Maybe you already read about this elsewhere; I just saw a link to it on TVNewsCheck.com this evening.

On Courant.com: "Man Reportedly Parachutes Off Hartford TV Tower". (It was the Chase tower in Farmington, home of WEDH, WTXX, and WTIC-TV.)

Link: http://www.courant.com/community/farmington/hc-web-farmington-parachute-1105nov05,0,1347707.story

As far as I know, they're both on the same tower.
WCTX (38, Virtual 59) is 170 kW at 301 Meters
WTNH (10, Virtual 8) is 20.5 kW at 364 Meters

Does the 60M height difference make it unviewable in Suffield?

I find it interesting that WCTX used to have 5,000 KW when it was analog 59, WTNH used to have 174 KW when it was analog 8, so they both have much less power now that they're digital. Is that the FCC's method of phasing out broadcast TV in favor of pay distribution systems, or is there some other reason the digital transmitters have so much less power?

I don't know about that, but WCTX-DT (MY) is UHF channel 39, not 38. :O

Oops. Typo in my message. I was on 39.
My tvfool profile for WCTX does show a hill in the way, but it also does for WTNH. I guess the 60M transmitter height difference does matter.
It probably makes a difference for someone wanting to parachute off of a tower too.

I have similar issues in Naugatuck too. 39 will break up especially when the weather is bad and 8 will be rock solid. I figured it also had something to do with the frequency that each was transmitted on VHF vs UHF.

Exactly UHF has more propagation loss than VHF and suffers more loss from blocking. That is why UHF stations almost always run much more power than VHF. A lot of people in the fringe area, where they use good outside antennas, find that High VHF stations are more reliable than UHF ones even with the xmit power difference.
John

IIRC, WCTX is at a lower power level than WTNH.

As far as I know, they're both on the same tower.
WCTX (38, Virtual 59) is 170 kW at 301 Meters
WTNH (10, Virtual 8) is 20.5 kW at 364 Meters


These levels agree with information provided on the FCC's web site. So I would say that WCTX has quite a bit more power than WTNH.
John

I never had any lasting luck getting WCTX either. If I were to do a rescan, it would usually come in. But when I would channel surf within a couple days after doing the rescan, the tuner would put up the "Weak Or No Signal" box and a black screen on Channel 59-1. I deleted the channel from my line-up so that I wouldn't have to keep seeing black whenever I surfed past it.

I've noticed a recent problem on WTXX, both on Channels 20-1 and 20-2 (ThisTV). This past Sunday morning at 6:30AM I was trying to watch the home improvement how-to program, "Ron Hazleton's Housecalls". The same scenario repeated itself throughout the half hour: the reception would be fine for a few minutes, then the audio would drop out, the picture would start breaking up, the receiver would put up the black screen and "Weak Or No Signal" for varying seconds, and then picture and audio would reappear without problems for a few minutes until this sequence of events repeated itself.

I pressed the signal strength button and saw that WTXX was registering no higher than 6 bars (out of 10), and would then drop to 1 bar and then zero bars before jumping back up to 6. I then checked the signal strength of the other channels coming from that same tower. Both CPTV and WTIC were registering a solid and consistent 10 bars and had no reception problems.

This evening (Friday) at 6 I checked all these channels and the same thing is happening. 24-1, 24-2, and 61-1 are measuring 10 bars, and 20-1 and 20-2 are both breaking up with signal having erratic swings between 6, 1, and 0 bars. I could understand if all these channels or sister stations 20 and 61 were having simultaneous transmission problems, or if weather was somehow affecting all of them. But why just a problem with WTXX, especially since just after the digital transition back in June it was registering 10 bars?

WHNB: sometimes these consumer devices that show bars or arbitrary numbers for what appears to be signal strength in fact is not signal strength but a combination of a number of parameters. It is possible to have a strong signal but poor signal to noise ratio (SNR) which may result in bad reception. The (bit) error rate can also degrade a signal as well. So - it may be something a bit more complicated than just a degraded (RF) signal.

A couple of times a week I'll give a watch to WTXX up in Massachusetts ... and I have not noticed anything different. (I'm using a simple indoor antenna and an old DirecTV box that also does ATSC.)

These levels agree with information provided on the FCC's web site. So I would say that WCTX has quite a bit more power than WTNH.Although the amount of power is surely a factor of how much area a station can cover - it is not fair to make comparisons between power levels of VHF and UHF stations. Additionally - many TV stations do not transmit with an omni-directional antenna ... so you really need to see where the power is going.

On the FCC web site there are predicted coverage areas based on antenna pattern and power levels - that's what you should be looking at for comparisons.

For a more personal evaluation at your exact address use TVFOOL.com. Although either the FCC's coverage area or TVFool levels are inexact predictions, TVFool uses much more detailed data to get its numbers so will be closer to what you actually get.
John

Thanks, RPM. Prior to last Sunday, TXX was problem-free, and had been since June. When I saw those reception problems on Sunday, I figured it was just a temporary fluke.

But seeing problems again tonight on 20 made me wonder if anyone else was experiencing the same thing, and if this was more than just a short-lived issue. Thanks again for your reply.

Thanks, RPM. Prior to last Sunday, TXX was problem-free, and had been since June. When I saw those reception problems on Sunday, I figured it was just a temporary fluke.

But seeing problems again tonight on 20 made me wonder if anyone else was experiencing the same thing, and if this was more than just a short-lived issue. Thanks again for your reply.

Could it possibly be co-channel interference from WCVB? I've noticed on my internal tuner and on a set-top box that signals in a co-channel situation do just like what you described. Especially the case with a weak Boston signal, it could trip the signal intermittently every several minutes, like you write. With the leaves now almost all down, there may be signal coming in now that had been blocked since June, or perhaps the interference is tropo-dependent.

It bears repeating that the FCC's handling with co-channeling in the northeast sucks.

jimdish255, hope the new antenna works better for you at pulling in the CT DTV stations. Let us know what you can get.

I grew up in Bethel (although I've lived in Virginia for almost 10 years now) and OTA reception of either NYC or Hartford was tough even back in the analog days because of the terrain. TVFool for my old address shows 2edge propagation for every station.

All I could ever receive with an indoor antenna in analog when I lived in Bethel in the '90s were WCBS and WNBC (both very weak) WTNH, WTXX (different tower site back then, I think), WVIT, and WTBY. WEDW from 12 miles away was never detectable over the hills. Every station was full of ghosting due to the severe multipath. Never tried an outdoor antenna but the results might be better for digital if you can lock a signal. A directional antenna is going to be the way to go because of all the multipath.

No wonder just about everyone in Bethel has always had cable, for as long as I can remember. Even Comcast was not totally free of reception problems, though...back in the day, they used to receive the NYC stations in analog OTA from wherever their master antenna was, so any time there was E-skip or tropo, I'd see a station from hundreds of miles away interfering with the local channel. Presumably Comcast gets the DTV stations by some other means now.

It bears repeating that the FCC's handling with co-channeling in the northeast sucks.

UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!!!!

I doubt it will ever be fixed too..

Could it possibly be co-channel interference from WCVB? ... With the leaves now almost all down, there may be signal coming in now that had been blocked since June, or perhaps the interference is tropo-dependent.

Sounds plausible to me, especially considering that this is the first fall that TXX is actually on UHF 20. The intermittent reception that I had on that Sunday morning (Nov. 1st) and Friday evening (Nov. 6th) was similar to what I used to see when TXX was on VHF 12 and broadcasting from the lower, side-mounted antenna that was aimed toward Waterbury.

Channels 20-1 and -2 have been coming in steady when I checked them this past Sunday morning at 6:30 and in the evenings during the past week. The measurement bars have been holding on 6 or 7, and not jumping erratically down to one and zero. (6 bars is what my tuner also registers for Springfield's WGBY.) Whatever parameters these bars represent, it doesn't bode well for reception when they swing widely all over the scale every few minutes.

My non-technical explanation: chalk it up to the Murphy's Law of DTV. Bad reception only happens on the channel that you want to watch. Meanwhile, on another channel that recites the weather forecast over and over every few minutes, the picture is problem-free. :)

Would that be WVIT-DT 30-2? ;)

Would that be WVIT-DT 30-2? ;)

Actually, I was thinking of the venerable Channel 3. At 6:30 on a Sunday morning, I'd rather watch "House Calls" on WTXX than see the weather presented with unbelievable frequency on WFSB.

Now that you mention it, 30-2 also falls into that category. But I long ago deleted that channel so that I don't even have to surf by it. Free TV ... you get what you pay for!

jimdish255, hope the new antenna works better for you at pulling in the CT DTV stations. Let us know what you can get.

I grew up in Bethel (although I've lived in Virginia for almost 10 years now) and OTA reception of either NYC or Hartford was tough even back in the analog days because of the terrain. TVFool for my old address shows 2edge propagation for every station.

All I could ever receive with an indoor antenna in analog when I lived in Bethel in the '90s were WCBS and WNBC (both very weak) WTNH, WTXX (different tower site back then, I think), WVIT, and WTBY. WEDW from 12 miles away was never detectable over the hills. Every station was full of ghosting due to the severe multipath. Never tried an outdoor antenna but the results might be better for digital if you can lock a signal. A directional antenna is going to be the way to go because of all the multipath.

No wonder just about everyone in Bethel has always had cable, for as long as I can remember. Even Comcast was not totally free of reception problems, though...back in the day, they used to receive the NYC stations in analog OTA from wherever their master antenna was, so any time there was E-skip or tropo, I'd see a station from hundreds of miles away interfering with the local channel. Presumably Comcast gets the DTV stations by some other means now.

...back in the day, they used to receive the NYC stations in analog OTA from wherever their master antenna was...

Channels 5, 9 and 11 were originally picked up from the Valley CableTV Headend tower in Seymour, CT. From there they were microwaved to the LVO (later United) CableTV South Mountain remote tower in Bristol, CT.

At South Mountain, a VHF quad periodic antenna was used as a backup for the microwaves, each individually switched by a video loss detector. Several OTA FM stations were combined, all were returned by the reverse coax trunk, with channels 5, 9 and 11 in the 5-50 MHz T channels and the FMs 88-108 MHz. WWV was also picked up there and returned on an FM channel.

The reverse coax trunk made its way to the LVO (United) CableTV first main headend (built late 1973) on Cook St, Plainville, CT were it all started. 5, 9 and 11 were heterodyne processed back to on channel 5, 9 and 11. Other channels, 3, 8, 18, 20, 22, 24, 30, 40 and 57 were picked up there along with other FMs, and later WWV substituted via a local home made dipole.

30 channels overall, 2-31, 12 broadcast, 18 non broadcast included color bars, character generators information, one of which a TV guide channel with inserted time, weather (temp, baro, wind speed, rain fall via a roof top weather station - usually temp displayed the black tar roof top temp of 100+ deg during the summer-an inside joke), several FMs, including four 24/7 reel to reel tape with auto reverse playbacks, two per channel, of Rock, Country, MOR & Jazz music...All this before HBO, MTV and pay per view.

New Britain was the first and only service area, January 1974 introduction through 1976. About 10+/-k customers.

HBO, MTV, pay per view and other towns came later.

Now, many of the DTVs are direct fiber fed from the stations, or via a recipacating CableTV franchasie (CableVision, COX for examples) with OTA as backup only.

Sorry if this has been already asked but this thread is just to long to read everythig, even with searches.

I have been noticing for quite some time that the WTNH ATSC OTA (Chan 10 - 8.1) is not transmitting Dolby Digital. When ever I watch live or recorded shows, they all come into my Onkyo 906 receiver as Pro Logic II, not DD. All the other local channnels come in as DD. It's even that way when I watch/record the uplinked ABC , Channel 8 locals off my Dish Network system. I was under the impression that the HD standard was at least 720p and Dolby Digital. Am I the only one seeing this. Since all the audio from my Satellite system goes to the same input of my receiver (using spdif) theres no settings I can set for just Channel 8.

I noticed this when watching college football on ABC this weekend. It's def a WTNH problem, as this doesn't happen when I switch to WABC.

I receive WTNH ota in NJ and have also noticed no dolby digital while WABC will have the same programs in DD.

I receive WTNH ota in NJ and have also noticed no dolby digital while WABC will have the same programs in DD.

Wow, you get WTNH in W Orange, NJ? That's pretty impressive. What type of antenna are you using?

Are you sure it's WTNH in New Jersey? They're on digital channel 10, which is impressive from that distance! Hamden, CT to West Orange, NJ? Hmmm!

TV Fool shows that WTNH would have acceptable signal on the eastern slopes of the mountains in West Orange.

- Trip

I'm just on the Western slope of the mountain in West Orange two blocks from the top of the ridge. When there was analog I could receive 8, 20,43, 49 and 59 on a little handheld tv while walking along the eastern ridge.
I'm using the winegard 1713 to pick up WTNH digital and I'm looking into a neighbor's tree.

I would like to know what antenna you are using and what channels you are pulling in. I'm thinking of dropping DTV, since I find that we mostly watch OTA channels.

I would like to know what antenna you are using and what channels you are pulling in. I'm thinking of dropping DTV, since I find that we mostly watch OTA channels.

I'm in Wethersfield but with rabbit ears. I can barely get the Springfield and New Haven stations anymore sadly. Let us know your results!