Greensboro, NC - HDTV - Page 349

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe WFMY upgraded their tower to 2000 feet on or about 1980/1981. I specifically remember that period because we lived in a rural area for a couple of years at that time. Our OTA reception stunk during that time. But I also recall that tower upgrade from WFMY made a huge difference for people living in fringe areas. And throughout the years, I think WFMY has had the distinction of having (perhaps) the most powerful signal of any station in the Piedmont Triad.

I don't work in the business so I wouldn't know specifics. But no doubt tower upgrades are very expensive and it doesn't appear that most stations are motivated to make these kind of changes in today's economic environment. Foxeng can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he has indicated (in the not too distant past) that there are no plans on upgrading the tower for WGHP.

WXII is at comparable height being on top of Sauratown, but they are so far out that it really negates any gain in the Triad.

Thanks, If my neighbor ever cuts his pine forest on the hill I might recieve channel 8 again.Thanks Always been interested in TV antennas even before the transistion.Dont know why but i had a Channelmaster 3671 with winegard 8275 with Quad shield with antenna exactly where i got excellent analog reception about 20 feet off the ground the only station it picked up was PBS ch 15 out of Roanoke.This summer i decided to some how do much better i bought 500 foot of Quadshield and moved it down the hill about 40 feet and put it on the back side of a crest of a little knoll.I now get 13 channels out of Roanoke all in the 80% signal ch 8 for a while but not too long Channel 12,26 at 80% out of carolina and channel 6 out of West Virginia. It seems to me if you tilt the antenna back like i did on the knoll it improves the signal drastically.Does this make sense.

Some people will swear (up AND down) that tilting an antenna can only help if receiving a reflection off some object. I cannot say. My own experience suggests to me (if nobody else) that tilting an antenna to conform to the general topography can help.

On tilting, I find it helps to tilt a yagi style, (arrow pointed backward) antenna, but the flat vertical style bow ties seem to do better when they are perfectly vertically flat.

I agree with you. Given the location of Sauratown, it seems to negate any gain in the Triad relative to the towers south of Greensboro And because Sauratown is a mountain (surrounded by other mountains--particularly to its north), the overall coverage area (in all directions) seems to be more limited from Sauratown versus the towers south of Greensboro, which are on flat terrain.

Living in SW Winston, Sauratown Mtn is not all that far from me. But when I consider the Triad (on the whole), the towers south of Greensboro have always seemed more strategically located. Having said all that, I am sure viewers in counties, such as Yadkin, Surry or Wilkes like the location of WXII on Sauratown. But the northwestern part of the Triad is not where the main population center resides.

But at least WXII puts out a good signal from Sauratown. The absolute worst in the Triad (regarding full powered stations) seems to be WGPX with a tower near Reidsville. It can also be argued that this location is a bit odd for a tower. But the worst part is the signal from WGPX is so weak, it barely makes it to Winston. I've got a rooftop antenna and have never seen WGPX OTA.

Although it is hard to tell what the FCC wants to say at times, it seems that all the major cable providers will be allowed, immediately, to encrypt all services..
What exactly the FCC announcement today means, it does mark the imminent death of analog cable.

Most of the clear qam locals have aready disapeared at my location in Greenville, SC. But because I use an antenna, it is no problem for me, and I also receive most of the Charlotte channels as well. But it does eventually mean the cable cos. will charge you more fees as you will be required to have a cable box or cable card, as analog cable will disappear.

FYI- Would love to get this come Jan 2013..
Cozi TV will join the crowded digital subchannel world that includes fellow classic TV stations like Antenna TV, MeTV, THIStv, Bounce TV and RTV. Stay tuned for the official announcement and full details, like an actual schedule, as soon as it is announced. Much more to come, so get "cozi" and comfortable!

Read more: http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2012/10/new-classic-tv-digital-station-cozi-tv.html#ixzz29kBxOiTB

Since Cozi is a NBCU product, wonder what WNCN will do with Antenna TV?

Probably continue airing it. There's no requirement that NBC affiliate stations pick it up, though I'm sure it will be offered.

- Trip

 

I doubt that WNCN would dump AntennaTV in favor of Cozi. That Cozi lineup seems pretty weak. It reminds me of the sort of programming that low budget independent stations used to run back in the 1970's. Unless NBCU is practically giving the service away for almost nothing, I doubt that any station that is not an O&O would pick it up.

 

The FCC needs to do something to encourage stations to make better use of their ability to have multiple channels. After all, how many diginets showing old sitcoms and westerns does the broadcasting industry really need?

 

How about some locally produced programming,especially in big city markets? The stations must have studios that are not being put to good use.

I think you're right. But for the part about FCC encouragement to fully utilize bandwidth. I have little doubt that the FCC has some encouragement coming, in the form of two stations on the same channel, a lot of two stations on the same channel.

WGHP News Article makes it to the top left of the Drudge Report. www.drudgereport.com

http://myfox8.com/2012/10/23/guilford-county-voters-say-they-voted-for-the-wrong-candidate/

If you are a DirecTV sub, they are having fiber transmission issues this afternoon on all stations in the market from the collection site to the uplink. They don't know when they will have it fixed, but they hope to have it fixed soon.

This is outrageous that this can/has happened in Guilford County. There should be a full investigation into this matter. So much for democracy!

Problems were reported in Foryseth and Davidson counties as well. The issue is the touchscreen needs recalibration. It has taken some time to spread the word throughout the polling places but I've heard the issue is easily and quickly addressed once identified.

I have no idea how long this has been there, but I noticed that WMYV "HD" is now on Directv. Is there anyone from WMYV/WXLV on here? Does anyone know when/if those channels will ever be real, full-16x9-screen, actual HD? Any plans for 48-2?

D* has been passing WMYV's 720p signal for quite a while now.

While I have no connections with WMYV or WXLV, industry rumors have been floating on what Sinclair will put on the subchannels they had Cool TV on, but nothing has been officially announced and no time line when that might happen. But it looks like do they want to put something back on those subchannels. Probably has to to with money and timing at this point.

This is great news for the upcoming ACC basketball season! As I recall, several ACC Network games last year were bumped to MYTV, leaving us without antennas or inputs on our D* boxes without the HD feed.

Don't get too excited just yet. I have never seen them pass anything but MYNET in HD.

Oh well. I see that almost all the shows in the guide have the HD tag, but alas, nothing but 4x3.

WXLV is the same way. It's a joke.

Back to the HD tag: While we see the HD tag on WXLV and WMYV when they are not always HD, we have some channels have shows that ARE HD and don't show the "HD" tag, ex: everything HD on WGPX and WUVC, random shows on many other channels, WFMY News, and ACC Network stuff. Generally, this is not a big deal at all but I am OCD about stupid things like this.

I have seen 48.1 show ACC basketball games in HD in years past.

Those with Dish Network. I am having a go with their tec people. We are getting complaints from people that our audio on Dish is almost none existent. I call them and they tell me that our audio is the same as the other stations in the market. Can anyone confirm or deny this for me?

Yes Sir.

If it's fed to us in HD over the bird it leaves that way from our encoder to TWC via fiber and OTA via microwave to level Cross.

TWC is backed up by OTA.

Dish and Direct get us OTA via (two?) receive locations in Greensboro or that was my last understanding at least.

Uverse gets WXLV via fiber and WMYV via OTA.

As for 48.2 we are hearing absolutely nothing.

For example:
Sometimes we find out about the next project when we are told to unload it from the shipping truck.

Such is the life of an engineer.

Rickey.

Has WCWG's (RF 19, virtual 20) signal become stronger within the past week, or have atmospheric conditions changed?

I usually don't receive that signal here in Raleigh, but for the past few nights it has been coming in strong.

Atmospheric.

It's amazing how few people understand the FCC rules for "must carry" and retransmission consent.

 

Every time there is a dispute that causes a station to be removed from a cable system or satellite system, somebody expresses the opinion that local stations should be required to give their programming away for free to cable and satellite because they could not survive on OTA viewership alone. They act as though the local stations are bullying the cable companies and satellite companies.

 

What people do not seem to understand is that if a station chooses to have "must carry" status, then the station cannot receive fees for retransmission consent.

The fact that cable companies and satellite providers are willing to pay to carry the local stations is evidence that the local stations and the broadcast networks that they carry still offer valuable programming.

 

People also do not seem to understand that without local stations most markets would not be able to receive local news because cable and satellite companies would not want to spend money to produce local news.

Was this the area that used to black out the Victoria Secret underwear show? Does WFMY still do that?