San Antonio, TX - HDTV - Page 142

Did channel 12 get a new antenna?

Not yet, according to this link:
http://www.ksatdigital.com/

what is wrong with Kens 5 tonight??????? come on the only show I watch on this sorry station and it Kens signal is messed up. Come on guys, get it together!!!!!!!!!!

Another local Hispanic religious station - KSSJ-LD-42 (Virt. 47).

Now if they'd get things right on their 42.2 set of color bars
http://www.qsl.net/wa5iyx/images/kssj-42.2z.jpg

I've been having some trouble with KENS for a few weeks. I've got a big old CM4228 with an amp and WOAI, KPXL and some others come in great with signal strengths in the 90s. KSAT and KLRN are even in the 90s (not bad for a UHF antenna). But KENS has been floating around in the 50s for a few weeks. I'm not really sure what happened. Any ideas?

Last week during the early eve news KENS was udergoing some freeze every few seconds - so bad that I bailed to KSAT (which itself is now more sensitive to my CM4228 azimuth aim than it used to be). Strong tropo conditions (due to the heat wave) have been causing decoding problems with several locals at night for the past week.
http://www.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/ham/aprs (144-MHz automated path spots)

It turns out that on that evening KENS enjoyed a catastrophic failure of an Intermediate Power Amplifier power supply shelf. This first dropped our power to 25% and then zero as we struggled to keep a signal on the air. We went to our low power auxiliary for a short time while reconfiguring the main transmitter to operate at 50% power.

About one week later we began to see fluctuations in CPS power to the site, where it looked like the utility was switching KENS to a different grid or transformer, one phase at a time. This causes the transmitter to shut down each time there is a hiccup on even one phase for less than one second. While that problem was self-correcting, we lost our main transmitter again on Thursday afternoon, August 4. Took about 45 minutes to shut down and re-start the main while we were on the auxiliary again. KENS remains at 50% power. We expect to install new power supplies on Monday or Tuesday and return to full power.

As to the strong tropo conditions cited by WA5IYX, that may cause some interference to fringe viewers and those with inadequate antennas. I have had several calls from viewers in the Canyon Lake area who are unable to see us at certain times of day.

Jerry: Thanks so much for monitoring and responding on this forum. That's some great information. Sorry for all the power problems.

I guess that I might have missed my best chance to glimpse the 39 out of Houston during all this. Beaming east with the CM4228 when tropo is up very often KHCE, KPXL, KVDA, and KWEX all go into non-decode (and rarely KABB). KENS usually only gets that way if I'm using the VHF antenna (Winegard HD5030) pointed way off them.
http://www.qsl.net/wa5iyx/wa5iyx-dtv.txt

I recently put up a new antenna to pick up the VHF stations as I've gone without since the big switch. I'm way out on the west side by Alamo Ranch. Since then, I've noticed thers a slight audio delay, but only on KSAT, so I don't think it's my setup. Anyone else noticed this?

There were a lot of pixelation last night (8/18/11) and lost signal on Sunday while I was watching Golf. Are there still problems? Because it seems like there have been a lot of signal issues lately?
Thanks for your input, it really is appreciated!

Yes, KENS continues to have some problems. Now we believe we may have some intermittent heat sensors on the transmitter cooling system. Since last week the transmitter will go into a kind of oscillating shut-down-and-power-back-up mode after both cabinets are combined at 100% power for a few hours. When that happens we must go to 1/2 power on one cabinet only and run the other cabinet in "black heat," a description for operating the final stage with no RF drive and at a reduced filament voltage. The transmitter throws the occasional fault even in single-ended operation as described, leading us to suspect defective heat sensors.

Tuesday morning we had two accidental interruptions to power at the studio about a minute or so apart; you can imagine the havoc this wreaked on a station that runs on multiple servers and computers. We were essentially off the air from 1039 to 1155 as the engineering team scrambled furiously to get everything running again. We were almost back to normal by 7pm Tuesday but even today we were finding more little things that won't wake up since the outage. To keep the transmitter quiet we have bypassed the heat sensors and monitor it visually an a 30-minute basis. We have done IR imaging to be certain there are no "Hot Spots."

So we hope to have everything back up to full power by next mid-week, providing we can get the replacement sensors on time.

So i just bought a multi directional Flat antenna and i can pick up everything but ABC. This thing is supposed to pick up UHF and VHF... anyone got a clue why?

Location 78217

KSAT is supposed to have a new transmitting antenna installed on their tower by the end of this month. It should provide a stronger signal than the one that's in use now.

If you are getting everything else, including the local PBS station (which is also VHF), your antenna may be able to pick up KSAT by the end of the month.

dang it.... doesnt look like I'm picking up PBS either..... looks like i've been had. Anyone have any suggestions for indoor antenna strong enough for picking up ABC?

thanks again!

Check out post 4232 above.

I'm just inside 410 on the NE side, and I have the following antenna hooked up to one of my TVs. I get NBC, CBS, PBS, ABC, ION, FOX, CW, and the spanish stations.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/RCA+-+In...&skuId=8280834
I had to play around with the dipoles to get PBS & ABC. I can actually get the local MY Networks & This TV (channels 2.1 & 2.2) with a rooftop antenna hooked up to my main TV.

KSAT just announced on the 10 PM newscast that the new antenna is up and running. They recommended we rescan our receivers.

Are you seeing better reception? Over at 1604 & Kyle Seale, there is virtually no difference from the previous tower and the new one. I'm able to get a lock on the signal but it goes in and out a few times every 5-10 minutes. It seems if they were trying (guessing here) to get more signal towards the Hill Country that Helotes would see better performance.

I'm still getting a crazy long audio delay, only on KSAT. Probably 60-80ms. It's very annoying, especially on news casts. Of note, they seem to be transmitting a 5.1 encoded signal on the news (I get 5.1 lights) but the audio is stereo. It seems worse like this. I'm wondering if they have a problem with their dolby encoder.

--And no difference in signal quality on the far west side (1560 and culebra) since the new antenna went up.

Hey guys good to find a thread about this...
I'm planing on getting this antenna and putting it on my balcony which is facing due north, will I be able to get most if not all of the available stations in SA?

Where is your home/apartment located? Is this balcony on the ground or 2nd floor?

near 410 and 35 south, the apartment balcony is facing straight North and I'm on the 3rd floor.

From that part of town you would almost want your antenna oriented due east but you should be able to get most of the locals with it facing north. Being on a 3rd floor balcony should give you more than enough height.

So you think the antenna listed above would get me all the channels available?

It's certainly worth a try. That antenna appears to have an extremely high rating from customers who have purchased it.

Wierd I cannot pull(scan) KENS 5 on QAM on one of my TV's. But it comes in fine on my sons TV in his room? Any ideas?

If it isn't too much trouble, switch sets. Move your son's TV to the suspect position and move the suspect TV to your son's bedroom and try scanning again. It is possible one position has a better signal quality than the other. This may be due to a problem with a splitter, cable or connector.

Be sure you don't have any more splitters in the line than you actually need. The fewer the better. Let me know what you find.

It is possible one position has a better signal quality than the other. This may be due to a problem with a splitter, cable or connector.

I wont be able to move the TV It's already mounted and would be a pain to undo, but I think this is the issue(in bold). The connection is on the same line that the cable modem is hooked up to and there is a splitter on it. I am going to double check the connections. Thanks Jerry.

so I checked wires and rescanned still nothing. This TV is set up right next to the cable modem so there is a splitter on this line one to the PC and one to the TV. Any ideas to boost signal?