AVS Forum banner

Charlotte, NC - OTA

1M views 17K replies 446 participants last post by  Mark Vidonic 
#1 ·
I'm in zip code 28269 (north side of Charlotte, between 85 & 77). Towers are clustered at 160 degrees and 280 degrees with one (WUNG) at 94 degrees. I have some headend equipment that combines signals from many directions into a single downlead. I'm still tinkering with it, and most recently I had to remove the signal for channel 18 (analog) because it interfered with other channels. Below are my typical readings for digital stations. These measurements come from a "MyHD" tuner card that provides a "percent reception" measurement:


11 PBS Charlotte 58-64%

15 PBS Rock Hill (no signal)

22 NBC 69-75%

23 CBS 58-64%

27 FOX 58-64%

34 ABC 49-53% **

39 WB 58-64%

44 PBS Concord 0-13% (not usable yet, but I'm not giving-up)

47 UPN 58-64%

50 AXN 32-36%


** Recently ABC has been at 32-36%


--Dale--
 
See less See more
#2 ·
John,


Interesting post. Thanks. It looks like you are getting a fair bit of OTA programming there! I see that the mast mount amp you are using has UHF Gain: 26 dB UHF Noise Figure: 2.0 dB, which is pretty good. I'm using several mast mounted amps (different antennas). The 'best' one I have is a Winegard AP-4800 which has a similar set of specs: Average Gain- 28 dB /UHF Average Noise- 2.7 dB /UHF. I've tried using this amp with WUNG 44, but only on an attic mounted antenna. The reason that one is inside is that I already have two on the roof! I think I'm going to add an 8 bay bow-tie wayyyyy up on the top of my other mast (to 'see' over my neighbor's house) and point it at WUNG.


One question for you... Your list has what I would consider analog stations, and the names have "DT". If I assume that you are measuring digital WUNG, for instance, you would be measuring channel 44, not 58. Is that so?


It's amazing the difference in power output for 58 versus 44, for instance: 5000kW on 58 vs 150kW on 44 .


--Dale--
 
#4 ·

Quote:
Originally posted by John Sides
Why do you have so many antennas?

John, I'm using yagi-style UHF antennas, which are highly directional, and I have two main clusters of stations, 120 degrees apart. The myHD tuner has "Tivo-like" functionality, and I didn't want to have to remember to rotate the antenna for timed recordings.


It turned into quite a project, though, because you can't just connect two antennas with a standard coupler because in this case, 1 plus 1 does not equal 2. The reasoning goes something like this: Signal for a channel hits the front of one antenna, and the back of the other antenna. Depending on the distance the two antennas are apart and how many feet of cable between each antenna and the coupler, the signal may add out of phase. So 1 plus 1 can equal anywhere from 0 to 2. Then you have ghosting, where one antenna picks up a reflection and the other antenna gets it straight. The solution is to pluck only the signals you want off of each antenna, so by the time you couple them together, hopefully you won't have overlap. Without a field strength meter, I'm shooting in the dark a bit, but I've been somewhat successful at getting most digital stations with pretty good reliability.


--Dale--
 
#7 ·
Wifey was complaining about the same thing. Then I showed her the

satellite receiver that receives WOLO here at home, now she has her Alias and is happy. Perks of the job save the day.
 
#9 ·
Even tho both ABC and ESPN are 720p, they use different methods of satellite transport. WSOC would have to acquire and install an ESPN-HD

decoder for this one game, not necessarily a simple or easy task.

Not something I would do for one HD game that generates no additional

revenue..
 
#10 ·

Quote:
Originally posted by cmjman
sengsational have you seen your abc signal strength bounce back up? Mines still like your's was with the drop off. i use to get it at 50-60% and now its 20-35% ... very frustrating.

I'm seeing 32-36% tonight. Down significantly from a few weeks ago (?) where I routinely got a solid 53%.


The game is looking nice, though, despite the low signal strength. At first, it was pixelizing and had sound dropouts. But for whatever reason it's been perfect lately. Ouch TD Atlanta, but that's a rip off!! He wasn't in there!


--Dale--
 
#11 ·
Did anyone else not get any HD OTA broacasts last night (Sun 12/7)? Usually Cold Case on CBS (3-1) is in HD, and it came across as 4:3 SD. And NBC the opening credits of the Tracey Morgan sitcom were in HD but then popped back to 4:3 for the rest of the night. The only thing in HD was WJZY's DT channel, which seem to have taken over the HDNet lite crap that WWWB used to have. (I found this out doing my nightly HD check during breaks of the Michael Vick Show -- uh, I mean Panthers game.)


All my signals were in the 70-80 range on the built in tuner on my Hitachi -- then again, if it were a bad signal I'd get nothing, anyway.


Thoughts? Maybe all the engineers were too busy watching the Panthers to flip the ol' HD switch.
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally posted by DJ Frustration
Why is the Panthers game on WSOC tonight instead of just ESPN? There is no reason that Alias (in HD) should be pre-empted for something that is already on ESPN (in SD).


WSOC, you lose points in my book.

Yeah, it was odd about the double telecast of the game. I guess there are those who don't have cable or a dish, who would have wanted to see the game and WSOC must have had local rights or somesuch.


On another note, was there a new Alias last night? Did we miss it because of the game? Anybody know?
 
#14 ·

Quote:
Originally posted by cmjman
which myHD card to you own? I have the mdp-100 and sometimes wonder if the mdp-120 would help me lock on to difficult stations like abc. the tuner in the 120 is suppose to be better.

I have the 100. Yeah, I read that the 120 was supposed to have a better ability to handle weaker signals. I might invest in some additional 'head end' equipement to better my situation with ABC (and some others, depending on outdoor conditions). Without the proper test equipment, though, there is a lot of trial and error.


--Dale--
 
#15 ·

Quote:
Originally posted by archiguy
I guess there are those who don't have cable or a dish, who would have wanted to see the game and WSOC must have had local rights or somesuch.

I think when ESPN carries a game, there is an NFL rule that the local team's market should be able to see the game, so yes, those without cable or satellite can see it too.

Quote:
On another note, was there a new Alias last night? Did we miss it because of the game? Anybody know?

There was indeed a new Alias Sunday night. WSOC showed it at 2:00 a.m., at least according to my TWC program guide. I set my DVR to record it, and even added an extra half hour in case of a longer game. But when I checked it yesterday the game was actually even longer than I had made contingency for, so I got some crappy dating show followed by the first 45 minutes of Alias. Nothing like watching a cliffhanger show without even getting to the cliffhanger.
 
#16 ·
At least you knew it was on in the morning! I was totally taken by surprise seeing the game duplicated on WSOC. Getting my local channels over the air, I didn't have access to TWC's digital program guide, so I was clueless. Now I've missed an episode of my favorite show! Argggghh! I hate WSOC!!


Anyone have a tape of the episode they'd lend me? Gotta' get my Jen Garner fix!!
 
#18 ·
I guess everyone using this thread knows that an almost identical thread already exists called "Charlotte, NC area HDTV Thread". Seems a little crazy to run the same thing twice with duplicate info. The other thread already has 23 pages of info. The link is

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=128876
 
#19 ·

Quote:
Originally posted by archiguy
Yeah, it was odd about the double telecast of the game. I guess there are those who don't have cable or a dish, who would have wanted to see the game and WSOC must have had local rights or somesuch.

It's a requirement I believe of the NFL that the game must be broadcast in the away city on a local basis. I can only guess that ABC had the rights to ESPN programming since they are both owned by Disney. Plus the fact that far more people in the Charlotte area would rather see the Panthers so it was a great night for WSOC.
 
Top