Marquette, MI - HDTV - Page 3

Hi Yoopers. I'm looking for a little help here. My father is going crazy without any television stations at his camp. He has a place about halfway between Rapid River and Trenary. He used to get channels 3, 6 & 13 in quite well with an outdoor antenna (I think it might be a VHF-only antenna, though, which I'll soon be replacing). He now gets zero channels, and is not too happy about the "digital transition".

I have looked at TVFool.com, and it shows that the tower for WJMN is only a couple of miles from his place. I told my brother he should be able to use a paper clip to get that station in. But it sounds like from reading the posts up above that that isn't actually true. Does anyone know where the tower actually is? The news article posted above says "north of Escanaba", but does that mean it's in Gladstone or Rapid River or just on the north side of Escanaba? Also, is that transmitter operating at a very low power right now? I've been trying to find a phone number for someone at WJMN to try to find out what their deal is. It's going to be a big pain in the ass if I need to get a new antenna and point it at Escanaba, and then a couple of months down the road they switch to broadcasting from Trenary.

Also, does anyone have any advice on antennas? We have an antenna tower that stands about 20' high, but of course, it is surrounded by trees that are 50' or more. It looks from those coverage maps that we're going to have a real tough time picking up anything from Marquette, even WLUC and WNMU. The camp is just a mile or two east of hwy 41, and for some reason it looks like a big black hole around there on the coverage maps. It would be great if I could find a way to get back to at least having WLUC, WNMU, and WJMN, but I'm not sure that that's ever going to be possible. I'm thinking of buying two or three antennas and trying them out when I get up there in a week or two. Any advice?

Current WJMN: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-serv...=DS616432.html

Future WJMN: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-serv...DT1305833.html

- Trip

Thank you, that's very interesting. Sites like antennaweb and TVfool don't seem to have as accurate of information as I had thought.

It looks like if I get the right antenna I may have a decent chance of receiving WJMN as well as W40AN (translator for WLUK) from Escanaba. That sucks to lose WLUC, since they're the only ones that would have local news from the area, but I guess they dug their own grave. My brother has spoken to a lot of people in the outlying areas around Escanaba, and none of them can receive WLUC anymore. Most of those same folks have either Dish or DirecTV and can't receive local stations over satellite either, so TV6, which had been about the most popular station to most of those people, is non-existent to them now.

here's the report from Ishpeming:

All of these channels come in VERY good, prob 80+% signal level:
WLUC 6-1: WLUC NBC
WLUC 6-2: NBC-US
WBUP 10-1: ABC
WBUP 10-2: CW
WNMU 13-1: WNMU-SD1 (PBS)
WNMU 13-2: WNMU-DT (looks like PBS national HD, can differ from SD1)
WNMU 13-3: WNMU-SD2 (3 hr delay of 13-1)
WMQF 19-1: test pattern says "coming soon" (FOX)
WMQF 19-2: test pattern says "coming soon"

Other stations:
WBKP: no signal, too far away (sister station to WBUP, reverse subchannel mapping)
WDHS: silent, no signal
WJMN: not even a little signal. pathetic. (CBS)

WJMN is sad. I'm at least getting a low, undecodable during the day signal from WGBA (RF23) and WFRV (RF39) from Green Bay. I might have a chance at night on those stations. That tells you how bad WJMN is.
They need to get their act together.

-------------------------------------------
equipment used:
receiver: Zenith DTT-901
antenna: channel master 3016
preamplifier: channel master 7778 (although I'd recommend the Winegard AP8700 or CM7777)
antenna height: 25' above ground
coax: RG-6 Quad Shield
antenna pointed 170 deg.

you can get this exact setup from solidsignal.com since the local stores don't have the selection

update:
WMQF is sporadically showing old B/W movies and preachers with no audio on 19-1 and 19-2.

WDHS had a test pattern up and 4 subchannels this morning and the station was back off the air tonight. Will this be an iOn affiliate?

WJMN still sucks with no signal in these parts due to the low powered transmitter until November from what I have been reading.

I'm giving them a deadline of November 15th.


Is that station not a FOX affiliate? Don't they show regular FOX network programming at all? Also, will they be carrying the Lions games in the fall?

something is messed up in their signal then since the box receives all other stations just fine. I have heard WMQF will remain FOX, but that remains to be seen. Also, if i was them, I'd show GB football to try and fight with Charter to get WMQF to be the sole network affiliate on the cable system.

WMQF needs revenue.. I hate the Pack, but locally, that's a good revenue source. I wish they'd just sign some agreement with WLUK and make WMQF a satellite of that station. That would be really a wise move.

The FCC call sign history says WMQF's call sign was officially changed to WZMQ on 6/23.

I haven't seen anything to indicate MMMRC's programming plans for the station, but IMHO, they would be crazy to drop FOX. Once DISH Network launches their locals package for the market, they will not be able to carry WLUK because a court order prevents them from carrying out-of-market stations. DirecTV could carry WLUK but probably wouldn't because they seldom offer out-of-market stations.

The chances of getting Charter to drop WLUK are slim to none. The only way it would happen is if WZMQ convinced WLUK to tell Charter it can't carry it's signal in the U.P. anymore. Otherwise, Charter can carry WLUK because it's on the FCC's significantly viewed list for Marquette County and a few others.

Perhaps WZMQ's best chance for success would be to reach a deal with WLUK to rebroadcast WLUK's news programming, and get Charter to replace WLUK with WZMQ.

A website is up:
www.wzmqtv.com

Wikipedia says it is staying FOX and My Network TV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZMQ

I hope they are getting rid of that "family feud" font logo.

It's horrible!

Although wikipedia says it is staying FOX, I wonder with the look of that website. It looks like it will be some ministry type of station with southern gospel.

Very courteous reply from WZMQ's new general manager:

Thanks for your e mail Mike. Some of your questions we are still working on.
We would like to continue with FOX but we have not been able to secure them
as of yet. We will be carrying MYNETWORK and White Springs TV (A 24hr a day
movie Channel) and we are in negotiations with another provider who I cannot
disclose who it is but it will be top of the line programming but we will
not know until August 1st.

Also we are now locally owned and are in the process of finding a place for
our studio's on 41 west in Marquette. A simulcast is not possible with WLUK.

Also we have changed the call letters to WZMQ.

We should be at full power by the first week in August. We will be on
Charter Cable before long. Thanks for your interest.

Danny Hood
General Manager
WZMQ TV

In case anyone doesn't recall, Danny Hood is the former owner of the mostly-silent Channel 8 in Iron Mountain.

Here's my update from my dad's place near Osier (south of Trenary). I tried a couple of different antennas.

I started with the UHF-only one from Radio Shack and had my brother stand on the roof and hold it steady against the chimney. We pointed it at Escanaba, and unfortunately only got a low signal but no picture on channels 40 (WLUK translator) and 48 (WJMN). We then pointed it towards Republic and got the same thing (low signal w/ no picture) on WLUC, but were actually able to get enough of a signal on WNMU to get a picture that was frequently breaking up. I found it odd that the one station we could actually pull in with the UHF-only antenna was a VHF station. I decided that antenna was a failure for us.

I then went to Menard's and picked up the biggest outdoor VHF/UHF antenna they sell. It has a Philips brand name and retails for $90, but for some reason they only charged me $60 for it. At first we assembled only the UHF segment and tried the same thing with someone standing on the roof holding it. We were able to clearly pull in WNMU now with a fairly strong signal, so we decided to go ahead and assemble the whole antenna and put it up on the tower (which stands on the ground and is only about the same height as the roof anyway). Unfortunately, we were still only able to get WNMU in clearly. We can get a low signal on both WLUC and WBUP, and actually had a picture on WLUC for a few seconds, but that was about it. We are going to attempt to raise the antenna and clear out some surrounding trees to see if any more progress can be made. And once WJMN gets their act together, it should be no problem to get that station. But for now, my dad's quite disappointed that he can only get PBS where he once could get CBS, NBC & PBS.

I also spoke to several people in the area near my cottage on Lake Michigan about twenty miles south of Escanaba. They are all almost entirely without television now where they used to be able to receive 4-6 channels. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the digital switch isn't a real popular concept among folks in many rural areas.

You would probably be correct in that assumption. There are three issues at play for rural reception:
1) Many VHF stations (like WLUC and WJMN) moved to UHF, and UHF coverage areas are inherently smaller.
2) Many stations (like WLUC and WJMN) chose not to construct UHF facilities at the maximum power allowed by the FCC, 1,000kW. WJMN could eventually get to that level, but WLUC apparently has no desire to go higher than 83kW.
3) Digital is an all-or-nothing format and is harder to pull in.

It's not that digital is a bad idea. It's that the stations in the Marquette/Escanaba area are on shoestring budgets and can't put up a serious transmitter for rugged terrain. WNMU is the exception. I am guessing WBUP has some power constraint with WWUP near the Soo on the same channel. Before getting all dejected, make sure you have a nice preamp on that nice and high antenna. I recommend the channel master 7777 for 90% of you. I installed the 7778 at the mother in law's in West Ishpeming and I can lock WLUC, WNMU, WBUP, and WZMQ with no problems at all. Sure, it helps that area is on a hill and relatively close to the transmitters. But, I can also get an almost decodable WGBA and WFRV from Green Bay. the antenna is only up 20'!

TRY THE PREAMP and nice quad shielded RG-6 coax. If that doesn't work, call the stations and complain. You can order the preamp from solidsignal.com.

WJMN's situation is completely rediculous. They should have at least something respectable on the air by now. Blaming the FCC for an application that has been in the system since Oct. 2008 is unbelievable. That doesn't make any sense. The FCC wants to have this switchover succeed and there are no stations within hundreds of miles on that UHF channel. There's no reason to hold up the application. WJMN isn't telling us something.

Any idea what the current draw is on that (or any other) preamp? I am trying to hook this up to run off a 12v car battery. I'm currently using an AC/DC television and a 12V Artec CECB that both run off the battery. I could try an inverter, which I've been considering anyway to try a different converter box, but I'm not sure how long I could run it that way or what size power inverter I would need.

The preamp comes with it's own supply that you have inside the house. the preamp is mounted on the mast. The supply is 15V and less than 1A I believe. try and google channel master to find the exact specs.

why would you want to use some other supply other than the one that comes with the preamp?

I don't want to use a different power supply, but I would need to power the preamp somehow. The camp where this particular tv/antenna setup is located does not have electricity. For years we've been running the TV off a 12V car battery which we occasionally bring to town to recharge. I have also been using a digital converter box that I can run off the car battery. But for a preamp I would probably need to use a power inverter, which is why I was curious about the AC current draw, so I could determine what size power inverter to purchase.

I have the CM7777. If you PM me or post here and remind me in about four hours when I'm not at work, I'll let you know how much it draws.

I remember that it's not a huge amount.

- Trip

WhitePelican,

I think you could power a preamp off of the 12 volt battery that your running your TV and converter off of. I think you would just have to put +12Volts on the center conductor of the coax. You will need a DC block so that the DC voltage doesn't go back to the TV.

You could also try making your own preamp using a "MMIC" device, by picking the right size resitor you can make it to run off of 12 volts.

If you do use a inverter, I'm sure a small one would be all you would need (25 to 100 watts). You may want something in the 100 watt range so you could also power a compact fluorescent light or two, or DVD player.

Good luck,
Mark

Fun.

Look for dual 720p to show up. Barrington just did it in Flint not too long ago.

- Trip

It's good to know their network affiliations are so lousy that I won't ever need to attempt to pull in their signal (if that were even possible).

Yes, if you have a crappy antenna system or live behind a hill this is true. Most viewers in Marquette Co. have a pretty good chance at getting WLUC-Dt with a good antenna system and preamp.

Instead of getting all PO'ed and complaining, look at it this way. FOX on 6-2 is another revenue stream for WLUC. It will enable that station to possible upgrade that weak transmitter to something on the order of 300 kW ERP after some time.

Have you ever watched either of them? "THIS" isn't all that bad. They have some decent movies on there once in a while. Not to mention it's another TV choice for the Marquette market which has had few choices over the air in the past.

Folks, instead of pissing about WLUC and WZMQ, why not direct more of that energy towards WJMN for their pathetic over the air effort of CBS.

And therein lies the rub. WLUC analog used to be available to damn near the entire UP. I used to watch TV6 OTA while I was in school in Houghton, and also at my cottage 25 miles south of Escanaba. Now, you have to have just the right equipment to pick it up in Marquette County alone. It seems like they are counting on cable and satellite to do their job for them now, though.

As another point of reference, I recently re-installed my father-in-law's antenna at his place near Bark River. We picked up WNMU, WLUK (translator out of Escanaba), and even got a very solid picture on WBUP. But we couldn't even get a hint of a picture from WLUC (or WJMN for that matter).