Boston, MA - OTA - Page 345

The easy answer would be to accelerate the move of World from 44-2 to 2-2 and temporarily place WGBH on 44-2.

- Trip

Well into day 6 now and WGBH 2 is still off air and WGBH hasn't updated anything about the situation on their web site since Monday.

Do they even care at this point? And wouldn't it just be easier to build a new tower? That's only semi-sarcastic. Since the conversion to DTV I have lost count of the number of off-air incidents that have happened with the two local towers. But this one is certainly on record as being the longest.

Why is this equipment so much more prone to failure than the former analog transmission equipment?

The low power WGBH signal is OK here in Southern NH.

I share your frustration with the lack of information. The first thing I did when this occurred was go to the various station web sites, then I came here. If if was not for this forum I doubt I would have ever figured out what was going on.

Rick, with all due respect, did you even read the other pages of this thread before posting? WGBH is NOT off the air, they are at reduced power for the time being. So if you live outside the coverage area , you won't see the signal.

And of course they care. They have been working on the issues with the transmission system since it failed. Why do you people assume that this is being passed off? I strongly suggest you go back and read Mr. Yankowitz's post about it. It will explain a lot to you.

As far as the failure rate, from what I know, this is the only large outage they have had since running at high power. The combined DTV room definitely has more going for it, because of the power level being used. With analog TV, the power levels were in the low 50kW range. With DTV, the power levels are closer to 500kW. With 10x the power level there is a greater risk of RF conditions like a "burn out" or other catastrophic failure, but the risk is small, and what happened with the antenna systems here, is unusual.

If you're seeing a constant "outage" rate, there may be a issue with your reception/receiver. Remember with DTV, there is no "weak fuzzy signal". Due to the Cliff Affect, your signal is there or it isn't. If you happen to be on the edge of the WGBH signal, which is lower than WBZ or WCVB, during normal conditions, you can have environmental conditions cause the signal to drop out,

In case you missed it, WGBH has posted the following update on their website:

Update, April 13, 8:30 p.m.

The over-the-air Channel 2 signal is continuing to experience reduced strength due to the mechanical situation at the Needham Tower. Unfortunately, the damage is significant and will require a multi-step repair process being performed by the tower owner and is out of our control as a tenant.

At this point, the signal is not expected to be restored to full strength through the coming week. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to our viewers and will update this situation as more information becomes available.
I'd like to add my thanks to all the engineers who, I'm sure, are working as hard as they can to get WGBH back to full strength.

I'm just nortwest of Milford NH, and can't get WBGH at present. I feel lucky I can get both WGBX and WENH, so probably won't miss too much!

Paul

Glad they posted the info. How did you ever find it?

Even after you posted the link I tried to looking for the info their site rather then clicking the link and couldn't find it. Looked in news, regional, TV schedule, Reception problem FAQ, etc.

Anyone else not getting 2 4 5 44 today?
I tried at ~ 300PM and they are still off now at ~600PM
maybe they are transferring back to the regular tower?

Ayup.

(Except for WCVB-5, as I'm in the FCC-created Venn diagram-like co-channel overlap where neither station can come in. )

All four of the affected stations (4, 5, 38, and 44) transferred to a temporary, lower power antenna today while climbers worked on the damaged equipment at the top of the tower. (Channel 2 remains at low power operation on a different antenna and did not change operation today). Everything is back to (semi)-normal now.

Work is ongoing, and we will be repeating this again in future days until all repairs are complete. Unfortunately, right now I cannot make any predictions on when that will be, as the full extent of the damage is not yet known.

Please bear in mind the workers are suspended almost 1/4 mile in the air, and while the view is terrific, conditions are not conducive to fast work.

Rob,

Those guys are made of steel. I get nervous going on an 8 ft ladder. I was finally over it 10 yrs ago until the ladder collapsed in the 8ft mode on me last year. I can see where this would take a few weeks, start to finish, weather permitting. Great job.

Dominic

Thank you for the inside update rob,

God bless those men, it must be even worse when its windy and or cold

Tower Guys are some of the most underappreciated workers in the business. The entire wireless industry would not exist without the work of tower riggers. Same with basically all communications syetems. These guys are worth their weight in gold, especially to us broadcasters. I have a very fine appreciation for the work they do.

As of today, WGBH world is now on 2.2.

I have to echo your statement Mike! We used to use our elevator to go up to the 900' point on our tower and often did the bulb replacements up to that point....one engineer in particular was more agile than I was or a couple of us older guys. I remember going up to the 900 foot platform where I stayed and watch one of the professional tower guys climb up to the top, in the dark (just moonlight) to replace the top bulb which had burned out. (We shut the transmitter down while he was up there which was why it was done at night) There was not enough money in the world that would have made me go do that! Those guys have nerves of steel!

I guess it is somehow related and not too off-topic:
I purchased a new HD car radio at the beginning of the antenna issues. I could not receive WGBH radio HD and sub-channels. I tried this AM and it is coming in crystal clear.
Was WGBH HD radio disabled to make way for the changes last week?

Mike C.

That would be a no. WGBH-FM transmits from the top of Blue Hill in Canton. It is not on the tower affected by this work.

WGBH has posted a further update on their website.. it reads:

April 18, 2012

On April 8 there was a major failure in the combined transmission antenna at the Needham tower site that affected WGBH 2, WGBX 44our multicast services World, Create, and Kidsas well as WBZ, WCVB, and WSBK, which all share the transmitter. Crews were immediately dispatched to the tower and they made emergency repairs, which allowed these stations to return to the air, though at a diminished broadcast coverage area for both Channel 44 and Channel 2 and for some cable subscribers.

As of Wednesday, April 18, the upper antenna must be removed due to the extensive damage to the components. The parts needed must be manufactured, installed, and then tested for a complete repair to be accomplished, which may take up to a month.

The repair effort requires careful coordination between all affected stations, the tower owner, and the tower crew. And because the tower is 1,200 feet high, the work is dangerous and complex.

We understand how frustrating it is to be without the WGBH service, but we are doing everything possible to see that repairs are made as quickly as possible, with consideration for the safety of the work crews.

If you are not currently able to receive one or more of the stations, please try rescanning your channels, which may allow you to reacquire the signal if you are within the broadcast range. We'll update our website as soon as more details come in from the tower site.

We sincerely appreciate your patience and support.

Viewers who have any questions or concerns can contact us here.
Looks like it could be upwards of a month before things are back to normal!
The link to this update is on their homepage in the section labeled "Featured"

Paul.

Thanks for the update.

There may be a silver lining for me once the antenna is repaired. 44 has always been spotty and 38 is an almost constant no show. Hopefully the repaired antenna will improve reception in Southern NH. TVfool models signal strength for 38 and 44 higher than other Boston stations we experience much better reception. Perhaps the antenna has been out of spec for a long time.

Much to my surprise low power WGBH has been is pretty stable.

Wow look at some of the vile comments in the comment section. Must be nice to have such a faithful and understanding audience.

Looks like GBH 2 is coming back up to power in that I can now get it. Any confirmation or is it atmospherics? I also notice WGBH world (44.2) is now being mirrored on 2.2.

WOW! I can't believe how brutal the folks have been on the WGBH web site due to the Channel 2 outage. I know that whatever station I was at, we were never totally off the air unintentionally for more than a couple hours. We were a commercial station and got much more favorable comments than WGBH has gotten.

I feel bad for the guys at WGBH!

I think they're mostly upset at the lack of information from WGBH. It took them quite a while to even put anything about the outage on their website.

I agree. The silliest one was the comment by one guy asking why don't they just order an off the shelf part.

I guess the days of reliable terrestrial broadcast infrastructure are history now.

I wouldn't say that at all. As long as there have been has been high level UHF (and heck even with VHF and FM), there have been RF burn-outs. It's a phenomenon of RF, and its happened for as long as such, and will happen too.

If anything, the technology has improved quite tremendously over the years.

Another update from WGBH:

April 25, 2012

Tower work was delayed this week due to rain and windy conditions, but it should continue on Thursday, April 26, with the installation of a second auxiliary antenna to prepare for the removal of the damaged upper antenna.

Weather permitting, we expect that the tower crew will be working daily from 8:00am to 3:00pm, during which time WGBH 2 will need to further reduce its power output to maintain safe RF radiation levels for the crew working close to the transmitting antennas. And periodically WGBH may be switched between auxiliary antennas, requiring a full shutdown of Channel 2 lasting about 20 minutes for each operation. At approximately 3:00pm daily, WGBH 2 will go back to 70% of full power until 8:00am the next morning. This schedule may continue until the upper antenna is removed from the tower during the week of April 30.

The WGBX 44 signal should not be affected during the auxiliary antenna installation.

We're grateful for your continued patience as we work towards a permanent fix. And please check back for further updates.

Heck, I can remember back in the good old AM days when I was at WICE-AM in Providence on AM 1290 kHz., (Late 1960's) we had one at the base of one of our sticks! (Towers) And we were only at 5,000 watts and much lower in frequency than our UHF TV is now.

I'm late to the topic about the antenna outage.
I just wanted to say I think it would be SCARY climbing to the top of a 1200 foot tower.
Step one is probably: Don't look down.

There are even SCARIER towers to climb; this one in North Dakota comes to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVLY-TV_mast

About half-way down on this link, you see the TOP section of the WBZ tower with ladder rails just sticking out from the side for the last 50-100 feet.
http://www.necrat.us/bztower.html

If I tried to climb that, I'd get about 1/4 of the way up and then I'd panic and FREEZE, holding onto the rail I was on for dear life.
They'd have to send a HELICOPTER up to pry me off the antenna so they could start broadcasting again.

Anyone else not getting channels 4, 38, 44, and 56 today? Rescanned, but didn't acquire them. I started receiving channel 4 (WBZ) just a few minutes ago. After last month's antenna failure, I no longer presume the fault lies on my end when stations go missing. This will be a lengthy repair process. Wish one of the affected stations would publish a projected timeline or progress reports.