West Palm Beach, FL - HDTV - Page 9

Sorry for the reposts but is anyone getting a widescreen HD image from WPBF as of now? Are they just transmitting the analog feed over the dig channel or do i again have new hardware probs? LOL

HTnut,

As you indicated, WPBF is transmitting their analog feed over their unmapped digital channel.

Hey Guys,

I am in the Parkland area and I have a DTC-100 with a Color King 5886 in the attic. I mainly put it up there for FM and as an after thought I put a splitter on and ran one side to the DTC-100 and the other for FM. I have only only played with it a couple times but during the day not at night. Channel 12 is the only one that comes in good at least during the day. I forgot what it remapped to. My questions are as follows:

1. Is that splitter possibly causing any problems?

2. Is this antenna the right one to use? It was given to me so I have no ties to it

3. Should I pick up an amp from the shack and give that a try?

Thanks

Thanx Rock.. I feel better now. After my new probs with the Toshiba from the latest update i didnt know if it was me or not... much appreciated sir!

Thanks Dave. I have a tile roof and I am embarrassed to say after I posted I found the instruction sheet and of course the antenna is 180* off The big end is pointed towards Miami. LOL I will switch it around and give the AMP a shot. Thanks.

My DST 3000 receiver arrived yesterday, up here in Stuart.

At first I only received WPBF as 16-1, then later in the evening I moved my antenna, and was able to pick up FOX on 29-1.

ABC had me bummed, the signal didn't look all that much better than cable, and it was definitely windowboxed. I couldn't get the TV to switch pic sizes (said - not available) and my DST 3000's three modes (Full, Cropped, windowboxed) didn't make any difference on the picture. Later in the evening, I moved the antenna and was able to pick up FOX. Low and behold, the Bernie Mack show came on, and presto - there was a show in full 16:9! I was jazzed! But, I have no clue what res it was in?

Thanks for the info David, and the validation of what my eyes were seeing.

One question: 480/60i? I understand the difference between 480p and 480i, but what's the 60?

Seperate note - for any other Treasure Coast viewers on the thread. I'm using a Toshiba DST 3000 and a Megwave (non-amplified) antenna. I'm receiving WPBF with a solid signal, and WFLX with a varying signal that looks to be about 70% of 100% at best. (Anyone think we should start a seperate Treasure coast thread?)

Hi, I'm new to this so please bear with me. I live in Coral Springs & have an SIR-T150 hooked up to my HDTV set. I tried an indoor antenna with limited success, and then switched to an attic antenna (very proud of myself installing this). The antenna is pointed south since most of the stations I can receive are Miami stations. I do receive WFLX (29-1) quite well, approx. a 65% signal. Although this is one of the strongest signals I get, every once in a while it drops to O% for anywhere from a few seconds up to less than a minute. I have played with the positioning of the antenna with the same results. The strange thing is on some nights this does not happen at all. On Sunday for example, I was able to watch the X-files straight through, no drops, same on Monday for Boston Public. Last night, though, I had to switch to WSVN (ugh) for Malcolm as the drops were very frequent. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks for any help - this is a great site.
Barry

I had this problem for a while, due to the use of a computer in my house that was near the coax from the antenna. If you can't trace it to something within your house causing the interference, it is possible that it is something external to your house. I remember somebody on this forum who had a problem with a neon sign at a gas station, I think...

David - I think your message got a bit crossed. Based on my signal however, I'll assume WPBF is broadcast from Martin, and WFLX is Lantanna?

I have some interesting comments on my observations since WFLX and WPBF have come on the air. For my UHF-DT I use a 4 Bay Bow tie antenna, originally aimed at Miami. My signal strength for the three Miami DT was 96-97%. The analog signals for the Miami UHF where excellent, no ghosting, although Ch.51 and 69 where a little weaker than the others, but fully watchable. The Palm Beach analogs had strong signals, but heavy ghosting, specially on WFLX and WXEL. WPBF was weak. When WFLX came on the air, I was getting 50% signal, constantly going down to 0%, so I turned the antenna towards their transmitter (I'm in Boca, about 15 miles from the antenna farm). The signal went to 98%, the ghosting on their analog went away. WXEL comes in perfectly in analog, but WPBF was still weak. The big thing is that I did not lose my Miami stations. I still get 95% signal on WPBT, WFOR, and WBZL. The analog transmissions are still good for most except Ch. 33 and ch. 69, which are weaker, although watchable. The kicker is that WPBF-DT is coming in at 85% signal, no dropouts, perfect, while it's analog companion is not what I would consider very watchable, although there is some interference on that frequency, I believe from a an LP station in the Dade county area (when I'm down there that's all that comes in on Ch. 25). So from this I believe that the 8VSB transmission system is very good for range, lower power penetrates better than analog, but is highly sensitive to multipath(ghosting in the analog world). My experience with WFLX reception showed this flaw.

Best viewing,

Jose W2JD

PS- By the way, for the VHF-DT out of Miami I use a 5 element Ch.7-13 Antennacraft beam, aimed at Miami, and get 86% signals.

aviators99 ,David McRoy & W2JD

Thanks to all for your quick responses. I think I will try turning my antenna 180 deg & see if that works (easiest to try). Don't really want to run another cable, that was a pain. I can't imagine what could be causing the interference, but I must have something. I get lots of interference on my cable feed as well that I assumed originated with the cable company, but now I wonder if that is at my end. I did notice that all the electrical wiring for my air conditioning unit is right in that part of the attic so I wonder if that could be the source. I'll experiment with the air on/off tonight before anything else. Thanks again.
Barry

I too have been playing with my antenna today. I had been using a non-powered megawave oriented roughly south - south east toward West Palm.

I was receiving WPBF at 100% and WFLX at 44% average, high of 51%. I switched to my old faithful channelmaster (or somesuch) rabbit ears with UHF loop, and was able to get WFLX up to 93% average, high of 100%.

I don't figure there's much chance of pulling in the Miami stations. If I could, I guess at a minimum I'd have to go with a roof mounted antenna with rotor, which I'd rather not do yet...

Now that I'm getting a stronger signal from WFLX, my DST 3000 has apparently mapped channel 28-1 to 29-1 and is giving me Channel ID info it didn't give before. I'm not getting any behavior like this from WPBF yet (it's 16-1 and no Channel ID).

Update on my attempts to solve problem with low cable channels and 'HDTV antenna' grounding...problem worse, more ideas?

I added a "static" bleed thingy...obviously not the official name of it... to the circuit from my attic antenna--down_the_wall->staticthingy->lowband_filter->SIR-T150 cable path but the only (easy) ground nearby was the shield of the Adelphia cable which is grounded outside the house, so the circuit adds EARTH_GND<-Adelphia_cable->staticthingy->VCR->HDTV to the diagram.

Turns out this is worse (who would have guessed that direct coupling would be worse than capacitive coupling ?-).

I checked that the Adephia_Cable shield has continuity to the Earth_ground - fine. So it looks like the static build up on the center conductor is not high enough to discharge across the staticthingy, but high enough to be messing up my low channels (somehow...not sure why this is).

The extra connectors in the HDTV signal path is just enough to make WPBF (off the back of the antenna) unreliable also, so this is getting complicated. Now I have to put the pre-amp back in the circuit or add an antenna switch and a second antenna. I can't believe I'm doing all this for "just television"...

Yes, sometimes the problem is organized sparklies, but unplugging and then replugging the "Adelphia_cable->VCR->HDTV" cable clears the image of sparklies and the increased "graininess" of other VHF NTSC channels.

I checked that the Adelphia cable shields are connected to the earth ground, visually and with VOM. What else can I check before I ask Adelphia to help, (which is probably going to cost me)?

Last time Adelphia came out, they unconnected the cable at the VCR, trimmed a little bit off the center conductor, reconnected it and claimed the center conductor "was too long and was shorting inside the unit". Since the problem doesn't come back right away, there is no way to prove them wrong at the moment they are here.

Any word on when WPBF will be broadcasting their Dig signal???

I was just wondering if anyone knows what happened to WHDT? I thought that Gunther had announced they would be 24/7 by May 1st. I can't wait to see Leave it to Beaver in High Definition and pristine monochrome!

? Does WFLX-DT NOT broadcast all day? The last couple of days, I couldn't seem to pick them up until the evening. (I tried today at 3:45 - no luck, and now at 6:15 I've got them). I know I've picked them up midday last week. Are they testing something, or, could it just be atmospherics, or, do they not start broadcasting until a certain time?

James