Rockford, IL - HDTV - Page 6

WIFR does a fine job outside of that stupid 23 logo that they insist on showing - the general manager told me that they legally have to put it there..I guess all other channels are breaking the law....I will not watch the channel for that reason - I pull CBS from Milwaukee.

As of August 3rd, they have a Special Temporary Authority application pending with the FCC to broadcast at lower power. Dean Turman, the CE there, told me they'd be on the air in August if all went well, and this was late this spring (see post above). Looks like he's gunning to make it! They will be full HD and 5.1 DD sound when they hit the air!

Is this temporary? I lost them in Amboy.

It's permanent until analog shutdown around 2009, when they will boost power. What antenna do you have? I recommend a Channelmaster 4228, placed outdoors on a roof or tower:

http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/4228.htm

That's your best shot to get it. A friend I know lives in Waterman and locks it
with no problem.

ALSO: Breaking news: WQRF-DT could be on at any time. They have applied for
2.3 kw of power until July 1, 2006 (their full power will be 1 mw, directional).
Here's a link to their coverage map when they hit the air:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-serv...DS1078186.html

Sorry to be a board hog, but I have some updated information on WQRF-DT.
The FCC approved their STA to hit the air at 2.3 KW on Friday, August 5th.
So, next week (August 7-12), check on channel 42 to see if you get anything. The FCC website shows the 41 db contour going through DeKalb, and since I have
a good antenna and preamp, I should be able to at least get a blip when they
sign on...

Gilbert I appreciate all your updates.

has anyone been able to pick up Fox 39 yet? I have 0 for signal.

Tonight in DeKalb I am even receiving:
3.1
21.1
57.1


But NO 39.1

Same here. Remember, the engineer said "in August". We still have more than
two weeks of "in August" to go. :-)

BTW, an FCC STA doesn't mean that the station will broadcast at that power or even be on the air, but can. Obviously, it makes little sense that after spending money to the FCC, you wouldn't do it (unless you had technical difficulties). But given that:

1. The FCC app was applied for and quickly approved in late July
2. The Chief Engineer says "in August" is when it will be on
3. Antennaweb says by "October 5"

I bet it will be sooner than later, and the October 5th may be a self-imposed
deadline. Either way, keep checking, and yes, the last two nights I have gotten
those Madison stations as well.

And don't count on WQRF-DT to come in reliably, if at all, in DeKalb.
Especially along and east of the Kishwaukee Glorified Ditch. ;-)

Kuma,

He is right. They have older HD equipment...they were one of the first in HD. If you watch, they can't put a WIFR-TV/DT bug on the screen. When it keys over
the analog signal, it doesn't make it to the digital. That's because it has its own system. And, since they don't have a CG system that can splice into that, they
put a permanent stain on it. When they upgrade eventually, I'm sure that will go away. But the general manager is correct. It's either on all the time, or none of the time, in which case they violate FCC ID rules.

Gilbert

Last night after I fixed my antenna, I noticed that 17 was a black screen with a 90% showing on my Dish 6000. Luckily, I was able to view the game on WQAD out of the QC.

Anyone else seeing (er- not seeing) this?

Also, apparently, 39 will not cover Amboy even though we are in it's DMA.

Yes, they had a failure of some sort. They are back on as of 9 AM. I'm wondering if the WQRF patching had something to do with it. ABC HD will be down the rest of the week as the network is doing HD upgrades.

As for 39, maybe not at low power, but on July 1 of next year, they have to be at full. Any luck with you getting WIFR-DT?

It's not great maybe 65-70%. I do get pixelation. The Denver Bronco game is on on Saturday and I'll let you know how aggravated I get.

There's always WHBF-DT!

I don't have any problems with it on my Channelmaster 4228 antenna.
If you don't have a preamplifier on it, you might want to get a modest one.
It should help you get the Rockford stations with no problem.

I have a RS VR-190 with a CM 7777. I'm getting 23-1 now, also Fox out of the QC @ 96% and Fox 47-1 out of Peoria @ 92% .

I can't wait for WPWR out of Chicago to go 1 meg!

Wow! That's a lot of Fox. :-) A hill about 4 miles south of the city prevents
me from getting WWTO-TV 35 (scratchy as all get out), and anything from
Peoria, even on tropo nights...at least so far. With the calm weather,
the stations have locked higher on my tuner over the last few nights. That
will probably end Friday as we turn warmer and more humid.

WPWR-DT 51 in Chicago is now at 1 mw. I doubt if you can get it that far normally.
However, WFLD is 690 kw, and that's a good station to try for as well (rf 31).
RS VU 190/XR is a good antenna, but the ChannelMaster 4228 blows it out
of the water, from someone who has used both. I have a 4228 in my attic in DeKalb,
and can lock WCIU-DT at 15 kw. A friend who lives 20 miles east of me on a hill
frequently cannot lock it with his VU-190!

That's the info I wanted! I was hope to find someone that experienced them both. I will get over to Warren Electronics as soon as my wallet allows me to! I was thinking that the two are simular. I will put the 4228 on a mast above the VR190 so that I don't lose anything on the VHF side.

Thanks!

You're welcome! Also, when you split the signals with the Chanelmaster 7777, you should find that you'll get slightly less noise and FM interference on both VHF and UHF. Dunno why. In any case, the CM 4228 antenna gives about 4-6 dB higher gain
than the VU-190. Every 3 dB of gain doubles your signal.

Greetings,

I'm in the Loves Park area, wondering if anyone else is in the area to share ideas on what antenna they are using, and if it's feasible to get Madison/Janesville stations as well as Rockford if I went with the CM4228 antenna? I have a 40' tower I could throw it on, but the feedline would be longer since it's out behind the garage. Also, you guys feed the antennas with just twinlead, or do you use coax? I tried my amateur radio 2m/440Mhz beam, and I almost got it to lock on 3.1/3.2 up in Madison, but hardly any signal. I have a Samsung HDTV/DirecTV receiver which I also hear isn't the most sensitive, so I s'pose a pre-amp will be required.

Thanks for your thoughts. And I can't wait until FOX39 actually gets a signal pumping out!

I'm in Rockford. Definitely use coax. I point my antenna west nw and I get all the stations from Madison & Rockford pointed in one direction. 3.1 & 3.2 are the most difficult stations to pick up. I do use a CM 7777 preamp.

All,

Authoritative information from their engineers:

WTVO-DT had a tube blow out last night (9/8/05). They are off the air until at
least Saturday, or perhaps Monday, when the new tube comes in.

WQRF-DT is scheduled to hit the air around September 23, but due to unknown
issues, they will NOT be in HD initially, just upconverted SD, at 2.3 kilowatts.
They did say they will be at full power "in 2nd quarter 2006".

Edit: just learned: HD in June, 2006, same time as full power. My guess
is due to the cost. Doing it all at once is probably cheaper.

Brilliant. WQRF missed last year's football season in HD and they plan on making sure that they miss it again.

I am sure that the Fox parent company is just loving this Rockford branch.

I suppose it's a good thing that Rockford is just a small town with little to no HDTV retail market...
no Best Buy, no American TV, no Circuit City, and not even Super Walmarts selling HD equipment for the masses - trying to bring them up to the new standard.
One might get annoyed if Rockford were once considered one of the largest cities in Illinois outside of Chicagoland. One might think that someone in charge of WQRF needs to take a hard look at the techincal management of their business, not because the equipment is expensive - I am sure that is true, but rather because the other excuses have been stacking since spring 2004 (and I am willing to bet that even though they say June 2006, they still find a reason not to broadcast HD until the fall 2006).
I would love to be proven wrong. I would love to see an HD signal long before that, but I guess that I am still stuck with Wisconsin Fox (on days with decent weather that is).

Sorry for the rant, but I cannot imagine I am the only one feeling this way.

According to the 2000 Census, we are still the second largest City in the State.

I have heard that Aurora has passed Rockford for #2, but I don't have actual data to back that up.

Here are the top 5 from the 2000 Census:
1) Chicago 2,896,016
2) Rockford 150,115
3) Aurora 142,990
4) Naperville 128,358
5) Peoria 112,936

People outside of Rockford are shocked to hear this. It's funny when you ask a resident of Chicago or the 'burbs how big Rockford is... Nobody believes that Rockford is the State's second largest City, almost everyone thinks this is a fairly small farm town with a few factories.

When I tell them that we have nearly TWICE the population as Schaumburg (75,386) then they realize that we really are the second largest City in IL.

TV stations care more about TV households than population, and here are the rankings of IL markets according to Neilsen:

1) Chicago #3 nationwide
2) Champaign-Springfield-Decatur #82 nationwide
3) Quad Cities #94 nationwide
4) Peoria-Bloomington #117 nationwide
5) Rockford #134 nationwide

We still deserve better than what we have been getting...

I presume you are being sarcastic as Rockford has all of these?

Rick what part of town are you in?

Jeff, check your PM.

Before we get all bent out of shape here, we need to remember a few things.

1. At market #134, we have CBS, NBC and ABC in HD. Quad Cities got their
CBS in HD in the last week of August, and they were also at 2 kw. WIFR has
been kicking butt for 3 years, WTVO for well over a year. WREX, ditto.

2. Champaign-Springfield-Decatur, a much bigger market, only has FOX in HD.
As I type this, they're off the air because of a blown transmitter; they hope to
be back on next week. On Monday, two days from now as I type this, PBS affiliate WILL-DT
signs on for good, in HD. The market will then have TWO stations in HD. U of I basketball games are on CBS in HD. Read the Champaign AVS HDTV board
for utter screamfests on that one, especially when the engineers say that there's not enough HDTV's in the market to justify upgrading.

3. FOX Milwaukee just went HD/high power last week. See http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org for a FOX scream festival that lasted up until recently.

4. Peoria CBS is at 2.3 KW and is not in HD.

5. WQRF was barely scraping along and finally got sold. The reason why they haven't been on the air until now is that the FCC has granted them waivers due to poverty. Literally, buying HDTV equipment and a full power transmitter would have bankrupted them. The parent company is finally giving their engineers money to work with. Up until this year, whenever it hit 90 degrees, WQRF would either go to low power, go off the air, and the picture would have a "fishbone" effect on it
because it looked like it was broadcasting off-frequency. Since WTVO's company
took over, the analog looks and sounds much better, and has actual weather
bulletins now on the bottom of the screen instead of a dumb thunderstorm or
tornado symbol. (All of this is NOT, BTW, the fault of the WQRF engineer!)
They've actually rebuilt the WTVO and WQRF master control
centers from scratch together in one building. The WTVO video and audio quality
(except for the news, the cameras need to be upgraded) has also improved
nicely over the past 2 years.

That's not to say they have a ways to go. Initially, if you scroll up, you'll see that
they did have plans to go HD right away at sign-on, but that was before they
were sold. The engineers have been great and flat-out honest in their timetables,
always noting though, that "corporate can change their minds at any time", and
they do.

The good news is that even though they are broadcasting at 2.3 kw, it's going to be from their 1 mw transmitter. When THAT puppy is fired up, look out! You'll be able to get it from near Chicago to just east of Dubuque. Until then, get a good VHF-HI antenna that picks up channels 7-13; you'll need it to pick up WREX-TV
anyway after analog shutdown, and watch FOX HD from Madison.

And as they say, don't blame WQRF-TV/DT, and especially the engineers, who have done a great job with what they have. It's the men in black suits above them that are calling the shots on this one.

Gilbert, I understand that WQRF was recently purchased and that there have been delays... They missed the freakin' Superbowl, and IMO that is NOT acceptable.

Fox actually has a lineup that people watch.... the old ownership were still in the mindset that they had a small franchise to broadcast syndication shows and one night of network programming consisting of 21 Jump Street, Tracey Ullman, and Married With Children.

They have had the NFL now for 11 years, and the prime time lineup is as strong as any other TV station in town.

I agree, but the problem is that it cannot be fixed overnight. A lot of money has to be put into place, and the ad money doesn't compare to a top 100 market.

I share your frustration, and the best I can tell you is email or call the station and let them know you want FOX in HD. If the current owners are convinced there's
enough high-end viewers, they'll add it, rather than waiting for a mandatory cut-off date. It won't come as fast as we want, but it may come faster than planned.
Considering that when I worked in the market, the roof of the WTVO studio/ transmitter complex was getting close to collapsing from age and neglect, I'd say they've come a heck of a long way. And, we're still the largest market in the country, IIRC, without a PBS affiliate. The only ones who would probably get
one on the air is NIU, and I know they aren't going to do it. They say it won't
generate enough donations to justify the cost.

I have kept Insight basic cable just because I get two PBS feeds... 02 is WTTW-11 from Chicago and 21 is Wisconsin Public TV.

I love New Yankee Workshop, HomeTime, and This Old House... and now the TOH spin off shows as well.

Rockford area residents are used to being the largest city that still doesn't have ... (fill in the blank).

The fact that we do not have anything close to an expressway system upsets me to no end.