the city of Haverhill. It isn't that close to Plaistow, NH though. About 4 miles to the center of Bradford from the Plaistow line. I'm almost literally on the line with Plaistow (200 ft.) away from it.

Anybody heard what time of day WHDH will move their DT signal to VHF 7?
How about WMUR going to VHF 9?
IIRC, they're the only one changing frequencies in the Boston DMA.

Do we need to rescan after the 12th to get all stations?

Yes; some stations are moving frequencies.

Anybody heard what time of day WHDH will move their DT signal to VHF 7?
How about WMUR going to VHF 9?
IIRC, they're the only one changing frequencies in the Boston DMA.

On a related note, does anyone know:

1) What are the sign-off times for the various analogs on 6/12?

2) Whether any stations are planning any sort of sign-off activities (even just a mention right before the cut-off)?

that would be interesting....

wlvi did a news thing when it changed hands although I've heard the recording of when parts of europe went and it didn't do or say anything.

I can't see another extension. This should be interesting though as to how much the spectrum would change. I've noticed the higher power I think on channel 6 out of ri now reaches pretty far.

I'm expecting tv prices to continue to go down in price. Although I think it might be some time before everyone realizes that you don't need to pay for hd.

we'll see how far WHDH reaches on the 12th.

I'm glad WHDH is pointing out about reception problems, this is something I haven't seen mentioned much. (at least over here anyway) from stations themselves.

"Lipoff co-authored a national study of future digital TV reception. And Boston's entire viewing area, including Eastern Mass and part of New Hampshire, is second worst! The study says almost 300,000 households here, even those with converter boxes, could get pictures like this or no signal at all!"

Does anyone know the power status of CW56? I don't really watch anything on this channel but I've noticed I still can't really get them. Spreadsheet on rabbitears says they're licensed for 550kW ERP DTV which is 2/3 WFXT-DT and I have no problem getting Fox. Heck, I could pull in WFXT-DT better when they were only running 78kW ERP and that's only about 1/7th the power of WLVI-DT now! It makes me wonder if they really are running at licensed power. Are they on the Needham towers or do they transmit from somewhere else? Maybe I just need a really different antenna vector.

On a related note, does anyone know:

1) What are the sign-off times for the various analogs on 6/12?

2) Whether any stations are planning any sort of sign-off activities (even just a mention right before the cut-off)?
Here are the analog shutoff times for the Boston area stations on June 12th:

WGBH 2 - 11:59AM; WSBK 38 - 12:01 PM; WBZ 4 - 12:31PM; WCVB 5 - 12:59PM;
And at 11:59 PM (one minute before June 13th), WHDH 7, WMUR 9, WLVI 56 and WUFT 66.

Do we need to rescan after the 12th to get all stations?
I would rescan after the 12th because some stations such as WHDH 7 and WMUR 9 are changing frequencies, and several others are increasing power and antenna height. I know WJAR 10 is increasing antenna height and power as of June 16 - check their website for details.

that would be interesting....

wlvi did a news thing when it changed hands although I've heard the recording of when parts of europe went and it didn't do or say anything.

I can't see another extension. This should be interesting though as to how much the spectrum would change. I've noticed the higher power I think on channel 6 out of ri now reaches pretty far.

I'm expecting tv prices to continue to go down in price. Although I think it might be some time before everyone realizes that you don't need to pay for hd.
WLNE 6 in Providence moved their transmitter to Rehoboth on ch.10's tower and broaadcasts at 350 kw of power, as opposed to their old analog transmitter in Tiverton, RI.

Here are the analog shutoff times for the Boston area stations on June 12th:

WGBH 2 - 11:59AM; WSBK 38 - 12:01 PM; WBZ 4 - 12:31PM; WCVB 5 - 12:59PM;
And at 11:59 PM (one minute before June 13th), WHDH 7, WMUR 9, WLVI 56 and WUFT 66.
The times for WBZ and WSBK are incorrect. WBZ will "shut off" (begin transmitting the Analog Nightlight programming) at 12:30pm, and WSBK will shut down its transmitter at 1:00pm.

Chs 2,4,and 5 are going to be nightlight channels.
ch 50 was a nightlight channel as well along with the old channel 60 staing (only in Spanish) that it is now on channel 34.

It's also important to note the two different broadcast HD formats, 720p & 1080i, require different bandwidth. A full resolution 720p signal is 12% less bandwidth than a full resolution 1080i signal.

Thus, a 720p HD broadcast could use less of a digital channel's bandwidth, and look considerably less impaired than a 1080i signal would with the same reduction.

To add, WBPX-DT runs 3 480i subchannels along with a 720p channel. I asked GBH whether this was a possibility for 44-DT and was told only with an expensive equipment upgrade. I hope the upgrade was a lot more expensive than that dopey electronic billboard.

And By Then, They Also Changed Their On Screen Bugs On Channels 2 & 44, Correct? And Can You Tell Me When Exactly In Mid January In 2009?

Chs 2,4,and 5 are going to be nightlight channels.
ch 50 was a nightlight channel as well along with the old channel 60 staing (only in Spanish) that it is now on channel 34.

Could someone post screen shots of a few of the nightlight screens ?

I never could get WLVI to come in at all. WBPX filed for 1000kW but the FCC has not approved it yet.

Chs 2,4,and 5 are going to be nightlight channels.
ch 50 was a nightlight channel as well along with the old channel 60 staing (only in Spanish) that it is now on channel 34.

According to what I've read, there's only going to be 99-100 nightlight stations for the whole country. Are you sure there's going to be three in just this market? Seems excessive.

Ch 4 I know about because Bob Yankowitz (station insider at WBZ/WSBK) said so. Any links to nightlight info for 2 and 5?

According to what I've read, there's only going to be 99-100 nightlight stations for the whole country. Are you sure there's going to be three in just this market? Seems excessive.

Ch 4 I know about because Bob Yankowitz (station insider at WBZ/WSBK) said so. Any links to nightlight info for 2 and 5?
No links, but channels 2 and 5 will be Nightlighting. I know that because my buddies at those two stations told me so.

The program is strictly voluntary. The FCC asked all stations (those that would not cause interference) to do it, and about 100 have said they would. Having multiple stations in a market participate does not preclude any station anywhere else from doing so.

Just out of curiosity what will happen to those old analog transmitters? Could they be donated to another country?

Update from WFXT-DT.

Though we are not involved in the activities on June 12th as we have completed our DTV changeover and transmitter work, you might want to watch WFXT at 10pm on Sunday the 14th. ;)

Bill Holbrook
Chief Engineer WFXT-TV

Update from WFXT-DT.

Though we are not involved in the activities on June 12th as we have completed our DTV changeover and transmitter work, you might want to watch WFXT at 10pm on Sunday the 14th. ;)

Bill Holbrook
Chief Engineer WFXT-TV

Woooo. HD newscast!

Just curious- how long has the FCC asked channels to run these "nightlight" messages? A month or two?

Update from WFXT-DT.

Though we are not involved in the activities on June 12th as we have completed our DTV changeover and transmitter work, you might want to watch WFXT at 10pm on Sunday the 14th. ;)

Bill Holbrook
Chief Engineer WFXT-TV


Great! Congrats- I'm sure it's a lot of work for you guys... I hope you're able to afford HD weather right off the bat unlike WBZ. I know money is tight out there, but I have to say I'm not watching WBZ because their weather isn't HD.

Update from WFXT-DT.

Though we are not involved in the activities on June 12th as we have completed our DTV changeover and transmitter work, you might want to watch WFXT at 10pm on Sunday the 14th. ;)

Bill Holbrook
Chief Engineer WFXT-TV

Wish I could see it. Since the Hartford Fox is on UHF 31 also I don't get either station out here in Brimfield! (yes.. I know I'm in the Springfield market.. but they SUCK for production quality) Just kills me because I use to get the old Fox 25 analog signal in great.

Thanks FCC!!!!! No Maria or Sara!!

I'll have my portable 5" B&W set tuned in to one of the analog VHF channels, probably 4, 5 or 7 tonight

I'll have my portable 5" B&W set tuned in to one of the analog VHF channels, probably 4, 5 or 7 tonight

Why?

Just curious- how long has the FCC asked channels to run these "nightlight" messages? A month or two?

30 days

Woooo. HD newscast!
Unless there's a change,I think WFXT shows Fox News Sunday from 10-11.

Unless there's a change,I think WFXT shows Fox News Sunday from 10-11.

It's 10 PM :)

The good news is that WGBH is involved in an HD upgrade in Master Control and by mid January will have a full HD rebroadcast schedule. And By Then They Changed Their On Air Bugs During Daytime Programming Correct?

Is everyone in the boston area at full power now? besides the pending applications for WBPX

Hey IBBP, In Your Comment saying that WGBH will have a full HD Rebroadcast Schedule In Mid January, What Does It Mean By Full HD Rebroadcast Schedule? Can You Try To Give Me A Better Explanation Than That? And When In Mid January Did WGBH Do That?

WHDH is switching to VHF at 12 AM midnight.

WHDH is switching to VHF at 12 AM midnight.

I'm not sure about this.
I think you may be a day early...

Here are the analog shutoff times for the Boston area stations on June 12th:

WGBH 2 - 11:59AM; WCVB 5 - 12:59PM;

{noon hour on Friday}

And at 11:59 PM (one minute before June 13th), WHDH 7, WMUR 9, WLVI 56 and WUFT 66.

{Friday evening}

WBZ will "shut off" (begin transmitting the Analog Nightlight programming) at 12:30pm, and WSBK will shut down its transmitter at 1:00pm.

{noon hour on Friday}

As a cable customer, I'm not going to be able to see the real sign-offs (I suspect Comcast is already carring downconverted digitals in its "analog" tier, as I haven't seen the continuous crawls that I thought were going to be mandatory in the last days), so I'm hoping to see reports from those of you watching OTA. First sign-off coming up in 19 minutes!

I have the day off from work, so I've dusted off my old antenna to see what I can pull in.
Channel 2 is still on the air as of 12:10 PM so I don't think that 11:59 AM shutoff time was accurate.

WGBH is still on the air, All i'm getting is a fadey picture though

Nope, they ran a crawl about the shutdown at about three minutes after 12 on the analog side only, but they're still up and running (channel 2).

Update as of 1:02 PM

Channel 2 is still up and running children's programming.
Channel 4 is running an endless loop of an NAB-produced digital TV conversion PSA on the analog side only (nightlight).
Channel 5 is still up and running a soap.
Channel 38 has gone to snow.

So of course RYankowitz was 2 for 2 (think he had a little inside information!) and the other predicted times are 0 for 2 so far.

Well, 4 is running a loop on hooking up a DTV converter box, subtitles in english and spanish, 5 is still up, I cant get 38 or 2. Then again, my antenna involves getting my finger a bit wet, and holding the cable wire coming out of the TV. I only have to do it for another 12 hrs or so!

Nope, they ran a crawl about the shutdown at about three minutes after 12 on the analog side only, but they're still up and running (channel 2).

Update as of 1:02 PM

Channel 2 is still up and running children's programming.
Channel 4 is running an endless loop of an NAB-produced digital TV conversion PSA on the analog side only (nightlight).
Channel 5 is still up and running a soap.
Channel 38 has gone to snow.

So of course RYankowitz was 2 for 2 (think he had a little inside information!) and the other predicted times are 0 for 2 so far.

I screwed up and forgot to check WBZ at 12:30. Does anyone know if there was a sign-off ceremony? There was none for 38 (unless they were doing a separate analog-only thing).

No sign off at all. A series of the usual station break ads (Bob's Furniture comes to mind as maybe the final ad, could be wrong on that), then the digital side went to the regularly scheduled program and the analog side started running the NAB PSA loop.

I was kinda hoping that when WGBH went off for good, that they'd bring back one last time that classic sign off video they ran during the 70's and 80's featuring the harpsichord music, David Ive's voiceover, and a series of black and white still shots of the GBH studios and from their programs at the time dissolving from one to another with that square box/random pixel type video effect. Have that on a really old tape around here somewhere.

Edit: and here it is on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMaZnEnFAyM

I was kinda hoping that when WGBH went off for good, that they'd bring back one last time that classic sign off video they ran during the 70's and 80's featuring the harpsichord music, David Ive's voiceover, and a series of black and white still shots of the GBH studios and from their programs at the time dissolving from one to another with that square box/random pixel type video effect. Have that on a really old tape around here somewhere.

Edit: and here it is on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMaZnEnFAyM

That was excellent! I'm ashamed to say I'm either too young or don't watch enough PBS late at night to say I've ever seen that! Yeah, that should have played that as the final sign off followed by the old Star Spangled banner roll they use to use every night when TV stations actually went off the air until 5AM the next day.

That was excellent! I'm ashamed to say I'm either too young or don't watch enough PBS late at night to say I've ever seen that! Yeah, that should have played that as the final sign off followed by the old Star Spangled banner roll they use to use every night when TV stations actually went off the air until 5AM the next day.

According to scoosdad's last update, 2 is still on the air. Has that changed now? If not, there may still be some small hope of at least some kind of sign-off ceremony.

I hope someone records all of them simultaneously and puts them on youtube please, thanks

Well.. the transition so far for me way out in Brimfield is good and bad.

On one hand.. I now have WBZ back again. I can't wait to see WBZ news.. man have I missed Jack.

But, I lost WCVB due to a Hartford CW (WTXX I think is the call sign) station switched to UHF 20 as WCVB uses at noon today. WCVB was one of my strongest stations at 80% on my Panny plasma's signal meter... until today. Nothing at all now.. same still for Fox25 and the Fox61 in Hartford are on UHF 31. Gotta love the FCC!!

Would a direction antenna help? Currently I have a Clearstream4 pointed towards Needham with the backside facing Hartford. Suggestions welcomed..

Now hoping WHDH comes in good on VHF when they switch tonight as they do now on the UHF. At least give me Dylan to look at!!

WTXX-DT (MY) signed on digital channel 20 from Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, CT at about 12:15 PM. The only Connecticut broadcaster left on analog now is WFSB-TV channel 3. They're running a 17-minute looping video about how to hook up the box, phone numbers, etc. That will run for about 10 days.

BobColby, as of 3:20 PM channel 2 analog is still going strong. I would imagine that if they didn't pull the plug as of the noon hour today as was previously speculated, that they wouldn't do it now in the middle of afterschool children's programming.

I just looked at their website and there's no detailed info as to the time of shutdown other than today's date.

They have until 6PM to do so or they'd be liable for a fine to the FCC (or if they designated the previous 6 hour period as their shut down time, they're already liable for a fine).

Channel 2 goes off at 11:59pm.

BobColby, as of 3:20 PM channel 2 analog is still going strong. I would imagine that if they didn't pull the plug as of the noon hour today as was previously speculated, that they wouldn't do it now in the middle of afterschool children's programming.

I just looked at their website and there's no detailed info as to the time of shutdown other than today's date.

WGBH is planning to start their Analog Nightlight program at midnight tonight.

447 update
WSBK-TV is snow. WSBK-DT is there of course :)
WBZ-TV has the nightlight one while WBZ-DT has regular programming
other channels with analog signals have not changed.

If it were up to me EVERYONE would have sawitched off on Feb 17th.

According to scoosdad's last update, 2 is still on the air. Has that changed now? If not, there may still be some small hope of at least some kind of sign-off ceremony.

Sorry, my bad. Just going by the past tense of his message (i.e. "I was hoping", not "I am hoping") which made it sound like it had already happened. Yeah, weak, I know....but its late on a Friday! :o

So maybe there's hope yet! Although I won't likely be up at midnight to see anyway....

WGBH is planning to start their Analog Nightlight program at midnight tonight.


Good point. It's not really shutting down for another month.

Here's what I get guys so far, I need to try something new, I found the only spot where everything comes in OK.

Rock solid:

2.1 WBGH-HD
2.2 WGBH-SD
4.1 WBZ-HD
5.1 WCVB-HD
7.1 WHDH-HD - (going to VHF tonight)
7.2 THIS-TV - (going to VHF tonight)
25.1 WFXT-DT

Spotty:

44.1 WGBX-SD
44.2 World
44.3 Create
44.4 Kids


What was the reason WHDH wanted to go back to VHF? anyone know?

I won't be watching WSBK or WLVI or WGBX (ion) or WMFP (RTN) anymore, i don't know why, I never got either of them but the analogs always came in great for me.

Not even a spec of picture

To summarize, then: WBZ and WSBK have transitioned (one to nightlight, one to snow).

WGBH, WHDH, WMUR, WLVI and WUFT go at 11:59 PM

This leaves one question - WCVB, which was thought to be going at 12:59 PM. Is it still on? If so, does anyone know when it's signing off? With their documentary on station history I saw not too long ago, I think that's our best bet for a sign-off ceremony.

which station is doing the legendary sign off? I have my VCR hooked up so I can record it, I'm barely getting any VHF stations but good enough to see

is it 5 or 7?

8:24 PM - WCVB is still on btw

Well, 7 just went out at midnight

5 Went to nightlight service, with tips (packages) hosted by someone (too much snow), perhaps Susan Wornick.

7's DT transmitter changed (rescanning now) - all I have so far!

Edit: Rescan picked it back up, seems HDLIL sites need to be updated for Dish!

Well all the changes have been made, and none of the Boston stations did anything to acknowledge the history of the sign offs (or in the case of 2, 4, and 5, the end of regular programming). If you do a search on youtube for things like "analog" or "sign off," you'll see that many stations all over the country did a much better job explaining what was going on, and some history about their station. I know that "times are tough," but come on, there wasn't 1 geek at any of the Boston stations that could throw something together in a few minutes to air at the end? Not even an old test pattern like KYW-TV in Philly had? Wow...

At midnight, channel 2 analog abruptly switched from running a series of PBS program promos (running simultaneously on their digital feeds) to the "This Old House-- conversion to digital TV" episode with Steve and Norm, already in progress, so I guess that's their nightlight program.

Channel 5 at the same moment cut from Nightline directly to a channel 5 produced public affairs program about the DTV switch hosted by Susan Wornick, while Nightline carried on digitally.

Didn't see channel 7's move since I could only show two analog channels at a time on my set, and there was some rescanning needed to bring 7 back in on its new assignment.

I saw an interesting video online featuring pulling the analog plug on the Fox station in Atlanta earlier today. The same gentleman who was chief engineer when the station went on the air in 1949 (and turned their first transmitter on) was asked to come back and switch the analog transmitter off. He's going to be 100 years old this year and he was still pretty sharp and steady on his feet. Hit the power switch right on cue, too.

So no, channels 2 and 5 did nothing special to commemorate the turn-off. I guess for most of the people who've worked for years on this, it was like, "Finally... no big deal, let's go home to bed now."

(And out here a little west of Worcester, about 35 miles out from Needham, everything is coming in just fine with my cheesy little Radio Shack all band antenna up in the attic that was there when I moved in 15 years ago.)

I completely lost WHDH. It's gone. Knew it would happen. Going back to VHF was a stupid move.

I completely lost WHDH. It's gone. Knew it would happen. Going back to VHF was a stupid move.Same here. Rescanned a few times to no avail. My tuner can see a (just barely strong enough) signal at 177mhz but when I try to add it manually it keeps failing.

I need my Conan fix :(

[Edit: Oh poop this also means no This TV! Nice "move", WHDH.]

I only get a few bars on my meter, not enough to register a picture even. They were better off on UHF. VHF for digital sucks.

the guy who I talked to from WHDH on email told me if I got it on analog I will get it on digital no problem.

Well, I'm not getting it!

I only get a few bars on my meter, not enough to register a picture even. They were better off on UHF. VHF for digital sucks.

the guy who I talked to from WHDH on email told me if I got it on analog I will get it on digital no problem.

Well, I'm not getting it!


I use to get the analog signal with no issue and the digital was about 50% on my tv meter and looked great.

Now nothing..

the DTV conversion suxs for me so far...

This is, to put it lightly, quite disappointing. Why the regression? I can't possibly see a benefit to switching back to VHF, other than the fact that they're "7" again... but I suppose branding is more important than reaching viewers, huh?

channel 7 stopped working for me, too, on my htpc, right after Conan's joke about his mom calling saying the cable went out... is this my fault or did WHDH screw something up?

channel 7 stopped working for me, too, on my htpc, right after Conan's joke about his mom calling saying the cable went out... is this my fault or did WHDH screw something up?They switched frequencies, from 42 to 7. If you're lucky, rescanning your channels should pick it up. If not... join the club. :mad:

At 11:59, I did a rescan and RF 27 became ch. 66. I also noticed a stronger signal on WYDN-DT 47, and a sharper picture overall on all DTV stations. ON the down side, ch. 62 and 68 have a weaker signal. But the worst was - WHDH-DT. After a rescan and manually adding RF 7 - NO SIGNAL AT ALL!:eek: I'm in Pawtucket, RI and I first thought it was my antenna because it's a DB8 (but I attached two VHF rabbit ears to it to better get VHF stations -I get WPRI-DT 13 and WNAC-DT 12 no problem, and sometimes WWDP-DT 10. After reading these posts, I'm not the only one having trouble getting WHDH-DT, and looks like the previous posts are from members who live close to the Needham towers. Hopefully WHDH-DT engineers are working on the issues and the signal will be at full power by early morning. Why? I need my fix of ch 7.2 - This TV - from 9:00-10:00 AM tomorrow morning they show my favorite show - MISTER ED - it keeps me stable every day!!!!:)

Howdy,
I am located in Stratham, NH, zip code 03885. That is just a bit south and west of Portsmouth. We live on the side of the tallest hill in town. Unfortunately, we are on the east side of the hill at 155' and the hilltop is to the west at 300. Some folks in Stratham, those that live atop the hills, at elevations of 200'-250' (Bunker Hill, Jewell Hill, Stratham Heights, Long Hill) have pretty good views of towers in Boston area and Manchester at distances ranging from 30-45 miles. The Maine towers are in the 45-65 miles range.

In addition to the steep upslope to the southwest and west of our location we are ringed by towering oak trees to the north, west and southwest. Our old Rad Shack yagi was doing OK with a couple of the analog signals from Maine. We were watching WCSH analog and sometimes digital out of Portland. Depending on weather we got some snow-ey shadows from the analog stations in Manch and Boston.

I am very curious about the WHDH situation and the ability of you all who live to my south to pull in WLVI and WSBK digital. If you do get those channels I would be interested in hearing more about your antenna array and location.

I have a big four bay UHF omni-directional antenna waiting to be installed and I plan on purchasing a a high band VHf antenna and mount that to a rotor. I am also thinking of adding 10-15' of height above our existing roof peak (which is an elevation of approx. 170')

The channel list on antenna web for Stratham Heights Road looks encouraging but when I type in my address, Lovell Road, not so encouraging.

Are there any posters from Southeast NH on this thread? Your thoughts, suggestions or references to other resources appreciated.


Doug

aaaaaaaaaand we're back... seems like maybe they went back to Channel 42? Either that or media center changed it to 7 for me...

Spacewilly, what is your distance to the WHDH tower?

They made a BIG mistake.

other than the fact that they're "7" again... but I suppose branding is more important than reaching viewers, huh?

Guess so. :(

Spacewilly, what is your distance to the WHDH tower?

I'm in Waltham, about 3.9 miles. I use an artec an2 antenna.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008086&prodlist=froogle

I don't understand why the analog channel came in so clear it was like I was right next door to the transmitter, and now, nothing!

28 miles away from needham farm, well, I can't see it working for anyone farther then me either.

It might be that, when they switched frequencies, something went wonky and the tower's not broadcasting at full power. I can't imagine that switching from 42 UFH to 7 VHF would make *this* much difference.

In any occasion, I'm going to bed. If it's not coming in any better in the morning and nobody from WHDH has poked their head in here with any details I might have to start seriously thinking about getting basic cable through Comcast. The girlfriend almost killed me when CW's reception went during the America's Next Top Model finale; losing NBC might be the last straw for my fun (though trying) free OTA experiment. :(

Just to confirm, I opened WatchHDTV and WHDH is broadcasting on RF Channel 7, I get a signal level around 20.7 on it vs. around 26-28 for FXT, BZ, and CVB. Also 20 for UPN, but that is because of how I have my antenna aimed.

looks like that's what they want, they want everyone paying for cable, well, i'll try to send an email and see whats up

but still a pointless move on their part

Did my rescan on my Panasonic plasma. 7-1 and 7-2 come in as duplicates. When I delete one of the duplicates, it removes both the correct and incorrect station??? I'll leave it that way for a while until I understand what is happening.

Channel 10-2 and 10-2 have gone - need to do some research on this as well because the signal meter shows 0% signal where it thinks it is supposed to be.

Also I think 46 is gone but not sure if it was there before.

Off to rescan another tv.

Does anyone with a TiVo S3 or TiVo HD have WHDH 7-1 working yet? It's still down for me, here.

EDITED: Never mind: I cannot tune it in on any of my direct DTV tuners, so I guess we're too far away, here in Burlington, to receive it. Yes, VERY bad decision on Channel 7's part.

Did my rescan on my Panasonic plasma. 7-1 and 7-2 come in as duplicates. When I delete one of the duplicates, it removes both the correct and incorrect station??? I'll leave it that way for a while until I understand what is happening.

Channel 10-2 and 10-2 have gone - need to do some research on this as well because the signal meter shows 0% signal where it thinks it is supposed to be.

Also I think 46 is gone but not sure if it was there before.

Off to rescan another tv.
According to the station and their website, WJAR-DT 51 is expected to complete their DTV upgrade his Tuesday - a major boost in power and moving the digital antenna to the top of their Rehoboth tower.

No WHDH-DT here in (west) Andover either. Although the analog reception with my 8-bay CM4228 and Winegard pre-amp was fuzzy at best so I had little hope when they went back to VHF. Still no WLVI-DT either which is puzzling if they really are running 550kW now. I was able to pull in WFXT-DT 95% of the time when they were running a measly 78kW! Eh, could be a HAAT thing, I guess. That's kinda critical for me since Ames Hill in Tewksbury is *exactly* in my LOS in addition to being on the north facing downslope of the Merrimack Valley, although I am pretty near the top.

So no 7-1 or 56-1 for me but I can say in all honesty it couldn't have happened to better stations for me, I never watched them really anyway. FIOS is arriving in a few weeks (they've replaced all the platforms and laid the fiber already) so even this will be a non-issue for me come August or so. After almost 10 years as a OTA-only HD viewer, I finally feel like there's enough HD programming out there now to justify the expense in upgrading my SD (satellite) pkg to HD.

Oh, and to answer the question about why WHDH would want to go back to ch 7, its mainly about power. VHF propagates much better than UHF so considerably less power is required. I think the max allowable for VHF-hi (ch 7-13) is like 30kW or something! Compare that to UHF stations broadcasting nearly 1MW to cover roughly the same area. Which electric bill would you rather pay?! ;) But VHF is also much more prone to interference and particularly multipath, so the low channels (2-6) can't be used at all and even the high VHF channels (7-13) are iffy. There was a lot of debate about whether high VHF was viable for DTV back in the day. That said, I do manage to solidly pull in WENH-DT which is on VHF ch 11 even with my antenna pointed towards Boston, but I have much better LOS to the north.

I rescanned on both TVs and the HTPC, no WHDH. I used to get a pretty good signal, but it looks like something is wrong. 2, 4, 5, 25, 38, 44, 56 are all good.

I have a four bay UHF antenna ready to deploy but I'm beginning to think I may need an 8 bay to even have a slim chance of getting the CW. There is an affiliate in Maine and for me that is better exposure (we are on the north and east side of a good size hill). I've been using the tools on http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=90 to figure out what is possible and I noticed that as the antenna height off the ground increase, the signal strength of the Maine CW affiliate decreases:confused:
It is a UHF channel, 51.1 as I recall. Can anyone explain this predicted behavior?

What is analog channel 24? I'm still getting it, but it's not listed in any progam guides I can find...

Anyone having issues with WCVB 5-2? I get both early in the morining and at night. Using a Directv AM-21 OTA tuner with good signal on both but 5-2 is a blank screen. I live up in Sanford ME and have an Attic mounted CM 4228HD and WG preamp. I am amazed at this antennas result mounted in the attic aimed south.

In S. NH I did a rescan and have no issue receiving the 3 UHF to VHF channels. NH 59 to 9, ME 46 to 8, and MA 42 to 7. I am 50+ miles from the Needham towers. I do have a roof mounted antenna w/rotor.

They made a BIG mistake.



Guess so. :(

You need a proper VHF-HI antenna to get WHDH-DT-7 with ease. Should be a good lock with a decent antenna. What antenna do you have right now?

Honestly DX9100, I haven't seen any sign of 5-2 (Boston) in a long long time. They at one point were showing live doppler radar on -2 but that went away months, maybe a year ago or more.

I just double-checked my set my manually entering 5-2 and my set wouldn't even try to go there. 5-1 comes in like gangbusters with 6 bars out of 6.

Seven moving back to seven has nothing to do with 'branding'. It has everything to do with their power bill. Sending out an equivalent signal over VHF uses far less energy than UHF, theoretically speaking.

But given the comments here this morning, there's a big difference between theory and actual practice, it would seem. Give them time, they may be working on some issues. It's only been ten hours.

I have to wonder as to how many stations are going to tweak their power up or down. Effects might be a bit different at night as well.

I have to wonder if this might free up some radio spectrum too.

Channel 6 of RI I used to get on 87.7fm...now it's gone...so does that mean the fcc would permit another station there?

I rescanned my Samsung plasma here in Reading around 9 AM. Only analog channels remaining are the three nightlights and ch 24 which is just infomercials. So I zapped all of them.

My main loss is WMUR in NH which went from UHF back to VHF 9 after terminating analog.

I get WHDH on VHF 7 OK, but sig strength is down to 6 bars out of 10 whereas it was 9 or 10 bars when it was on UHF. So I can understand nicoge's problem. TVfool has me at 18 miles from the Needham farm. WHDH must have been at low power earlier this AM if it couldn't be received in Burlington.

I have a DB4 antenna 35 feet in the air so I'm a tad annoyed that I can't get WMUR VHF 9 and WENH VHF 11 which are 38 and 43 miles away. But the DB4 is primarily for UHF so I'll get a decent VHF antenna up on my pole as well before long and things will be all better.
:)

Channel 6 of RI I used to get on 87.7fm...now it's gone...so does that mean the fcc would permit another station there?

You got audio from the analog TV broadcast on VHF 6. FCC would only permit a low-power analog TV station or a full power digital TV station to occupy VHF 6 but right now it looks like it's an unused slot in this area...

Using an attic DIY antenna, here is Marblehead, not much has cahanged.

Solid reception on the following channels:

2.1, 2.2
4.1
5.1
7.1, 7.2
9.1
11.1, 11.2, 11.3
27.1, 27.2
25.1
38.1
44.1, 44.2, 44.3, 44.4
48.1
50.1
56.1
62.1, 62.2
66.1
68.1, 68.2, 68.3, 68.4

However, now that Ch 7 is VHF, their received signal quality has dropped by 25%

I'm in Waltham, about 3.9 miles. I use an artec an2 antenna.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008086&prodlist=froogle

Yer info says STURBRIDGE, not Waltham.
You might want to check outside to make sure...

Using an attic DIY antenna, here is Marblehead, not much has cahanged.

Solid reception on the following channels:


9.1
11.1, 11.2, 11.3



Hmmm, I did a tvfool search on Marblehead and you're 50 miles from both of those NH transmitters. I'm significantly less and can't get them.
Show me what yer DIY antenna looks like please!

10:00 Update

Attached the 4 bay UHF to the end of 15' steel pole and 30' of RG6. Temporary field installation. Picked the whole array up to the shed roof (8' off ground) so the antenna elevation is about 20'-25'. Not even above our roof peak. Pointing south. No amp.

channel 6 and 6.1 ("Portland" WSCH,NBC, North Baldwin, Maine 56 miles)
Channels 11.1-3 (Durham, WENH, PBS)
Channel 13.1 and 13.2 ("Portland" WGME, CBS, Raymond, Maine, 60+ miles)

On the amplified Yagi, oriented pretty much due south, mounted at 30 feet of elevation just above the roof peak on the opposite (north) end of our home we pick up WENH again (just 8-10 miles away) and
Channel 8 and 8.1 ("Lewiston/Auburn, WMTW, ABC, West Baldwin, Maine, 58 miles).

I have the crummiest itty bitty 15" COBY TV with an ATSC tuner. We just sold our nice 26" LG to Mom as we finish a renovation we will be adding a new TV.

We plan a preliminary install of a new fiberglass mast with 12-16' additional feet of elevation with 4 bay directional UHF and hi band VHF antenna (WG 1713), a combiner (and perhaps filter for channel 11) and a pre-amp and/or rotor on the VHF antenna to see if we can grab ABC Manchester or WHDH Boston with better LOS at our higher array elevation.

No sign of any Boston channels at this point (WSBK, sigh). No CW, WPXT-DT, channel 43 is just over the horizon 63 miles away, next to Route 95 in Cumberland Maine. No sign of Ion in Concord but I don't know if they are even broadcasting today. No sign of WMFP 62.1 in Boston. What about that folks, are they even broadcasting?

Feedback and comments on your fringe or near fringe antenna arrays welcome.

what are you considering for VHF hi band?
I am looking at a similar array (DB4 plus VHF) up here in Stratham. Thinking I might go to DB8 but want to try new mast with more elevation first. Clearly need a WMUR grabber though. Thus the VHF. May put it on a rotor so we can snoop around a bit to the south.

doug

You guys must live more to the south towards boston. We live up north on the border before new hampshire.

I'm using the mclapp antenna from the "How to build an UHF" antennas thread in my attic

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14307546#post14307546

It gave a good single on analog 7 before the shutdown and working great on the digital 7s after I rescan on my sony. I live near Lowell.

I guess you must have done a Monster rescan if it made your DTV picture sharper :rolleyes:
At 11:59, I did a rescan and RF 27 became ch. 66. I also noticed a stronger signal on WYDN-DT 47, and a sharper picture overall on all DTV stations.

what are you considering for VHF hi band?
I am looking at a similar array (DB4 plus VHF) up here in Stratham. Thinking I might go to DB8 but want to try new mast with more elevation first. Clearly need a WMUR grabber though. Thus the VHF. May put it on a rotor so we can snoop around a bit to the south.

doug

Unclear at the moment on what VHF antenna I should get. I'll read through AVS antenna forums first.

In addition to VHF 9 & 11 in NH, I should be able to get 12 & 13 from RI, so it's also unclear if I want to get a rotor.

I've got FiOS on the TV in the other room, soon to be upgraded to HD, so this OTA TV is something of a hobbyist thing, not shear desperation...

We are pursuing a summer-long experiment. Turned off Comcast last Saturday!!! Maximum programming minimum cost. trying to leverage off air content and internet based programming (for example Netflix on line, MLB.com etc...). So we are putting max effort into the OAR. Have you seen any digital ION out of Concord NH? WPXG, 21.1?

I have DirecTV and an outside antenna. The direcTV receiver can be used for off air signals. Mr receiver show whdh-hd twice the first with no power and the second with 70% power. It shows This TW twice the first with 74% power and the second with no power. I get this tv, but not whdh-hd. After rescan my other set a vizio with it's own ota tuner shows both 7-1 and 7-2. Go figure.

"I've got FiOS on the TV in the other room, soon to be upgraded to HD, so this OTA TV is something of a hobbyist thing, not shear desperation..."

Wizard, is there a noticeable difference in pic quality between uncompressed HD (OTA) and Fios when comparing same program material?

We are pursuing a summer-long experiment. Turned off Comcast last Saturday!!! Maximum programming minimum cost. trying to leverage off air content and internet based programming (for example Netflix on line, MLB.com etc...). So we are putting max effort into the OAR. Have you seen any digital ION out of Concord NH? WPXG, 21.1?

I have been picking up 21.1,.2,.3,.4 since changing from rabbit ears (RS $ 20.00 version) to adding a CM4228HD and Wineguard Amp in my atttic. I am getting about 70% for that channel as of early AM today. I am up on a ridge (450' above SL) here in Sanford ME. The antenna is pointed due south and I get 6, 8 and 13 out of Portland ME. No Fox 51 or UPM 23 though. At night this week been getting WHDH 7.1,FOX 25, 38 and 56 from MA. I get 2,4,5 all the time though a connected AM-21 OTA to my Directv DVR.

At the time I bough an OTA digital HD antenna last year, WHDH-DT was broadcasting its digital in UHF like all the other major local networks by me, so I only bought a UHF digital antenna for the roof. The only other long distance outdoors one that included VHF cost almost twice as much, so I figured why not just go with the UHF only one.

Obviously, I got screwed by WHDH-DT switching to VHF at 12:01 this morning *grrr*

Yer info says STURBRIDGE, not Waltham.
You might want to check outside to make sure...

Hah, I double-checked, still in Waltham. I move a lot so I don't bother updating my status info. I'm only in Waltham for 2 more weeks, then I move back to Boston, so that will be the end of Channel 7 for me I guess.

Media Center stopped getting Channel 7 for me again, but it's still showing up in WatchHDTV so I guess the issue is with Media Center.

At the time I bough an OTA digital HD antenna last year, WHDH-DT was broadcasting its digital in UHF like all the other major local networks by me, so I only bought a UHF digital antenna for the roof. The only other long distance outdoors one that included VHF cost almost twice as much, so I figured why not just go with the UHF only one.

Obviously, I got screwed by WHDH-DT switching to VHF at 12:01 this morning *grrr*

You should have checked http://tvfool.com or http://www.antennaweb.org/ before getting your uhf antenna. The switch to rf 7 was known for years before the analog shutdown.

Ah, Mikey, when I bought the antenna last year, antennaweb listed WHDH-DT as UHF. All the channels I watch were listed as UHF at the time, so I chose the UHF antenna based on antennaweb's web site.

I have been picking up 21.1,.2,.3,.4 since changing from rabbit ears (RS $ 20.00 version) to adding a CM4228HD and Wineguard Amp in my atttic. I am getting about 70% for that channel as of early AM today. I am up on a ridge (450' above SL) here in Sanford ME. The antenna is pointed due south and I get 6, 8 and 13 out of Portland ME. No Fox 51 or UPM 23 though. At night this week been getting WHDH 7.1,FOX 25, 38 and 56 from MA. I get 2,4,5 all the time though a connected AM-21 OTA to my Directv DVR.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d663d32d66ee245 ........... our location.

No preamp yet. signal strength assumes antenna height 30' off ground; currently 20'. Where is that Fox affiliate at 23.1? and what/where is UPM 23? I don't even see it on your radar list. Is that the one-time Fox affiliate, now Maine news station?

need a taller mast, a preamp and a better VHF antenna. Will stay in touch.
thank you for the feedback.

Doug

Ah, Mikey, when I bought the antenna last year, antennaweb listed WHDH-DT as UHF. All the channels I watch were listed as UHF at the time, so I chose the UHF antenna based on antennaweb's web site.

You looked at the pre transition info. You also should have looked at the post transition info from either web site. I'm sure you are not the only one to make this mistake.

Or you could have come to this web site and someone would have told you.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d663d32d66ee245 ........... our location.

No preamp yet. signal strength assumes antenna height 30' off ground; currently 20'. Where is that Fox affiliate at 23.1? and what/where is UPM 23? I don't even see it on your radar list. Is that the one-time Fox affiliate, now Maine news station?

need a taller mast, a preamp and a better VHF antenna. Will stay in touch.
thank you for the feedback.

Doug

My bad it is fox 23 my upm is WPME 35.1. The transmitter is located;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WPFO
Channel 13 does the 10PM news for FOX 23

Good Luck!

You need a proper VHF-HI antenna to get WHDH-DT-7 with ease. Should be a good lock with a decent antenna. Okay, I definitely had a brain skip this morning. I had my rabbit ears pretty-much fully collapsed. I fully extended them and voila, WHDH is now crystal clear.

Okay, Sunbeam didn't make as much of a mistake as I thought they did. :)

How about those of us who have a 'yellow vhf/uhf' antenna, have the rabbit ears fully extended, live much less than 30 miles from the tower, not to mention not in a valley, and are still gettin' bupkus. And are using the same antenna, that with analog would get the vhf channels 4, 5, 7 great and wouldn't get the UHF ones 25, 38, 56 without some heavy duty prayin' and fiddlin'....

Now that WHDH-DT has moved back to channel 7 from channel 42, I have the same garbage reception, with continuous pixellation and breakup, that I used to experience on analog 7 in the bad old days before DT. Ah well, there was really very little I cared to watch on NBC in recent years anyway, save for the local news. I guess I will have to take my 11 PM news viewing to WCVB. Goodbye, Frances and Kim, I loved seeing you both every night, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. I'll still have wonderful memories of the best three-way in recent times. And of course, there's Maria at 10 PM on 25. Fox works just fine as long as you mute the audio...

RAV in Metrowest, My Panasonic plasma got duplicated channels 7-1 & 7-2 as well. How did you delete the channels? I had to do a reset and start from scratch again.

I live in 02072 and with a home-made indoor antenna, I picked up all Boston and a couple of Providence broadcast channels.

Wish I could see it. Since the Hartford Fox is on UHF 31 also I don't get either station out here in Brimfield! (yes.. I know I'm in the Springfield market.. but they SUCK for production quality) Just kills me because I use to get the old Fox 25 analog signal in great.

Thanks FCC!!!!! No Maria or Sara!!

Well.. the transition so far for me way out in Brimfield is good and bad.

On one hand.. I now have WBZ back again. I can't wait to see WBZ news.. man have I missed Jack.

But, I lost WCVB due to a Hartford CW (WTXX I think is the call sign) station switched to UHF 20 as WCVB uses at noon today. WCVB was one of my strongest stations at 80% on my Panny plasma's signal meter... until today. Nothing at all now.. same still for Fox25 and the Fox61 in Hartford are on UHF 31. Gotta love the FCC!!

Would a direction antenna help? Currently I have a Clearstream4 pointed towards Needham with the backside facing Hartford. Suggestions welcomed..

Now hoping WHDH comes in good on VHF when they switch tonight as they do now on the UHF. At least give me Dylan to look at!!

Same here. Rescanned a few times to no avail. My tuner can see a (just barely strong enough) signal at 177mhz but when I try to add it manually it keeps failing.

I need my Conan fix :(

[Edit: Oh poop this also means no This TV! Nice "move", WHDH.]


In NE CT have these problems as well, except the cross-interference with them both being on real-31 results in a complete null --- so I get neither WFXT nor WTIC, no matter which way I point the antenna.

Now, since the switch, have the same issue with WCVB and WTXX both on real-20. Nothing from either. Never really tried TXX, but CVB used to come in mid-70s-80.

Why did the FCC allow this co-channeling in markets that are so close together?

And would writing our Congresscritters help at all?

I also lost WHDH last night when they switched to real-7. Have tried adding it, and am getting nothing. Will be trying a dedicated old VHF to see if that will pick it up. It was working for almost everyone w/in the original signal radius, and then they just HAD to go screwing with it. GRRR!!

WBZ-4 is now coming in great after a couple of weeks on the blink. The ERP power boost worked wonders. At about the same time as I lost WBZ before, I lost previously very reliable WLVI and WSBK; I see them only on good tropo days.

"WPME 35.1".

Whoa! That is way north. Somewhere in kennebec county or something. No wonder it's over the rainbow for you!!!
Guess I'd better point south with some elevation and hope for some nighttime magic.
Wonder if NFL network is or will be available on line like MLB....?

"WPME 35.1".

Whoa! That is way north. Somewhere in kennebec county or something. No wonder it's over the rainbow for you!!!
Guess I'd better point south with some elevation and hope for some nighttime magic.
Wonder if NFL network is or will be available on line like MLB....?

I would try the preamp if you can find one, sometimes it makes the diffrence between watching and not for OTA.

I have now started to receive WHDH-dt 7 by carefully moving the antenna (the DB4. Also, I can now receive a better than 50 signal from WWDP-dt 10 - before last night, it never could be received. But I have a weak to no signal at all from WMFP-DT 18 and WBPX-Dt 32, and a weaker signal from WYDn-Dt 47. Now even though they have already converted in February, has anyone noticed any changes in reception of chs. 6, 10,12, 28, 36, and 64 from Providence?

Now my reception for everything I got before is even lower. My meter was pegged in the middle for WBZ, WCVB, WGBH, and WGBX but now I'm getting drop outs. Meter went down to the "bad" range. Weird. Well it was fun to watch THIS while it lasted. I'm moving to bradford in august, the house we're moving to is surrounded by trees and on TVfool all the boston UHF stations are in the pink range. Yes, pink. All with -18dB. Which leads me to believe that the only stations I'd get up there reliably are WMUR, WZMY, and WENH.

It looks like the long Dipoles on indoor antennas are absolutely WORTHLESS for digital VHF high, you'll probably need a huge Yagi and that's out of the question for me.

It looks like the long Dipoles on indoor antennas are absolutely WORTHLESS for digital VHF high, you'll probably need a huge Yagi and that's out of the question for me.

Really? I live in Randolph and get 7 HDH fine with an indoor amplified combo UHF/VHF. It's a Terk Antenna Pro I picked up at U-Do-It Electronics three years ago. Rabbit ears are pulled out about half way and 90degree angle. I can also pick up Fox 64(VHF 12) but Fox 25 is better.

My earlier comment about WHDH 7.1 coming in crystal-clear also was also with an amplified Terk -- the Terk HDTVa.

Hmmm, I did a tvfool search on Marblehead and you're 50 miles from both of those NH transmitters. I'm significantly less and can't get them. Show me what yer DIY antenna looks like please!

Yes, ch 9 (1 edge) and 11 (LOS) are 49.7 miles distant and Ch 50 (LOS) is 31.5 miles away (but low power).

See post #1519 for a proof of concept picture of the antenna :

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9613&st=1500

This is a UHF antenna and when channels 7, 9 and 11 were UHF, it picked them up, with no problems, as show in the picture (it will not pick up these stations now that they have gone back to their VHF assignments.

I have since added a VHF dipole, at the junction of the 2 loops, to pickup channels 7, 9 and 11.

The VHF dipole has restored reception of these channels, the signal meters reading has dropped some.

In this 1st day, the reception has been solid however, I'm not sure of what the effects of wind and rain will have with VHF reception.

To date, all of the manufactured and DIY antennas are warmed over old technology. Except for long boom lengths as in a combo yagi/lpda with corner reflector yagi for UHF or a straight lpda, nothing is suitable for the post transistion requirement and challenge needing to receive UHF and VHF well.

My currrent project is such an antenna (e.g. low SWR over a very wide band width, high gain, directivity and scalable). The design is 'out of the box and is very different'.

To date, I have built a small UHF only, proof of concept, prototype with very favorable results. The next step is to scale it to include VHF reception as well.

Here in R.I. since WFXT went full power we have great signal but dropouts due to multipath.
If only they could give up half they're power to WHDH we could still get 'THIS'.

[QUOTE=serndipity;16643689]Yes, ch 9 (1 edge) and 11 (LOS) are 49.7 miles distant and Ch 50 (LOS) is 31.5 miles away (but low power).

See post #1519 for a proof of concept picture of the antenna :

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9613&st=1500

Hey that link looks promising but it requires forum signup. got anything you can attach or link to without a credit check;)?

In NE CT have these problems as well, except the cross-interference with them both being on real-31 results in a complete null --- so I get neither WFXT nor WTIC, no matter which way I point the antenna.

Now, since the switch, have the same issue with WCVB and WTXX both on real-20. Nothing from either. Never really tried TXX, but CVB used to come in mid-70s-80.

Why did the FCC allow this co-channeling in markets that are so close together?

The DTV 8 VSB signal uses eight defined amplitude modulation levels or steps of the transmitted RF carrier. The receiver/decoder detects these eight defined level variations to recover the signal.

Variations or errors from the ideal eight known levels or steps represent signal degradation.

Interference, noise, multi-path and, co-channel signals introduced into the channel band can all cause amplitude variations.

Here is what one guy did to eliminate multi-path (note this link has 2 pages).

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~wn17/

Perhaps some extra shielding could help.

[quote=serndipity;16643689]Yes, ch 9 (1 edge) and 11 (LOS) are 49.7 miles distant and Ch 50 (LOS) is 31.5 miles away (but low power).

See post #1519 for a proof of concept picture of the antenna :

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9613&st=1500

Hey that link looks promising but it requires forum signup. got anything you can attach or link to without a credit check;)?

Lumenlab sign up is free and there is a ton of great antenna building info there.

Enclosed is the picture of the double broadband loop antenna that I made for less than dollar bill (used two 40 cent throw away type cookie sheets). The outside diameter is 8" and the inside diameter is 5". The double loop easily cut using a box cutter knife. No balun needed.

The construction (using such thin sheet) limits this antenna to indoor use....however, receives all local Boston stations (30 miles away) plus another 8 or so stations located in Worcester MA and southern NH (50 miles away).

"without a credit check"
Sense of humor. Referring to filling out forms or applications, as when applying for credit.
Thanks for the photo file but I could not open that either. When time allows I'll log in to the other site.

You got audio from the analog TV broadcast on VHF 6. FCC would only permit a low-power analog TV station or a full power digital TV station to occupy VHF 6 but right now it looks like it's an unused slot in this area...WEDY-DT channel 6 in New Haven CT. Here is a link to the FCC information where you can also find a coverage map:
WEDY-DT facility ID 13595 (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=13595)

Lost WHDH as did so many, but a ~3° swing of the fixed VHF yagi to the east did the trick. All better now. We are approx. 60 airline miles from Needham in southern NH. Lost 28 and 38 as well, but will tackle that tomorrow by tweaking the twin 4228 array. Everything else is still Q5, was hoping to pick up WENH and WMUR, but no joy as yet. Have to run some tests on higher ground in the back yard with a reference dipole to see if I can do any better, but am pretty well blocked due east by Pack Monadnock.

22 OTA channels is OK with me, and keeps Comcast away.

Here is what one guy did to eliminate multi-path (note this link has 2 pages).

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~wn17/


Very interesting. Basically a Faraday cage. I wonder how he calculated the dimensions of the box, and if he took into account the antenna's native radiation pattern from the outset.

Seems to me that one could also achieve similar results using a cage made from 1/2" PVC in the same fashion, maybe even making a hexagonal "tube" for more even spacing and ease of mounting. Still would have major wind load issues outdoors.

Sure wish I had his spectrum analyzer! Making antennas is a lot of fun, so much voodoo involved no matter how much theory you apply.

Finally saw the link to the GA tech guy's second page, duh. I love the trash can solution, but the wind load on that one would be tremendous! Not a bad idea for an attic solution, though!

"I've got FiOS on the TV in the other room, soon to be upgraded to HD, so this OTA TV is something of a hobbyist thing, not shear desperation..."

Wizard, is there a noticeable difference in pic quality between uncompressed HD (OTA) and Fios when comparing same program material?

I can't tell yet since I've got my old 31" tube set connected to SD FiOS box in that room for time being. From what I've read, I'd be surprised if FiOS was inferior to OTA reception...

RAV in Metrowest, My Panasonic plasma got duplicated channels 7-1 & 7-2 as well. How did you delete the channels? I had to do a reset and start from scratch again.

I live in 02072 and with a home-made indoor antenna, I picked up all Boston and a couple of Providence broadcast channels.

Luigi2009,
I live in 02072 - Stoughton also and my 7.1 & 7.2 are not duplicates. 7.1 has regular programming and 7.2 is This TV. I am getting a total of 26 channels at present on analog TVs with converter boxes & a TV with built-in tuner.

All, here are my signals however the days were done pre transition (last weekend) and nights at 8pm tonight. I am happy so far.:d

stat ch state day sig night sig
wgbh 2 ma 77 100
wbz 4 ma 65 100
wcvb 5 ma 77 100
wcsh 6 me 55 70
whdh 7 ma 0 94
wmtw 8 me 65 97
wmur 9 nh 0 0
wcbb 10 ma 0 0* (has been 40%)
wenh 11 nh 98 90
wgme 13 me 81 75
wpxg 21 nh 75 62
wpfo 23 me 0 0
wfxt 25 ma 0 98
wmea 26 me 100 100
wuni 27 ma 0 0
wpme 35 me 0 0
wsbk 38 ma 0 77
wgbx 44 ma 0 40
wwdp 46 ma 0 0
wydn 48 ma 0 45
wzmy 50 ma 0 0
wpxt 51 me 0 45
wekw 52 ma 0 0
wlvi 56 ma 0 77
wdpx 58 ma 0 91
wneu 60 ma 0 0
wmfp 62 ma 49 100
wutf 66 ma 0 0
wbpx 68 ma 0 90

Luigi2009,
I live in 02072 - Stoughton also and my 7.1 & 7.2 are not duplicates. 7.1 has regular programming and 7.2 is This TV. I am getting a total of 26 channels at present on analog TVs with converter boxes & a TV with built-in tuner.
I believe the other poster meant that he now has 2 7.1's and 2 7.2's is his channel list. My Panasonic plasma has that problem after running a scan earlier this afternoon.

For the record channel 7 is coming in with nearly 100% signal strength (according to the Panasonic signal strength meter) for me in Billerica. The antenna is inside in our 3rd floor attic.

"without a credit check"
Sense of humor. Referring to filling out forms or applications, as when applying for credit.
Thanks for the photo file but I could not open that either. When time allows I'll log in to the other site.

Fair enough.

You should be able to open the .jpg file in post #9177 now.

WPME is also the reason why WZMY is so weak, to prevent interference

Waverider,
I'm in Stratham running with a ChannelMaster CM-36XX antenna from the 80's (spent all bu the last two years inside my dad's attic), a CM-7777 pre-amp (which is not mounted on the antenna yet but is inside the basement about 40 feet down the cable) and a Zenith DTT-900. A Channel Master rotator spins the antenna.

I get the following stations:
WENH
WPXG
WMTW
WCSH
WNEU
WBZ
WGBH
WCVB
WGME
WHDH
WFXT
WGBX
WSBK

I don't get, and I don't know why, WMEA, which is 28.4 miles away. I can see the signal from WLVI (CW) but it's not strong enough to lock on. I need to put the pre-amp up on the antenna and remove any excess before the distribution amp. When I'm up on the roof, I'll change out the balun in the off chance that it is blocking WMEA.

I will say that I do have trees blocking a significant number of stations. The effect I see when there is some rain or wind is pixelation or complete signal drop out. I have had to rescan a number of times as a signal that is present at on time may disappear later in the day even if I have not moved the antenna or changed the channel.

I'd like to get up about 60 feet, but don't know if this will be possible in the near future!

Good luck.

WPME is also the reason why WZMY is so weak, to prevent interference

Why did this happen with 2 stations that close in distance and in an adjacent state? Shouldn't there be enough frequencies to prevent this? I see on my TvFool report that the highest real channel # is 51. Isn't the whole UHF band open 14-70? If so who is using 52-70 since no one is using them within 120 miles from my location?

All working good here except RI. I can get some RI vhf but so far no uhf.

Channel 7 comes in far better on 7 than it ever did on 42. I can even use rabbit ears and had to use a large outdoor antenna to get 42.

I was worried about 9 when it vanished but by Sat morning it was coming in fine along with the other northern stations on 35 and 11.

Will work on my antennas some more later but first will wait for RI to get to full power.

Why did this happen with 2 stations that close in distance and in an adjacent state? Shouldn't there be enough frequencies to prevent this? I see on my TvFool report that the highest real channel # is 51. Isn't the whole UHF band open 14-70? If so who is using 52-70 since no one is using them within 120 miles from my location?

After June 12th, channels 52 - 59 are not longer available for DTV (have recently been sold by auction). Channels 60 - 83 have been long gone.

DTV is now only channels 2-6 (VHF low), 7-13 (VHF high) and 14-51 (UHF).

Additionally, the plan is to allow other services, a.k.a. available white space (e.g. wireless broadband, new appliances etc.), to use the current DTV spectrum on a non-interfering basis.

Does anyone know why WMUR Channel 9 Manchester is only running an ERP of 6.5 KW where as Boston channel 7, NH PBS channel 11, and WMTW channel 8 Portland are all running around 30 KW ? It would seem that all VHF-Hi band stations would run similar power levels unless there is an adjacent station issue.

Does anyone know why WMUR Channel 9 Manchester is only running an ERP of 6.5 KW where as Boston channel 7, NH PBS channel 11, and WMTW channel 8 Portland are all running around 30 KW ? It would seem that all VHF-Hi band stations would run similar power levels unless there is an adjacent station issue.

I have not been able to get it either using any OTA methods. I would guess it would be for $ savings in energy usage. Thier primary focus would be the greater Mancheter NH market for local news and would not need a ton of transmission power to do so. I have my attic mount pointed due south from Sanford ME and even at night have no signal. Good luck!

I have not been able to get it either using any OTA methods. I would guess it would be for $ savings in energy usage. Thier primary focus would be the greater Mancheter NH market for local news and would not need a ton of transmission power to do so. I have my attic mount pointed due south from Sanford ME and even at night have no signal. Good luck!

Channel 9 is now like channel 50 low power little or no signal during the day

Waverider,
[QUOTE]I'm in Stratham running with a ChannelMaster CM-36XX antenna from the 80's (spent all bu the last two years inside my dad's attic), a CM-7777 pre-amp (which is not mounted on the antenna yet but is inside the basement about 40 feet down the cable) and a Zenith DTT-900. A Channel Master rotator spins the antenna.

Hey! Great to hear from a neighbor. I am encouraged. So busy with my own biz that it may be end of the month before we get after the installation of our new antenna array. What is your address? Private message me if you wish. I'd like to run your address through the signal analysis tool at TV Fool http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29
When it comes to OTA reception the hills of Stratham giveth and the hills taketh away.
BTW, regarding mast height, I talked with the owner of an antenna supply and mast manufacturing company in Georgia yesterday, very cool guy with a neat product - nesting fiberglass, non conductive, mast material in 4' or 8' segments, diameters ranging from 2 1/2" to 1/2" in 1/4" increments. Light and strong. I will be ordering direct.
Stay in touch. We can tweak together and benefit from each other's antenna experiments!

Doug

WBZ-4 is now coming in great after a couple of weeks on the blink. The ERP power boost worked wonders.
We have not increased our power. You may have seen that the FCC granted a construction permit for WBZ to increase its ERP (Effective Radiated Power) from 825 kW to 915 kW, but it remains just that - a construction permit. We have not begun constrution to make that happen, and it is unclear if and/or when we will do so. The permit is good for three years. The increase is not terribly significant (less than 1/2 dB) so it remains to be seen whether it will be worth the expense, which is significant.

What is analog channel 24? I'm still getting it, but it's not listed in any progam guides I can find...
I also never notice this station until the analog shutdown. They seem to be only in shanish?

I just heard from a friend in Melrose, MA who since yesterday has been receiving Providence's WJAR-DT 51 and WLNE-DT 49, both with pretty strong signals. None of the Providence stations were ever coming in before the transition. I knew WJAR was boosting its power and raising their antenna height by June 16th, but had no idea that WLNE was doing the same (the stations are on the same tower in Rehoboth);). They must have already completed the upgrade. No sign of WPRI-DT, WNAC-DT, WLWC-DT, or WSBE-DT as of yet. I read many people lost all of the Providence stations since February, but has anyone else in the Boston area started getting these stations since Friday night? :o

I have Edmund Ansin's home address in Miami Beach. I should drop him a note telling him that WHDH's signal is now crap and a good portion of viewers can no longer get it. I'll also enclose the links to websites where everyone else is saying the same thing. As owner of the station I am sure he might like to know that millions of potential viewers can no longer receive his station. he's not going to be happy about this.

I got a pretty closed-door reply from WHDH:WHDH changed channels from 42 (UHF) to 7 (VHF)- you will need an VHF antenna to receive WHDH, an outdoor antenna is recommended for your location. We are operating at full licensed FCC power (29.7kW ERP). We are not allowed by the FCC to exceed this power.

Jim

I just heard from a friend in Melrose, MA who since yesterday has been receiving Providence's WJAR-DT 51 and WLNE-DT 49, both with pretty strong signals. None of the Providence stations were ever coming in before the transition. I knew WJAR was boosting its power and raising their antenna height by June 16th, but had no idea that WLNE was doing the same (the stations are on the same tower in Rehoboth);). They must have already completed the upgrade. No sign of WPRI-DT, WNAC-DT, WLWC-DT, or WSBE-DT as of yet. I read many people lost all of the Providence stations since February, but has anyone else in the Boston area started getting these stations since Friday night? :o
:D
this is all too funny........
I went to my grandmothers apt in East boston facing the harbor.
Did the rescan to bring 7 back and much to my suprise 6,10.12.28,&64 all out of RI showed up with 70+ on the meter using a $14 batwing antenna i got her from Walmart back in FEB.
This antenna only got ch 10 out of RI until today when the other stations showed up.
Tried Fiddling around to get 36 but thats a NO GO
one thing i did notice is that WHDN-LD 26 is now remapped as 6-1 and WLNE is now remapped as 49-1

It's really weird how my wife's $250 Samsung 20" LCD set picks up the complete Boston digital spectrum with a paper clip for an antenna (from the second floor in Charlestown) while my front projector with an SIR T350 and a rooftop antenna can no longer receive WHDH on channel 7.

Perhaps my BT UHFB is acting as a high pass filter. I had read suggestions that it would receive high band VHF- apparently not.

We have not increased our power. You may have seen that the FCC granted a construction permit for WBZ to increase its ERP (Effective Radiated Power) from 825 kW to 915 kW, but it remains just that - a construction permit. We have not begun constrution to make that happen, and it is unclear if and/or when we will do so. The permit is good for three years. The increase is not terribly significant (less than 1/2 dB) so it remains to be seen whether it will be worth the expense, which is significant.

Hmm! Then I'm nonplussed at how I got it back on transition day, after a few weeks of mostly 0 (and a high of ~30) readings.

Well, did WVIT-30 analog go away or are they nightlighting? That could have made the difference for you.

- Trip

[FONT=Arial]Here is what one guy did to eliminate multi-path (note this link has 2 pages).

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~wn17/

Perhaps some extra shielding could help.

Wow. I'm impressed.

Just not sure how I would work something like either of those with an XG-91 that brackets in the middle of the boom. Not to mention windload at the top of a 10' mast. Just doesn't seem feasible.

Then again, the interfering signal is coming from directly the back of the antenna (77 degrees to Boston, 257-8 to Hartford = 180 degrees). Might something like a garbage pail lid or an old cookie sheet mounted behind (or instead of) the reflector grid do the trick, or would the interfering signal still be picked up via multipath?

I have Edmund Ansin's home address in Miami Beach. I should drop him a note telling him that WHDH's signal is now crap and a good portion of viewers can no longer get it. I'll also enclose the links to websites where everyone else is saying the same thing. As owner of the station I am sure he might like to know that millions of potential viewers can no longer receive his station. he's not going to be happy about this.

The FCC's maps of the coverage area (http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/) is a lie.

Look at the Boston map and the WHDH contour for 29.7kW. I'm right under a green dot and I don't register a blip on my tuners.

Look at their map for WFXT while you're at it, and you can see how full of it they are. Guaranteed, (barring superhuman efforts) no one in Windham or Tolland counties is getting WFXT. And a good number in NE CT and east-of-center MA aren't getting a FOX station b/c of the 31 co-channeling. I've seen a lot of channel allocations from across the country, and FOX sure does seem to have it hard for the 31 slot.

I'm most ripped about losing WCVB (b/c the FCC co-channeled WTXX-Hartford), tho. The coverage maps have those colorful little graphics that say "Coverage lost but still served by same network." What they don't seem to understand is that the network brand means very little - 3 hours a day. I'm losing my old friend "Chronicle" in HD every night and am now left with entertainment-'news' trash, and no Patriots pre-season/MNF. In terms of "public service" the move to allow co-channeling sucks.

Well, did WVIT-30 analog go away or are they nightlighting? That could have made the difference for you.

- Trip

Before it went out for a few weeks, I had a year of consistent digital reception even as WVIT-analog was there all the while. All seems fine now.

:D
this is all too funny........
I went to my grandmothers apt in East boston facing the harbor.
Did the rescan to bring 7 back and much to my suprise 6,10.12.28,&64 all out of RI showed up with 70+ on the meter using a $14 batwing antenna i got her from Walmart back in FEB.
This antenna only got ch 10 out of RI until today when the other stations showed up.
Tried Fiddling around to get 36 but thats a NO GO
one thing i did notice is that WHDN-LD 26 is now remapped as 6-1 and WLNE is now remapped as 49-1
That's very interesting to get most of the Providence stations since Saturday. I can understand 36 not coming in because they are at only 50kw and null somewhat to the northeast. I really have to wonder that this may have had to do with the analog stations in Boston going off - I know this sounds strange, but what else could be doing this? The weather has been cloudy and rain the past few days - not optimal reception conditions. And by the way, is anyone having reception issues with chs. 62, 68,, and 46 lately - I am having trouble getting them in Pawtucket.

The FCC's maps of the coverage area (http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/) is a lie.

Look at the Boston map and the WHDH contour for 29.7kW. I'm right under a green dot and I don't register a blip on my tuners.

Look at their map for WFXT while you're at it, and you can see how full of it they are. Guaranteed, (barring superhuman efforts) no one in Windham or Tolland counties is getting WFXT. And a good number in NE CT and east-of-center MA aren't getting a FOX station b/c of the 31 co-channeling. I've seen a lot of channel allocations from across the country, and FOX sure does seem to have it hard for the 31 slot.

I'm most ripped about losing WCVB (b/c the FCC co-channeled WTXX-Hartford), tho. The coverage maps have those colorful little graphics that say "Coverage lost but still served by same network." What they don't seem to understand is that the network brand means very little - 3 hours a day. I'm losing my old friend "Chronicle" in HD every night and am now left with entertainment-'news' trash, and no Patriots pre-season/MNF. In terms of "public service" the move to allow co-channeling sucks.

Well its obvious here that the FCC should have kept at least 14-59 instead of 52-59 going out to auction. This may not be an issue in rural sates but areas in the NY/NJ/CT must run out of channel allocations for people living in urban aras. I may have to check out the NY OTA thread.

I'm most ripped about losing WCVB (b/c the FCC co-channeled WTXX-Hartford), tho. The coverage maps have those colorful little graphics that say "Coverage lost but still served by same network." What they don't seem to understand is that the network brand means very little - 3 hours a day. I'm losing my old friend "Chronicle" in HD every night and am now left with entertainment-'news' trash, and no Patriots pre-season/MNF. In terms of "public service" the move to allow co-channeling sucks.

I do feel for you about losing WCVB, I would be upset. I was really pissed when Syndex and the Program Duplicity rules kicked in on my cable company and kicked off WBZ, and WPIX in favor for WWLP --- but you haven't lost all of the Patriots yet. WCVB lost the Patriots contract after last season, it's moving to WBZ. Patriots All Access and the pre-season games are moving, but it appears that WCVB still carries the in-season MNF game.

http://www.patriots.com/search/index.cfm?ac=searchdetail&pid=36511&pcid=47
http://www.patriots.com/schedule/

While I sympathize with folks who have lost a friend, I think the good that comes from the new friends so many folks have gained was a fair trade overall. It always sucks to draw the short straw.

Obviously WMUR doesn't care if people down south in massachusetts get them or not. It's a new hampshire station. Sure, their analog signal reached out that far, but down here, we have our own ABC channel - WCVB.

Same thing with WENH. You already get WGBH and WGBX. That's 2 PBS affiliates from the same place.

I have Edmund Ansin's home address in Miami Beach. I should drop him a note telling him that WHDH's signal is now crap and a good portion of viewers can no longer get it. I'll also enclose the links to websites where everyone else is saying the same thing. As owner of the station I am sure he might like to know that millions of potential viewers can no longer receive his station. he's not going to be happy about this.

Yes do tell him. And make sure you tell him that dipole rabbit ears are worthless 20+ miles out as well.

-----

The FCC's maps of the coverage area (http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/) is a lie.

Look at the Boston map and the WHDH contour for 29.7kW. I'm right under a green dot and I don't register a blip on my tuners.

Same here.

Well, did WVIT-30 analog go away or are they nightlighting? That could have made the difference for you.

- Trip

GONE!!!!! And loving that I get WBZ now!!

but still pissed about losing WCVB because of WTXX.. damn FCC

Watched channel 25 news last night and thought the picture was soft but glad they finally went HD

Given the WHDH switch to hi-band VHF (and I'd like to pull in WMUR and WENH), any suggestions on a VHF antenna? I'm currently using a Clearstream4 w/Channel Master 7777 preamp to pull in UHF. I'm considering the Clearstream5 to pull in the VHF stations.

Given the WHDH switch to hi-band VHF (and I'd like to pull in WMUR and WENH), [QUOTE]any suggestions on a VHF antenna?

Its big (100" long) but specific to VHF 7-13, the Winegard 1713.

Surprisingly, my UHF antenna is still able to pull in WHDH reasonably well up here (north of Boston). I do get an occasional signal breakup, but the signal strength is significantly better than Fox (Fox is unwatchable). My Tivo says the signal strength for WHDH is in the mid 40s, Fox is in the 30s, and WGBH is in the 80s. I assume the scale is 0-100 with anything over 50 being considered acceptable and not producing any breakups.

Question: I forgot to ask; should I expect Fox to improve? I seem to remember talk about this, but it was so long ago that I assumed they must be at full power by now.

I use a 10 element cut yagi set to channel 11 and it gets plenty of signal for my closer stations like 7, 9, 10, 12 and 13. (rf channels)

I use a 10 element cut yagi set to channel 11 and it gets plenty of signal for my closer stations like 7, 9, 10, 12 and 13. (rf channels)

Is that a home-made antenna or store-bought?

And I'm assuming you use a rotor to select between the NH stations and the RI stations?

I use a home made 4 bay uhg from "how to build an UHF antenna" in my atic and able to get 7 and 11 where I live.

Did anyone happen to capture any screen caps or clips of Fox 25's first HD newscast last night?

WFXT is one of my strongest stations and WBZ

The fox newcast last night looked like it was 16:9 480p, if that was high def it was terrible in comparison to 56.1 HD newscast.

Given the WHDH switch to hi-band VHF (and I'd like to pull in WMUR and WENH), any suggestions on a VHF antenna? I'm currently using a Clearstream4 w/Channel Master 7777 preamp to pull in UHF. I'm considering the Clearstream5 to pull in the VHF stations.

Is the C4 on the roof or attic? What are your thoughts on the C4? I was going to purchase that one but the store had a CM4228HD. I get WHDH at night but have never gotten WMUR 9 in Manchester. My CM does have a WG preamp and is mounted in the attic pointed due south with no rotor. The C5 review will be harder since it has not been reviewed yet or hit the stores. I do like their designs for antennas though not the same old Yagi look to them.

The fox newcast last night looked like it was 16:9 480p, if that was high def it was terrible in comparison to 56.1 HD newscast.

Tried watching it tonight... terrible audio mixing made it totally unwatchable. The anchors would be very quiet so I'd turn the volume up then the stories would come blasting out at full volume. And like everyone else said, the picture quality is lousy.

For anyone using Windows Media Center that is having trouble getting WHDH, this (http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/pnear/archive/2006/09/12/202708.aspx) guide straightened me out.

Fox should be ashamed of themselves calling this HD it is nothing but garbage.

I understand that WHDH-HD changed their broadcast frequency on 6/12/09 and now I get weak/no signal. I use aZenith indoor antenna (http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-ZHDTV1-HDTV-UHF-Digital-Antenna/dp/B00006FXR9) and all the other Boston stations come in at "98" out of 100 on my Sony TV's signal strength.

What do I need to do to get channel 7 back? Is there another passive indoor antenna that would work better for the new frequency it is on yet still be as effective for the other HD stations?

Thanks.

I understand that WHDH-HD changed their broadcast frequency on 6/12/09 and now I get weak/no signal. I use aZenith indoor antenna (http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-ZHDTV1-HDTV-UHF-Digital-Antenna/dp/B00006FXR9) and all the other Boston stations come in at "98" out of 100 on my Sony TV's signal strength.

What do I need to do to get channel 7 back? Is there another passive indoor antenna that would work better for the new frequency it is on yet still be as effective for the other HD stations?

Thanks.

If you are in range you just need a VHF UHF antenna. I went from the Zenith Silver Sensor to the Terk that looks just like it except has rabbit ears too for the VHF.
Channel 7 comes in better than ever for me.

Well it looks like WHDH fired back up the UHF transmitter....for how long?....lets hope it stays.

WHDH - Special Temporary Authority Request

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=764396&formid=911&q_num=5200

The station made its transition from channel 42 to channel 7 as planned. The overwhelming response of calls of complaints resulting from the transition has convinced the station that immediate action is required to counteract the resulting loss of viewers who have reported their sudden inability to receive WHDH-DT on channel 7 post-transition. WHDH-TV believes that the public interest will be served by permitting the station to temporarily resume its operation on its pre-transition channel 42, thereby re-establishing that service to those viewers who have now been disenfranchised.

So, are they dual running on 7 and 42 right now?

Channel 7 as far as I am concerned is owned by dopes and run by dopes I wish NBC had pulled the plug on them

Did WHDH leave their VHF-HI signal on the air as well as firing up the UHF transmitter again?

I understand that WHDH-HD changed their broadcast frequency on 6/12/09 and now I get weak/no signal. I use aZenith indoor antenna (http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-ZHDTV1-HDTV-UHF-Digital-Antenna/dp/B00006FXR9) and all the other Boston stations come in at "98" out of 100 on my Sony TV's signal strength.

What do I need to do to get channel 7 back? Is there another passive indoor antenna that would work better for the new frequency it is on yet still be as effective for the other HD stations?

Thanks.

Do a rescan, WHDH turned back on their UHF transmission.

Did WHDH leave their VHF-HI signal on the air as well as firing up the UHF transmitter again?
Yeah, it looks like they have both on for now.

Is the virtual mapping the same on both DT signals? I hope not.

I got WHDH back. You see. VHF SUCKS for digital.

Is the virtual mapping the same on both DT signals? I hope not.
My Panasonic plasma shows 2 7-1's and 2 7-2's - one appears to be 7 and the other 42. I'm not sure what else they could do about that.
I got WHDH back. You see. VHF SUCKS for digital.
It obviously depends on where you live and what antenna you have. In Billerica, with a Winegard HD-7210 in the attic, run to a ChannelVision CVT-2/8PIAII RF amplified splitter in the basement, and runs from there to each room, I can get close to a 100% signal on VHF 7.

In Charlestown, 11 miles from the tower, I was unable to pick up WHDH on channel 7 with my SIR T351 and a BT-UHFBB, though my wife's little Samsung LCD set picked it up fine with a paper clip antenna.

WHDH comes in fine again for me on the UHF Channel 42. Thanks for letting us know that 42 is active again.

Now let's hope nobody else pulls a WZMY fast one either.

FOX 25 definitely still has some kinks to work out with the HD transition. One big thing being that they need an HD recorder. They don't rebroadcast in HD at 1:00 am and their promos are still 4:3. I also don't know if it is because they are not allowed to but they really should transition over to 1080i instead of being 720p. However when it comes to PQ I blame the native 720p for the blockiness of it. On the positive side they are definitely ahead of WBZ's "HD". The only thing HD about WBZ's news is the in-studio. They are the only one's who don't have HD Weather maps and they are also the only ones that don't have 16:9 SD on site reporting. Heck, WBZ's news opening isn't even in HD!

Thanks for the info. WHDH is back, here, tho somewhat choppy. Are they running at the same signal strength as before?

As I wrote, I wasn't registering anything on real-7 on either of my tuners. Not a blink, blip or blooper. That a lot of people --- even from as close as we've had reports here --- aren't/weren't getting it tells me something is really fouled up. "You need the right kind of antenna" is somewhat cr@p. I've got the XG-91 UHF, but it also does well on VHF-high. I get WEDN-9 (CT PBS) in at 90%, and get WPRI and WNAC mid-70s --- and this is with the antenna pointed toward Boston ~30 degrees off. If real-7 were running properly, we should at least be seeing something.

For the sake of everyone in this region, either get 7-1 fixed to preserve the former viewing area or just stick with real-42. I don't know why they had to go changing it to begin with.

Do you get WTNH-DT (ABC) New Haven on channel 10 at all? What about the mess with WCVB-DT (ABC) and WTXX-DT (CW) both using channel 20?

What is analog channel 24? I'm still getting it, but it's not listed in any progam guides I can find...

Finally figured it out---WFXZ-CA, local affiliate of Azteca America

Two TVs and the HTPC are now seeing WHDH. One TV still is not receiving it. I changed nothing on my end other than repeated channel scans.

Yes, I now get ch7 with good reception here in Providence where I was getting zero reception yesterday.

Edit: I just found out that whdh is now simulcasting on the pre-transition ch42. That's why I'm getting such good reception in Providence. I hope they keep it that way!

http://lists.bostonradio.org/pipermail/boston-radio-interest/2009-June/021194.html


Two TVs and the HTPC are now seeing WHDH. One TV still is not receiving it. I changed nothing on my end other than repeated channel scans.

Do you get WTNH-DT (ABC) New Haven on channel 10 at all? What about the mess with WCVB-DT (ABC) and WTXX-DT (CW) both using channel 20?

Can't say that I've spent time trying to pick up WTNH here, as it's an outlier from the compass readings of the rest of the Hartford-market stations. I don't use a rotor (don't want to). But, at a location not far from here where analog-8 came in very well, digital-8 got nothing. From the NE corner of CT, it does seem like getting a channel from New Haven is slightly past the capability of digital (e.g. curvature of the earth) at >60 miles, per Mapquest.

Roger that for WTXX-WCVB and you can throw in WTIC-WFXT while you're at it. I can only say that losing WCVB ("Chronicle" in HD, especially) is seriously disappointing. Especially for a network (CW) that the FCC decided this area needed a triple dose of (56-Boston and 28-Providence (comes in off-axis)) while we have one ABC. I'd wager that 80% would rather have WCVB. Guess we have to wait for CW to go bankrupt....

In lieu of that happening, I'm doing some prelim experimentation with a Faraday cage. Boston is 77 degrees, Hartford is 257-8 --- so they're a straight 180. Tried out some old scrap pieces of aluminum window screen cackhandedly put over the corner reflector on my spare XG-91, and was getting WTIC fairly well w/o a pre-amp (cannibalized it to a neighbor in need and ordered another yesterday) even as no other Hartford stations were coming in. When the pre-amp arrives, it looks like I'm going to be crafting a more elaborate Faraday cage to see what happens. Possibly out of aluminum screening, but I may try chicken wire (it's galvanized, yes?) for more stability.

The neighbors will probably be calling the mental clinic on me about this time next week. :)

Finally figured it out---WFXZ-CA, local affiliate of Azteca America
Is channel 24 only in Spanish? I believed I saw some in English but now when I switch to it, it is in Spanish.

Here's a Globe article about the Channel 7 situation. Not much in there that hasn't already been said.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/06/17/signal_glitch_weakens_whdh_tvs_digital_strength/

Can't say that I've spent time trying to pick up WTNH here, as it's an outlier from the compass readings of the rest of the Hartford-market stations. I don't use a rotor (don't want to). But, at a location not far from here where analog-8 came in very well, digital-8 got nothing. From the NE corner of CT, it does seem like getting a channel from New Haven is slightly past the capability of digital (e.g. curvature of the earth) at >60 miles, per Mapquest.

Roger that for WTXX-WCVB and you can throw in WTIC-WFXT while you're at it. I can only say that losing WCVB ("Chronicle" in HD, especially) is seriously disappointing. Especially for a network (CW) that the FCC decided this area needed a triple dose of (56-Boston and 28-Providence (comes in off-axis)) while we have one ABC. I'd wager that 80% would rather have WCVB. Guess we have to wait for CW to go bankrupt....

In lieu of that happening, I'm doing some prelim experimentation with a Faraday cage. Boston is 77 degrees, Hartford is 257-8 --- so they're a straight 180. Tried out some old scrap pieces of aluminum window screen cackhandedly put over the corner reflector on my spare XG-91, and was getting WTIC fairly well w/o a pre-amp (cannibalized it to a neighbor in need and ordered another yesterday) even as no other Hartford stations were coming in. When the pre-amp arrives, it looks like I'm going to be crafting a more elaborate Faraday cage to see what happens. Possibly out of aluminum screening, but I may try chicken wire (it's galvanized, yes?) for more stability.

The neighbors will probably be calling the mental clinic on me about this time next week. :)

I have WHDH back on 42 in Brimfield. It was choppy but seemed to improve last night over time. I am getting about 2% signal on my Panny plasma's meter for the VHF signal and my Clearstream4 antenna gets in other VHF high, like WTNH in Hartford on 10. I use to get the 7 analog, it was watchable but had static.

It still ticks me off about WCVB.. funny how Tribune owns WTXX and WTIC. The 2 stations in Hartford on the same frequency as WCVB and WFXT.