Maybe with a 50" display like I have you might notice the flaws a little more. But then again, maybe not.

Just doesn't look as good as it used to. Nothing on that channel does now.

thanks for being gentile

perhaps the engineer tasked with selecting encoders and tuning their I P B frames, and GOP should use a larger test bed ...

Did CBS (2.1) change their encoding last week? I use MythTV (Mythbuntu), and as of 4/29/2009, I can't use the normal MythTV front-end to watch recorded shows from channel 2.1. When I try, it just shows a black screen. If I shut down the front-end and use Mplayer, the recordings play. All other recorded shows are fine.

The odd thing is, I can use the Watch TV option for live TV on CBS (2.1) and it works fine. I hadn't changed any options in my setup over the affected period.

Configuration:
O/S: Mythbuntu 8.10
HD tuners: HDHomeRun
SD tuner: PCI bt878 connected to DirecTV box
Sharp LC-45GX6U/TUGD10UT LCD HDTV w/digital tuner

thanks for being gentileYou can thank Rammitinski's mother for that, and you can thank mine that I'm not (I certainly do).

WFLD FOX Chicago's new HD Control Room
http://twitpic.com/4obsm

Finally WLS 7 is reairing the 10pm news at 1am in HD

Did CBS (2.1) change their encoding last week? I use MythTV (Mythbuntu), and as of 4/29/2009, I can't use the normal MythTV front-end to watch recorded shows from channel 2.1. When I try, it just shows a black screen. If I shut down the front-end and use Mplayer, the recordings play. All other recorded shows are fine.

The odd thing is, I can use the Watch TV option for live TV on CBS (2.1) and it works fine. I hadn't changed any options in my setup over the affected period.

Configuration:
O/S: Mythbuntu 8.10
HD tuners: HDHomeRun
SD tuner: PCI bt878 connected to DirecTV box
Sharp LC-45GX6U/TUGD10UT LCD HDTV w/digital tuner

When you watch it with LiveTV, are you sure it's using the same tuner as the one you are having trouble with? I take it you're having trouble with the OTA signal from the HDHomeRun? Make sure this is what you are viewing with LiveTV...

I can't check WBBM on my MythTV setup right now, as the VHF side of my CM7777 pre-amp is hooked up to an experimental antenna I have pointed north to Milwaukee.

Did CBS (2.1) change their encoding last week? I use MythTV (Mythbuntu), and as of 4/29/2009, I can't use the normal MythTV front-end to watch recorded shows from channel 2.1. When I try, it just shows a black screen. If I shut down the front-end and use Mplayer, the recordings play. All other recorded shows are fine.

I'm running mythTV, and haven't noticed anything different about WBBM-DT this last week. The latest recording I have is from last night, and it plays just like every other recording.


So you're unable to play the vids using the front end, but can play them with mplayer? Huh, that's... odd. I'm assuming you've re-started the frontend "just because", right?

(I don't think you have a dead tuner, because if you did then you wouldn't have any video information to play with mplayer. That's assuming your description is accurate, of course!)

And just for completeness sake...

~$ mythfrontend --version

MythTV Version : 19961
MythTV Branch : branches/release-0-21-fixes
Library API : 0.21.20080304-1
Network Protocol : 40

I'm running mythTV, and haven't noticed anything different about WBBM-DT this last week. The latest recording I have is from last night, and it plays just like every other recording.


So you're unable to play the vids using the front end, but can play them with mplayer? Huh, that's... odd. I'm assuming you've re-started the frontend "just because", right?

(I don't think you have a dead tuner, because if you did then you wouldn't have any video information to play with mplayer. That's assuming your description is accurate, of course!)

And just for completeness sake...

~$ mythfrontend --version

MythTV Version : 19961
MythTV Branch : branches/release-0-21-fixes
Library API : 0.21.20080304-1
Network Protocol : 40


I had set my play profile to use "CPU+". I set it back to the normal default setting and things seem to work OK now.
So maybe there's something about XvMC that has a problem with WBBM-DT?
Or could it be that WBBM-DT is the only station broadcasting in the resolution that would be using XvMC? So maybe XvMC isn't working correctly? I'm going to have to experiment to see if I can narrow this down. Maybe I'll try playing some recordings using mplayer with and without the XvMC parameters to see what happens.

It's a wee bit off. :eek: Thanks for the heads up.

By the way, any update/news about the guide data? It still seems both are off their schedules. Just thought I'd ask. :)

Two quotes:
1) Originally Posted by hvs10trk
It's a wee bit off. Thanks for the heads up.

2) By the way, any update/news about the guide data? It still seems both are off their schedules. Just thought I'd ask.

Yes, I saw a very odd looking Perry Mason at 8pm tonight. Looked more like Lucy! TVGOS on the E55 said Perry Mason was on. Schedules do not seem to match. Been happening off and on since January. Need to use Zap2it and manually set recorder by time.

WXFT-DT and WGBO-DT are giving us their own problems. One TV doesn't seem to like their PSIP data any more and shows them only on 59-1 and 53-1 with no channel IDs. Another shows WXFT-DT both on 59-1 with no channel ID and on 60-1 as WXFT DT, and WGBO-DT both on 53-1 with no channel ID and on 66-1 as WGBODT. Our other TV with an ATSC tuner and all of our CECBs show the two stations properly, only on their virtual channels, with their channel IDs.Several rescans of those two tuners didn't change anything until today (well, Thursday, it now being a few minutes into Friday), when they were back to normal with 60.1 and 66.1 as their virtual channels.

Need to use Zap2it and manually set recorder by time.Why do you have to set the timers manually? Just set the recordings through the guide, as you'd usually do.

So you get the wrong title for the recording. Is that really any different from having no title at all?

By the way, any update/news about the guide data? It still seems both are off their schedules. Just thought I'd ask. :)

Our provider needs to make some changes. Once I have the new data, I can force it to update. May take a few more days.

Several rescans of those two tuners didn't change anything until today (well, Thursday, it now being a few minutes into Friday), when they were back to normal with 60.1 and 66.1 as their virtual channels.

My originals show programming again although the rf channels that showed up during downtime remain. I'd do a rescan but screw it I have to do one on June 12 anyway so I'll wait till then. Don't watch those channels I may just delete all the Spanish stuff since I speak English only.

I Know this is off topic, I'm looking for a 10-12 foot cband dish that anyone might want to get rid of. If so please let me know as im very interested in taking it off your hands, if you would like to get rid of it. :) Im in the Manteno/kankakee area and am willing to travel anywhere in the southern burbs. :)

Nice band opening last night. I got channel 15 analog from Ft Wayne, and digitals of NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and some religious channel from South Bend.

One time last year I received WFRV-DT (CBS) from Green Bay. They have one heck of a transmitter up there.

This is the time of year for the band openings so keep a sharp eye out!

Our provider needs to make some changes. Once I have the new data, I can force it to update. May take a few more days.Oh I see. Well, not a problem at all; just thought I'd ask.

My originals show programming again although the rf channels that showed up during downtime remain. I'd do a rescan but screw it I have to do one on June 12 anyway so I'll wait till then. Don't watch those channels I may just delete all the Spanish stuff since I speak English only.I take it then you don't have WTTW's 11-4 (you know that V-Me station) in your lineup then, eh? :p

I had set my play profile to use "CPU+". I set it back to the normal default setting and things seem to work OK now.
So maybe there's something about XvMC that has a problem with WBBM-DT?
Or could it be that WBBM-DT is the only station broadcasting in the resolution that would be using XvMC? So maybe XvMC isn't working correctly? I'm going to have to experiment to see if I can narrow this down. Maybe I'll try playing some recordings using mplayer with and without the XvMC parameters to see what happens.

Kind of depends on what you're using as your playback hardware. Some hardware (*cough*OpenChrome*cough*) can only do XvMC up to 1024x768 IIRC. Other, better, hardware (*cough*nvidia*cough*) can do XvMC at pretty much whatever resolution you want to run.

I don't use XvMC, as I found its drawbacks weren't enough to offset the CPU usage for me. (i.e. I have plenty of CPU to spare on my front ends, so the glitchy-ness and restrictions of XvMC just didn't win me over.)

I'd just define a whole new profile, with one resolution... x> 0, y > 0, then toggle how it plays back the content until you find your gremlin.

Does anyone know if Chicago Tonight is in HD? It seems like it is, but the Week In Review on Friday does not seem like it is.

Does anyone know if Chicago Tonight is in HD? It seems like it is, but the Week In Review on Friday does not seem like it is.

There was some talk that it was supposed to be in HD..this year.. so it might be :cool:

Anybody else feel that tremor about 9:48 PM last night?

It wasn't as long or intense as the one we had last year, but it was pretty noticable.

Anybody else feel that tremor about 9:48 PM last night?


In the force?

Anybody else feel that tremor about 9:48 PM last night?Not here.  Maybe McHenry County needs its own thread; it seems to be on a different tectonic plate.

Only lasted no more than 10 seconds. felt just like last year's, only milder. Nothing rattled and the walls didn't creak.

I talked to my mom, and she said she felt a big one last week. So I checked, and there actually was one down south at the IN/IL border again at that time (I think it was early AM and I was in bed at the time, and I missed it.) Must've been an aftershock.

I don't know if it was on the local news or not, because I don't watch that. It doesn't relate to me at all - news, weather or "homer" sports reporting.

Anybody else feel that tremor about 9:48 PM last night?

It wasn't as long or intense as the one we had last year, but it was pretty noticable.

Didn't notice anything. Then again we were at the movie theatre, so I don't we would have noticed anything.

tim

yeah I was fast asleep. Woke up at 11pm though when the 30+mph winds and thunderstorms rolled through!

Didn't feel this year's, wouldn't have known about it if Rammitinski hadn't posted, and neither felt last year's nor heard about it.

Didn't feel anything either.

It was very mild and short. Very easy to not even notice, depending on what you were doing or where you were at.

What I do find harder to believe, though, is that somebody in the city didn't feel last year's:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/chicago/57024-earthquake-tremors-chicago.html

Didn't feel it here. USGS doesn't even show activity in this region in the last week: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/region/N_America.php

WFLD FOX News doesnt look all that great.. in HD.. j/s

WFLD FOX News doesnt look all that great.. in HD.. j/s

Yeah, the in studio stuff looks like it's just widescreen SD. I will say, one of the remote shots did look very good, though. I'll post some screen caps afterwards.

Overall, not too bad of a start for our Fox station. I will say that the in-studio shots of the anchors look very soft and fuzzy - I'd swear that the shots are taken with a widescreen SD camera. Remote shots seem to be a mix of SD, widescreen SD, and HD. The set itself is big improvement over that temp stage they were using for the past few months, but it's relatively self contained to the one big anchor desk (unlike CBS with their football field sized set).

Anyway, on to the pictures! These are 3/4 size pics to keep the web page size down; you can check out full size lossless pics here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fsugino/sets/72157617886415315/).


First up is the opening animation. It's straight to the first story, no mucking around with grandiose introductions.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3407/3521240448_4ff91ee82d_o.jpg

Then comes the basic two-shot of anchors Byron Harlan and Nancy Pender.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3648/3520429381_9db1332ea5_o.jpg

The featured main story has the reporter standing next to a couple of monitors, like the other news stations. Here's Tera Williams doing her introduction.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3307/3520429401_4e7b8b8637_o.jpg

This particular report looks like it was using HD cameras for its remote shots. You can really see the age spots on this guy.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3342/3520429325_d3b8a1b40c_o.jpg

Here is a straight on shots of Nancy Pender. It's hard to tell from these reduced shots, but the picture looks soft like widescreen SD.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3604/3521240616_22aa411af4_o.jpg

The chyron guys need to work on their line spacing.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3567/3521240674_16ed2baf94_o.jpg

What the hell is with the blurred out monitors in the back? It's really distracting.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3589/3521240790_957827d6e0_o.jpg

And now some weather porn for our pal sebenste. The naughty bits in Indiana have conveniently been covered up by weather guy Chris Sowers. I gotta say the WFLD local weather map looks the best of the five stations in Chicago.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3652/3520429663_e1627d4e60_o.jpg

First, you've got problems when the Fox bug covers up the Monday forecast. Second, when the Tuesday forecast reads "INFO HERE" you know you've got to fire the weather guy.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3624/3520429687_2a34513db2_o.jpg

The sports segment was rather disappointing. Highlights were all SD, and the only "HD" shot was this one of Ozzie. Once again it looks like widescreen SD.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3623/3521240960_f0f6d6de43_o.jpg

And finally, the closing shot. Here the floor director just realized he's in the shot and scampers off to the left.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3363/3520429767_807bc13442_o.jpg


Hopefully WFLD will catch up to the other local stations in terms of sports highlights in HD. Anyway, all the locals are now in the HD news game so let the celebration begin!

"The naughty bits in Indiana have conveniently been covered up by weather guy Chris Sowers" ??

From someone who lives in NW Indiana and works in Chicago I did not find that comment funny.

I agree with everything else though.

Didn't feel it here. USGS doesn't even show activity in this region in the last week: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/region/N_America.phpI could've sworn their map had a yellow square there the other night when I checked.

I did look here, too, and maybe I confused it with this site - although it says last six months:

http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/recenteqs/Maps/88-38.html

(Same area as the big one a little over a year ago.)

lol at the fox screenshots!

Re: FOX News Chicago above...

Nice screen caps! They are definitely using face-softening lenses and lighting, and probably a good dose of make-up, to make the anchor's faces look soft.

Why do you have to set the timers manually? Just set the recordings through the guide, as you'd usually do.

So you get the wrong title for the recording. Is that really any different from having no title at all?

The reason is that, at least on my E55, if the title in that day's guide does not exactly match the title I originally selected to be REGULARLY recorded, nothing is recorded. If the next day guide shows the correct title, the show will be recorded. This happens on both 23 and 11 when, for some reason, either an incorrect title is displayed (23) or No Listing (11-sometimes). Of course on the weekends, when these programs are not broadcast, the unit correctly skips recording.

Actually there have been whole days in the last six months when, for what ever reason, the guide contained no listings as has been noted in the forums. This resulted in missed recordings. When I manually set the timer, the E55 will record the selected channel regardless of what (or nothing) is being broadcast. I then enter my own title after recording.

Even this is not consistently guaranteed to work. Last fall I wanted to record one of the debates near the end of a two week vacation, beyond the guide listings. I manually set up the recorder and got nothing. Also missed two other PBS programs which were setup from the guide, but everything else recorded as scheduled. Go figure. I assume these are not unknown problems.

That's weird. I've never tried that with my EH55 or EH75 (use them with Dish, and the guide on the recorder doesn't fill in with info), but I used to do it with my older E85H and Sony RDR-HX900, and they never had a problem recording through the guide when the titles were different.

Now that I think of it, though, my Sony DHG-HDD500 does do what you say. If the title's different, it won't record it. That has the version 8 TVGOS, which is actually closer to the v9 of the EH55/75, and the two, older recorders have v7. Looks like they might've changed it.

With regard to the Fox 32 newscasts now in HD, I noticed that they still air the 5:55 weather report in 4:3 letterboxed widescreen. Doesn't look like they turn on the HD outside of 9 PM. Still nice to see Tera Williams in the new resolution, though...

So anything new happening? Were less than a month away from the Great DTV transition.

Well, Goaliebob, WXFT-DT was off the air for a while during the night but it's back now.

So anything new happening? Were less than a month away from the Great DTV transition.

don't you mean re-postponement?

Does anyone have any experience with either the Winegard 7697 or 7698 antenna? I'm looking to install one of these up in my attic and the narrower max width on these (53") is enticing. I'm up in Vernon Hills.

Does anyone have any experience with either the Winegard 7697 or 7698 antenna? I'm looking to install one of these up in my attic and the narrower max width on these (53") is enticing. I'm up in Vernon Hills.

I have a 7694 sitting in a box here I need to put up this week for a client. Boy the UHF section is bigger than the VHF. They are narrow since the low band VHF section is gone. Winegard ant's always perform well.

Hi - Did anyone else have unusually bad reception with the '24' season finale tonight? I recorded it on my DTVpal DVR, and when watching it, there was tons of breakups and audio drop outs - it was just about unwatchable. I saw the signal strength was at 70 after the show was over - I've never had any problems with any of the networks before - was anything special going on tonight with weather or something with the network? I'm out in Elk Grove Village with an antennae on the roof, but again have never had any problems with reception since I moved here a year ago (and it had to happen during the finale).

So anything new happening? Were less than a month away from the Great DTV transition.

it seems things are fairly quiet, all things considered...

but i am wondering if or when cbs wbbm dtv ch 3 will be doing any kind of testing on their new (after june 12th) ch 12 frequency? i know they probably cant do a full power test (unless they somehow coordinate it with milwaukee's ch 12 and urbana's ch 12 and maybe even others?) but maybe they will do a low power test?

as far as i know they havnt done any testing on ch 12 yet and i can not imagine they are going to just hope/trust everything will go perfectly on june 12th on an untested frequency, antenna and transmitter....there are a lot of things that could go wrong, i'm sure....anyone know any 'inside' info re all this?

it seems things are fairly quiet, all things considered...

but i am wondering if or when cbs wbbm dtv ch 3 will be doing any kind of testing on their new (after june 12th) ch 12 frequency? i know they probably cant do a full power test (unless they somehow coordinate it with milwaukee's ch 12 and urbana's ch 12 and maybe even others?) but maybe they will do a low power test?

as far as i know they havnt done any testing on ch 12 yet and i can not imagine they are going to just hope/trust everything will go perfectly on june 12th on an untested frequency, antenna and transmitter....there are a lot of things that could go wrong, i'm sure....anyone know any 'inside' info re all this?

I think there going to go into it blind figuring channel 11 analog is working fine and all they need to do is make the antenna and transmitter resonant for channel 12. There will probably be problems in the beginning but Im sure they will iron them out. I will be glad when the switch is finally over, delaying it was a very stupid move by the government.

I think there going to go into it blind figuring channel 11 analog is working fine and all they need to do is make the antenna and transmitter resonant for channel 12. There will probably be problems in the beginning but Im sure they will iron them out. I will be glad when the switch is finally over, delaying it was a very stupid move by the government.

You would be quite wrong. No engineering department, doing something this serious, in his/her right minds, would go into something like this blind. I am NOT speaking for WBBM here, but I would put all my money on doing this carefully and right. A lot is at stake here: a much improved signal.

Some stations are public with tests; some are not, and that neither reflects good or bad on them, whether they make them public or not. If you think about it, over the next few weeks, just check late at night if you are up. I know absolutely nothing about any tests coming up, but I think you'll see at least one between now and June 12. I am a "night owl" and I check when I think about it. So far, I've seen nothing, but that doesn't mean anything.
You don't throw a transmitter live without testing it first, offline or hot. You just don't.

If I hear of any public tests, I'll let you know, but someone else may beat me to it.

You would be quite wrong. No engineering department, doing something this serious, in his/her right minds, would go into something like this blind. I am NOT speaking for WBBM here, but I would put all my money on doing this carefully and right. A lot is at stake here: a much improved signal.

Some stations are public with tests; some are not, and that neither reflects good or bad on them, whether they make them public or not. If you think about it, over the next few weeks, just check late at night if you are up. I know absolutely nothing about any tests coming up, but I think you'll see at least one between now and June 12. I am a "night owl" and I check when I think about it. So far, I've seen nothing, but that doesn't mean anything.
You don't throw a transmitter live without testing it first, offline or hot. You just don't.

If I hear of any public tests, I'll let you know, but someone else may beat me to it.


What ever way they do it is okay with me. Since I never had issues with channel 3 DTV all I need to do is a rescan on the 12th. Many will be glad though because 12 will work better than 3 ever did.

If you see 11 analog off the air one night then I would check for a test of 12. If 11 is on it won't be happening that night. I usually have a date with a pillow at night :) so let us know.

OK - So I'll take the silence that no one is having problems with WFLD FOX chicago. I just e-mailed the station. All three of my TV"s are struggling with it, and that has never happened in the previous 10 months, so I wouldn't think it would be weather, but who knows. I'd hate to have to get an AMP just for that one channel, and it doesn't look like anything is going to change with their signal after the digital conversion.

OK - So I'll take the silence that no one is having problems with WFLD FOX chicago. I just e-mailed the station. All three of my TV"s are struggling with it, and that has never happened in the previous 10 months, so I wouldn't think it would be weather, but who knows. I'd hate to have to get an AMP just for that one channel, and it doesn't look like anything is going to change with their signal after the digital conversion.

Are all three of your TV's fed by the same antenna? Did you check for bad connections or water in your connectors?

OK - So I'll take the silence that no one is having problems with WFLD FOX chicago. I just e-mailed the station. All three of my TV"s are struggling with it, and that has never happened in the previous 10 months, so I wouldn't think it would be weather, but who knows. I'd hate to have to get an AMP just for that one channel, and it doesn't look like anything is going to change with their signal after the digital conversion.

Hey EGV Bill,

FYI...no problems out here in DeKalb with my attic aantenna. With the leaves coming out, if you are near trees, multipath is now going to be a problem for you. If not, maybe the bad winter has hurt an antenna connector?

There's a good chance WBBM is running the channel 12 transmitter into a dummy load and thus you may not see any testing over the air prior to the transition date. I know of some stations which are running into a dummy load and haven't done tests to the public.

- Trip

Hi - Thanks for the suggestions - All three tv's are fed from the same antennae, and no problems on other channels. Here is the response I received in a snap from FOX. It is operating at lower power, and I may just have lucked out the last few weeks. My fingers are crossed that all will be well when teh new tube goes in.

Bill,

Nothing has changed over the last two nights; that being said, we have been operating at lower power levels for the last couple of weeks due to a premature HPA failure. The replacement tube is on order and should arrive in the next couple of weeks. Even at this lower power WFLD's transmitter should make the trip as we are transmitting higher power than most. Please check you antenna and feedline.

Sinserely,


John J. Baich
VP Engineering & Operations
Fox Television Stations, Inc. - WFLD/WPWR
205 N Michigan Avenue
Chicago, I'll 60601

312-565-5540

john.baich@foxtv.com

Via BlackBerry

......I am NOT speaking for WBBM here, but I would put all my money on doing this carefully and right....... I know absolutely nothing about any tests coming up, but I think you'll see at least one between now and June 12. I am a "night owl" and I check when I think about it. So far, I've seen nothing, but that doesn't mean anything.....

i agree, they need to be cautious and thorough....and i too have been checking ch 12 for a digital signal pretty regularly after midnights the last few months but i have seen nothing at all....i bet they have been testing into a dummy load, at the very least....i'm guessing they could use wttw's ch 11 standby transmitter and antenna on ch 12 to do some low power tests even with ch 11 on-air, assuming there is a wttw standby transmitter and antenna ....i think thats a safe assumption for most any major market tv station.....

when its all done this will make a great story for some of the industry technical trade journals, like TV TECHNOLOGY....

Hey EGV Bill, ....FYI...no problems out here in DeKalb with my attic aantenna.......

wow...an attic antenna works for u way the heck out in dekalb?....that must be about 55 air miles away, right? i've been telling people an attic antenna will probably work well out to about 20 miles so this is very interesting.....i'm a big fan of attic antennas for a lot of reasons....

what kind of antenna is it and how many chicago stations can u get dependably?

wow...an attic antenna works for u way the heck out in dekalb?....that must be about 55 air miles away, right? i've been telling people an attic antenna will probably work well out to about 20 miles so this is very interesting.....i'm a big fan of attic antennas for a lot of reasons....

what kind of antenna is it and how many chicago stations can u get dependably?

Hello, I am roughly 38 miles out without a hiccup what so ever. Except for WBBM noise issues. I have a DIY 4 bay and two Antennacraft yagis for VHF feeding into a VHF Pico amp to help out channel 3 for now. All in my attic at 20' elevation. Good antennas do work well in attics without obstructions.

Cheers:D

wow...an attic antenna works for u way the heck out in dekalb?....that must be about 55 air miles away, right? i've been telling people an attic antenna will probably work well out to about 20 miles so this is very interesting.....i'm a big fan of attic antennas for a lot of reasons....

what kind of antenna is it and how many chicago stations can u get dependably?

I'm running a RS budget antenna in the attic in Antioch, IL (50 miles away) and pick up all Chicago stations except WBBM...

wow...an attic antenna works for u way the heck out in dekalb?....that must be about 55 air miles away, right? i've been telling people an attic antenna will probably work well out to about 20 miles so this is very interesting.....i'm a big fan of attic antennas for a lot of reasons....

what kind of antenna is it and how many chicago stations can u get dependably?

Hey PM,

It's a ChannelMaster 4228 classic (not HD) UHF antenna. I have a ChannelMaster7777 preamp on it, with quad-shielded RG-6 cable. The antenna is on a rotor. I lock all full-power stations fine except WBBM-DT and WYIN-DT; the latter I get occasionally, and probably would more than that if I rotated the antenna southeast.

Bill,

Nothing has changed over the last two nights; that being said, we have been operating at lower power levels for the last couple of weeks due to a premature HPA failure. The replacement tube is on order and should arrive in the next couple of weeks. Even at this lower power WFLD's transmitter should make the trip as we are transmitting higher power than most. Please check you antenna and feedline.

Sinserely,


John J. Baich
VP Engineering & Operations
Fox Television Stations, Inc. - WFLD/WPWR
205 N Michigan Avenue
Chicago, I'll 60601

312-565-5540

john.baich@foxtv.com

Via BlackBerry

This means that he's probably broadcasting both at 500 kw...more than enough juice to get to you. I notice NO difference in reception quality on 32/50 except a slight lowering on the signal quality meter, still buried close to the highest end of the scale. If you didn't post this, I never would have noticed the slight signal quality drop.

More soft "is your TV ready?" tests tomorrow that WLS has been advertising: at 7:26 or 7:27 AM (depending on which announcement you hear), 12:27 or 12:28 PM, and 6:23 PM (that one they're consistent about).

Nothing has changed over the last two nights; that being said, we have been operating at lower power levels for the last couple of weeks due to a premature HPA failure. The replacement tube is on order and should arrive in the next couple of weeks. Even at this lower power WFLD's transmitter should make the trip as we are transmitting higher power than most. Please check you antenna and feedline.

So THAT'S it!! I put up a new antenna a couple of weeks ago, and was a little disappointed that every station *other* than Fox came in a heck of a lot stronger. I was completely mystified as to how Fox could be weaker yet everybody else stronger. NO WONDER!!

That said, Fox is/was still strong enough for me for perfect reception during 24. But I'm (skokie) roughly half the distance that you are (elk grove).

It'll be nice to see Fox peg the meter with my new antenna, once they get back up to full pow-wah!

i know they probably cant do a full power test (unless they somehow coordinate it with milwaukee's ch 12 and urbana's ch 12 and maybe even others?) but maybe they will do a low power test?


ch 12 Urbana analog went off about a month ago, so they don't have to worry about IT any more...

More soft "is your TV ready?" tests tomorrow that WLS has been advertising: at 7:26 or 7:27 AM (depending on which announcement you hear), 12:27 or 12:28 PM, and 6:23 PM (that one they're consistent about).

I was watching. I saw 2, 5, 7, 9 and 11 do it...ditto 32 and 50. 26, 38, 44, 60 and 66 were MIA, *but* I wasn't tuning in at every moment, and if they did a shorter test, I could have missed them. What bothered me was that 44, 60 and 66 didn't do it from 6:21 until 6:35, while I was checking...and those three stations probably have the highest OTA viewership of all the stations, as a ratio between pay TV versus OTA.

While all of them used the NAB graphic that stated "this TV isn't ready for digital", WGN had the best 5 minute test. In addition to the graphic, they also frequently used Bozo the Clown to tell you that you were in trouble for not being digital ready. It was both funny and informative at the same time. I was waiting for Cookie to come out and get hit with a pie...or a converter box! :eek: :D

Here's what I can tell you. I know of one station, for sure, that is signing off at 11:59:59 PM on Friday night, June 12. I cannot say which one at this time, but I can say this: I know second hand that SOME of them will do this, coming from another TV station. But here's the ones I know for sure.

From the WLS FCC filing:

"At noon on June12, 2009, WLS will power-down both the redundant channel 7 NTSC
transmitter and the channel 52 digital transmitter. Immediately thereafter, WLS will route the converted
channel 7 transmitter to the WLS NTSC antenna and commence digital broadcasts using this
transmitter. Following the transition, WLS intends to convert the redundant NTSC transmitter to
operate digitally on channel 7."

From WTTW's FCC filing:

"OUR SCHEDULED PLAN IS TO TERMINATE ANALOG SERVICE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 12 MIDNIGHT AND 6 AM ON THE JUNE 12TH TRANSITION DAY. THERE WAS NO NEED FOR ANY NECESSARY TESTING OR CONSTRUCTION."

WCIU's FCC filing:

"THE PURPOSE OF THIS UPDATE IS TO REFLECT THAT WCIU-TV WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE AIR ON THE CURRENT TRANSITION DATE, JUNE 12, 2009, BETWEEN 6 PM AND MIDNIGHT LOCAL TIME."

WXFT/WGBO:

"ON JUNE 12, 2009, THE STATION WILL TERMINATE ANALOG AND TRANSITIONAL DTV OPERATIONS, AND COMMENCE POST-TRANSITION DIGITAL OPERATIONS ON JUNE 13 IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS INITIALLY-GRANTED, APPENDIX B COMPLIANT, POST TRANSITION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT. MAXIMIZATION OF THE STATION'S FACILITIES IS ANTICIPATED PURSUANT TO THE GRANTED MODIFICATION OF THAT PERMIT AFTER THE END OF ANALOG BROADCASTING AND REMOVAL OF EQUIPMENT RELATING THERETO. SEE FCC FILE NO. BMPCDT-20080616ACK."

In other words, they terminate both analog AND digital service at the end of June 12 (11:59:59 PM), and then a short time later, resume digital only on channels 38/50.

The other stations aren't talking to me or to us here, so ya got me.

In other words, they terminate both analog AND digital service at the end of June 12 (11:59:59 PM)

So I should plan for reprogramming my HTPC on Saturday not Friday and the effective transition date for us is 6/13 not 6/12?

It's too bad that WBBM, WLS, WFXT and WGBO can't work together and make the switches at the same time since they are the four stations that will be changing actual frequencies. This will cause the need for several channel rescans if one wants to keep all of the stations both days. It doesn't bother me so much since I understand what needs to be done but for my parents and a few elderly friends of mine this will cause some confusion and several visits by me to keep all of their tvs working.

So I should plan for reprogramming my HTPC on Saturday not Friday and the effective transition date for us is 6/13 not 6/12?

Depends on what channel. The virtual channel (IE, 2.1, 7.1, 60.1, 66.1) won't change. You'll just need to do a rescan before it starts recording, and after the channels change their physical frequencies.

It's too bad that WBBM, WLS, WFXT and WGBO can't work together and make the switches at the same time since they are the four stations that will be changing actual frequencies. This will cause the need for several channel rescans if one wants to keep all of the stations both days. It doesn't bother me so much since I understand what needs to be done but for my parents and a few elderly friends of mine this will cause some confusion and several visits by me to keep all of their tvs working.

Retro,

These 4 channels have completely separate antennas. And who knows...maybe they are, we don't know that. But, one thing is for sure:
Do the scan early morning on 6/13, and you are fine. You shouldn't have to visit your relatives "several" times. Do it once on the 13th, and they're good to go.

What hasn't been talked about is how WGBO/WXFT have been working with WCPX and WPWR to make sure this goes off...or not. If they share the same panel antenna, then they just swap out transmitters.
In fact, I'd look for 38/50 analog to go off the air late one night for them to test this, if they haven't already.

It's too bad that WBBM, WLS, WFXT and WGBO can't work together and make the switches at the same time since they are the four stations that will be changing actual frequencies. This will cause the need for several channel rescans if one wants to keep all of the stations both days.WLS can do as it pleases, and it's been announcing that it will cut off both analog 7 and digital 52 at 11:59 AM or at noon (depending on which of their announcements you're seeing) and instantaneously thereafter resume digital broadcasts on RF7.

But WBBM, WXFT, and WGBO are at the mercy of WISN, WPWR, and WCPX respectively to vacate their current analog channels, so they cannot move their digital frequencies, and they have little motivation to drop their analog broadcasts, until the station whose frequency they're waiting for has stopped analog.

My guess is that rescanning in metropolitan Chicago will go like this: for each tuner,

Friday, from noon to midnight, make your choice:

don't watch WLS nor LiveWell nor AccuWeather until Saturday;
delete RF52/virtual 7 and add RF7; or
rescan.

Saturday, rescan.

I was watching. I saw 2, 5, 7, 9 and 11 do it...ditto 32 and 50. 26, 38, 44, 60 and 66 were MIAI checked during all three tests this time, and I saw no test on 9 nor 11 (nor 26, 38, 44, 60, or 66; couldn't get analog 62 but digital 62.1 and 62.2 had no crawl about your TV's being ready; analog 56 seemed to have the "not ready" display but my reception was too weak, and 56.1 wasn't coming in at all).  Not all participating stations started at the same time, so maybe WGN and WTTW did theirs somewhat earlier or later, enough to have no overlap with the others, for all three of Thursday's tests?

I'll do one rescan once all is said and done. I don't watch OTA that much, I'm mostly watching my big satellite dish.

I checked during all three tests this time, and I saw no test on 9 nor 11 (nor 26, 38, 44, 60, or 66; couldn't get analog 62 but digital 62.1 and 62.2 had no crawl about your TV's being ready; analog 56 seemed to have the "not ready" display but my reception was too weak, and 56.1 wasn't coming in at all).* Not all participating stations started at the same time, so maybe WGN and WTTW did theirs somewhat earlier or later, enough to have no overlap with the others, for all three of Thursday's tests?

9 and 11 started at 6:32 PM, or about 10 minutes late.

There was a big TV sale going on for BIG TV's! Plasma? LCD? Nahhh. WGN channel 9 aired this commercial; Zenith had big ad sales with WGN throughout the 80s, and sponsored their Cubs games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTxfK5hesBw&NR=1

Ya gotta love the remote control as the "Computer Space Command", as if you were controlling a NASA spaceflight! :D

:cool:

When I was a kid, we had a 25" Zenith console. That was the top of the line tube size back in its day. Hard to believe how far we've come.

My guess is that rescanning in metropolitan Chicago will go like this: for each tuner,

Friday, from noon to midnight, make your choice:

don't watch WLS nor LiveWell nor AccuWeather until Saturday;
delete RF52/virtual 7 and add RF7; or
rescan.

Saturday, rescan.


I do have to say that one thing nice about having the digital TV transition in the summer on a Friday night and early Saturday morning is that there won't be anything remotely interesting on near the scheduled time and just about everything is in reruns (except the Pushing Daisies series finale is scheduled for that Saturday night). It definitely would have been more chaotic if they had done it on a workday (Tuesday-Wednesday morning) in the middle of the tv season and we had to keep rescanning all day.

But Congress still does suck and I would have preferred it happened years ago.

Sears Tower & John Hancock Center pictures

While I'm sure most reading this thread are familiar with these towers, my parents drove through Chicago a few days ago and took a couple pictures for me. I thought that other out of towners like myself reading this thread might be interested.

I am surprised to see that WBBM only has a 2-bay for 2 and a 1-bay for 3. It's no wonder they have such low TPO to ERP (gain) ratios. 2 is circular, which pushes it into "negative" gain (33.65kW TPO vs. 26.4kW ERP). 3 is horizontally polarized and has 3.76kW TPO for 4.4kW ERP (1.13dB gain). The license has this info:

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1077034.pdf

Most Low-VHF antennas I've seen have 3-4 bays. I'm wondering why WBBM has so few. Is it because they don't want a narrow elevation pattern (being on top of the city)?

I was watching. I saw 2, 5, 7, 9 and 11 do it...ditto 32 and 50. 26, 38, 44, 60 and 66 were MIA, *but* I wasn't tuning in at every moment, and if they did a shorter test, I could have missed them. What bothered me was that 44, 60 and 66 didn't do it from 6:21 until 6:35, while I was checking...and those three stations probably have the highest OTA viewership of all the stations, as a ratio between pay TV versus OTA.

While all of them used the NAB graphic that stated "this TV isn't ready for digital", WGN had the best 5 minute test. In addition to the graphic, they also frequently used Bozo the Clown to tell you that you were in trouble for not being digital ready. It was both funny and informative at the same time. I was waiting for Cookie to come out and get hit with a pie...or a converter box! :eek: :D
we ran ours.

While all of them used the NAB graphic that stated "this TV isn't ready for digital", WGN had the best 5 minute test. In addition to the graphic, they also frequently used Bozo the Clown to tell you that you were in trouble for not being digital ready. It was both funny and informative at the same time. I was waiting for Cookie to come out and get hit with a pie...or a converter box! :eek: :D

I got this message on my brand new samsung LCD. Very dissapointed that this TV is not ready.:p:cool:

Check to see if your TV has separate 75 ohm coaxial (cable) connectors. One may be labeled as "VHF/UHF/CATV" and the other as "DIGITAL ANT. IN". By federal law, all new TVs sold in the US have to have a digital tuner included.

we ran ours.

Cool. I'm sure I missed yours, and probably some of the others as well. Too many channels to flip through during the test!

Check to see if your TV has separate 75 ohm coaxial (cable) connectors. One may be labeled as "VHF/UHF/CATV" and the other as "DIGITAL ANT. IN". By federal law, all new TVs sold in the US have to have a digital tuner included.

Ha! He was fooling you, KML. He actually saw it, but his TV has both analog and digital tuners. So he's more than ready!

Something tells me that half the people residing in Chicago these days wouldn't even have a clue as to who Cookie the Clown is.

And it's probably more than 80% in certain surrounding suburbs like Cicero.

(By the way - anybody aware of what's happened to WNUA-FM recently? :rolleyes:)

(By the way - anybody aware of what's happened to WNUA-FM recently? :rolleyes:)

Another one went south of the border :eek: :(

And it's probably more than 80% in certain surrounding suburbs like Cicero.Nice alliteration on that slick series of surd sibilants.(By the way - anybody aware of what's happened to WNUA-FM recently? :rolleyes:)That Clear Channel switched it from smooth jazz to Hispanic, leaving smooth jazz on the HD2 subchannel, and that WLFM-FM 87.7 (known to us as NTSC RF6) switched from country to smooth jazz to try to get some of the old WNUA listenership, you mean?

Yeah, but we can't get WLFM-FM all that good out here in Crystal Lake. It doesn't come in too awful bad, but it's kind of muggy sounding, and I don't even know if it's in stereo. I went to check, and I realized for the first time that the car radio doesn't even have a stereo/mono switch or display. Doesn't sound anywhere near as good as WNUA did, that's all I know. :(

As far as WNUA's HD2 sub, I can barely get their HD1, so you can completely forget about HD2. I do have a very good component HD tuner - don't really know why I wasted the money on it now, though. I can hardly even get WXRT-FM HD1 in - forget about HD2 there, too (and this is with a rooftop antenna and rotor) All I can really get in that I would care anything about are a bunch of surrounding IL and WI NPR channels (and the ones without music basically mirror the same programming). There isn't much left otherwise, as far as Chicago Jazz or Classical channels. As far as Rock, I can at least get in WDRV - which is great, because their HD2 sub is excellent.

I haven't listened much to WNUA in a long time (don't care for modern soul/R&B - blech), but some close to me did. I used to listen to them in their first couple of years, when they were playing more my kinds of tastes (none of that Kenny G crap back then).

I don't even know if it's in stereo.



There in mono as far as I know.

There in mono as far as I know.

They're in stereo, definitely, out here in DeKalb. Stereo light is lit. It sounds like they're carrying the ABC Radio Networks feed, but I'm probably way off base. Yeah, sound quality is not good. But given that it's 87.7 and not supposed to, and not supposed to be in FM stereo, I'm not surprised.

I got this message on my brand new samsung LCD. Very dissapointed that this TV is not ready.:p:cool:

My sammy does analog and digital. When you're tuning channels, it shows analog first before digital. You can edit them out in the menu's.

Good Answer :-)

They're in stereo, definitely, out here in DeKalb. Stereo light is lit. It sounds like they're carrying the ABC Radio Networks feed, but I'm probably way off base. Yeah, sound quality is not good. But given that it's 87.7 and not supposed to, and not supposed to be in FM stereo, I'm not surprised.

I stand corrected, I checked a stereo with a stereo pilot light and the light lit. Damn boom box don't have any. There sound is grungy and over modulated. Channel 6 is way too loud on the 30-15k main mono carrier.

Something tells me that half the people residing in Chicago these days wouldn't even have a clue as to who Cookie the Clown is.

And it's probably more than 80% in certain surrounding suburbs like Cicero.

(By the way - anybody aware of what's happened to WNUA-FM recently? :rolleyes:)

You'd think that at some point there'd be market saturation. I would have preferred them staying in English and going to a country format. How many more Spanish stations on Fm do we need for 17% of the population?

(By the way - anybody aware of what's happened to WNUA-FM recently? :rolleyes:)

Good riddance! I stopped listing when I could set my watch by the song programming. Oh, it must be 5:45pm they're playing Sharde.

Well, here's my small story to tell:

About 2-3 weeks ago, our antenna (It's like 20-30 years old) somehow spun itself in a totally different direction on it's own. I figure this must have happened on a Sunday night/Monday morning, since when I got up on Monday barely anything came in, channel wise. Plus, over time, we've had 1-2 of the longer antenna "spikes" (not sure what else to call them) fall off before too. Well, our antenna is hooked to a rotor, so I tried to turn it to fix it and the antenna didn't turn and the little rotor box made an odd noise when I was trying to turn the antenna back to normal (but it didn't turn as I mentioned above).

So tomorrow, weather permitting--since I'm sure you've all heard we may have showers tomorrow--, we are having some antenna installers come out and put on a new antenna on, install a new rotor, amplifier, hook up to other rooms in the house, etc., so that should be interesting to see what I can pick up with this newer one. See, I'm located in Northwest Indiana, so possibly we could get more of the South Bend stations with this new one; have to see though.

I think the kind of antenna we are getting is a Winegard, but I'm not sure of the model number. I don't know a huge amount about antennas but I think I've sorta heard that Winegard is a pretty stable brand. If anyone has any insight, you're more than welcome to share.

Anyways, I just figured I'd share my little story here and once it's all hooked up, I try and report back and tell you all how it went, what channels I can get and other stuff like that.

Good riddance! I stopped listing when I could set my watch by the song programming. Oh, it must be 5:45pm they're playing Sharde.They had good listernership and unique programming - and there's already about 4 or 5 other Hispanic channels.

It's great to here Smooth Jazz in Chicago. About 4 years ago, when WJMK switch from Oldies to a classic rock wanabe station, Oldies soon reappeared on 94.7. I knew it was going to happen. However, I wish that they would have gone in a "findable" frequency. Maybe that will happen one day.
I just would love it if they would play music like Michael McDonad, Ramsey Lewis, Down to the Bone, Robert Lamm's (keyboardist for Chicago) solo albums, or some jazzier and newer Steely Dan (and Donald Fagen or Walter Becker solo music).
I'm a huge Sade, Kenny G, and Boz Scaggs fan but so much of their same songs are over played. I really hope that they won't throw in any Genesis or Pete Cetera songs that just didn't belong on WNUA.

Well, here's my small story to tell:

About 2-3 weeks ago, our antenna (It's like 20-30 years old) somehow spun itself in a totally different direction on it's own. I figure this must have happened on a Sunday night/Monday morning, since when I got up on Monday barely anything came in, channel wise. Plus, over time, we've had 1-2 of the longer antenna "spikes" (not sure what else to call them) fall off before too. Well, our antenna is hooked to a rotor, so I tried to turn it to fix it and the antenna didn't turn and the little rotor box made an odd noise when I was trying to turn the antenna back to normal (but it didn't turn as I mentioned above).

So tomorrow, weather permitting--since I'm sure you've all heard we may have showers tomorrow--, we are having some antenna installers come out and put on a new antenna on, install a new rotor, amplifier, hook up to other rooms in the house, etc., so that should be interesting to see what I can pick up with this newer one. See, I'm located in Northwest Indiana, so possibly we could get more of the South Bend stations with this new one; have to see though.

I think the kind of antenna we are getting is a Winegard, but I'm not sure of the model number. I don't know a huge amount about antennas but I think I've sorta heard that Winegard is a pretty stable brand. If anyone has any insight, you're more than welcome to share.

Anyways, I just figured I'd share my little story here and once it's all hooked up, I try and report back and tell you all how it went, what channels I can get and other stuff like that.
Hi, I also live in Northwest Indiana. My antenna is ten years old and is a Wingard with a booster to get South Bend stations. Since hooking up the converter box channel 7 digital is terrible and I keep losing channel 26.1, 26.2, etc. South Bend stations come in good.

Well, here's my small story to tell:
Anyways, I just figured I'd share my little story here and once it's all hooked up, I try and report back and tell you all how it went, what channels I can get and other stuff like that.

Thanks, stw! Do keep us posted. Maybe post a picture of your pride and joy on your roof as well, to see what your using for reception. We should be able to ID it pretty quickly!

Hi, I also live in Northwest Indiana. My antenna is ten years old and is a Wingard with a booster to get South Bend stations. Since hooking up the converter box channel 7 digital is terrible and I keep losing channel 26.1, 26.2, etc. South Bend stations come in good.

Hi Rosepetal,

I think we mentioned before that there's also a 27 in South Bend, which is what WCIU also broadcasts on, so that channel will be "iffy". When WLS moves back to 7, that should boom in again, providing you have a VHF part of that antenna.

Another one went south of the border :eek: :(

That's JUST what we need :rolleyes:

Hi Rosepetal,

I think we mentioned before that there's also a 27 in South Bend, which is what WCIU also broadcasts on, so that channel will be "iffy". When WLS moves back to 7, that should boom in again, providing you have a VHF part of that antenna.
Hi Gilbert,

Yes, I do remember you mentioning about the South Bend channel/issue.

Thanks again.

[QUOTE=Rammitinski;16524611]Something tells me that half the people residing in Chicago these days wouldn't even have a clue as to who Cookie the Clown is.QUOTE]

Come on Ramm...We're not all that bad. I may not know much...but wasn't Roy Brown also the voice of Cuddly Duddly? ;)

Come on Ramm...We're not all that bad. I may not know much...but wasn't Roy Brown also the voice of Cuddly Duddly? ;)Big difference between the population makeup of Naperville compared to within the city limits of Chicago.

(Refer to the "WNUA-FM programming change" discussion for further details. ;))

I'm making my TV debut Saturday the 6th of June for a half hour "Are U Ready for DTV" program. Not sure where I am in the show but I basically take you on a quick tour of our transmitter facilities. Please no comments on my "on camera" skills. (Thats why I'm an engineer) :D Program airs 1pm on Saturday June 6th.

I'm making my TV debut Saturday the 6th of June for a half hour "Are U Ready for DTV" program. Not sure where I am in the show but I basically take you on a quick tour of our transmitter facilities. Please no comments on my "on camera" skills. (Thats why I'm an engineer) :D Program airs 1pm on Saturday June 6th.

It's not any worse than the old "Monkey Cam" from the NBC Letterman show is it?

hvs10trk, what Channel and EST or CST?

hvs10trk, what ChannelWCIU: 26 analog if you can receive it, or 26.1 digital, which is on RF27 and therefore clobbered in South Bend by a station thereand EST or CST?CDT.

I'm making my TV debut Saturday the 6th of June for a half hour "Are U Ready for DTV" program. Not sure where I am in the show but I basically take you on a quick tour of our transmitter facilities. Please no comments on my "on camera" skills. (Thats why I'm an engineer) :D Program airs 1pm on Saturday June 6th.

Time to fire up the ol' screen cap machine... :D

hvs10trk, what channel and est or cst?

wciu, cst

It's not any worse than the old "Monkey Cam" from the NBC Letterman show is it?

Had to youtube that. :eek: Not quite that bad.

wciu, cstTune in at 1 PM CST and you'll have missed it.  It's at 1 PM CDT.

(If WCIU-DT's or WWME-LD's DST flags are ever wrong, now we know why.)

Tune in at 1 PM CST and you'll have missed it.* It's at 1 PM CDT.

(If WCIU-DT's or WWME-LD's DST flags are ever wrong, now we know why.)

Daylight, standard. Its 1pm to me. :D

WCIU: 26 analog if you can receive it, or 26.1 digital, which is on RF27 and therefore clobbered in South Bend by a station thereCDT.
YES! I can receive 26. I Live west of SBN Airport 2 miles and receive all including channel 2-1 digital!. Channel 26-1 is the one that I cant get due to 27 here.

Time to fire up the ol' screen cap machine... :D


Oh, I'll be saving the stream from my MPD-130!!!

HVS10TRK in HD!!!

They *did* shoot it in HD, right???

:eek:

Oh, I'll be saving the stream from my MPD-130!!!

HVS10TRK in HD!!!

They *did* shoot it in HD, right???

:eek:

Mastered, not airing. Getting close on airing content in HD. (Long painful story) :eek:

YES! I can receive 26. I Live west of SBN Airport 2 miles and receive all including channel 2-1 digital!. Channel 26-1 is the one that I cant get due to 27 here.

That's too bad. WCIU has really come a long way from the old univision days. The 5 subchannels have interesting and diverse programming. Not to mention, and I'm not kissing up, the HD quality on the main feed is pretty good considering all the subchannels crammed in there.

It is more than a little surprising that two channels on RF27 were approved so close together as Chicago and South Bend.

That's too bad. WCIU has really come a long way from the old univision days. The 5 subchannels have interesting and diverse programming. Not to mention, and I'm not kissing up, the HD quality on the main feed is pretty good considering all the subchannels crammed in there.

We tested it extensively before committing to air.

It is more than a little surprising that two channels on RF27 were approved so close together as Chicago and South Bend.

It helps when we own both stations.

It helps when we own both stations.Then is surprising for a different reason.  Unless the two carried exactly the same fare with just slight variations for location (such as weather and local news), wouldn't you want people in the middle to be able to receive both and have the opportunity to see even more Weigel-sold commercial time?

Yes, that's a rhetorical question: the answer is proprietary and it's not your department either.  I'm not expecting an answer, just venting my astonishment.

I'm making my TV debut Saturday the 6th of June for a half hour "Are U Ready for DTV" program. Not sure where I am in the show but I basically take you on a quick tour of our transmitter facilities. Please no comments on my "on camera" skills. (Thats why I'm an engineer) :D Program airs 1pm on Saturday June 6th.
is hvs10trk getting paid tv actors scale?
will this lead to a new local show called "engineer man" ?

comments, criticisms and questions of sanity are always welcome
kd9fz

I'm making my TV debut Saturday the 6th of June for a half hour "Are U Ready for DTV" program. Not sure where I am in the show but I basically take you on a quick tour of our transmitter facilities. Please no comments on my "on camera" skills. (Thats why I'm an engineer) :D Program airs 1pm on Saturday June 6th.Got to remember that is NEXT weekend ... I was about to complain about it not being in this afternoon's EPG when I saw June 6th in your post. :)

Then is surprising for a different reason.* Unless the two carried exactly the same fare with just slight variations for location (such as weather and local news), wouldn't you want people in the middle to be able to receive both and have the opportunity to see even more Weigel-sold commercial time?Weigel is trying to sell the South Bend station (along with WBND and WMYS) to WSBT ... the FCC approved the sale of WBND but is still thinking about WMYS and WCWW.

The target audience of the station isn't the boonies between or the opposite market. WCWW is supposed to be a low power local station serving a city, not a region (although LDs do pretty good at 15kW). If Weigel had not put South Bend on their Chicago frequency they would have had to settle for a channel that may not have served South Bend / Elkhart so well.

will this lead to a new local show called "engineer man" ?

It's a reality show.  Working titles have included,

Who Wants to Be an Engineer?
Engineer Swap
Extreme Makeover: Engineer Edition
Engineering with the Scars
I'm an Engineer, Get Me Out of Here!
Last Engineer Working
Survivor: 26 N. Halsted Street

The target audience of the station isn't the boonies between or the opposite market. WCWW is supposed to be a low power local station serving a city, not a region (although LDs do pretty good at 15kW). If Weigel had not put South Bend on their Chicago frequency they would have had to settle for a channel that may not have served South Bend / Elkhart so well.Thanks for explaining.

Perhaps the "Are You Ready" special is already going to air on one of Weigel's South Bend stations (not necessarily simultaneously with the WCIU broadcast at 2 PM EDT on June 10) and viewers there will still get to see it even if they can't pull in WCIU analog.

It's a reality show.* Working titles have included,

Who Wants to Be an Engineer?
Engineer Swap
Extreme Makeover: Engineer Edition
Engineering with the Scars
I'm an Engineer, Get Me Out of Here!
Last Engineer Working
Survivor: 26 N. Halsted Street

I'm an Engineer, Get Me Out of Here! :D
Who Wants to Be an Engineer? :eek:
Extreme Makeover: Engineer Edition (practically my house)

About a couple months ago, the folks at WCIU were able to fix the studdering problem. However, Frasier is the one show that still has the problem while everything else is fine. I thought I remember it was mentioned on here that there was a problem with the show itself that was still causing problems. Just wondering how that was coming along since the digital transition is almost here and having Analog 26 as a backup to watch it won't be there. Thanks in advance.

WTTW PBS is broadcasting a reairing of Election Night 11/4/08 in HD
and Inauguration Day 09

right now

on a related note
WTTW's Chicago Tonight is now in HD
and they also have the Pledge Studio in HD too

http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/77270

Hey all,

I wish I had posted this last night, but I was tired. Monday night was a very good tropo night. Got South Bend, Quad Cities, Madison, Milwaukee, and...
WBAY-DT rf 23, Green Bay, WI...right over WWME-CA. But the grand finale was getting KCRG-DT 9.1, rf 52, right over WLS-DT. KCRG is the ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, IA, the first time I've ever DX'ed anything in that market.

10 more days of analog! (unless we get another delay..)
:)

Hey all,

I wish I had posted this last night, but I was tired. Monday night was a very good tropo night. Got South Bend, Quad Cities, Madison, Milwaukee, and...
WBAY-DT rf 23, Green Bay, WI...right over WWME-CA. But the grand finale was getting KCRG-DT 9.1, rf 52, right over WLS-DT. KCRG is the ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, IA, the first time I've ever DX'ed anything in that market.

Agreed, the best Tropo in a while. Didn't see anything from as far away as Cedar Rapids but Quad Cities 18-1 was screaming in close to 100% at times for me after Midnight in Chicago at 60626.

Bravo to the fine folks at WCIU for fixing the studdering problem on all their shows. Everything else was fixed a couple months ago, but Frasier still had the studdering problem. Last night, both episodes were fine so hopefully the problems are gone for good. Now if WPWR can get their act together and fix their studdering problems, everything will be OK.

10 more days of analog! (unless we get another delay..)
:)

Not a chance now
they say its final

WOW Great Tropo tonight!!!!!!!!!!!! CBS 2 is coming in on my CM 4228!!!!! YES CHANNEL 2!!!!!

These are other channels im picking up
WTMJ4 - DT out of Milwalkee (GREAT HD QUALITY Their news casts are WOW!) Chicago Stations should Immulate there quality.... EYE POPPING. Even with a sub channel for weather.
WITI
MPTV HD (PBS) WTF WTTW? view this channel and IT's quite evident that WTTW is bittrobbing and bit starving the hell out of WTTW. This channel's feed is immaculate and very close to the pbs satellite feed. And Guess what NO SUB CHANNELS.

Never understood why WTTW did an HD feed like this and let wycc and WYIN do the rest of the sub channels, Wycc and WYIN's coverage combined has the same coverage as wttw, and serves the community better than the crap they have now!

WTVO DT - I havent seen HD on this channel as at the time they were showing ET, but not in HD :(

WIFR DT - Not showing HD at the moment

WCGV Another station doing HD right!

MPTV scanned in but cant recive

WQRF - Crappy quality coming from fox

WBME METV not coming in, Low powered from sears.. Wondering what the future sub is for?

TELEWI- TELEMUNDO WISConsin. Not coming in but scanned in

WMLW - not showing HD at the moment...

Welcome to wisconsin and rockford from Bourbonnais with my antenna pointed twards chicago :D

Tropo here tonight as well. A few Chicago analogs are nothing but a mess. WBBM-DT howeve is booming in great. I'm Locking both WNDU and WSBT loud and clear from South Bend and WOTV (rf20) ABC from somewhere in Michigan. Also a few analogs from Milwaukee.

Tropo here tonight as well. A few Chicago analogs are nothing but a mess. WBBM-DT howeve is booming in great. I'm Locking both WNDU and WSBT loud and clear from South Bend and WOTV (rf20) ABC from somewhere in Michigan. Also a few analogs from Milwaukee.

Just got WZZM-DT rf 39 Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo right over WWME-LD Chi-town! Milwaukee, Madison, all booming in. South Bend, not at the moment.

I can see WSBT with half signal on my 4-bay UHF panel and WMBD in peoria on my UHF/V!!!!

only picked up two more channels here in Antioch, IL. I don't have a crazy antenna setup, though (RS budget + old comcast amp)

Hi, I also live in Northwest Indiana. My antenna is ten years old and is a Wingard with a booster to get South Bend stations. Since hooking up the converter box channel 7 digital is terrible and I keep losing channel 26.1, 26.2, etc. South Bend stations come in good.May I ask where you're around at? I'm about 30-40 minutes south from Valparaiso and I really haven't run to any issues on 26 in the past. Now with our new antenna, sometimes 26 doesn't come in and it maps to South Bend's RF27, but lately, I've turned our antenna to more towards Chicago stations and I've been getting 26 and all the subs just fine for me. Just was curious, since I really haven't had any issues with 26 overall.

Thanks, stw! Do keep us posted. Maybe post a picture of your pride and joy on your roof as well, to see what your using for reception. We should be able to ID it pretty quickly!Well, all Chicago stations plus WSBT and sometimes WHME when it's turned towards Chicago and if I turn the rotor a bit towards South Bend, then in addition to WSBT and WHME, I get WNDU, WNIT, but then not always Chicago stations, so I try to find a median between those two markets. I'll try to take a picture in the next few days so someone can see it and tell me what model it is.

Just got WZZM-DT rf 39 Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo right over WWME-LD Chi-town! Milwaukee, Madison, all booming in. South Bend, not at the moment.Yeah, I got all crazy stuff tonight. I was getting WTMJ 4, WITI 6, WISN 12, WDJT 58, and WMVT 36 all from Milwaukee. Then for a little while I got WREX 13, WTVO 17, WIFR 23, and WQRF 39 from Rockford. I was getting all kinds of channels tonight, but not from South Bend either, sebenste. It's been a great night for all these channels lol

I'm making my TV debut Saturday the 6th of June for a half hour "Are U Ready for DTV" program. Not sure where I am in the show but I basically take you on a quick tour of our transmitter facilities. Please no comments on my "on camera" skills. (Thats why I'm an engineer) :D Program airs 1pm on Saturday June 6th.

Oh, is that you on this video (http://www.wciu.com/video.php?assetID=10000041) that's on WCIU's site of an engineer showing us around the 101st floor of the Sears (Willis) Tower of all the programming equipment?

May I ask where you're around at? I'm about 30-40 minutes south from Valparaiso and I really haven't run to any issues on 26 in the past. Now with our new antenna, sometimes 26 doesn't come in and it maps to South Bend's RF27, but lately, I've turned our antenna to more towards Chicago stations and I've been getting 26 and all the subs just fine for me. Just was curious, since I really haven't had any issues with 26 overall.

Well, all Chicago stations plus WSBT and sometimes WHME when it's turned towards Chicago and if I turn the rotor a bit towards South Bend, then in addition to WSBT and WHME, I get WNDU, WNIT, but then not always Chicago stations, so I try to find a median between those two markets. I'll try to take a picture in the next few days so someone can see it and tell me what model it is.

Yeah, I got all crazy stuff tonight. I was getting WTMJ 4, WITI 6, WISN 12, WDJT 58, and WMVT 36 all from Milwaukee. Then for a little while I got WREX 13, WTVO 17, WIFR 23, and WQRF 39 from Rockford. I was getting all kinds of channels tonight, but not from South Bend either, sebenste. It's been a great night for all these channels lol



Oh, is that you on this video (http://www.wciu.com/video.php?assetID=10000041) that's on WCIU's site of an engineer showing us around the 101st floor of the Sears (Willis) Tower of all the programming equipment?

Wow, you beat me to posting it!!! That's me.

Wow, you beat me to posting it!!! That's me.LOL, well, I happened to be browsing WCIU's videos after reading Sven's blog and saw some new videos posted so I watched the DTV ones and I actually found that one you did quite interesting. It's always cool to know more/see that tech stuff like that, at least to me. :)

Wow, you beat me to posting it!!! That's me.

And you owe us a ton for blowing all our monitors out. :p :D Hey, where's the suit and tie? :p:D

Tony, aka Hvs10trk, I kid in jest. You and your chief Kyle Walker (and his screen name escapes me at the moment) do a fine job!

P.S. Is that the segment we'll see Saturday?

I was getting some South Bend tropo tonight too. In the next couple months Im going to put up a UHF antenna on a rotor so I can swing it around when tropo happens. Right now I have a VHF/UHF antenna pointed at Chicago and a old beat up Winegard CH 9065 UHF antenna pointed at South bend that I use also for Channel 56 (17 digital). The UHF for 17 is coming down and being replace by a brand new Radio Shack U120 I got for about $5.00 years ago when they had a closeout. Cant wait to be able to swing that new antenna 360 degrees when tropo happens and start logging Milwaukee, Rockford Madison etc again like back in the day. The cool part about digital is when it's there its perfect unlike the old snowy analog from dxing.

I've also been getting Channel 8 Grand Rapids in analog lately on my V/U antenna pointed at downtown. That's pretty good considering 7 and 9 are adjacent's and Im pointed at there transmitters 8-9 miles away.

And you owe us a ton for blowing all our monitors out. :p :D Hey, where's the suit and tie? :p:D

Tony, aka Hvs10trk, I kid in jest. You and your chief Kyle Walker (and his screen name escapes me at the moment) do a fine job!

P.S. Is that the segment we'll see Saturday?
Yep, that was it. We didn't show the entire room but it was close.

Yep, that was it. We didn't show the entire room but it was close.

Yeah, I did notice you missed the room with the hot tub and spa. :D

Someone must have complained to WLS.  Their crawl now says "a TV with a digital tuner" instead of "a [sic] HDTV" when it talks about hardware that can get OTA signals without a converter box.

Is WWME-CA shutting down its analog signal on June 12, even though that deadline applies only to full-power analogs?

There was a spot on 23.1 (I caught only the end and couldn't get to the TV nor to the remote in time to switch to 23.2 before it ended) saying that "MeTV" would be available only in digital as of June 12.

If WWME-CA is shutting down, what about WMEU-CA?

EDIT: http://www.wciu.com/dtv.php?section=announcement seems to confirm it, but it says only that you can still watch MeTV on 26.2, with no mention of 23.1 or 23.2, and it says nothing about WMEU-CA.

May I ask where you're around at? I'm about 30-40 minutes south from Valparaiso and I really haven't run to any issues on 26 in the past. Now with our new antenna, sometimes 26 doesn't come in and it maps to South Bend's RF27, but lately, I've turned our antenna to more towards Chicago stations and I've been getting 26 and all the subs just fine for me. Just was curious, since I really haven't had any issues with 26 overall.

Well, all Chicago stations plus WSBT and sometimes WHME when it's turned towards Chicago and if I turn the rotor a bit towards South Bend, then in addition to WSBT and WHME, I get WNDU, WNIT, but then not always Chicago stations, so I try to find a median between those two markets. I'll try to take a picture in the next few days so someone can see it and tell me what model it is.

Yeah, I got all crazy stuff tonight. I was getting WTMJ 4, WITI 6, WISN 12, WDJT 58, and WMVT 36 all from Milwaukee. Then for a little while I got WREX 13, WTVO 17, WIFR 23, and WQRF 39 from Rockford. I was getting all kinds of channels tonight, but not from South Bend either, sebenste. It's been a great night for all these channels lol



Oh, is that you on this video (http://www.wciu.com/video.php?assetID=10000041) that's on WCIU's site of an engineer showing us around the 101st floor of the Sears (Willis) Tower of all the programming equipment?
I live in Valparaiso, not too far from the "downtown" area.

Is WWME-CA shutting down its analog signal on June 12, even though that deadline applies only to full-power analogs?

There was a spot on 23.1 (I caught only the end and couldn't get to the TV nor to the remote in time to switch to 23.2 before it ended) saying that "MeTV" would be available only in digital as of June 12.

If WWME-CA is shutting down, what about WMEU-CA?

EDIT: http://www.wciu.com/dtv.php?section=announcement seems to confirm it, but it says only that you can still watch MeTV on 26.2, with no mention of 23.1 or 23.2, and it says nothing about WMEU-CA.

Neither analog transmitter will physically go off the air. Only WCIU-26 will be signed off.

Neither analog transmitter will physically go off the air. Only WCIU-26 will be signed off.

I saw that same spot and was wondering about that. Thank's for clearing that up.

Years go when I was in high school I was pretty active in TV DXing on both VHF and UHF. Summertime was normally best for low band VHF and the mid-summer to mid-fall were best for high band VHF and UHF. VHF 3 and 4 gave me such places as Burlington, VT, a number of Florida and Texas stations, some Canadians, etc. This was due to ionospheric conditions. UHF and high band VHF tropo was good for up to about 250 to 300 miles (sometimes more) with the right weather conditions. Now this was back in the 1960's so we've had a number of changes take place in the past 45 years as far as channel allocations, number of stations on the air, the switch to digital, and so on. I realize this is a liitle off-topic but for those who have an interest in TV DXing, don't dump those analog sets because analog won't be completely dead on the 12th (low power stations don't have to go digital on the 12th). It should be interesting to see how all these changes come together this summer.

Neither analog transmitter will physically go off the air. Only WCIU-26 will be signed off.

Then every way to get WWME now will still work a week from Saturday, and those spots and that web page (and the images on other web pages that give links to it) are all incorrect.

Somebody there is spreading misinformation.

Neither analog transmitter will physically go off the air.That's too bad, really.

Then every way to get WWME now will still work a week from Saturday, and those spots and that web page (and the images on other web pages that give links to it) are all incorrect.

Somebody there is spreading misinformation.

No actually they are correct.

what's up w/wgn today? Anyone else having signal issues?

No actually they are correct.
Previously you said that WWME-CA on UHF23 is not going dark (well, eventually it will, but not as of June 12, 2009), so how can they be correct?

Previously you said that WWME-CA on UHF23 is not going dark (well, eventually it will, but not as of June 12, 2009), so how can they be correct?


Since 23 is is the highest low power station in the country they may need to kill it off so other digitals could fire up fully without interference. Oh well, soon we can watch snow or foreign programming on all analog channels. :eek:

No actually they are correct.

So, let me get this right, WWME will be available over the air on 3 channels after June 12th:
WWME-CA RF23
WWME-LD 23.2 RF39
WCIU-DT 26.2/23.1 RF27

Why waste all that on a power bill ? Is there some logic behind not settling behind one DT channel? If you're on 26.2 what's the point of WWME-LD?

Previously you said that WWME-CA on UHF23 is not going dark (well, eventually it will, but not as of June 12, 2009), so how can they be correct?
The promo states that MeTV will only be available via 26.2. Transmitter is not going dark. Can't say anything more to that.

So, let me get this right, WWME will be available over the air on 3 channels after June 12th:
WWME-CA RF23
WWME-LD 23.2 RF39
WCIU-DT 26.2/23.1 RF27

Why waste all that on a power bill ? Is there some logic behind not settling behind one DT channel? If you're on 26.2 what's the point of WWME-LD?

Some grand master plan that even I don't know about.

The promo states that MeTV will only be available via 26.2. Transmitter is not going dark. Can't say anything more to that.

Oh great, now I'll have a fifth spanish station to program out.

Oh great, now I'll have a fifth spanish station to program out.

Negative.

Negative.

It will be all HVS, all the time, with live call-in engineering shows. The inmates are taking over the asylum! :D

The promo states that MeTV will only be available via 26.2. Transmitter is not going dark. Can't say anything more to that.OK, then, thank you.

Let's see if I have this straight: WWME-CA is leaving the air June 12; the transmitter is going to be used for something else, but you are not at liberty to say for what; nonetheless the hardware will remain in operation, so it would be incorrect to say that the transmitter is going dark, though from my perspective as a viewer the WWME-CA signal is going dark.

But then the answer to my original question -- or to what I was trying to ask at any rate -- is that yes, WWME-CA is going off the air June 12.  Thank you.

I guess we will have to wait until after June 12th to see what 23 analog will become. I hope it don't turn into another blow away channel. :(

We are supposed to be having a Korean channel or subchannel coming sometime in '09 - an MBC America affiliate (not to be confused with KBC-TV/WOCH-CA - A KBS affiliate).

I guess we will have to wait until after June 12th to see what 23 analog will become.My inference from HVS's post was that there will be nothing on 23 analog, that what we're waiting to learn is what the current 23 analog transmitter will broadcast.

I live in Valparaiso, not too far from the "downtown" area.Hmmm, that's odd to me, that if you live in Valpo and you have issues with 26. I know both cities are "close" to Valpo, but I'd think that you'd see more of an antenna signal out of Chicago than South Bend being in Valpo coming in on 26. That's a puzzle to me lol.

Good morning then what about us who get METV via Directv?Will we get to watch that great classic tv programming?Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanks

Good morning then what about us who get METV via Directv?Will we get to watch that great classic tv programming?Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanks

I would think Direct would need to change to the digital signal if there currently using analog.

Could it be possible that WWME-CA might be used as an analog nightligh or as a station to give info to those under a rock about the DTV transition?

OK, then, thank you.

Let's see if I have this straight: WWME-CA is leaving the air June 12; the transmitter is going to be used for something else, but you are not at liberty to say for what; nonetheless the hardware will remain in operation, so it would be incorrect to say that the transmitter is going dark, though from my perspective as a viewer the WWME-CA signal is going dark.

But then the answer to my original question -- or to what I was trying to ask at any rate -- is that yes, WWME-CA is going off the air June 12.* Thank you.

Let's pray it's not another HOME SHOPPING NETWORK or SHOP NBC affiliate.... THAT P.O.S. W25DW already interferes with a useful channel from Milwaukee.

Good morning then what about us who get METV via Directv?Will we get to watch that great classic tv programming?Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanks

Yes. Direct TV receives all programming from our WCIU-DT signal. You'll be just fine. :)

Could it be possible that WWME-CA might be used as an analog nightligh or as a station to give info to those under a rock about the DTV transition?

Not sure who the "nightlight" is in the market.

The promo states that MeTV will only be available via 26.2. Transmitter is not going dark. Can't say anything more to that.

Which is actually 27.4, correct?

Which is actually 27.4, correct?

If I turn off the PSIP, yeah. We like to do that once a while to keep viewers on their toes. :D

It must have started on Monday, but The U is now showing non baseball HD content with The Insider. It was looking pretty good especially with having 4 subs in the mix.

what's up w/wgn today? Anyone else having signal issues?

Last few days, signal strength was half of normal here. Breakups/no signal have been especially bad the last few days and also during the past week. WGN is ususally one of our strongest channels. However, it seems to be back to normal today. Wonder if it has something to do with the Tropo we have been having?

It must have started on Monday, but The U is now showing non baseball HD content with The Insider. It was looking pretty good especially with having 4 subs in the mix.

Finally :thumbs up :D

It must have started on Monday, but The U is now showing non baseball HD content with The Insider. It was looking pretty good especially with having 4 subs in the mix.

Congrats on being the first to notice!!! More to come very soon.

Last few days, signal strength was half of normal here. Breakups/no signal have been especially bad the last few days and also during the past week. WGN is ususally one of our strongest channels. However, it seems to be back to normal today. Wonder if it has something to do with the Tropo we have been having?

Veets,

You bet. And a frequent temperature inversion at the wrong height has been reflecting the signal downward due to a persisent, ugly lake breeze. At first, I thought a cable of mine was having a problem. I've still been able to lock everything, just at lower levels than normal.

Glad to know I wasn't the only one having problems w/wgn!

WLS has been running spots and crawls saying to rescan after 12:00 noon on June 12 ... with no mention that another rescan will be needed after the other three stations change their digital frequencies, as if they were the only ones.  They say to rescan periodically thereafter, but not specifically to do it again after midnight or Saturday morning.

Just before I decided to hit the hay, I was flipping through the analogs, and noticed 11 was off. I tuned to 12-1 on a hunch. BINGO! WBBM-DT nearly PEGGING my signal meter! Oh, yeah! 8 kilowatts doing it loud and proud in DeKalb! See you in a week full time, 'BBM!

Whoo hoo!

Yes you will! We'll see you next Friday at 12 noon. We have been running the rescan crawl which will ramp up next week as well. Good reports tonight all around and the antenna is still tuned for 11. We'll take care of that Friday morning.

Yes you will! We'll see you next Friday at 12 noon. We have been running the rescan crawl which will ramp up next week as well. Good reports tonight all around and the antenna is still tuned for 11. We'll take care of that Friday morning.

Just did a comparison between 3 and 12 and believe it or not on the SW side of Chicago (Midway airport area) 3 has 12 beat in signal strength. Im using a very good outside ant system with RG-6 (not some beat up coat hanger) approx 8 miles from the loop. Hope when you get your standing wave where it should be this will resolve that.

Don't get me wrong 12 is up there but 3 is higher. Guess you'd never figure you would hear someone saying 3 is better but facts and meters don't lie. :)

Anywhere by South Cicero Avenue? (LOL) Sounds like you'll end up with more channels than the LogdeNet "cable" service in the hotels there! :)

what's up w/wgn today? Anyone else having signal issues?

Yes. WGN's been fading out on me in the evenings. I just assumed it was tropo skip but I thought that with the partial analog shutdown that all analog stations had vacated ch 19. Does anyone know what station could possibly be interfering with WGN? Madison Wi perhaps?

Also, what with the leaves on the trees now, I've lost WBBM for the summer. Hopefully, this only lasts a week until they move to ch12.

We welcome any and all comments regarding the WBBM-DT signal. This site has certainly had its run with anecdotal information and personal observations about antennas, STB's and the issues with channel 3.
We now have documented evidence of our increase in signal strength and the ability for those who have never seen the WBBM-DT signal to receive it. From near and far, STB's had a clear signal as well as a "first time" viewer in Romeoville with an attic antenna. Add the report from DeKalb and things are looking good.
The posting as filed shows an increase in coverage from channel 2 of 7-8% land mass which translates to just over 650,000 people. The antenna will be higher and located with most of the DT group. Take away the issues with indoor antennas on low VHF, impulse noise, devices in the home with channel 3 outputs, broken rooftop antennas and again things are looking good.
Since the current "user" of the antenna still needs it tuned to "11" we still need to tune it to "12" prior to Friday's launch. This will only help the signal one notch more.
We've done our testing quietly as to not risk speculative and incorrect information. The viewer response next Friday is our only real measuring tool that matters-and hey, that's you!
Make sure you remember to push re-scan on the site-12 noon is the magic time. In the weeks ahead please keep posting your observations about the new signal. Your input and thoughts are a valuable tool to our success.
(I'll save you some sleep-there are no more tests scheduled!)

Spinal Tap went to "11". We're going to "12".

ok so wbbm is now on 12 permanently and you guys are doing some tweaking this week?

ok so wbbm is now on 12 permanently and you guys are doing some tweaking this week?

No, he said they tested overnight and next time it goes on the air will be Friday at noon.

- Trip

We welcome any and all comments regarding the WBBM-DT signal. This site has certainly had its run with anecdotal information and personal observations about antennas, STB's and the issues with channel 3.
We now have documented evidence of our increase in signal strength and the ability for those who have never seen the WBBM-DT signal to receive it. From near and far, STB's had a clear signal as well as a "first time" viewer in Romeoville with an attic antenna. Add the report from DeKalb and things are looking good.
The posting as filed shows an increase in coverage from channel 2 of 7-8% land mass which translates to just over 650,000 people. The antenna will be higher and located with most of the DT group. Take away the issues with indoor antennas on low VHF, impulse noise, devices in the home with channel 3 outputs, broken rooftop antennas and again things are looking good.
Since the current "user" of the antenna still needs it tuned to "11" we still need to tune it to "12" prior to Friday's launch. This will only help the signal one notch more.
We've done our testing quietly as to not risk speculative and incorrect information. The viewer response next Friday is our only real measuring tool that matters-and hey, that's you!
Make sure you remember to push re-scan on the site-12 noon is the magic time. In the weeks ahead please keep posting your observations about the new signal. Your input and thoughts are a valuable tool to our success.
(I'll save you some sleep-there are no more tests scheduled!)

Spinal Tap went to "11". We're going to "12".

Tom,

I do wish you had told us about the tests, but I am VERY encouraged by what I see (and obviously, you are too). Read back several months ago when WLS was testing. 7 gets less interference/noise than 12 does, to be sure, and back then I predicted you'd be blasting out here. Indeed, you are. Granted, there was a little tropo going on with VHF-HI that favored you last night (also, did WISN sign off?). But still, if that was your "sub par" signal with the antenna tuned to 11, I can't wait to see what that'll look like when you go to 12.

Hey, here's an idea: can you have a contest to see who can pick you up the farthest? :-) I'm automatically out, as someone two miles west of South Bend gets the honors with 3 (and someone in southwest lower Michigan on the lakeshore can do so as well). One gentleman on here picks up analog 7 from Dixon; it'd be neat to see if he gets it on Friday afternoon.

We look forward to conversing with you on Friday, at and afternoon! I have the afternoon off, so I'll be here, God willing. I think your signal will. :)

Thanks again, and congratulations. At 1600', and with a tweaked system, you may become one of the strongest stations in Chicago! :eek::cool:

P.S. I only got DT-3 rarely, typically after a cluster of strong/severe storms convectively overturned the atmosphere, reducing ambient noise/interference levels anomalously on that channel. Otherwise, I typically see my "meter", such as it is, show 25% or so signal quality; 50% is needed to lock. You were a solid 90% on rf 12. I wish I had an S:N meter on my converter, so that you'd find my report more helpful. Sigh...

Love the contest idea-more on that Monday since that needs to go through HQ! WISN was on so all the more reason to be encouraged. They will be on until 23:59 so by this time next week I'll be breathing better.

Tom, I'll second Gilbert that I really wish someone had told us about the tests, so that more of us could have tried our luck at receiving RF12.

So you're saying that WBBM is cutting 2 and 3 off and turning 12 on at noon Friday, and that WISN-TV and WBBM-DT will be fighting it out on 12 until midnight?

What's the beam pattern on channel 12 vs channel 3? Does it favor any direction? 11 analog has a ghosting problem to the SW that may be why 12 was down for me, I may be getting that multipath. I did a quick add with my DTT-900 to do the test last night. That LG chip should do well with multipath though. I was going to scan my Sharp AQOUS but figured I'll wait till D day to see how that comes out.

Tom, I'll second Gilbert that I really wish someone had told us about the tests, so that more of us could have tried our luck at receiving RF12.

So you're saying that WBBM is cutting 2 and 3 off and turning 12 on at noon Friday, and that WISN-TV and WBBM-DT will be fighting it out on 12 until midnight?

Per the FCC filing (WBBM just didn't say when), yessir. 2 and 3 will go off and 12 will be on at noon, duking it out with WISN analog until midnight.

I'm making my TV debut Saturday the 6th of June for a half hour "Are U Ready for DTV" program. Not sure where I am in the show but I basically take you on a quick tour of our transmitter facilities. Please no comments on my "on camera" skills. (Thats why I'm an engineer) :D Program airs 1pm on Saturday June 6th.Eight minutes to air ... :eek:

Just before I decided to hit the hay, I was flipping through the analogs, and noticed 11 was off. I tuned to 12-1 on a hunch. BINGO! WBBM-DT nearly PEGGING my signal meter! Oh, yeah! 8 kilowatts doing it loud and proud in DeKalb! See you in a week full time, 'BBM!

Whoo hoo!

Yep, I saw that last night too just before I went to sleep. Pretty strong signal on the converter box for being located in NWI. Looks like we'll be back in business with WBBM come Friday! :)

Per the FCC filing (WBBM just didn't say when), yessir. 2 and 3 will go off and 12 will be on at noon, duking it out with WISN analog until midnight.

I had arranged a setup here so that, lacking any displays that do PiP, I could watch for any goodbyes on analog 7 or DTV52 and any hello on DTV7 at noon Friday, with three TVs in view from one spot in the house when WLS-DT cuts over.

But with WBBM-DT also changing frequencies at noon, getting six screens in view so that I can also watch for goodbyes on analog 2 and DTV3 and the hello on DTV12 at the same time is going to be a problem.  Five I can do, and if one with an NTSC/ATSC tuner will flip on its own from analog 7 to DTV7 when WLS cuts over, I may be in business after all.

Problem is, there's no way to rehearse or test or practice.  Either it works when the time comes or it fails.

I had arranged a setup here so that, lacking any displays that do PiP, I could watch for any goodbyes on analog 7 or DTV52 and any hello on DTV7 at noon Friday, with three TVs in view from one spot in the house when WLS-DT cuts over.

But with WBBM-DT also changing frequencies at noon, getting six screens in view so that I can also watch for goodbyes on analog 2 and DTV3 and the hello on DTV12 at the same time is going to be a problem.* Five I can do, and if one with an NTSC/ATSC tuner will flip on its own from analog 7 to DTV7 when WLS cuts over, I may be in business after all.

Problem is, there's no way to rehearse or test or practice.* Either it works when the time comes or it fails.

Don't expect a big farewell to analog and switch happening. They probably will run a crawl all morning and just flip the switches at noon. Just like when cable stations change. May leave a test card up on 2 analog and maybe 3.1 for a bit telling you to rescan the digital.

FYI.......
WISN (Milwaukee) will be off at high noon on Friday.
http://www.wisn.com/technology/19670134/detail.html

thanks for the WISN info. Plans continue to evolve for all. As for WBBM, channel 3 will go off promptly at noon followed by channel 2. After both stations are off, channel 12 will be turned on.

Yep, I saw that last night too just before I went to sleep. Pretty strong signal on the converter box for being located in NWI. Looks like we'll be back in business with WBBM come Friday! :)

`Our D.T. 12 is at 16.5 kw. and tower height is 436 feet. I pick up this signal from the rear of an 8 bay Winegard antenna aimed at Ft.Wayne.. Only two channels one S.D. and one in H.D. Also were are 25 miles from the D.T. 12transmission tower . So to me it looks like VHF high-band digital has an edge over UHF. My parents live in Downers Grove and they use a pre-amp under the outdoor antenna to receive D.T.3 Wbbm . I wish you all the best with this change to channel 7 and channel 2 it has to be a major improvement.

`Our D.T. 12 is at 16.5 kw. and tower height is 436 feet. I pick up this signal from the rear of an 8 bay Winegard antenna aimed at Ft.Wayne.. Only two channels one S.D. and one in H.D. Also were are 25 miles from the D.T. 12transmission tower . So to me it looks like VHF high-band digital has an edge over UHF. My parents live in Downers Grove and they use a pre-amp under the outdoor antenna to receive D.T.3 Wbbm . I wish you all the best with this change to channel 7 and channel 2 it has to be a major improvement.

Thanks, a1. I know the impulse and just general levels of noise will be less on channel 12. In fact, WBBM has to be at 8 KW to protect you guys. However, BBM's DT 12 will be 3.5 times higher than your tower, so that will help us out even more. :) I'm secretly hoping that, with local WWTO-DT 10 getting 80 kw, that WBBM and WLS will scream like crazy to get at least 30 kw directional from Sears.

Hey, now...I can dream, can't I? :D

I wish I had known, In down in Bourbonnais and could of given you all a shout on how your reaching down here. Although the reports sound Promising :)

Yep, that was it. We didn't show the entire room but it was close.

You should complain about the camera guy who shot your segment - the lens was dirty and you could see white specks all over the screen.

Don't expect a big farewell to analog and switch happening.Not expecting a big one, but if there's a small one I want to see it.

Yes you will! We'll see you next Friday at 12 noon. .....Good reports tonight all around and the antenna is still tuned for 11. We'll take care of that Friday morning.

thanks for the update, tom....please tell us what all has to be done to 're-tune' a live tx antenna....someone has to climb up the tower to do it? or is it somehow all inside work? will it all be done the 1st day?

You should complain about the camera guy who shot your segment - the lens was dirty and you could see white specks all over the screen.

She did clean the lens while she was up there.

thanks for the update, tom....please tell us what all has to be done to 're-tune' a live tx antenna....someone has to climb up the tower to do it? or is it somehow all inside work? will it all be done the 1st day?

It will all be done the background starting Tuesday switching between AUX antennas, etc. Everything will be set for Friday. WTTW (11) signs off at 6:00am on Friday so we have six hours just make sure all the bolts are tight!

It will all be done the background starting Tuesday switching between AUX antennas, etc. Everything will be set for Friday. WTTW (11) signs off at 6:00am on Friday so we have six hours just make sure all the bolts are tight!

Tom,

Being a meteorologist, our lifelong goal, though we deny it, is to rain on your wedding day, parades, and unmercifully, even your antenna work. We DO control the weather, and we all coordinate by going to a secret room known as the "thunderstorm complex" to decide which person faces our wrath today. ;):p:D

But in all seriousness, what if there's storms going on, or other inclement weather? You're not the only station who will be doing work, as 38/50 (ie 60.1 and 66.1) will be doing some, I'm sure.

Another thing - anyone know if digital 13 from Rockford (WREX-DT), which I do receive now fairly well even with an indoor antenna (yeah, I know what I said before, Gilbert - I just hadn't really tried until recently), will interfere with the reception of 12 in any way for me?

If so, I think I'm just gonna shoot myself.

Eight minutes to air ... :eek:Darn - I was out and I missed it. Forgot to set the DVR, too. :(

Any chance of it being repeated?

Eight minutes to air ... :eek:

the whole broadcast was available on the website link he provided..
before it was it aired on TV

Darn - I was out and I missed it. Forgot to set the DVR, too. :(

Any chance of it being repeated?

the whole thing is available on the website link posted eariler..

the whole broadcast was available on the website link he provided..
before it was it aired on TVI did see that. I thought there was going to be more to it on TV. Guess not then. Thanks.

So if we did a Rescan of all the Digital Channels on Saturday Morning.. we'll be all set.. no more rescanning required.. after that ?

So if we did a Rescan of all the Digital Channels on Saturday Morning.. we'll be all set.. no more rescanning required.. after that ?

By Saturday morning everything should be said and done. The rescan would be the last for a while.

Another thing - anyone know if digital 13 from Rockford (WREX-DT), which I do receive now fairly well even with an indoor antenna (yeah, I know what I said before, Gilbert - I just hadn't really tried until recently), will interfere with the reception of 12 in any way for me?

If so, I think I'm just gonna shoot myself.

No. It's been proven that co-channel interference is much less of a problem for DTV. Actually, and oddly enough, the real problem is *second adjacents*.
Some people might have a problem with WBBM-DT 12 in the SW suburbs when WWTO-DT 10 goes to 80 kw.

And Ramm, don't do it...there aren't many Sox fans, and they need ya! :p:D

Looks like dt 7, dt 20 and dt 26 are off air currently... So is analoge 9 and a few others.. Atleast a few hours ago I was getting all of these... Now Im not... Too bad WBBM couldnt test again :D

wciu dt is back up

WBBM is now running spots saying to rescan after 12 noon Friday.

WMEU-LD has filed for displacement. The station seeks to relocate the future digital facility from channel 46 to channel 32.

- Trip

WMEU-LD has filed for displacement. The station seeks to relocate the future digital facility from channel 46 to channel 32.
Now that's interesting.  MeTV, both in its broadcasts and on metvchicago.com, is pushing heavily that as of June 12 26.2 will be the only place to watch MeTV in metropolitan Chicago, implying that 23.1 and 23.2 are going away as well as analog 23.  So if Weigel is giving up WWME-LD, it's odd that they'd make plans for WMEU-LD.

Or maybe they aren't giving up WWME-LD after all, and the TV spots and the web page are not right?

Edit: hmm, now the page at http://www.wciu.com/dtv.php?section=announcement says that MeTV will still be available at OTA 26.2, not that it will be available only there.  That's a change.  We'll see what they're saying on the air; I'm sure that spots last week stated unequivocally that the _only_ place to get MeTV after June 12 would be channel 26.2.

Maybe the plan is to go after a better spot for WMEU, and braudcast MEtv, METOO, and the chinese channel from WMEU's spot and have WCIU a standalone HD channel in full bitrate / resolution. That would be way cool, or is that wishfull thinking?

WMEU-LD has filed for displacement. The station seeks to relocate the future digital facility from channel 46 to channel 32.

- Trip

THANK GOD! SOMEONE HAS A BRAIN! Now I won't lose WDJT if this goes through.

Now all that I need is W25DW to find a new home since it covers up WCGV.

Messing with my master in house channel 4 :mad: Had to tune the coils tighter in my trap to reject it.

It looks like some foreign crap on 4 DTV.

Messing with my master in house channel 4 :mad: Had to tune the coils tighter in my trap to reject it.

It looks like some foreign crap on 4 DTV.

Is that the Azteca America WOCK? Just started today?

Messing with my master in house channel 4 :mad: Had to tune the coils tighter in my trap to reject it.

It looks like some foreign crap on 4 DTV.

Interesting. I can lock RF4 as 13-1 and 13-2 on my Samsung TV at only 2 out of 10 on the signal meter. There's picture (with intermittent pixelation) but no sound -- not that I'd understand what they are saying anyway. I'm shocked that I can get anything at all given that they're transmitting at what - 400 watts or so?

Also analog 13 is now gone.

Signal strength on WBBM-DT has dropped from 7/10 to 5 to 6/10 -- I wonder if this is due to RF4 interfering with RF3? Fortunately (I hope) that problem should go away by the end of the week.

No 13 here any more, and 4 is too weak to decode, weaker even than 17.  Any Caribevision viewers in my part of town will have to get either a much more powerful antenna than ours or get it some other way than OTA (for example, Comcast channel 599).

Maybe the plan is to go after a better spot for WMEU, and braudcast MEtv, METOO, and the chinese channel from WMEU's spot and have WCIU a standalone HD channel in full bitrate / resolution. That would be way cool, or is that wishfull thinking?

I would highly doubt that since WCIU has been heavily advertising "4 For Free From The U and Me"

No 13 here any more, and 4 is too weak to decode, weaker even than 17.* Any Caribevision viewers in my part of town will have to get either a much more powerful antenna than ours or get it some other way than OTA (for example, Comcast channel 599).

Now that's a flash cut! I just checked my TV here. I can tell there's some digital hash on 4, but WTMJ is interfering with it, such that it is...it's barely noticeable. My Zenith DTT-900 shows me nada, zip, of signal. There's 300 watts on channel 4 for ya...

Is that the Azteca America WOCK? Just started today?

I don't think it's Azteca America. 13-1 and 13-2, eh? What's on 13-1 and 13-2? I wonder if WOCH is on 13-2! Things that make me go hmmmm....zzzzz, how far away are you from the Hancock? And what antenna do you have?

I more than bet they did this so that when people do their scans on Friday, they'll pick this up.
Smart!

13-1 is probably Caribevision. Is 13-2 the programming of WOCH?

- Trip

It has no audio has hum bars in the video and has an CV bug in the corner. Some low budget foreign job. :mad:

I don't think it's Azteca America. 13-1 and 13-2, eh? What's on 13-1 and 13-2? I wonder if WOCH is on 13-2! Things that make me go hmmmm....zzzzz, how far away are you from the Hancock? And what antenna do you have?

I more than bet they did this so that when people do their scans on Friday, they'll pick this up.
Smart!

13-1 is WOCK-LD and shows CV as the logo; it used to be on analog 13. 13-2 is WOCH-CA and shows KBC-TV (showing the same programming as 41 analog; 41 is still running as of now).

I'm about 15 miles southwest of the Hancock. I have no idea of the antenna's make/model; I live in a 6-flat and it's in the attic (I suspect it's around 30 years old). There is a 300-ohm connector/wallplate in each unit but is wired using just the center conductors of two pieces of 75-ohm coax instead of twinlead. Bizarre as this sounds, it actually works fairly well; all the analogs look pretty good (for another 5 days or so) and I pick up WBBM-DT pretty reliably with it too.

I would highly doubt that since WCIU has been heavily advertising "4 For Free From The U and Me"

I was about to say the same, but it struck me: if streams from RF27 can be PSIPped to 23.1 and 48.1 now, streams from RF39 or RF32 could be PSIPped to 26.2 and 26.3, so it would be possible to drop WWME and WMEU from RF27, making more bits available for WCIU-DT, and still have them on 26.2 and 26.3.  Of course, the coverage and strength of RF39 and RF32 would have to be comparable to those of RF27.

13-1 is WOCK-LD and shows CV as the logo; it used to be on analog 13. 13-2 is WOCH-CA and shows KBC-TV (showing the same programming as 41 analog; 41 is still running as of now).So what is RF49 going to be for?  Duplicating WOCH on 41.1 and WOCK on 41.2?

The irony is that WOCK-LD is an imperceptible whisper here less than two miles from KBS's offices at 5225 N. Kedzie, and I doubt that WTMJ's dropping analog will make enough of a difference.

4 DTV, 13.1 is really strong by me on my outside antenna. My Zenith converter shows it at 85%. Can't check it's signal on my Sharp HDTV or other converter since I have channel 4's signal trapped out and my own analog channel 4 there feeding DVB to my SMATV system.

I won't miss that channel a bit. :cool:

My DTT-900 has a dedicated roof antenna feed and will be used in My DXing setup I 'll be putting together this summer if everything goes as planned. It will be nice to get some out of town DTV stations vs the hum drum locals that for the most part are boring.

4 DTV, 13.1 is really strong by me on my outside antenna.What part of the metro area are you in, Tvropro?

I'm wondering if they'll increase the power after WTMJ drops analog Friday.

Tune into WCIU analog (26) this Friday the 12th to witness "The Sign-off". (also simulcasted on 26.6 for you digital guys :D) Not quite sure what you'll see. :rolleyes: The party starts at 11:45pm.

What part of the metro area are you in, Tvropro?

I'm wondering if they'll increase the power after WTMJ drops analog Friday.


I'm by Midway airport. The top antenna in the picture attached is what I use for Chicago. It is a VU-110 modified with the bigger UHF corner reflectors from a VU-160. It's up about 30 feet does a wiz-bang job.

Are the other antennas for TV as well?

Are the other antennas for TV as well?

The one below it is for FM the others off to the side are tv but aren't used anymore. I have 2 more not in the picture I'm taking them down and I'm putting up another soon in that location with a rotor. I also have 4 satellite dishes. 1 C-band 3-Ku. I can tune in quite a bit. :D

I'm by Midway airport.Thank you.  It's unexpected for a station carrying CaribeVision to aim more toward Chicago's Southwest Side than its Northwest Side, but it could be less a matter of directionality (let alone of interferene from WTMJ analog to the north) than of your good reception setup.

Tune into WCIU analog (26) this Friday the 12th to witness "The Sign-off". (also simulcasted on 26.6 for you digital guys :D) Not quite sure what you'll see. :rolleyes: The party starts at 11:45pm.Oh, so we'll be seeing Koz/Sven, 3 Stooges shorts, and a pie fight for 15 minutes til the sign off, right? Ohhh yeah, that's right, I forgot we see that each year when we "Fling in the New Year" lol :p :p

Tune into WCIU analog (26) this Friday the 12th to witness "The Sign-off". (also simulcasted on 26.6 for you digital guys :D) Not quite sure what you'll see. :rolleyes: The party starts at 11:45pm.

Thanks for the heads up :D

Thank you.* It's unexpected for a station carrying CaribeVision to aim more toward Chicago's Southwest Side than its Northwest Side, but it could be less a matter of directionality (let alone of interferene from WTMJ analog to the north) than of your good reception setup.

The thing with TMJ is you guys up north have antenna's facing away from Milwaukee so it will interfere less. My antenna is pointed more towards Milwaukee, when TMJ comes in down here it can be pretty strong. I don't know if they have any pattern on DTV 4 you would need to check the FCC database on that. Im just happy I was able to tune my trap skirts tighter to block the DTV 4 signal out of my master antenna system so I cold get an interference free picture on my in house channel. :)

We'll find out this weekend if WTMJ is causing us in northern Cook to not get WOCK-DT after it signs off. I suspect the low power and pattern very tightly to the southwest has more to do with it.

I would highly doubt that since WCIU has been heavily advertising "4 For Free From The U and Me"

That doesnt matter, because they could easly map from the new RF location to 26.2, 26.3, ect. Infact, doing it this way they could add more services from the 2nd rf location, up to 6 or 7 sd channels, and still have full bit HD over at 27. Or the could do 2 HD channels, and the other 3. They could do WCIU DT at full bitrate on RF 27, and then over at the other RF location they could do maybe a .2 network in HD, as well as METV, METOO, and that chineese channel. WCIU's goit it going on if they could pull that off. Would love to have some .2 network in HD at a decent quality. Also with the wonderful digital technology they could map it anywhere on the spectrum. They would just need to match full power of dt 27 for the same coverage.