Rockford, IL - HDTV - Page 36

I don't really know what DeKalb's like these days, but Elgin's right down the road from me, and it really doesn't surprise me at all, with all those huge, old houses filled with multiple families, each of which has their own satellite dish.

Some neighborhoods in Chicago have a ridiculous amount per house.

FWIW, I have a DB-4 UHF antenna on a mast on my roof. Last week I pointed it at Madison instead of the TV towers to the west of Rockford. I usually still get Rockford channels 17 and 23 off the side of this antenna -- and now also receive Madison Channels 3, 21, 27, and 47. Because the antenna is pointed at Madison the reception on its channels is about 90% stable and predictable. Local Rockford channels 17 and 23 are only 60% predictable and stable off the side of this antenna. It is my opinion that the transmitters from the Madison stations produce a better picture, better detail and colors, and obvious better sound.

I have a separate VHF antenna up on the roof for local channel 13 (NBC). It is a 5 element Yagi designed to receive channels 7-13. Its reception of channel 13 is 100% stable.

Several of the Madison channels have 3 sub-channels, not just 2, albeit these sub channels show low value old stuff, just as the sub-channels do on local 13, 17 and 23 channels.

Tomorrow I am going up on the roof again to move the UHF antenna up to the very top of the mast (where the channel 13 antenna is now located) to determine if an additional 6 feet in elevation is enough to improve reception both of Madison and local channels off the left side of the antenna.

Moving the VHF down a few feet to a lower position on the mast should not make a difference as it receives channel 13 so well with apparent good signal strength. So far I have not noted any interference between these two types of antennas which each have their own separate downleads; then their signals are joined in the basement with a UHF/VHF signal combiner to provide just one cable at the wall plate for TV set connection. I've tried VHF and UHF reception with/without this combiner and note no apparent difference. The combiner presents very little signal loss it seems.

Whatta' hobby

Dick

Yeah you know you're in deep when you watch an infomercial on a station from 200 miles away rather than a real program on a local station.

By the way, Dick, you've revived the almost-dead Rockford thread. We actually got it to go to a new page!

Point well received! There has got to be better uses of the public airwaves than watching 40-year-old episodes of "I Love Lucy."

We need more active involvement from users of free OTA TV to encourage more innovation and better quality of available programming.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20...t-innovate-q-a

The goal of my latest foray into rooftop antennas was to get both Rockford and Madison OTA stations with the least extra expense possible.

I already had a DB-4 UHF antenna combined with a channel 7-13 Yagi. The addition of another DB-4 pointed at Madison now provides almost 100% reception of Madison as well as Rockford stations.

The DB-4 and Yagi pointed West get the Rockford channels and the DB-4 at the top of the mast gets Madison. The Rockford antennas are ganged with a combiner. The Madison DB-4 has a separate downlead with is combined with the others in the basement using a coupler in reverse. All of this provides one connection at the wall plate for the TV connection.

The 2nd DB-4 purchased from Solid Signal a few days ago was listed as "refurbished" but looks and functions as brand-new at considerable saving in cost. I am happy .

Dick

Swwweeeet! I love it when a plan comes together, even when it's not mine. Very nice rig.

It sure would have been nice if Rockford's channel 13 had stayed on the UHF frequency it was using before the digital switch. I'm in Beloit and have half of a channel master 4228. (I forget the correct number and it's no longer offered) I have to point my antenna towards Rockford and pickup all the Madison channels through the backside. My main objective was to get the Rockford channels in HD because they're not offered over charter cable. I doubt I'll ever put up a VHF antenna just to get WREX.

WREX was using channel 54, a channel which was taken back by the FCC. They could not have kept it.

- Trip

Those two were battling it out at my house today. Nobody won.

Yeah, RF 19 is super crowded around here-Chicago, Madison, Peoria, Grand Rapids. I got an RF 19 out of Des Moines last night, but very briefly.

WTVO and WQRF are offline right now, probably thanks to this storm. Hopefully it's not something serious.

They were back by morning. Power outage, maybe?

Yea, power outage, according to their facebook page. Not that it mattered to me cos nothing was worth watching last night anyway...

If my memory serves correctly, WTVO goes off the air the most frequently of the local stations and WIFR is 2nd. If they are losing power it would seem simple to correct their power feed.

COMCAST was off at the same time for me in Loves Park. I was grateful for the other OTA stations to keep me informed of what was happening. DSL, of course, remained reliable. People complain about AT&T but I would not have my DSL with anyone else as it has always been there when needed.

At the time of the storm I was able to get spotty reception from Madison OTA stations, which helped provide storm info on a wider scale.

So far my antennas attached to the chimney have remained upright through all the recent storms, 75 mph winds, etc. I do, however, need to get up there and make a better connection to the grounding wire on the mast.

Have you and others who post here been keeping up with attempts to auction off parts of the OTA bandwidth and limit power to certain stations? Legislation to do so was attached to one of the latest budget negotiation bills but was removed. Later this year this move will be reinserted. Go here to read about it:

http://www.thefutureoftv.org/

http://blog.thefutureoftv.org/

We need political activism to protect our access to the OTA we enjoy.

For those that are interested, WQRF is adding a subchannel on Sept 26th: Bounce TV, aimed specifically for African Americans.

WIFR's weather subchannel PQ was pretty bad this morning. Boxed in a little further than normal. And when the local forecast came on, the audio cut out a lot. I wonder what the heck happened.

EDIT: fixed as of 10am Sept 13.

Thinking of getting one of these to put on the roof to try and get Wisc channels. I live near Main and Auburn. Will it work?

Ebay ID 290609672424 (Can't post URL yet).


Am also wondering if it would pick up the Rockford channels on it's side if pointed North?

Also, I noticed SiliconDust's website was showing we now have 39.2 (Bounce) as WQRFDT2. And that it was 1080i? Anyone managed to pick up a test picture?

SiliconDust is confused. The 39-2 you see listed is WNDU 16-1. Examine the images and you'll see the WNDU bug in the corner.

- Trip

I tuned it at home. 39.2 is Bounce TV, starts 9/26. In glorious 480i..

Very good then. Yesterday when I looked at SiliconDust, the images it was showing for 39-2 were from WNDU.

- Trip

Is there a timeline to convert the sound to 5.1 on WREX. The sound quality of Stereo is so inferior to 5.1 from the other channels it's hard to watch.

The one thing that bugs me is the audience mics on shows like America's Funniest Videos and DWTS on ABC. God awful, like white noise. Not everyone has 5.1, so why punish those ears with a bad stereo downmix? Or is it a fake 5.1 upmix from stereo and downmixed back to stereo? Heck, some people don't even have tv's with stereo speakers.

Rdoac,

I live in the same area(Camp Ave) and am wondering about your reception thus far. I am thinking of switching to OTA with a channelmaster dvr but would like to be able to get more channels from WI. Antennaweb doesn't make it sound too hopeful, so I'm curious of your results. Let me know.

After a couple of weeks I'm ready to get back on the roof again (when the rain stops). Generally the Wisconsin reception is OK. I get 27 (real channel 26) dropping out in the mornings. However, local channels are a pain. It picks up 17 & 13 fine, but 39(42) and 23(41) are a pain. I am probably getting multi path reflection issues. I will probably end up putting a small antenna on the mast pointing up towards Auburn to resolve that, and would like to try and tune the antenna to 27 in a morning where I am losing it. I did some satellite stuff when I lived in Italy, using a 2 metre ku band dish where aiming was everything. I think that an antenna is nowhere near as fussy.

The program quality of the WI stations seams generally higher, with 3.1 having syndicated content in HD, as well as 15 and 27. Fox is about the same and probably uses the same remuxer as WQRF. MeTV is a bonus and having the CW in HD is a definite plus. NBC comes with 5.1 audio, which is a big deal to us and sounds much much better with a 5.1 amp.

More updates if anyone is reading them. I tried a second antenna, but didn't get much luck. I was considering playing with a Jointenna but they don't make them with channel 41/42 so played around with some other things (variable amps and such like - with no luck). I think the problem is a signal overload on channels 41/42 (WIFR/WQRF) and multipath, these then take out any kind of amplifier used to strengthen Madison stations. I have just ordered a Winegard UT-2700, a variable attenuator to try and attenuate those channels down a bit. With those down, I may try an amplifier to see if I can make 27.1 more stable. Will let you all know.

My opinion is that most receiver sections are very sensitive and amplifiers are usually not needed. You can't amplify a signal unless it is being received. To get Madison is dependent on topography (high ground between you and there) and troposphere conditions. For me, most of the time, Madison stations 21 and 45 come and go depending on temperature layers in air and I haven't figured out a way to predict when and why. For example, at 6:30 PM this eve, Ch. 21 was blocking terribly. Now, at 7:30 PM it is rock solid. Ch. 27 is almost always available, ditto Ch. 03. You can see my antenna setup by clicking the link below. I am at Elm and Renrose in Loves Park.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4#post20621134

Hi Dick,

Thanks for responding. Still in testing phase, but I think I now have it working.

I have noted that most of the time my antenna (yagi style, very directional) pulls in Madison really well. I only lose 27 (actual 26). During daylight. Although I am getting real problems with WQRF..

Once working, I then tried to attach it to too many things, and that was where I ran into problems.

I bought an amp with only .4db noise, which I thought would be the secret, but lost 27 and the CW (57.1 actual 32). I also was dealing with huge multipath problems with 41 & 42 (WIFR and WQRF - the latter being important, as I work there - although not in a technical role). I was thinking all along that it was multipath hitting the antenna at the wrong angle, so played with an additional antenna but didn't get very far..

Reading here, I realized I am probably overloading the tuners with both 41 and 42, as they're only 5 miles due West (I'm near Main and Auburn, so a little further west and south than you). Today my variable attenuator arrived (Winegard UT-2700). Armed with my HDHomerun android app and a small screwdriver, I've just spent 2 hours trying to tune the thing, and have finally got one half sitting on 41, the other on 42, so they lower the signal meter down from 96 to 73 and my set top box testing thing lost WIFR (WQRF was never locked due to even worse multipath).

I then took the output of the attenuator and plugged it into my Amp, and noticed I can now pick up 27 (26) and 57 (32), so suspect the really strong local signals was causing the amp to distort the other frequencies.

I now have enough power to feed the signal through a four way splitter for my 3 HDHomerun tuners I want to use, and then onwards to my TV's and FM Computer input.

Have just wired it up, more directly, again, and discovered I'm missing channel 57 (32), have replaced the super low noise amp with my trusty Radio Shack cable tv amplifier, and am getting much better results. I think the super duper amp will be going back..

I will try out 27 tomorrow during the day, as that's when I lose it. I have also wired in my little antenna after the amp to reprovide 41 & 42 (WIFR and WQRF). I don't seem to be having any multipath errors with WTVO as the signal was 100% off the main antenna and never dropped out like the others. WREX is VHF and always worked well from the main antenna.

Will update again if I notice wierd things happen.... At some point, I suppose I should put my little antenna on the roof, as it's just 6 foot off the ground screwed into an old sat bracket onto the back fence..

I'm always having problems with WQRF. I usually don't watch it unless i know im getting a decent signal. It's a crapshoot most times.

@SycamoreSeej

What sort of problems do you have? It's the strongest transmitter and not very far from WIFR, WTVO, so if you get those, you should get WQRF. Although it maybe that you're overloading your tuners if you're using an Amp like I was.. Have you tried it without an amp if you use one?

Amost always, if you can see the tower's red lights at night, you do not need an amplifier to get that station, and using an amplifier that close usually causes overload, resulting in blackouts that your set calls "weak signal."