Lansing, MI - HDTV

[srgilbert]

Well, since we are the capital of the state, I thought a more official thread might be in order......

Just thought I would update this since a couple things have changed. Now have the antenna on a 25' mast using a (now discontinued) Radio Shack 1171 amp, and can get ABC from Flint perfectly! In fact, this is what I can now receive in the heart of Lansing.

WJRT-DT 36 ABC Flint
WSYM-DT 38 FOX Lansing
WZPX-DT 44 PAX Battle Creek
WILX-DT 57 NBC Onondaga
WLNS-DT 59 CBS Lansing
WKAR-DT 23 PBS East Lansing

Just recieved a Panasonic TU-DST52 over-the-air HDTV tuner (free offer from Panny.) I am using a Radio Shack #15-2160 UHF antenna on top of a 20 foot mast in the backyard, amplifying the signal with a Radio Shack #15-1108 signal amp.

Sadly, this combination has only resulted in 2 stations; WLNS-DT CBS , and WSYM-DT Fox47, both local. I was really hoping to get WJRT ABC from Flint/Chesaning, but can only get a blip on the meter and no lock at all, about the same with WOTV ABC from Battle Creek. Has anyone in the Lansing area (inside the city in particular) been able to pick up an ABC affiliate? Please share your success stories!

More on a general note, what rumors have you heard about local stations status?
It's a good bet that WKAR PBS will be up in May.

How about WLAJ ABC? Last check shows they are "awaiting FCC permit," what does this mean? Does that mean they haven't even started the hardware setup?

What about WHTV UPN in Jackson, can we expect to able to pick them up in Lansing when they go live?

Anyone have info on why WLNS isn't sending out DD 5.1, and when they will start?

This should be enough to get things rolling......
.

[Matt L]

While I'm not familiar with the antenna, I'd try it without the pre-amp. Some people have reported loosing digital channels with RS pre-amps, the noise level is quite high. With a decent antenna/pre-amp setup you should be in a good location to get Flint, and Grand Rapids too.

[martyllian]

He/she will only get Grand Rapids if the Mast antenna picks up VHF decently, as almost all GR digital channels are VHF. I live in Charlotte, and can not bring in GR digitals. I can get a 5% blip sometimes, but rarely. I get WSYM-dt, WLNS-DT, WOTV-DT, and The Pax Digital, which is only on upconvert ATM.

[rebfx]

I live in holt.. I can get WJRT from Flint in on a pretty regular basis.
The signal fluctuates between 30- 57 percent on my Toshiba dst-3000 reciever. (anything above 37 percent is watchable with minimal dropouts)

I have a "double bowtie" RS indoor UHF antenna hooked to a RS amp. it's all sitting on my TV in the basement.

Since I only have a UHF antenna I can't get WOTV... anybody else have any luck getting NBC in?

What's up with WILX DT anyway.. Last I had seen it looked like they were supposed to be up and running last Dec... but that might of been some false info that I had read from TitanTV.

Anyway.. Thanks for starting the thread, srgilbert

-Randy

[srgilbert]

Originally posted by Matt L
While I'm not familiar with the antenna, I'd try it without the pre-amp. Some people have reported loosing digital channels with RS pre-amps, the noise level is quite high. With a decent antenna/pre-amp setup you should be in a good location to get Flint, and Grand Rapids too.

The RS amp has two components, one that attaches to the antenna outside, and the inside part that is powered that connects to the tuner. Will I need to actually remove the part from the antenna to test this theory, or can I just disconnect the amp inside?

[martyllian]

WOTV is UHF. You may be able to get it. Try pointing your DBT(Double bow tie) to the southwest or northeast. Depending on the weather, That is what I have to do. I get consistant 100% signals on it, and I am only about 17 miles from you.

I do have trouble with the signal from Fox, though. Sometimes it will come in fine, and then it will drop and I cannot get a signal for 3 or four days. Not a big deal though since there is little of value on Fox.

[Matt L]

srgilbert, sorry to say to try my idea you will have to remove the pre-amp at the antenna. If you unplug the power inserter I doubt you will get anything.

[Egret]

I'm able to get WLNS (6) with 100 signal strength, but FOX does go out quite a bit. I've had my Hughes DirecTV box with a SilverSensor for a couple of weeks now and I find myself watching much more CBS than I used to. I'm moving to a new house in Mason in two weeks, so I'm waiting to get try a dish antenna when I move. I have the new dish in my office right now. So, I won't see HDNet until then.

I'll get to see the RedWings in a couple weeks on HDNet, and I'll also see the March Madness games. That'll keep me happy for awhile.

[srgilbert]

Originally posted by martyllian
WOTV is UHF. You may be able to get it. Try pointing your DBT(Double bow tie) to the southwest or northeast. Depending on the weather, That is what I have to do. I get consistant 100% signals on it, and I am only about 17 miles from you.

I do have trouble with the signal from Fox, though. Sometimes it will come in fine, and then it will drop and I cannot get a signal for 3 or four days. Not a big deal though since there is little of value on Fox.

Some may not realize that fox47 doesn't even turn on the TX until 7pm and shuts down at 10pm.

srgilbert, sorry to say to try my idea you will have to remove the pre-amp at the antenna. If you unplug the power inserter I doubt you will get anything.

Rats, I did try just bypassing the power inserter, and the results were no better or worse than before. If I get some time soon (and if it's not so damn cold!) I will pull the antenna down and remove it completely to see if it helps.

[martyllian]

Though, I think they forget to turn off or on their transmission a lot. I was watching that 70's show at 11:30 one night on 47 when it went out. I tried back the next night at around 8:00-8:30P.m, and there was no signal.

One saturday, they were showing the infomercials on 47 digital, and as soon as NAscar came on, the Digital switched off.. found it odd

[rebfx]

Since I only have a UHF antenna I can't get WOTV... anybody else have any luck getting NBC in?

I meant to say NBC Wood channel 7.. Not WOTV... Anybody get NBC?

[adkinsds]

I live on the west side of Lansing and recieve channel 8 (7) from Grand Rapids with very few dropouts. This spring they are going to raise the tower another 150 feet and raise there power to 30kws, they are at 16kws now. I get channel 12 (36) perfectly and channel 5 (22) out of Flint great. The only channel I really have problems with is channel 3 (2) out of Kalamazoo with some dropouts caused from channel 2 in Detriot. I am using a Wineguard 8200P with a Wineguard 8700 pre-amp on a 2 story house.

[srgilbert]

Originally posted by srgilbert
Rats, I did try just bypassing the power inserter, and the results were no better or worse than before. If I get some time soon (and if it's not so damn cold!) I will pull the antenna down and remove it completely to see if it helps.

Update, I did finally get around to removing the RS preamp, and as before, no better or worse, so I took them both back. Still only getting 2 stations!

[Matt L]

srgilbert, sorry to hear that. A few basic questions, are you using a good quality coax, and are the ends installed properly? Do you have a rotor? If you're in the city I'd use a quad shield coax, Home Depot --$.39/ft. use the correct quad shield connectors and make sure none of the ground wires short out the inner feed, if it does the shield becomes one big antenna. You might try one of the Channel Master or Winegard 8 bay bow-tie antennas, i read good things about them, about $60 if I recall correctly.

I had to play with a few antennas until I hit the right one, you might have to try a few more until you hit the right one.

[adkinsds]

Wilx is on the air is anyone in Lansing getting it

[Matt L]

Hey, got it! 57-3 looks good, will they have Hd capability (when NBC goes back to it's limited HD). I'm getting it at 88 on my RCA so they must be putting out a decent signal, I'm 40 to 50 miles east of Lansing.

[Egret]

Great news on WILX! I didn't realize they were coming online now. I'm picking them up down here in Mason with great strength with my little Silver Sensor. Now I'm only waiting on PBS (May) and WLAJ (Who knows?). For now, I'm very happy.

[srgilbert]

Originally posted by Matt L
srgilbert, sorry to hear that. A few basic questions, are you using a good quality coax, and are the ends installed properly? Do you have a rotor? If you're in the city I'd use a quad shield coax, Home Depot --$.39/ft. use the correct quad shield connectors and make sure none of the ground wires short out the inner feed, if it does the shield becomes one big antenna. You might try one of the Channel Master or Winegard 8 bay bow-tie antennas, i read good things about them, about $60 if I recall correctly.

I had to play with a few antennas until I hit the right one, you might have to try a few more until you hit the right one.

Well, the coax is pretty basic Ratshack stuff with twist-on connectors. I don't have a rotor, but I do change the direction by hand when needed. I've already spent enough money on this, so I think I will just have to wait for WLAJ to get off their butts and get on the air. Oh well...... thanks though.

[Matt L]

I checked out 57-3 WILX again tonight and they did show Boomtown in HD plus they had 5.1 DD enabled. Glad to see NBC is back to HD. I don't know if NBC does 5.1, but when they do WLIX is all set. I notice their signal is quite directional. With WLNS I can leave my antennas pointed at Detroit and still get a decent signal, but WILX doesn't even blip. If I point the antennas at Lansing WILX comes in great.

Now all we need is WKAR...

[SteveZ103]

I have a couple of questions for anyone who can receive WSYM-DT out of Lansing. I'm from Midland, and my local Fox station doesn't have a -DT construction permit yet, and they are owned by Sinclair. So even if they do go on the air within the next two years, it will be another two years before they pass the fox widescreen signal... Anyway, i'm looking for an alternative station, and WSYM is the nearest possibility. My questions are if you can receive it, how far are you from the station, and at what strength does it come in at? I'm around 80 miles away, and i'm trying to decide if I will need one or two Televes DAT75 antenna's.

Also, do they pass the Fox widescreen signal at all? When they first went on the air they didn't, but I haven't heard any new news in a while.

Thanks for your help

[Chris White]

Greetings all! I'm currently a member of the Central Florida HDTV group, but I'm moving to Williamston in June. I knew WLNS and WSYM were both on the air, but this is the first I've heard about WILX. Great news! Does anyone know where the towers for these stations are located? I'm hoping I can just use an attic antenna like I use now.

[Matt L]

Chris, here a re couple of links that may help. They were done by Qyv10 and posted in the Grand Rapids section but they may help you out...

Mid-Michigan

Grand Rapids

In williamston you should be in almost as good as a spot as I am to get a great deal of DT and HD stations. Dertoit and Lansing for sure, perhaps some from Flint too.

[srgilbert]

Well, I live right in Lansing, so I would be a bad judge of signal strength, but I can confirm that Fox47 does pass along the widescreen signal, which makes 24 look pretty sweet. It should also be noted that they are guilty of the all too common "asleep at the switch" phenomenon. Often it can be several minutes into a broadcast before they jump to WS. Another oddity (to me at least) on my audio receiver, it indicates they are passing a DD5.1 signal, although I was under the impression that Fox-DT only supports DD2.0.

[srgilbert]

Originally posted by Chris White
I'm moving to Williamston.....

Moving from FL to Michigan, huh? Here is another link you might find useful: http://he.honda.ca/powerequipment/sn...s/default2.asp

[Chris White]

LOL! I was just hoping my neighbor would own a snowblower.

[Matt L]

Steve, I tried to pick up 38-5 last night and was surprised to see it coming in great, I hadn't tried to get it in some time. As you know I'm in Flushing pretty much due south of you with my Televes/ CM 7777 combo I was getting 88-90 on my RCA, so I'd guess you have a shot at getting it. It was coming in as well as WILX 57-1 and WLNS 59-1, all in the 80-90 range.

[SteveZ103]

Matt,

Sounds like I might have a chance at WSYM-DT. Right now with my 20 element winegard antenna I can get a 16-18% signal from WLNS at night, and slightly less on fox and nbc. The crazy thing is right now I can get 3 CBS -DT channels, and by may i'll be able to get 5 PBS channels, but there's still no local fox channels... Two DAT75's should deffenitly get the job done. I just wish I would have picked one up when you did for $60-70 shipped.

I'm probibly going to order two from cpc this week, and I might have 1 to sell if two doesn't get any more than one, so if someone from Michigan want's to split the cost for a DAT75 just let me know.

[srgilbert]

GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! No widescreen on 24 on Fox47-DT last night! I even called the engineering dept last night and left a messege, didn't help though. And tonight, WILX NBC isn't in HD either, just "windowboxed" during West Wing.

[SteveZ103]

I just ordered two DAT75's, so once I get them up, i'll let you know my results trying to get fox47 at 85 miles. I'd like to say thanks to Matt L, magic123, dynamohum1, and everyone else who helped me decide on the Televes Antenna's. I should get them by friday, so wish me luck

Steve

[Matt L]

srgilbert, West Wing is NOT in HD and is allways letterboxed. Rumors are that it will be HD, but no time frame.