Pittsburgh, PA - OTA - Page 147

Uniontown did go all digital, and they added a bunch of HD channels to go with it. ABB is using DTA's like Comcast.

I can guarantee you ABB isn't using ClearQAM and has no intention to. They're not using ClearQAM here in Cumberland currently. The only stations you'll be able to get are HD locals, and in my experimentation down here, that may even be questionable. I've done some scans on others' TV's and the local stations here do not come up at all anymore. Previously (~2008) WJLA (DC ABC), WUSA (DC CBS), WTTG (DC FOX) and WJAC came in ClearQAM, the other affiliates carried here in HD on the box were not. In the past, ABB forced you to get the Motorola DVR in order to get HD and pay the extra $11/month PLUS a $4 HD fee (that's now $5). I believe this is still the case, that their standard digital cable boxes still can't handle HD.

I don't know if ABB is charging for DTA's. Their website doesn't act as if anything is different in Uniontown because ABB's website pretends that digital service is all that exists. What they sell on there as "Digital Value" is expanded basic with a box and the Music Choice channels and PPV/On Demand capability. "Digital Plus" is the only one that actually gives you the digital channels.

You're going to need boxes, I'm sure of it. In my last conversation with ABB a couple weeks ago, they had no idea when they would be updating this system. They were acting as if their internet upgrade from 8 Mbps to 10 Mbps was the hardest job ever imagined. Cumberland is tied in to Altoona/Johnstown, so we're on the same schedule, although we have a few more HD channels and different locals (although since ABB's ownership started, we've gained WJAC and WWCP here).

Hello, new member here. I just wanted to also say thanks for that info hooviebaby. If Ion does now own WINP then I really can't see ShopNBC sticking around as main programming for the months to come until their contract is up. While we don't know the details of any contract, it stands to reason that Ion is losing money by exclusively airing another network's programming.

Then this morning I noticed they were airing one of the WQED pledge drive programs for Rick Sebak's Pittsburgh DVDs. Immediately after that was a simple WINP station ID card introducing the E/I programming, again QED shows. Which I guess that would suggest WQED still has their hand in the pot somewhere. Anybody know what that's all about?

So it appears for the time being that we have a hybrid of a station where 4 parties are involved. Dunno about the rest of you but I am anxious to have 3 channels of actual programming instead of 1 that I flip right past.

I just checked in on WINP-DT and my TV scanned in the following channels:

16-1 - ShopNBC
16-2 - ION
16-3 - qubo
16-4 - IONLife

I suspected something was up when I was setting up my HTPC and Windows Media Center had listings for four channels for 16.

Yeah I was flipping thru the channels earlier and my Samsung LN46C530 automatically added them without having to re-scan. Watching the Night Owl Block on Qubo right now. Now when MeTV replaces RTV on the 13th I'll be one happy camper

Is ION (on 16-2) at 720p on WINP?

(I wonder if there's some agreement to keep ShopNBC on 16-1? If not, shuffling the subchannel lineup to get ION on 16-1 might get a few extra eyes).

im excited too, just in time for my birthday on saturday.i am looking forward to me tv also.i dont believe there is any special agreement . They are just honoring the rest of the contract .which i mentioned would be up september 30th so dont look for any channel movement til then.

All four channels are 480i.

I would imagine that once the ShopNBC contract expires, the channels will move up and perhaps ION Plus will be added.

ION Plus?

The national ION lineup is:

-1 ION-HD (720p)
-2 qubo (480i)
-3 ION Life (480i)

And qubo in M/H in select areas.

- Trip

ION Plus is listed in the ION mux on AMC 1 on Lyngsat. I haven't personally check to see if it is still an active channel.

I also rescanned yesterday all my tv's with great success reguarding the ION network.Decent CBS programming during the week starting at 3 pm daily.A refreshing change from This TV. Does anyone know where WPDN-LD is broadcasting from? I receive them with a 70% signal from 15122 location.

WPDN-LD transmits from the old WDTV site near where Pitt Stadium used to be. That site is also home to:

WQED
WINP
WBGN
WTAE's translator on 22

See this URL:

http://www.rabbitears.info/oddsanden...kland+%28PA%29

i have to confirm it but i heard from a reliable source that rtv will be on wbgn channel 59.3 june 13th

Thanks Bob for the information,very interesting,now if they would put an antenna on WQED's tower for me to receive WKBN (Now that they moved the digital up further I can't receive ) I would be a happy man!

That would be a good thing if RTN went to wbgn that soon. Thanks hooviebaby you're on the ball once again.

your welcome dxernut it is comfirmed. www.myretrotv.com/affiliates.html just scroll down the page til you get to the states.wbgn is listed in PA as pittsburgh station.

I have been trying to get WBGN since I moved to Greensburg last December with no luck at all. According to TV Fool, they've got a tower that's a mere 3.4 miles from my house (with callsign WEMW) and my antenna is pointed directly at it. I even emailed WBGN and they weren't much help. Anybody have any suggestions?

i am kind of a novice but if i was were you i would say maybe there is a obstacle between you and the tower ex. a tree maybe.i heard that digitial signals dont go though them. Thats just a starting point.if thats the case and its on your property prune or remove it.

Are you using an amplifier? If so, then you may have overload issues. Share your TVfool, please.

My TV Fool info: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...001b767659e8ac

As you can see I'm pointing a 40-mile range directional antenna at the main cluster of towers (about 300 degrees), with WEMW right in the same path. I have no major problems receiving any of them 25-30 miles away and occasionally even rake in a little from WTOV. So trees or any other obstacles shouldn't be the issue. I do have an amp before a splitter but I couldn't even receive WEMW before I installed it. I've tried various coax lengths, rabbit ears, with/without the amp and all combinations therein and couldn't pick up anything at all between 2 LCD TVs and a converter box.

After 6 months I've run out of ideas and just about given up. Now hooviebaby tells us we are getting RTV back via WBGN and once again I terribly want it. I notice on TV Fool that the signal path is the only classified as "LOS" but I don't know if that has any effect or not.

With low-power stations, determining their operational status just based on automated processing of the FCC database extracts is very tricky. Don't fault TVFool for showing that WEMW-CD is on the air, but based on this FCC filing, I'd say that station is not on the air, yet.

Thanks a ton, Dave.

According to the engineer I emailed at WBGN, the tower is fully operational on virtual channel 59 and in a couple weeks will also be broadcasting on VC 56 as well.

But yeah I see what you mean. Going by this application, it simply doesn't exist yet because they are low on cash and WEMW is at the bottom of their priority list. Also the TV tower map on TV Fool shows it right in the middle of a shopping center parking lot, which I know is bunk. I am very familiar with that specific area and don't know of any tower in the vicinity - period.

So either that engineer was lying through his teeth or simply wasn't in the know. According to this application no one at WBGN is paid over $10/hour so both of those situations are well within the realm of possibility.

The underlying construction permit for digital operations for WEMW was supposed to expire in January. The document I linked to was filed in March, and has yet to be acted upon by the FCC. Since then, the station's owners may have been able to get working on the digital transmitter, so the engineer may not be lying at all.

With regards to the tower location, TVFool is correctly plotting the location based on the coordinates the station filed with the FCC. The digital operation is going on the same tower as the existing analog one, so the tower should exist. Fiddling around with possible rounding errors and conversion between lat/long reference systems does not move the tower location out of that parking lot. Outside of the owner specifying the wrong location (not unheard of), I can't say what is going on.

Thanks again. I am not an engineer and learning some of this stuff as I go so you're a big help. It must be incorrect filed coordinates then because like I said, there is no tower anywhere near there. And if I do find out where it is, I'm not moving my antenna to accommodate 1 channel so I will probably never get it. Oh well can't win em all.

I checked the coordinates listed for WEMW, and they do indeed put the station in a parking lot near routes 66 and 30. However, in searching around the surrounding area's satellite imagery, I found a group of towers and satellite dishes across Route 30 very near Seton Hill University where Mt. Thor Rd. makes a sharp turn. This could very well be the location you are looking for. Coordinates are 40.314722,-79.567072 on Google. The station asked for an extension of their construction permit until mid July to go online from that location. Six more weeks.

I'm just down the road from you, and have gotten faint images from 56 (due to yet another directional antenna ) and have been checking RF 19 off-and-on to see if they have finally converted WEMW. Supposedly unlike the analog operation, the digital one will use an omnidirectional antenna.

I used to get WBGN in ClearQAM years ago through Comcast, but they removed it from the line-up. On occasion, I have gotten WBGN's main signal from the WQED tower.

There used to be a tower farm where Hempfield Square now stands at 30 and Turnpike 66, but it was leveled a decade ago for the big box center. An LPTV on 28 was also there, now known as WQVC-CA, that showed The Box.

If the tower by Seton Hill that Soon2Bdark refers to is in fact their tower, then it's no wonder I'm not receiving it given my location and antenna direction. Maybe we'll get lucky when it goes digital but I'm not holding my breath. From Unity, that tower is much more in line with the Pitt towers (where I'm assuming your antenna is pointed) than where I live in South Greensburg so that's probs why you faintly pick it up, despite my living closer.

I too remember WBGN on Comcast, channel 22 I think it was, but they dropped them like 4 years ago - well before they encrypted all their QAM channels last year and forced those poorly designed "digital adapters" on most customers.

My two strongest signal sources were PBS out of Morgantown and WPXI out of Uniontown. In the past I could receive both with not much more than a paperclip for an antenna! Now WPXI which is 12 miles line of sight is only viewable occasionally at night and early mornings. Today I pointed my amplified stacked Channel Masters antenna directly at it and it's nowhere to be found. Over the last month the signal has gone from having an intermittent occasional signal drop out to today's "no signal" being found. Did something happen at WPXI like an amplifier getting cooked possibly by a lightning strike or an antenna lobe getting tweaked by the wind? I have three antennas and it's NOT receivable on any of the three.

Their Basic ("lifeline") Package is still unencrypted.

RTV is still available on WTOV 9-2.