Rockford, IL - HDTV - Page 31

This is on a Phillips 26PF5321 LCD in our bedroom and a Mitsubishi LT-46231 in the living room. Neither gets the above mentioned channels anymore even after a rescan.

Originally Posted by Phase700B

Did rescan.... actually twice. Last night and just an hour ago. Samo-samo here...

Originally Posted by Rammitinski

The RCA ATSC21 is a very old and not-very-sensitive tuner, isn't it? If so, you might do better with a Samsung DTB-H260F or something newer.

This is on a Phillips 26PF5321 LCD in our bedroom and a Mitsubishi LT-46231 in the living room. Neither gets the above mentioned channels anymore even after a rescan. I have an RCA ATSC21 , maybe I'll try hooking that up and see if it gets anything my two sets won't.

Originally Posted by Phase700B

All the Madison stations still come in great. as well as 39-1, 23-1, but no 13 or 17 DTV.

Originally Posted by sebenste

Hey all,

WREX is not doing well with 12 kw down here in DeKalb. At my place on the northwest side, I used to get it easily with my ChannelMaster 4228 UHF antenna. But now, I only have VHF antennas pointed east and south. Picking it up off the side isn't working from either antenna. I have one for standby use and that one may need to be added to my antenna arsenal to get it. As a side note, I have a ChannelMaster 4228 (discontinued) UHF-only antenna at work, and it's near the top of a 80' building, or about 60' up. It gets WREX-DT in going from good to bad. But to be fair, 13 analog off that thing was multipath Hades and I fully expect my third generation tuner isn't liking it.

But on a nastier note, they couldn't even lock it from the NIU Holmes Student Center antennas, some 180' up! They get blips of it, but a lock isn't there (it's even too weak to resolve any PSIP data). To be fair, those antennas are probably just UHF antennas, albeit professional (cable TV) quality ones. In any case, until that issue is resolved, it's been taken off the NIU campus cable system and replaced with WTVO-DT instead, which proverbially pegs the signal meter.

Edit: I unhooked one of my two ChannelMaster 4228 mesh screen UHF antennas, which I used primarily just to get WLS and WTTW in Chicago. When my 6th gen tuner came along, one of the two antennas wasn't needed anymore. So, I put it into a VHF slot on my VHF-UHF splitter, put it on the north side of my attic, pointed it towards Rockford, and it took a lot of tweaking to get the reception of WREX to a solid 60% lock, just leaning against a wall until the weather warms up and I can spend more time up there. I can't get WWTO-DT 10 anymore on my VHF antenna pointing south since that slot is now filled, but due to a hill in the way, I rarely got it anyway. If they go 80 kilowatts, then it'll happen, but until the weather warms up, this is what I have for now, which is fine.

Also, a friend of mine in Waterman, using a Winegard HD7084P pointed at Rockford, is now able to lock WREX-DT solidly for the first time. And, a guy on the Chicago OTA board who lives in Plano, 25 miles southeast of DeKalb, got WREX for a few minutes this afternoon, but then lost the signal. He can lock WTVO fine, but not WIFR or WQRF.

Originally Posted by Phase700B

That is probably the problem with me. If 13 moved to the lower power RF position, then I may have to get that rotor that I've had sitting it a box mounted up in the garage attic.

That being said, I still get Milwaukee analog channel 6 off the side of my antenna, and before "transition day" was getting Milwaukee analog channels 4,10, 12 and UHF 18 and sometimes 24, with my antenna parked at about 300 degrees towards Madison. That does mean I'm picking up all the Rockfords off the back/side of my antenna. I just think it's weird that I get Milwaukee analogs off the side when they are farther away, but Rockford is iffy. But, there are always terrain issues, power levels, etc.

Originally Posted by sebenste

Exactly. Sorry I'm late in replying here, but WREX's power doesn't seem to be transmitting effectively with its 12 kw. It should be a blowtorch here in DeKalb, but it is not. Maybe the antenna or transmitter needs to be tweaked, I don't know. But it should do better than what it is right now. With 12 kilowatts, the rejection of the antenna of a relatively weak signal is not surprising. You'll need that rotor to get it.

Originally Posted by hvs10trk

It would be interresting to see what the MER and the EVM readings are. MER shoud be 27+ and EVM should be below 4.

Originally Posted by iwampfler

I live at the East edge of Rockford, near Alpine and Charles, which is near the highest point in Rockford. I am using amplified indoor antennas (2), one is a Terk which includes rabbit ears and the other is a Radio Shack which also includes rabbit ears. I find it nearly impossible to lock onto WREX, channel 13. Is the correct Transmit Number for this station 54? I did find that the Rabbit Ears need to be about 21 inches long to lock onto WREX. The other 3 Rockford stations lock in very well. Right now, I have the TV connected to the Terk locked onto 13.001 and 13.002 without breakup. Since I just looked up the transmit number, 54, I am going to try to set my other TV to that number and see if I can get a lock on WREX on that TV.

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OK, I just went to the other HDTV tuner which shows Transmit number, Channel number and Signal Strength.
I set the transmit number to 54 and was not able to get any signal no matter how I adjusted the antenna. Then I set the Transmit number to 13. After extending the rabbit ears to full length, the meter jumped to 57%.

Apparently the reason that I was getting a good signal prior to the switchover, is because the transmit number was 54. I assume that 54 was UHF and 13 is VHF. Maybe now, thanks to the help found here, I can get WREX good enough to view it on that primary over-the-air tuner. :-)

After more tweaking, I got the signal strength up to 65. This is good enough to watch both WREX programs. The rabbit ear length is 19 inches for both. The tips are 6.5 inches apart. This Radio Shack antenna has a mesh reflector with a wire bow tie in front of the reflector and rabbit ears behind the reflector. The bow tie had to be rotated a little clockwise from full counter-clockwise. The upper left and lower right wire segments extinding from the center hub now form a vertical straight line. The amplifier dial is set to three o'clock, not quite maximum. Rabbit Ear length and Bow Tie rotation are very critical! Signal strength is about 90 for the other 3 Rockford stations.

The antenna is sitting just below and just in front of the wall mounted TV, which is not ideal.

Before the switch-over, I used the Terk with this tuner and had it on a high shelf in a nearby closet, where the Terk was getting all four Rockford TV Stations most of the time.

Originally Posted by Falcon_77

Did WTVO and WQRF end analog programming as planned? WTVO was supposed to be a 60 day nightlight.

Thanks,

Originally Posted by lark930

Is anyone having audio dropouts? I have had Fox39 audio dropouts on both Over-the-Air and on DirectTV Tivo (waiting for the new Tivo this fall). The Tivo dropouts are repeatable...so I don't think it's my TV having issues. The dropouts start with a buzz and last about 5 seconds.

Thanks in advance (would just like to know it's them and not me!)

Originally Posted by Dick West

This works some of the time, but an indoor rabbit ears also works some of the time for Ch. 13. Bok Antenna service told me all I need is rabbit ears. Not so, too much trouble with temp related multi path.

Dick

Originally Posted by Jeff Whitford

Have you rescanned your channels since the switch? I have also found that many cutomers with Dish Boxs need to go into the menu then install then local channels rescan then press select all.

Originally Posted by brujoh2

Comcast is currently providing Rockford digital TV from PBS stations WHA (Madison) and WTTW (Chicago). However, they are only providing the HD channel from WHA. I have asked Comcast to consider switching to WTTW for PBS HD since, in my option, WTTW has better HD content. I have not yet received a satisfactory reply from Comcast. Does anyone have any thoughts as to why Comcast would not want to make this switch?
Thanks for responding.

Originally Posted by Dick West

Channel 13's move from 54 down to 13 caught me off guard. The DB-4 on a rooftop pole was doing great until then. I live near Elm Ave and Renrose in Loves Park but am now having a lot of trouble getting 13 in the evening, about the time of the Jay Leno show. I guess it is a problem with multi path distortion caused by temperature changes between the ground and overlaying atmosphere. I have a lot of city buildings, houses and trees between me and the antenna on the west side of Rockford.

So, I built a 3 element ch. 13 Yagi and put that on the rooftop pole (26 feet above ground level). This works some of the time, but an indoor rabbit ears also works some of the time for Ch. 13. Bok Antenna service told me all I need is rabbit ears. Not so, too much trouble with temp related multi path.

Today I ordered the Antenna Craft Y5-7-13 Yagi for channels 7-13. What do you think, will this a have enough gain to prevent dropouts on 13? I hope so.

BTW, did you guys lose signal last night (Tues) eve during the intense rain storm? All the local digital channels went into distortion and then 23 went off the air. Ain't DTV grand?

Dick