Amarillo, TX - HDTV

[pi-rho]

OTA Digital Channels:

Amarillo College (5kW,Licensed)

2.1 - KACV-DT [PBS, 480p] - PHY:8-4
2.2 - KACV-DT2 [PBS, 1080] - PHY:8-3

Nextstar Broadcasting/Mission Broadcasting (8.5kW, 400kW coming soon?)

4.1 - KAMR-DT [NBC, 720p] - PHY:19-3
4.2 - KCPN-DT2 [MNTV, 480p]- PHY:19-4

Barrington (50kW, Licensed)

7.1 - KVII-DT [ABC, 720p] - PHY:23-3
7.2 - KVII-DT2 [CW, 480p] - PHY:23-4

Drewry Communications Group (20.8kW, Licensed)

10.1 - KFDA-DT [CBS, 1080i] - PHY:9-1
10.2 - KTMO-DT2 [Telemundo, 480p] - PHY:9-2
10.3 - KZBZ-DT3 [Ind., 480p] - PHY:9-3
10.4 - KFDA-DT4 [Ind., 480p] (Galavision?) - PHY:9-4

Nextstar Broadcasting/Mission Broadcasting (925kW, Licensed)

14.1 - KCIT-DT [FOX, 720p] - PHY:15-3

Borger Broadcasting, Inc. (700kW, Licensed)

31.1 - KEYU-DT [Univision,480p] - PHY:31-9
31.3 - KEYU-DT3 [Ind., 480p] - PHY:31-10

Both Nextstar/Mission Broadcasting transmitters (channel groups 4.* and 14.*) are located on the same tower.

Personal Reception Results

Receiver: Sony Grand Wega KDS-R60XBR1 ATSC Tuner
Receiver: Vbox Cat's Eye HD USB ATSC Tuner
Receiver: SiliconDust HDHomeRun ATSC Tuner
Antenna: Terrestrial Digital 42XG, roof mounted
Antenna direction: ~ 10 deg.
Location: Southwest Amarillo

Channel - Strength
2.* - 90%
4.* - 94%
7.* - 98%
10.* - 99%
14.1 - 80%
31.* - 90%

[hotmoosettu]

I am going to be moving to the southwest side of amarillo soon (near the hollywood movie theater and I-27) and was wondering if anyone has had any kind of trouble getting reception of any of the local channels in HD.

[pi-rho]

Originally Posted by hotmoosettu

I am going to be moving to the southwest side of amarillo soon (near the hollywood movie theater and I-27) and was wondering if anyone has had any kind of trouble getting reception of any of the local channels in HD.

That's fairly close to where I live. The only station that I have trouble getting OTA is KCIT-DT (Fox, 14.1). All local stations are available in digital form (and HD in the case of KAMR/NBC, KVII/ABC, KFDA/CBS, and KCIT/FOX) on Suddenlink Cable. All of the local stations are on Clear QAM (unencrypted) channels.

[kjschneider]

I live in Hunsley Hills section of Canyon and the only HD channel that I am receiving now on my Terk HDTVa antenna is KVII. Do you think that I will be able to get any of the others? Thanks.

[olftboy]

You need to check out this site. >> antennaweb.org
Select the "Choose Antenna" box. On the next page enter your zip code of where you will be living. You don't need to fill in any other information. It will show you the antenna size, distance to transmitters.. etc. needed for that location. I am in the 79102 zip and I receive all the hd's with a set of old rabbit ears in the attic. Good luck!

[andy.s.lee]

Originally Posted by kjschneider

I live in Hunsley Hills section of Canyon and the only HD channel that I am receiving now on my Terk HDTVa antenna is KVII. Do you think that I will be able to get any of the others? Thanks.

Getting the antenna higher, like in the attic or on the roof, will help a lot.

KFDA (CBS) and KACV (PBS) are on VHF channels, which means you'll need to extend the rabbit ears to get them. The optimum arrangement for the rabbit ears is to have them extend flat horizontally, with each element having a length of about 41" (that's almost full extension on the HDTVa, about 82" end-to-end). If you don't have enough room for this, you can angle the elements up 45 degrees and shorten them to about half the length, but you'll lose a bit of sensitivity this way.

Your antenna should have the most direct view of the transmitters as possible (passing through as little building material as possible). The radio waves are moving through your neighborhood almost horizontally (passing through neighbors' houses, too), so moving the antenna higher is a good way to avoid a lot of the "clutter" that interferes with reception.

If you're at a lower elevation, there may be some terrain blockage affecting the geographic depressions (see attached map). However, the fact that you are getting KVII means that you're probably not being affected by this. If you can get KVII, there's a good chance that you'll be able to get all the Amarillo stations.

Bottom line is that the local channels seem strong enough for reception and it's mostly a matter of finding the best spot to place your antenna.

If you're not able to find the right sweet spot for the antenna or if the picture stability is not satisfactory (e.g., some dropouts or macroblocking artifacts), then let us know because I'm sure the forum members could recommend alternative antenna and amp setups that would give you rock-solid performance.

Best regards,
Andy

[kjschneider]

Thank you very much to all that replied. You all have been a big help.

There were a lot of very interesting and useful information that I did not know existed!

kjschneider

[hotmoosettu]

Alright, so i'm going with dish network and was wondering if the local channels are available in HD thru Dish? If not anyone know when they might become available?

[tab10]

Any directv customers in amarillo with remedies to no local channels through Dtv?

Thanks.

[hotmoosettu]

tab10-
I've got dish and simply use an indoor antenna to pick up all the local channels and pbs in hd. Depends on where you live as to whether or not that will work for you.

[tab10]

I am in the southwest part of town, about 14 to 17 miles from all the towers...from the best I can tell.

I tried some flat RCA indoor antenna, and that didnt work at all.

[hotmoosettu]

I live on the sw side of amarillo also, right at hollywood and I-27. I use an rca flat indoor antenna and had to put it on top of a corner cabinet to get PBS, but I pick up every local channel just fine. If you've still got the flat antenna, try putting it up as high as possible and as far to the north as possible. I also placed a metal candle holder on top of the antenna and it actually greatly improved the reception. Hope that helps.

[trailryder]

Have you all noticed this? It's hard to miss. I hope this practice is just growing pains of transitioning between analog and full digital OTA broadcast signals by Feb.'09.

Please read the thread I started here:
forum.videohelp.com/topic358990.html#1904517

I'm interested to know if this is also happening with those of you who get your local channels from Cable TV, either the analog or digital offerings from Sudden Link.

[milkman_jpl]

I'm getting a strange audio signal from High Def over-the-air programs. Specifically college football on Saturday nights on ABC. The last three Texas Tech games have shown up on the receiver as "Dolby Digital" but seem to be two channel stereo. The commercials are in standard definition but 5.1 audio, while the game is in high def with lousy audio.

Anyone else? Any help?

My receiver is a Harman Kardon AVR 254. The antenna is going through my Dish Vip 722 and then to my TV. We are out in Groom, TX.

[hotmoosettu]

Originally Posted by milkman_jpl

I'm getting a strange audio signal from High Def over-the-air programs. Specifically college football on Saturday nights on ABC. The last three Texas Tech games have shown up on the receiver as "Dolby Digital" but seem to be two channel stereo. The commercials are in standard definition but 5.1 audio, while the game is in high def with lousy audio.

Anyone else? Any help?

My receiver is a Harman Kardon AVR 254. The antenna is going through my Dish Vip 722 and then to my TV. We are out in Groom, TX.

I've got a similar setup, but with an Onkyo receiver. I didn't notice anything wrong with the audio, just the game.... How are you sending audio from the 722 to your HK?

[mdamberger]

This may be of interest for off air viewers near Amarillo and Clovis NM area, and those looking to see VHF DTV performance. KOBR is more likely to be received further north, since it's located closer to Portales/Clovis area.

For viewers in S.E. NM. KOBR and KBIM, will be conducting a coordinated engineering test of both stations transmission and antenna systems.

Starting sometime after midnight Dec. 3rd and finishing before 6am Dec.3rd. This test will use both stations post DTV transition RF channels, 8 & 10. During the test both stations low power DTV transmitters will be shut down, ch.38 (8) & ch.41 (10). A test pattern or SD programming will be passed; HD equipment is not yet in place for this DTV test.

Both stations will be conducting reception reports from cable companies within the viewing area of their VHF DTV signals. We would appreciate any reports from off air viewers who would be up at this time. Please pass this on if you know of anyone interested. Any performance reports of digital VHF reception is of great interest.

Marcus Damberger
KBIM

[ranchart]

Does anyone know of someplace I can get an external vhf/uhf antenna amplifier. I live way west of Hereford & way north of Clovis and I only receive KFDA stations through the converter I get 2,4, 7 & 10 off of my antenna before the converter.

Bill

[bkn]

Radio Shack has antennas. Although, I would suggest ordering online from winegate as they have more selection.

[bkn]

Winegate--- also have pre amps which are probably better than Radio Shacks pre amps.

[ranchart]

BKN ..........Thank you I will try to find Winegate.

Bill

[Trip in VA]

I don't think you need an amp, if you don't get KCIT Fox 14 at all, you need an antenna that will handle UHF signals along with VHF. KFDA-DT is on channel 9, and KACV-DT is on channel 8. The rest are on UHF.

Given that you don't receive KACV, you might want a better VHF antenna as well.

- Trip

[ranchart]

I have a VHF/UHF antenna. We do receive KACV with our antenna now plus everything else except KCIT. KAMR said all of their digital DTV signals will be UHF. The fact is we used to get KCIT until I replaced the booster/amp deal with the on we have now that is only for VHF. We did have a couple Motorola 15's stacked together but now I need to find a source to get something similar that works both sides.

[Trip in VA]

Ah, gotcha. VHF/UHF amp sounds good, then. =)

- Trip

[tab10]

I was curious as to what brand (make/model) OTA directv installs these days.

Per antennaweb.org, I live within 20 miles of all major towers here in Amarillo, so I was wondering if that had any bearing on what OTA D* may install.

I would prefer something outside or dish mounted as my indoor HD antenna is having a hard time keeping a signal.

Thanks much.

[sebenste]

KEYU-DT down to 500 watts...

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws...&fac_num=83715

...and bankrupt.