Harrisburg, PA - HDTV

Well, someone over at whp has been telling me, " give us another week or two" since Jan 1, so who knows. I don't believe anyone anymore, until I see it on my tv.

I got the March 15 ETA from Danielle DeRitis at WHP, but she said it's all contingent on when they can get the appropriate technical people in to install the equipment. They have the equipment, which was backordered for some time. Right now there's nothing we can do but wait and see.

I wish WITF would come back on! Damn, how long does it take to fix a transformer?

Danielle is the same person who at first told me they were on schedule for Jan 1, then has consistently told me a week or two since then. The latest she gave me was that the people who are needed to install everthing are in high demand at the moment, and they just don't know when they will be available.

Hi All,

HDTV Newbie from Dillsburg here with a question. Do you think I would be able to get HDTV Channels from Harrisburg with a good roof antenna? TitanTV.com says I should be able to get ota signals from Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York as long as I use a pre amp. I was shopping at Best Buy when I was out of town and i got a RCA DST-100 for $149.99. It was an open box, demo unit but for 150 bucks and a 30 day no questions asked return policy i had to buy it to see. I have been a DIRECTV customer for 5 years but just got my HD ready TV 3 months ago so I know very little about OTA stuff. ANY advice or tips you may have would be gretly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bryan

Is anyone else able to get 36 in since two weeks ago? I sure can't down here in Lancaster! The best signal strength I can get is under 30. As for 21 I sure do hope they get that going soon!

Patrick

Bryan,

I live in Mechanicsburg and I can pick up WGAL perfectly with an attic-mounted Radio Shack antenna (about $30, the VU-75x, I believe). I also bought a rotor for it, which was another $70. With a roof mount you should have no problem with any of the stations. PBS is at low power right now so you might have some dropouts, but when they're back on full power you'll be fine.

I strongly recommend the rotor, since our stations are in pretty divergent locations and you will have to move it. Do NOT buy one of the so-called omni-directional antennas, they are anything but.

If you have other questions let me know.

jsb, I e-mailed Danielle DeRitis last week and she told me the equipment and antenna were installed at WHP and they were testing, so the next week comment is probably accurate.

Anyone talk to WPMT? I have no idea what they're planning. I realize Fox doesn't do HDTV but I still wouldn't mind seeing "24" in digital widescreen. It has to be better than my crappy cable signal....

Well, for shits and giggles I decided to call Fox and spoke to one of their engineers. He said they have a transmitter but were waiting for a corporate study to be finished on what would be the best antenna to use. He said the study was expected to be done soon and then the lead time from there to broadcasting would be about four months. So they'll miss May 1 but at least they're doing something.

For more shits and giggles I called ABC 27 and talked to one of their engineers. Very nice guy, but not very good news. The problem is that ABC was assigned digital channel 57, which is too close to WGAL's channel 58. So they petitioned the FCC for a new channel and have yet to hear back. Without their channel they can't order equipment. So until they hear from the FCC nothing's going to get done there.

David,

It is interesting that I was given the exact same story by a WHTM engineer many months ago. I find it hard to believe that the FCC would simply sit on such a request for so long. While I know very little about the FCC application process, I went to the FCC site and did a search on all PA stations that filed any type of application regarding digitial television. The only application filed by WHTM was one filed on November 16, 1999. The application was listed as a type of "Minor Modification to a Licensed Facility" relative to channel 57. It seems to me that there is more to this than you and I have been told by the engineer. I can't help but believe that if they were really interested in broadcasting on their digital channel that they would not let an existing application sit for 2and one-half years or not quickly file a new request to allow them to change from channel 57. I certainly hope I am wrong about all this. Perhaps someone else may know more about the detailed workings of the FCC process and fill us all in.

Scott

Scott,

That's interesting. Now that you brought it up, I went to the FCC site a month or so ago to check on 27 (I was looking up the extension waiver or some other thing, I forget now exactly what it was) and you're right, the only thing I found was a couple of years old, which made me think they were not going to file for an extension. My wife knows someone who works there, I'll try to get the scoop from her.

David,

Let me know if your wife finds anything out.

If it helps, the FCC file number on the 1999 application is:
BPCDT 19991028ACF and the facility ID associated with that application is 72326. I'm sure these numbers mean something to the FCC and may help them locate the details.

I haven't forgotten about having you over to see my Digilink and the Rock+. I am having everything tweaked on Tuesday evening and will contact you after that if you are still interested. Have a great weekend.

Scott

Scott, I'm definitely still interested in seeing your setup. Keep me posted.

Hi Guys,
I need help picking an antenna to use in Dillsburg to pick up OTA HDTV. Are any of the local station broadcasting in or planning to broadcast in VHF? I know that i probably need a rotor(thanks David F), and according to antennaweb.org i need a preamp as well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I was just planning to go to the shack and get the bigeest antenna they had but I did a little research first and now I am more confused then ever. Do I need uhf or uhf/vhf. Do I need a preamp or will that just amplify the noise as well as the signal. Do you think if I ducktaped a RS double bow tie to my chimney i could get PBS/CBS this weekend?
Thanks

Bryan, I use a Radio Shack VU-75x yagi antenna in my attic. They have a couple of similar models that are only different in size, depending on your space needs. I would try one of the Rat Shack antennas before anything else. You don't really need to differentiate between a VHF and UHF antenna, the yagis can get both. With the exception of WHP (digital channel 4-11), all of the locals are high in the UHF range. I don't think I'll have any problem with WHP.

I would get the antenna first and see if you need a preamp. It might help if your cable run from antenna to TV is REAAAAALLLLY long, but mine's probably at least 30' attic to basement and I don't have any problems at all. You might not need it.

That's interesting, the channel that scanned into my Panasonic was 4-11. I'll have to manually enter 4-2 and see what happens.

A few information updates....

I tried to enter 4-2 into my Panasonic last night and it auto-switched to 4-11. So for some reason that is where I'm picking up the WHP feed. I did not get any picture last night when I checked, but there is a channel there; my screen says ANT:HD. I did a 360 degree rotor swing but got nothing. Has anyone else had any luck? I guess they're still testing.....

My wife talked to her friend at ABC 27 about the long delay since their last filing over channel assignments. She said that they resubmitted a new proposal in January, but there are more complications. They want to be assigned digital channel 10, but they are also having problems with their analong cable channel 4 and WHP's digital channel 4. I'm not sure how ABC 27 transmits their signal to the cable company for carriage, but apparently WHP did something to knock their signal out for a while. They may ask the cable company for a different channel for their analog station.

I'm not really clear on these last couple of points since I didn't talk to her directly, but that's the info I have for now. The good news is they aren't just sitting on their hands -- they're taking steps to move forward. The bad news is that they're significantly behind the market and even if everything fell into place this week it will be a long time before they're broadcasting digitally.

David,

I tried last night also to pick up the WHP digital channel 4 and did not have any luck. My antenna is mounted in the attic, but does pick up the digital channels from WITF and WGAL.

Your comment about Channel 27 and the interference was very interesting. I had always assumed the cable companies simply picked up their signals by antenna or by direct feed over land-lines.

I agree that it appears local ABC HD signals are quite a ways off for those of us in this area.

Let me know if you have any luck picking up the WHP digital signal over the next couple days. Unfortunately, I will be away over the weekend and won't get much chance to try from my end.

I haven't talked to anyone at WHP for a week or so, but I'm still not getting a signal as of 8:30. If I have time I'll give them a call tomorrow.

Can you pick up 4 with a uhf antenna ?

A good old yagi antenna should be good for both UHF and VHF.

Ralph,

You can pick it up with a coat hanger if you are close enough and have adequate signal strength, as was done many times in the past with analog signals. A UHF antenna will work, but not be as efficient as one designed for VHF. How far are you from the broadcast tower??? If you're close and can point the antenna at the tower (UHF antennas are usually a little more directional than VHF, especially the ones that are "dish" shaped), you should get it fine.

Okay, I heard back from the senior engineer at WHP, a guy named Rob Hershey. Very nice guy who explained what the situation is at the moment.

Apparently when they first tested their DTV channel 4 they got a call from Comcast that some cable customers around the base of Blue Mountain had lost cable channel 4, which is WHTM. I asked how an OTA signal could interfere with a cable channel, which I thought of as kind of a closed system. He said that's what they thought too, but that the problem seems to be coming with TVs that have cheap wiring going to them, and this wiring is acting as an antenna and wrecking the cable signal. He said they are working with Comcast to fix the problem, which basically involves WHP transmitting at 25% power for brief periods and having Comcast field calls and go out and fix wiring. He is really anxious to get on the air but at the same time doesn't want to screw around Comcast customers unduly, even though they have every legal right to just throw the switch. He's hopeful that the situation will be resolved in a few days, but it's impossible for him to give a firm date for full power. They are broadcasting SDTV upconverstions right now and will continue to do so until 6:00, at 25% power. I'm going to check this when I get home.

That's all I have for now.