Hartford, CT - OTA - Page 208

I tried a few things to get WGBY back. Since the channel change they are gone. I shortened my antenna cable to 40'. If I peak on CH 40 (same TX site) I get a meter reading of 92%. Zero from WGBY. A slight move of the antenna to the West produces a reading of 30 to 52 % but it's not stable. Probably a reflection. I'll keep fooling around, but I think I took a good loss of WGBY signal since the move to CH 22 at my location.

John, do you really think that WEDW will effect WLNE in Mystic? WLNE is 6+ dB more and 100+ degrees on the back side. It's so low power the electrons will drown coming across the river.

I guess most of the time WLNE will be OK. How does the coverage compare with the old analog channel 49 xmitter. The path to here was better than the one to the lower site for channel 24. Pre digital I occasionally would watch channel 49 if 53 was off air. So with a little coastal tropo it could take out WLNE.
John

I could see hints of WEDW last summer. However, that was with a 2nd antenna pointed towards NYC.

In my case, WLNE is impossibly weak and I have yet to receive a hint of it, so I'm not very concerned about it, even if the rare tropo event makes the situation worse.

the electrons

Attached is (are) a few of the electrons that could tread water.
John

I was flipping through the channels today and caught a text screen that ran before an ad of "Deal or No Deal" on NBC30. Out of idle curiosity, I'm trying to figure out what the various pieces mean and I thought some of you folks might be able to lend a hand. The screen said:

HDL5325
WHR10538
DEAL FRI TDY 430
:15
Kill: 5/15/09

I have no idea what the first two lines are.

The third line sounds like "Deal or No Deal", "Friday", "Today" 4:30pm. Deal, Friday, and 430 line up accordingly on the schedule, and I'm assuming TDY means that ad is to be run the same day the show is to air.

The :15 could mean it is a 15 second spot, which it was.

The "Kill" line could mean to not air that ad past that date anymore, since the show would have already aired.

Anyhow - it was a bit interesting to get a peek behind the curtain.

Wow! I'm impressed. I should have brought a hammer with me when I was at WEDW last week and beat on the antenna; maybe fine tune it a bit for you. Says a lot for the old RCA antenna.

What's WLNE look like when you swing the antenna around the other way?

Here is what I get on 49 pointed at WEDW and then at WLNE. The spectrums are inverted. The level is not much different from when I took the TV picture on the other post. I was not getting a picture today and but when I did get it would fade out from time to time. If I believe the attunators on my Tek 451, the levels are about 16dB different.
John

John

I'm assuming the photo with the lower level is WEDW. What were your settings for span (5 MHz/Div?) and amplitude (5dB/Div?). The 451 doesn't do averaging so you can't measure SNR; you would have to estimate the SNR. Looks like <10dB for WEDW at the time you did the measurement which would explain the lack of a picture. Does your receiver show SNR in manual tune?

Speaking of TSReader, tune in WEDH and WEDN and see what the Mux Bitrate reads over a period of a couple minutes and let me know.

You keep giving me things to do. At least WEDH and WEDN are easy to receive. I will try using the ON Air GT next time I aim at WEDW and look at SNR. Tektronix claimed that the display level is about 8 dB per grad when it was made, but that was years ago. The 451 won't do ensemble averaging but does have a low pass video filter to smooth out the display. The noise floor on it is higher than the one seen by the TV because the front end has no bandpass filter, so the SA passes the image frequency and another band that is simultaneously processed because of harmonics in the LO.
John

I just sent you a PM.

Channel 30 will give a preview of its new HD facility during tonight's (Tuesday) 11PM news.

WVIT also has recently started running promos with graphics announcing "Coming Soon ... State Of The Art ... Built For You ... The Most Advanced Television Station In Connecticut ... The Only Connecticut News In HD ... NBC 30 Connecticut HD".

The move to the new building (and local hi-def broadcasting) is scheduled for June. Maybe tonight they will give the exact date.

Thanks for the update! I mean the following as a joke, but will any pieces of the existing 1950s studio be auctioned off for charity or anything silly like that? Ha!

Some on-line articles mentioned that the existing studio's exterior bricks have value because they are considered "antique", and they will be sold once the building is torn down to make way for a parking lot for the new building. A great photo of the outside of Channel 30's current home, taken before I-84 was built, was put on a postcard and is the third picture down on the webpage http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/Misc_Photos.html
The caption reads that the photo is from the early 1960s. With all the bunting on the building, possibly it was the occasion of Channel 30's tenth anniversary in 1963. I wonder if the actual TV studios are in the front part of the building or in the long extension in the rear. The Hartford Radio History website has many historic photos and articles about Connecticut's radio and television stations, and welcomes information and photographs.

The segment that ran last night during WVIT's news did not indicate the exact date of the move. But judging from the shot of the new and far-from-finished newsroom area, it looks like it might be more towards the end of June rather than earlier. The anchor desk can be moved around a large area to different sets, depending on the program being done. The director of technology spoke of 30's upcoming change from 4:3 to 16:9 widescreen camera shots. The news anchors told how the station waited until the last minute to order the equipment so that it would be state-of-the-art.

The new building is just ten feet behind the present one. A few weeks ago I looked at the station from the bird's-eye view on Google Earth, but apparently those satellite photos aren't very recent. Google Earth showed the current station building with its worn black flat roof, but the photo showed no sign of the new building. In the picture, the sloping area behind the present studio was still in the process of being leveled with fill.

One quick note, speaking of WVIT: During the evening news, Gerry Brooks mentioned another DTV test coming on Thursday, May 21st, for the remaining analog broadcasters in Connecticut. The 5-minute tests will take place at 7:25 AM, 12:25 PM and 6:25 PM.

As for the Hartford Radio History site, I check that site a couple of times a day. It is wonderful and have it on my list of favorites. The post card you mentioned may very well have been from the 10-year mark of channel 30. After checking, the last section of I-84 in Connecticut to be finished and opened was between Plainville and Farmington in the late 1960s.

John Ramsey does a great job with the Hartford radio history website. It's a fairly new site and it is already quite comprehensive. And it's pretty up to date. He already has the ownership and call letter change of Radio 104 back to WMRQ.

Hey CPTV guys - mind updating the tribune guide data (assumed) for WEDW? Still only showing 49.1 at zap2it. Causing issues for those of us reliant on DirecTV's crappy non-scanning / non-psip OTA tuners.

CPTV regularly updates and corrects information provided to the listing services. Most, including Tribune, also call with follow up emails, quite regularly. Experience indicates most appear to publish paper and or electronically the corrections at a snail pace.

During the recent past several months, during the Macrovision / GemStar / TVGuide scenario, where CPTV now provides again both the digital OTA and Cable TV listing services for the Hartford / New Haven DMA zip codes, it has been a snail pace to convince all of them that there is no "Digital 32.5/Virtual 24.5" channel", and to please correct all information ASAP...

Currently DTV is actual RF channel.
DT is PSIP virtual channel.
Service -1 is CPTV HD.
Service -2 is Create.
Service -3 & -4 dark. Future TBD.

Hartford DTV 45
WEDH DT 24-1
WEDH DT 24-2

Norwich DTV 9
WEDN DT 53-1
WEDN DT 53-2

Bridgeport DTV 49 The only CPTV channel that is "on-channel".
WEDW DT 49-1
WEDW DT 49-2

Hopefully on June 13, 2009 (FCC TBD)
New Haven DTV 6
WEDY 65-1
WEDY 65-2

Thanks - had a feeling you guys were on the ball - these D* non-scanning tuners REALLY stink.

Is there a reasonable / good / great chance of this? I'd be happy, if so (as WEDW actually is just waaaay too strong for me...)

TVNewsday.com is reporting that WSAH, the TV station that was licensed to Bridgeport but is now considered a New York City station, will no longer be a home shopping channel as of July 1st. Its main channel will become a 24/7 affiliate of the Retro TV Network, which currently shows mostly Universal Studios TV series from the 1960s-1980s. The programs include Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dragnet, Quincy, Emergency, Adam-12, Laredo, and Leave It To Beaver.

While WSAH is presently available over-the-air on digital channel 42 to southwestern Connecticut viewers, it was reported quite awhile ago on "Northeast Radio Watch" that WTNH, Channel 8 of New Haven had reserved one of their digital subchannels for WSAH to lease. The agreement would take place if the FCC allowed WSAH to move its broadcast antenna from Connecticut to the top of the Empire State Building. So the possibility exists that eventually Retro TV might be on a sub-channel of WTNH, assuming that it doesn't conflict with Retro's affiliation with Hartford's low-power station, WRNT.

Wait...WSAH-DT 43-1 would also be WTNH-DT 8-2? Is that what you're saying?

OK...with a week to go, how is your reception in Hartford/New Haven? I'm in the south end of New Britain. I don't receive a thing from Springfield/Holyoke whatsoever, although that might change soon. Does one station give you more problems than any other? Me? Avon Mountain has always been troublesome. WFSB-DT (CBS) is nearly always there and them having a 1 million watt signal helps. WUVN-DT (UNI), also from Avon Mountain, is usually good but cuts out once in a rare while. I have no problems with any of the Rattlesnake Mountain broadcasters (WTXX, WEDH, WVIT and WTIC). WTNH-DT (ABC) is usually good but has these dips in their signal at times. However, WCTX-DT (MY) is from the same site as WTNH and they're a solid 75 to 80%. Lastly, WHPX-DT (ION) from New London is decent. If I move my RCA Batwing indoor antenna a hair, I would also get WPXQ-DT (ION) from Block Island/Providence.

OK...that's how I'm doing. How about you guys?

Yes, it's a possibility. The whole idea of WSAH renting one of WTNH's subchannels was so that Channel 43 could continue to have approximately the same footprint in Connecticut even after it is allowed to move its antenna to New York City.

I looked at the service contour maps for WSAH-DT on the FCC website. The coverage map for their signal if broadcasted from the Empire State Building shows that it would only reach into Connecticut as far east as Danbury and Bridgeport. The signal would basically only cover the "tail" of the state. The other coverage map with WSAH broadcasting from the current tower (owned by Comcast) in Seymour, CT shows that WSAH's signal extends as far north as Southwick, Mass., and covers most of western Connecticut.

By leasing one of Channel 8's subchannels, WSAH's current coverage could be maintained because WTNH also covers the same area (plus a little more). While it does seem unusual to have the same programming service on the two partially overlapping stations, WSAH is technically in DMA #1 (New York City), and WTNH is in DMA #30 (Hartford/New Haven). Time will tell if the Retro TV Network does show up on WTNH-SD.


Despite five different antennas and three different receivers since February of 2002, there always seems to be the same list of stations that have given me reception problems. I have always had trouble with WTXX. I have tried to watch the This Network on 20-2 and have gotten one hour and forty-five minutes into a movie without a problem, and then the picture will break up into long horizontal bars. The bars on the top and bottom of the screen will be from a scene that has transpired a minute previously, and the center of the screen will have frozen bars from a more recent point in the program. The audio will become a constant stream of hiccups, making the dialogue completely unintelligible. Hopefully the situation will improve when 20 moves to its higher antenna on the Chase tower and its antenna pattern becomes more omnidirectional. I don't expect to ever receive WCTX or the Ion affiliate from New London. WGGB from Springfield is currently too weak to come in, but that may change when it moves to a higher antenna and leaves digital channel 55 for channel 40.

Thank you Mister Hartford/New Britain! (LOL) Anybody else here with their current reception issues?

Also, with WTXX moving to RF channel 20, things might improve. I don't know about others on this list, but I have had more problems with the VHF channels (WTNH on 10 and WTXX on 12) than with the UHF ones. Hopefully WTXX will clear up when they are on RF 20 after June 12th.

From my location, I have had difficulty with the Springfield stations (although 40 was screaming in here a few weeks ago, but there was a line of thunderstorms in the area, so that might have been attributed to favorable conditions) and with WUVN (though I have no real use for that channel). Most of the Hartford stations come in reliably though, for the most part.

Since WGBY 57 went to CH 22 I have lost them, location Wethersfield. I have been in contact with them and they are looking into possible problems with their new antenna for CH 22. Hope they return. CH 40 from same location still strong.

At least you're getting something from Springfield/Holyoke. On occasion, the signal meter on my Insignia converter box will move a bit, but it's never enough to get a picture to pop on.

I am in New Haven (East Rock) with a rooftop antenna and am currently pulling in all major networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, CW and MYTV) with the exception of CPTV- I had received 24.1 for quite some time and 49.1 periodically and then I started receiving both plus .2 x2 (Create). Now nothing.

Is EDY coming online? If so, might this cause me more harm than good? My antenna is stationary and I may be having issues with my preamp but why am I picking up all these other stations crystal? Where is my CPTV?

Any idea how far out the old analog channel 65 signal got? Here in New Britain, even on evenings with UHF coming in from Boston, Long Island or Philadelphia, I never received a trace of WEDY-TV.