Anyone in Austin area know what digital channel 69 is?  

Karlpoe,

Were you able to pick up any of the SA channels?

As for Channel 69, I will have a look tonight.

LB

Hello KarlPoe

I really don't have an answer for you. I checked the FCC site and there are a number of stations that will be using channel 69 in Texas. None of the cities I saw were close to Austin. So, you live in Georgetown huh. My guess is you are using an OTA antenna to get your digital channels from Austin. As far as I know only one station is broadcasting on channel 21. How is your signal in Georgetown from the Austin Tower. About how many miles are you from the tower. I'm ready to take the plunge into setting up my antenna, but not sure I can get the signal in Bastrop about 38 miles away. Oh yeah, the link to FCC is http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/tvq.html

Is that the Lord British, as in Richard Garriott?

According to the search function at 100000watts, the only digital channel 69 is in Puerto Rico.

And 21 subchannels makes no sense, as about six SD feeds is all you can squeeze into the 6 MHz of bandwidth. WCPX in Chicago is multicasting six SD feeds.

For some reason, there are a few digital channels assigned in the 60-69 range, but it doesn't make any sense as to why, because I believe those channels have already been auctioned off and should be vacated soon. Does anyone know more? I think this subject might be worth its own topic in one of the Forums.

Dan

Check out this thread that started over in HDTV Programming; hasn't been moved yet:


Central Texas HDTV Summary

It lists the channels in Austin, Waco/Temple, and San Antonio.

A good source for channel assignments is TVRADIOWORLD -- Texas, pick an city/region and it gives you the channel assignments for that spot.

Then, to double check, go to The FCC Search Page, and check for Digital TV under "service"; type in the city state, and hit "submit search" -- it will give you the FCC filings of all the stations in that city. If you aren't sure what the city is, then use the call letters -- all caps, no city. Be careful -- it may be "KXAN" or "KXAN-TV" -- you need an exact match.

My guess is that 69 is a mis-hit:

69 is the absolute highest channel in UHF. As far as analog channels go, they generally have "bleed through" up to two channels above/below. Digital doesn't have ther same problem, but with cell phones directly next to them in the spectrum, I would think they would stay away from that channel.


Joe

Well, it isn't a plethora yet.

If you're up north, your best bet is to try to pull in KXAN (NBC) on 21 out of Austin and KWTX (CBS) out of Waco.

The other thing you could do is pull the Bryan/College station region up and see if there is anything you can pull in from there.

Unfortunately, looks like we have quite a wait for anything else unless you can pull in San Antonio.


Joe

I need to put up an antenna -- I was going to try to do that this weekend, but I had a short-notice trip come up -- am flying out to Salt Lake City this afternoon, won't get back until near midnight Saturday. Probably won't get to it until next weekend at the earliest.

I still haven't decided what antenna to use -- Lowes has a Channel Master UHF/VHF that is supposed to be 60 miles UHF; Channel Master has another UHF only 60 mile model that is an 8-bowtie antenna; Lowes doesn't stock it, but could order it for me.

I'm not sure what other brands have a good rep.

Does anyone know if a pre-amp actually helps digital RF reception? It isn't clear to me if it should.

I think I will not bother with a rotator -- I'll point it at San Antonio and assume I will be able to get the nearer Austin channels even though they aren't in the prime direction. Worst case, I'll use splice the Rasioshack bow tie in for Austin channels, or attach it to the second antenna input (which now has analog cable).

Joe

Karlpoe
You are the man. Those links are exactly what I needed. Appears I'm about 35 miles from all of the Austin stations and 82 miles from San Antonio stations. My guess is that if you can pick up the signal from 50+ miles away then I should have a good shot at it. I can also get great transmissions from San Antonio analog. Who knows maybe I'll get very lucky. Anyway, I guess I'll go ahead and by me a STB with OTA and see. Thanks.

Don't beat your head against the wall trying to get the San Antonio digital channels. The only one on the air all the time seems to be KMOL (58-1). KENS (55-1) comes on in mid-afternoon, and KSAT (48-1), the most powerful, just teased us a week ago Wednesday and hasn't been seen since.