Wichita, KS - HDTV - Page 4

Fox is on tonight. I didn't find it at first because I was expecting to find it at channel 18-1, but I scanned through the channels looking for digital signals and found a signal on channel 26, so I plugged in 26-1 and sure enough, there it was. Not HD (obviously) but at least digital.

I was not able to find UPN, which I expected to come on simultaneously with Fox.

David

Any new news for Wichita??

I noticed my tuner shows a signal and call sign ksas at 24-1 but never a picture. Fox shows up as 26-2 with picture??? Is there a channel at 24-1 or is the tuner picking up fox on two frequencies?

KSAS-DT is channel 26, but will be found at 24-1 (18-1?)
KAKE-DT is channel 21, but is 10-1
KWCH-DT is channel 19, but is 12-1

The first is the physical channel, the second is a "virtual channel". It's a bit confusing.

Timmy, nothing new as far as I know, but I haven't been keeping up too well the last couple of weeks. KSNW (channel 3) and UPN (channel 36) were scheduled for Dec 1 the last I checked. KAKE (10) and KWCH (12) have been up for awhile now, as has WB (33).

Really, when you step back from it, in another couple of weeks, we will have access to more DTV channels than a lot of people in larger markets, because we are blessed with flat terrain, few trees, and even fewer tall buildings to interfere with the signal. :-)

David

I spoke to an engineer at Fox the other day. He said UPN should be up next month, so I guess they're more or less on schedule.

I've had some odd problems tuning Fox with my Samsung TS160. For a while it would sync on 24-1, but now it only sync's on 26-1 for some reason. I don't think they're broadcasting full/proper PSIP data which could be part of the problem. The person I talked to said they were working on fixing this.

Does anyone know what happened to WB?? 33-1 has been dead (for me at least) since Sunday.

Dave G.

WB has been off the air for extended periods on more than one occassion. I think the others have been up and down also, which is frustrating for people trying to tune in these stations, since they don't KNOW they are off the air. One assumes the antenna needs adjusting, so you adjust and adjust and dogone it, you just can't seem to pick up that channel! We're not quite at critical mass yet where everyone buying an HD receiver knows someone who already has one, and can call them to find out who's on and who isn't.

David

For anyone that is interested, I got this reply from WB. I must say that both Fox and WB were great in responding to my inquiries. I got this note back within an hour.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your viewing interest in our digital broadcast. But, I must
apologize for our inconsistency of our signal.


My encoder went belly up last week and I have been on the phone today
finding out how come the replacement encoder did not arrive this morning as I was told it would. As soon as I receive the encoder I will have the
digital back up and running.

Martin Heffner
Director of Engineering
and Operations
KWCV-WB33
200 W. Douglas
7th floor
Wichita, Kansas 67202
www.wbkansas.com
mheffner@wbkansas.com

A friend of mine here in town tells me NBC is up (3-1). I can't seem to get it here though.

Anyone else able to get NBC?

Dave G.

I did manage to tune NBC (3-1, or Ch.45) today be repositioning my antenna. Looks like they're up and running, although signal strength is low, similar to CBS.

Dave G.

I can confirm that NBC is up. I was confused for awhile because I saw a signal on channel 45 but when I tuned to channel 45 I got Disney. I had to tune to 3-1.

David


[Edit]I should have tuned to 45-1. The digital stations are all -1

Of the local stations, the only one for which channel guide information is available from DirecTV is UPN, which isn't even on the air yet.

In my DirecTV channel guide, only KAKE and KWCH display their call letters. All the others just say "Local".

Fox shows in the channel guide as 18-1, but there is no signal on that channel. The banner says KSASDT, but there's no signal. Tuning to 24-1 says "no signal". I have to tune to 26-1 to get Fox.

David

I live in El Dorado and just got my tower up. I have an Sony HD200 Direct rec., a Radio Shack VU-90XR antenna, and a Channel Master 7778 preamp. The antenna is mounted 35 foot up a tower.
As of this morning I was receiving=

Channel call letters
3 KSNW
3 KSWK
3.1 KSN
8 KPTS
8 KSNK
10 KAKE
10 KBSL
10.1 KAKE
12 KWCH
12.1 KWCH
18.1 NO SIGNAL
24 KSAS FOX
26.1 FOX
33 KWCU WB
36 UPN
36.1 NO SIGNAL
UPN
All the digital signals are mid to high good.
Two weeks ago I was getting 33.1, WB, but now I get no signal.
Also kinda wierd that I get double channels on 3, 8, and 10 , tho I get the same programs on both channels.

John

David,
Directv may be mistaking KAAS for you KSAS. KAAS in Salina is channel 18. I bet that is what is going on.

Does anyone know where the guide information comes from for the local stations? I sent some emails last night to station managers asking if they were sending channel guide information to DirecTV and one response said they don't send anything to DirecTV because DirecTV doesn't carry their signal. Hmmm, OK. Then where does DirecTV GET the guide information?

David

Got a note from Will Wilson at KSCC, the UPN affiliate: "KSCC is in the works as we speak and should be on the air in the next few weeks."

Also got a note from Marty Heffner at WB. He says their encoder went "belly up" about two weeks ago and then the multiplexer "decided it would roll over and die."

David

I got this from Dave Rickels at KSN. So if others are seeing low signal strength on 3-1, this is probably the cause.

Dave G.

-------------------------------------------

KSN is operating on channel 45 DTV or in PISIP 3.1.
Our transmitter in only 1000 watts at this time. We plan to have a full
power transmitter operational by this spring. This should cure your problem.
dr

I sent emails to several of the station managers about when my DirecTV HD receiver might start showing program guide information for their digital channel. Here is the reply I got from Dave Trabert, general manager at KAKE:

"Our system does not permit us to send that information the way we do with our analog signal. At some point in the future we will add this feature but probably not for a year or more."

That is unfortunate.

David

As I mentioned before, my Hughes reciever is showing KSAS-DT as channel 18-1 rather than the expected 24-1. I think they are sending the wrong channel information in their PSIP, but I also have to admit I'm not that knowledgeable about this stuff yet.

So I have a question for anyone in the Wichita area: What brand of HD receiver do you have and do you get KSAS-DT on 18-1 or 24-1?
26-1 should work for everyone since that's the "real" channel.

David

I have a Zenith HDV420 and get the following:
FOX: 26-1
NBC: 3-1
ABC: 10-1
CBS: 12-1

I've had this receiver for a few days, and it seems to do an good job of pulling in the signals.

My antenna is suspended from the rafters in my garage, so it is only about 8 feet off the ground. Still, my signal strengths are all between NORMAL and GOOD (GOOD is the highest on this tuner). I'm near 13th and Maize, so not too far from the towers. I plan to move the antenna up to the roof, but it's working well for now.

Now, we just need more sports in HDTV!

Wow! My first HDTV program with my antenna installed, and it was truly amazing...even my wife's jaw dropped when she saw it. This definitely scored points with her, considering all the $ I've spent!

KWCH has the weakest signal of the locals for me, so I'm a very happy camper...

I have the Samsung TS-160. Since I live in an apartment, I'm using the RS double bowtie UHF antenna. I get all of the stations, although signal strength is low on CBS (12-1) and NBC (3-1).

I think the Samsung must do a good job of pulling in weak signals considering I'm using an indoor antenna on the east side of Wichita in an apartment which is surrounded by other 2 story buildings. The Samsung is quirky and has some bugs as others have been reporting in the Hardware forum. Although it does work and produces a great HD picture.

I get the following channels:

NBC: 3-1
ABC: 10-1
CBS: 12-1
FOX: 26-1 (I used to get 24-1, but it quit working)
WB: 33-1 (they're currently not broadcasting)

FOX is not broadcasting proper PSIP data. Their station engineer told me this back a while ago. He said they were working to fix the problem.

Dave G.

Dave,

You have confirmed a couple of very important things for anyone reading this thread:
1) ANYone in the Wichita area should be able to receive all local DTV broadcasts. If you can pick them up with a Radio Shack bowtie, on the East side of town, in an apartment surrounded by other buildings, that's pretty much the worst possible scenario I'd say.
2) The reason KAAS-DT cannot be tuned in as 24-1 is because of something the station is doing wrong, not because of anything DirecTV or Hughes or anyone else is doing.

David

I know it sounds a little absurd, but one thing to keep in mind is that the RS Double Bowtie is very good. Not just any indoor antenna will work. I have another RS outdoor antenna (#15-1847) which I put on the side of the deck above my patio. I couldn't get CBS at all with it and had sporadic problems with the other stations.

Why? Because multipath seems to be the enemy of digital TV reception. I had noticable ghosting on the normal analog channels with the outdoor antenna. That style of antenna is multidirectional and more prone to multipath problems.

Since all of the towers are in the same general direction from people living in Wichita, a good semi-directional antenna is probably the best choice. Most traditional style antennas fall into this category.

The other very good indoor antenna is the Zenith Silver Sensor (actually made by another company). Sears and Circuit City carry it for $40. The RS Double Bowtie is discontinued, I just got lucky and found one (for $5). Eventually I may try a Silver Sensor to see if I can improve signal strength on CBS and NBC. CBS was cutting out the other day when it was snowing.

Anyway, FWIW, these are my non-expert opinions/observations.

Dave G.

My father is thinking about getting HDTV. He lives just outside Goddard (circa 15 miles west of Wichita on Hiway 54) and has a uhf/vhf dual radio shack antenna in the attic with rg-59 down to basement and no line amp. No idea model of antenna but it was $40 or so 10 years ago at Radio Shack. Prognosis for receiving all avalable channels WITHOUT installing a rotator? Thinking of going with Samsung TS-160 for tuner.

Go here and see what is recommended:

http://www.antennaweb.org

He should be fairly close to all of the towers, so it may not be a problem. Does he get all of the analog channels clearly now? If so, then he'll probably be fine. The thing to remember is that the digital stations are still broadcast on standard UHF channels. So, if one works well, the other probably will also.

Now,whether to get the TS-160 or not is a better question. My advice is to wait until the firmware upgrade comes down in the next few weeks. We'll see how many problems they solve (or create). If you don't care about DVI, the Hughes E86 is a good choice and is $100 cheaper. Otherwise, the Zenith/Sony units, but they're $100-$200 more expensive. The TS-160 can't be beat for features, but it does have some problems. Some say the other units have they're own unique set of problems, so who knows.

One thing is for sure, there is no problem free HD receiver right now. They all have some problems. The technology is still fairly new. They all work, but you just need to face the fact that none of them will be perfect.

Dave G.

Jeremyaz, since the digital transmitters are on the same towers as the analog transmitters, if you have the antenna pointed so as to get the best reception from the analog channels, and you get all the local analog stations clearly, then you should be good to go for the digital channels. You should not need a rotor.

David

A very minor update. KSAS seems to have gotten things straight with their signal, so that now when I tune to channel 26, the station number is translated to 24-1.

WB is still black. I'll sent Marty Heffner an email and see if I can find out what's going on.

David

FYI, WB is still off the air. I got an email from Marty Heffner today

Watched NBC 3-1 tonight at full strength, but notice that FOX tunes in at 24-2 but call letters without picture also appear as 24-1??? Anyone else picking up Fox as 24-2 ?? Picture and sound is fine but a hassle to "skip" past 24-1 to receive 24-2!

I get "no signal" on 24-2. I am getting KSAS-DT on 24-1. I have a Hughes E86 receiver, with cable and an OTA antenna. Be sure and come back to give us an explanation if you find out why that's happening.

David