Albany, NY - HDTV - Page 156

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you'll still find away to provide updates on the various Antenna and Translator projects you have going. I'm waiting anxiously for the WCWN-43 antenna upgrade. I'm also interested to see if I can pick up the Kingston translator for WRGB down here to Poughkeepsie.

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In December we asked the FCC to change the antenna in Kingston from Horizontal polarization to Circular polarization. Today the FCC granted that request.

The equipment was ordered in December. The installation date depends on manufacturing cycles and the weather.

A 10 KW backup transmitter for WCWN has arrived from a sister station in Tennessee. It will be used into the main omnidirectional antenna while the channel 43 mask filter is moved from the existing 20 KW WCWN DTV transmitter to the old 30 KW WRGB channel 39 transmitter. That work is scheduled for April.

reporting back; well I got the winegard HD30 and its worse than the silver sensor

about 20% less signal on UHF, only gets ABC and PBS [the same], and no VHF reception at all.

bizarrely, the silver sensor has occasionally been picking up [but not really holding] WRNN 48, even though its 180 in the other direction.

I'll prob stick with the ss, as the Roku is filling the gap for the moment.

thanks all, for the help

this was for 12572.

I would think you should pick up WRNN on a paper clip from your location....as I recall, I think it's putting out, like, 1000 kw of power!!!....

Using my Tivo's channel line up, I get WNYT showing on frequency 12 and 18.
Using the frequency 12, I get drop outs every couple minutes but I get complete guide data. Using frequency 18, I get "to be announced" for guide data, (no matter how many times I link to the tivo service to update) but NO drop outs.

Any way I can get guide data for the more reliable frequency 18? Why is this channel broadcast on two different frequencies? (I have an outdoor antenna RCA ANT 751, I believe, and get 65% to 85% signal strength on all the Albany stations, 6, 10, 23, 45, 51. Antenna is on tripod on ground will not be mounted on roof until spring.)

Any thoughts/help would be appreciated! (I did a search but did not see similar or relevant info on this topic.)

Judy

Judy Y:
WNYT's main transmission is on channel 12 from the Community Tower in the Helderbergs, where most of the major locals are. Channel 18 is a repeater at their old location on Bald Mountain, a.k.a. Mount Rafinesque.

I too get dropouts from ch. 12, about every 16 seconds reliably, but only on one kind of tuner (SiliconDust HDHomeRun). I don't get dropouts with other tuners using the same antenna system, nor does the HDHomeRun have a problem with ch. 18 when I point an antenna in that direction. I haven't figured out what causes it.

I've never used a TiVo so I can't help you there. Most of the systems I have used allow me to tell them that I get station x on channel y. Maybe the TiVo has a way to do that.

I'm surprised that you can get ch. 6 with the RCA ANT751; it looks like it's intended for UHF and maybe some high VHF, but if it works, it works.

Here are a few links I've found useful for finding out about local broadcast stations:

AntennaWeb lets you zero in on your location on a street map and shows directions to the stations relative to your streets, which simplifies antenna aiming. But it's conservative in what it thinks you can get and may not list all the stations in the area.

TV Fool doesn't give you the handy street map, but Zip+4 should be accurate enough. It takes terrain into account (but not buildings and trees) and I trust its results more than AntennaWeb's. It also offers a download of a Google Earth overlay showing where all of the US TV transmitters are.

RabbitEars has a ton of technical information about US and Canadian broadcast stations. Although I gave the main page here, I find the site map easier to navigate.

The SiliconDust Lineup Server will show you what others in your postcode are able to receive with the company's HDHomeRun tuner, from both antenna and cable (and FIOS where available).

Antenna basics and Comparing some commercially available antennas from HDTVPrimer give good tips on what kinds of antennas have the best chance of working under various conditions.

Thanks for the info, very helpful. I was concerned about the vhf on the 751 when I got it but really couldn't seem to find anything else close for what I needed. But I have had no issues with it.

I am going to study the tivo manual and see if there is any way to swap guide data. Meanwhile, there is not ALOT of NBC programming that I record so will look at the guide data for 12 and then set up manual recordings on channel 18.

Thanks!

The receiver is seeing not handling a intermittent interference issue, as well as the others. The others seem to be rejecting it better.

Strangely enough, the last couple of programs I recorded from 12 were PERFECT from start to finish..... go figure....


Judy

The WCWN antenna project now has a firm schedule.

Step 1;

The replacement of the multichannel combiner begins Monday, March 28th. A special combiner bypass for WTEN will be installed. WTEN will be off the air overnight as the process begins.

Step 2;

The special bypass for WTEN will be removed. WCWN begins omnidirectional operation at reduced power using an 11 KW solid state transmitter. (220 KW ERP) That is scheduled for Thursday, March 31.

Step 3;

The high power mask filter will be moved from the 20 KW Thales transmitter to the 30 KW Harris transmitter. The 30 KW transmitter will be on air as soon as it is ready. That should happen the first week of April.

The Thales transmitter uses an IOT tube, the Harris uses an MSDC. The tube technologies are covered here:
h.t.t.p://broadcastengineering.com/mag/broadcasting_dualmode_msdc_iots/

Step 4;

Equipment for Kingston is scheduled to be shipped the last week in March. The Kingston schedule is the second/third week of April. Pittsfield is after that.

>>> Monday, March 28th. A special combiner bypass for WTEN will be installed. WTEN will be off the air overnight as the process begins. The special bypass for WTEN will be removed. WCWN begins omnidirectional operation at reduced power using an 11 KW solid state transmitter<<<<br />
there goes more channels down the drain - you guys keep messing up a good thing...
i hope this won't be another "downgrade" like when you guys changed from 39 to 6!
at least after a few months you were nice enough to put 6 on 45-3 but i still can't see 6-2 (this tv) anymore, despite me moving my cut to channel 6 yagi to 40 feet as you said was the optimum height.
now you are going to mess around with 10 and 45!!!!!
i hope you know what you are doing!!!! i dont want to lose those channels too!!!!!
you also took that weather radar from 6-3, i miss that...
i think you should use that channel 39 transmitter for channel 6-1,2,& 3 again and leave 45 & 10 alone (since they are working nice right now)!!!!

Fred, thanks for keeping us updated. Now if I could ask you to put this in layman's terms. Will these changes make WTEN easier to receive or harder?

I've noticed a signifigant drop in my WTEN signal starting mid February. Even WMHT dropped from my strongest station to poor starting in December. Not sure if one has anything to do with the other.

Thanks again.

WTEN reception will not be changed in any way. The bypass allows WTEN to run at full power into the main antenna while the combiner is replaced. The old combiner was capable of channels 26/34/39, the new one does 26/34/43.

Your reduction in signal strength of WTEN and WMHT simultaneously indicates extra loss in your antenna system. Possible causes could be, antenna blown off aim by the wind, missing elements on the antenna, water in the coax, bad splitter, and/or poor F connector performance.

Thanks for the update Chief Fred. Here's hoping the upgrade helps us in the Berkshires get WCWN. Apologies to Ken Ny if he loses from the upgrade, but we can't get much more than a whiff of 45 once in a while right now.

The NCAA Basketball tourney will include games on the TruTV channel. Albany TWC does not carry this channel in HD, even though Time Warner owns Turner, who owns TruTV.

Local NCAA fans should note that of the 8 locations for the first weekend's games, 4 will be televised by TruTV. This includes Cleveland, which is where the Syracuse Orange are playing.

DISH Network carries TruTV HD on channel 204. Top 200 Plus HD package required. DirecTv does not carry TruTv in HD, but apparently will carry the games in HD on 246-1.

Looks like dry weather for next week. Let's hope all systems are still go for this.

The road is dry and frozen. All the work is indoors.

Step 1 is complete. One small issue, a WR-1500 waveguide to 6 1/8" coax transition tuned to channel 39 didn't work right on channel 26. We swapped in a transition tuned to channel 26 and all is well. See page 142. http://www.spxcomtech.com/SPX/en/assets/pdf/misc.pdf

Thanks for the update.

I saw this on the news.
They said Scotia would be one of the roll out villages.
Anyone know if that is just the village proper or if the lines will extend out the main roads?
I live 3 miles off the Ave.
When will the whole FiOS package be available?
Thanks.

Step 2 is half complete. The new combiner is installed and tested. The WTEN bypass has been removed. WTEN and WMHT are back on the main antenna.

The WCWN backup transmitter is working fine at 10.6 KW. It is scheduled to go on the air into the OMNI antenna later today. When that occurs, the ERP for WCWN will be 215 KW. Once the full power transmitter has been converted the ERP will be 600 KW, roughly the same as WTEN.

Thanks for the updates Fred. Have you moved to the backup transmitter yet? Real interested in how this works out way up here in Sudbury, Vt

With my antenna pointed toward albany, wten, whmt are showing 10 points less signal strenth. No sign of wcwn when pointed toward albany. Interestingly, all three are showing when I point my antenna toward new haven, which is where I used to pick up wcwn on a ricochet.

Btw, thanks to wgrb for making hd versions of syndicated shows available. Wrgb,wcwn, and wnyt are the only ones who do.

WCWN began omnidirectional operation using reduced power at 3:30 PM yesterday, March 31.

The mask filter was removed form the old transmitter by 5:30. Today it gets installed on the high efficiency transmitter. That transmitter is tripping off, so there's a bit extra work to be done.

I checked WCWN this morning at 0500 and it was on solid with 2 out of 10 bars signal strength. This during a fairly moderate snowfall, which normally wreaks havoc with my UHF reception. Yesterday Icouldn't even get a whiff of the signal. I did not have time to check channel 10, but I think this is a good sign of what is coming when they're done.

BTW thanks Chief Fred for the blow by blow updates. They are appreciated.

Still no 45 (43) here. 10 & 17 are back to near normal. 40 from springfield was strong this morning, which is normal when a storm is coming in from the south.

45 back to mostly broken here now.