Los Angeles, CA - OTA - Page 284

DX: receiving distant broadcasts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_and_FM_DX

While in Dover, DE I occasionally received DTV from DC and on rare occasion got it from NYC. And yes I did receive both WMAR and WCBS (both mapped to 2.1) and they both mapped to my channel list quite nicely.

Not 5 minutes after my last post, I checked my email and I see an email from Mr. Mayhugh filling me in on what was going on with KFLA, responding to my email of June 12. Thanks for the response Mr. Mayhugh. Welcome to the forum.

When I got home from work, I did a scan and lo and behold, there was KFLA and I caught the tail end of "Starsky and Hutch." I am also getting KIIO 10.5. Does anyone know what their programming consists of? I thought it was supposed to be Luken's PBJ Channel, but it appears to be some washed out foreign programming. I can't tell whether it is Spanish or some other language. Any thoughts?

FYI: ATSC A/74 Receiver Guidelines as well as CECB Specs indicate that
a DTV signal "should" tolerate adjacent DTV channel interference
that is 33 dB HIGHER than the desired signal for normal signal levels
and 20 dB higher for a strong desired signal level.

Thanks for the information. Is there a 'tolerate number' when you have both an upper and lower adjacent DTV channels? e.g. strong RF7 and strong RF9 interfering with weak RF8.

if you have any luck with mt wilson, im jealous but watch SD tv is better than nothing

From Van Nuys I'm now able to get KFLA for the first time. Coming in well, too. Also 10.5 KIIO, didn't used to get that. KOCE is still hit or miss. I have yet to check if the antenna is OK. We'll see.

I don't recall any, but would guess that the margin would decrease by 3 dB,
due to contribution from TWO interference sources. Bear in mind that these
are all ballpark numbers when it comes to REAL antennas and REAL multipath
fluctuations and REAL propagation variances....as always...YMMV....

I live in Placentia CA 92870 (by Anaheim) and am using the following HDTV antenna:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...#specification

Which also includes a small line amplifier. It is a great antenna (read all the reviews). Mounted outside on a second story eve, pointed to Mount Wison. I get pretty much everything except can't get a good signal for Channel 7 KABC even tohugh I have a clear path.

I see alot of talk about channel 7 for my Orange County / Los Angeles Neighors experiencing difficulty with this signal as well.

Not sure what my options are for this particular channel, or if I fully understand the issue. I previosuly tried repointing my antenna a bit with no luck.

Any ideas on a solution.

Despite the claims, that antenna is not really designed for VHF, which is where KABC broadcasts. The 20+ dB claim is all due to the amplifier, which DOES NOT REALLY HELP dig out weak signals. Amplifiers only preserve the signal received by the antenna from getting lost in the cable to the TV.

To be sure what antenna is best for you, we would need a reception report from tvfool.com (share the report's URL, not just the pictures.) However, I would guess a small Hi-VHF/UHF antenna like the RCA ANT-751 would be just fine.

Usually difficulty with reception of a strong LOS station is due to too much multipath. You need to find the 'sweet' spot where multipath interference is minimum. You can try raising or lowering or rotating your antenna to see if it makes a difference. Have someone look at the signal quality meter on your TV while you are moving the antenna.

Or try tilting up or down since you have a flexible mount.

There's another angle: overloading the amplifier from too many strong DTV signals or harmonics from a nearby FM station. Anybody in the LA metro with a clear shot at Mt. Wilson should NOT need an amplified antenna of any sort, especially if said antenna is mounted outside. Barring evidence of terrain blockage in this case, I dare say the monoprice antenna is working despite itself.

I assume one can look for this station on http://www.antennasearch.com/ ?

KOCE-DT is broadcasting on channels 50.1 (RF48) and 31.4 (RF23).
KOCE on RF48 works great in my area - no picture nor sound breakups.

btw, I can receive KFLA on RF8 in my area with no picture/sound distortions, even when my TV is just using an indoor rabbit ears antenna.

there's now spanish programming on KVEA 52.2 - channel is now called "Exitos"

Use FMFool to see if there are very strong FMs near you. Use TVFool for TV broadcast. Antennasearch looks useful for cell phone and other towers.

Unfortunately I don't have a solution, but I live near you (Fullerton 92833, right near the 5/91 interchange). This is the antenna I have on my apartment balcony (facing Mt Wilson with a clear line of sight). I get KABC just fine with no amp. In fact someone suggested I split my incoming signal to weaken it a bit due to what was said above (the signal overloading my Tivo's sensitive receiver chip, resulting in bad reception). Doing that, I got slightly better numbers on my Tivo's signal meter, but didn't notice any spectacular difference other than that (but I wasn't really having a big issue in the first place -- just a problem with KDOC, which wasn't related to reception anyway).

There is an occasional glitch on KABC, but frankly that seems to happen on all the channels I receive. Might be due to the Fullerton Airport which is located between me and Mt Wilson...

The CM 2016 is a decent antenna. It does have more UHF gain than VHF, which kinda goes to waste. The ANT751 is more balanced I -think-.

The good news is we still get KFLA. The bad news is there's no tivo programming info yet.

We watch zero live TV, so hopefully tivo(tribune) will realize the remapped stations soon.

Welcome to LA OTA! Glad to have you aboard, Roy. Thanks for sharing the information. Love retro tv, so I'm a KFLA fan.

Just a reminder folks;

As expected, Universal Sports formally on KNBC's sub-channel 4-4 is no longer available free OTA as of 1-1-12, and is now a pay television only channel.

So, what's replacing on 4-4? Nothing?

Nope, nothing it seems for now at least;

My OTA channel list now just skips from 4-2 (California Nonstop) over to 5-1 (KTLA's main sub-channel).

Have Universal Sports on DIRECTV ch. 625 though.

Ah thanks. I will tell my tuners to delete 4.4 then.

Directv has Universal Sports but it looks like nobody else does. Wonder if the drop in viewership is similar to KCET's drop when the later left PBS.

Anyway, it looks like KSCI joins KVMD 31.x, KXLA 44.x, and KJLA 57.x (if you count 23.4) in the 10 subchannels club. There are currently no Vietnamese channels on KSCI, so why not? I will guess one is coming.

Does the guide info come via KFLA automatically. TiVo is not recording for me because of lack of guide data. I wanted to confirm that data is being delivered by KFLA before I email Tivo to update their software. Thanks.

Same here. I can tune KFLA in on the AM21 runner hooked up to my DirecTV TiVo receiver (THR22), but cannot record due to the lack of guide info. I tried to set up a manual recording but it does not record. When I check the recording history, I get a message that says the channel was removed, but it is in my channel list. I emailed TiVo a couple of days ago and received a message someone would get back to me in 3-5 days. Anyone have any ideas what could be the problem?

It's a question for TiVo community, definitely not in this thread. As I understand you see in a guide the channel on your THR22 ? Then manual setting - start time and duration should do that. Regardless guide info; all info to tune is there - freq,TSID, PIDs, etc

If someone could tell me if KFLA is sending correct OTA guide info, then I would know its a tivo issue. Until that is confirmed, Im not absolutely positive who's at fault.

Yeah whatever, I started a thread in tivo community days ago. Obviously "Tivo/OTA-only" is a small percentage of users. The tivo community is great, but how many are in LA and OTA only?

This is about OTA and this is Los Angeles, heaven forbid if it relates to OTA directv or OTA fios or OTA tivo, along with it.

Definitely some boorish people here.

Well stated, Turbobuick86. This is a complicated issue. As you stated, you are trying to determine the source of the problem. On a stand-alone DVD recorder hooked up to my OTA antenna, I cannot get any programming info for KFLA either, so I have a feeling it might be on their end.

I mainly watch 2-13 but occasionally will surf to other channels I have programmed when I'm bored.

Is there a channel guide available somewhere that tells me descriptions of the programming? I don't want to re-run the auto-scan as its a real pain in the ass on my TV to hide channels once they have been added.