Hartford, CT - OTA - Page 221

Wow, you're pretty lucky. I had no luck getting anything my rabbit ear contraption. The only place in town that would have a shot at getting NYC channels would be right by Hammonasset, or a ways out on Neck Road, as it would be mostly over water or low coastal areas to NYC, but even then, probably not, and if you were able to pick something up, you'd need one heck of an antenna.

You *might* be able to get something from Providence if you have a really good antenna, but again, probably not.

There are 1 or 2 stations out on Long Island that are within fairly close range.

It's surprising that WTNH is the one you can't get, they have a strong VHF signal that really travels. Back before the cutoff, I could get the analog channel 8 with a coat hanger... totally pointless but kinda fun!

Oh yeah, and they should stop wasting bandwidth with this subchannel junk! It would be nice to have the entire 6mhz for HD! WVIT is down to about 12mbps, from the full-channel 19, not sure about the others. The additional compression makes OTA sort of pointless, since you're going to get just as good of a picture on cable/satellite.

Hi Chip. Yep, I still miss that antenna. Hopefully you're getting some good usage from it.......

A couple of years ago, I had a roof mounted 4228 with the 7777 in Westerly, RI. That's another story for another day. Here in Grand Rapids, MI our transmitters are in 3 diff directions. I use a roof mounted with rotor. Point is they make a Grand Rapids antenna. Three antennas mounted on 1 pole in the 3 diff directions. I am sure it can be done for Hartford and NYC. There should be someone on the list here who would know how far apart to keep the antennas and how to wire properly.

FYI,

By yesturday afternoon, Tuesday May 11, 2010, WEDW 49 Bridgeport (Trumbull) digital had increased ERP from 91 kW to 170 kW.

How long has this been the case? Just recently got a surround system and noticed it - also while watching Lost. Seems inconceivable that a network affiliate would be broadcasting stereo audio with an HD feed. Anybody know why, or if they plan to, you know, get with it?

WTNH is owned by LIN, a notoriously cheap company. I wouldn't expect anything to change anytime soon. Why not email them and ask what their plans are?

Well, I did ask. The reply:

"Yes, that is correct. We only transmit our audio in stereo. We are in
the process of upgrading equipment and I believe the audio issue will be
addressed in this upgrade."

So... it's anybody's guess. Meh.

I am having a hard time getting WABC 7 in Seymour. I get my VHF off of a combo antenna (cm3018).
I have made the decision to try an antenncraft Y10-7-13.
I want to try buying this locally.
Does anyone remember the name of the TV equipment supplier in the Hartford area?
I know there was someone selling antennas in West or East Hartford.
Right now, my option is to drive to Stark in Worcester, but that is a haul from Southern CT.

I think you are thinking of Signal Electronics in West Hartford. They used to be on New Park Ave. I don't know where they are now.

You might be thinking of Hatry Electronics. They were located on Ledyard St. in Hartford. Unfortunately, Signal Electronics is also closed now. There's Cumberland Electronics in West Hartford, but they seem to be more into parts.
There's Cables and Connectors on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington, but it doesn't look like they have much for outdoor antennas (antennae?).

Al Bundy used to just have his kids hang on to the antenna and get in to their Fox viewing position.

LOL. Unfortunately Al's kids can help me. FOX is coming in great. :-)
I was thinking of Signal Electronics. I knew it was like Solid Signal.
Too bad they are gone. I guess Stark Electronics in Worcester is our local shop. Two hours away from my house. I'll get a shipping quote from them too. Thank you all who replied for jogging my memory.

I'm at an elevation of 500 feet in northern NJ and can receive off air ABC from New Haven, Philadelphia and NYC. The picture quality on WTNH for the NBA Finals was awful. It looked like a bad upconversion. You could also easily see the softness in the graphics. Philadelphia and NYC have 2 subchannels that take away much of their bandwidth yet pictures were much sharper than New Haven. I kept switching back and forth and was amazed at the difference.

I don't know what the problem with WTNH is but if I lived in Conn. with New Haven as my only source for ABC I would be very upset. It was NBA finals in SD not HD. I would also think the network should be concerned that a important event was so poorly broadcasted in a major market.

new to this forum.

Finally got sick of my $130 per month comcast and canceled.

I bought a $22 outdoor antenna at monoprice that had excellent reviews.

A long time ago i tested ota reception with some rabbit ears on my new samsung hdtv. i was frustrated I couldnt get ABC from new haven. When i installed this monoprice antenna i was curious to see what i got. I'm in W. htfd

I've been able to tune in 3.1 to 3.4, 18.1-18.4, 20.1, 20.2, 24.1, 24.2, 30.1, 30.2, 38, 48, 50, 61.1.

I was upset i didn't get abc. I decided to put antenna on back of house and point it southeast. I was hoping to get new haven abc. instead i got:

40.1(ABC), 40.2 (FOX) from springfield

One thing that was cool was getting ch. 48. It's still analog, but it's called RTV (retro television). I almost fell out of my chair when the Rockford Files came on. I love that show.

Are you getting WCTX-DT (MY) channel 39 ("59-1") at all?

I don't get channel 39 or 59-1 at all

WTNH really needs a repeater in Hartford. Their signal has become terrible in this area since the transition. WCTX too.

Either that or work on the picture quality of their HD, which looks like crap.

I contacted ch. 8 like 2 years ago about this. Their answer was for me to buy a better antenna. They are not going to spend money so the antenna crowd can get them. It is too small a crowd to justify it. Their answer is to buy comcast basic service, but i'm not even interested in that.

Apple is supposedly going to come out with a new version of their appletv. I would rather spend money on that and watch internet content

It can't be their Madmere Mountain location in Hamden, because I nearly always got WCTX-DT (MY) channel 39 ("59-1") just fine, back when I had my converter box hooked to my TV.

That's would be a good conspiracy theory if it was true, but it's not.
WTNH is on a VHF-Hi Band channel, and they are transmitting at the maximum allowed for their allocation.
(20kW @ ~ 350 meters, if my memory serves me.).
(And thanks to being wedged in between New York, and Boston, they don't have any room to move to, without losing coverage area).

There is a two fold problem with VHF DTV signals (outside of the obvious flaws of 8VSB). One, they are much more prone to multi-path problems., and two many of the set top antenna manufacturers made antennas with great UHF sections but really lousy VHF ones. As an engineer for another station, who has a high band assignment (actually two), I can tell you, 75% of the calls we got were from people with poor receiving equipment. (Bad antennas, poorly designed antennas, poor nosiy pre-amps, etc.). It's amazing what happens when people call after they get a better antenna system, how much better the reception is. There aren't any issues with WTNH's transmitting antenna system. I could pick them up in Springfield with a simple, and small, VHF Yagi (without amplification) when I lived there. Without knowing any details of your setup and or location (antenna type, set model), its tough to tell if youre just in a bad spot for the reception of WTNH or if in fact you do have antenna issues.

here is a youtube video of the antenna i bought

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNjFv...layer_embedded

The antenna is probably too small to work well on channel 10 and most of the better UHF antennas look like antennas. The frequency coverage mentioned in the video was probably developed by the marketing department, since it included the lower VHF channels as well as high. Something like this http://www.buy.com/prod/winegard-hd7...208503805.html or this http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...LAID=378670231 is more likely to work well on channel 10 and UHF channels as well. If you post TVFool results we can get a better idea of what you need.
John

After connecting my antenna, i discovered an analog channel 48 called retro tv. Someone had told me i was lucky to get it at all, since it is low powered. How does a station likes this make money? What is the point of it, if it is so low powered, analog, and only available to OTA viewers? It would seem to me the amount of people actually watching are few and far between.

It really is amazing how poor the WTNH product is, currently. Their laughable widescreen response to both WVIT and WTIC going HD for news is a joke. No DD on anything for months. Sad. Thank goodness I can flip to bit-starved WABC, it actually looks better!

I've wondered about this too, especially considering the monthly electric bill to transmit the signal. Some people operate low power stations as a hobby, out of a genuine interest in broadcasting. In a barter arrangement between a network and a station, no money changes hands. The station airs all the network's commercials and infomercials in exchange for the network providing the entertainment programming. Maybe something like this exists between RTV and WRNT/48.

Originally most of Connecticut's low power stations were geared to the Greek, Italian, and Portuguese communities, showing soccer matches and cultural programming that was a connection to the native homeland. Maybe to gain a broader reach, WRNT picked up the Retro TV Network. In other markets, Retro TV is on a subchannel of a full power station, and/or on cable.

Article about Retro TV here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_TV_Network

It is broadcasting from the WCCC Radio tower on Albany Avenue in West Hartford.

The Retro program schedule for Hartford:
http://www.myretrotv.com/prog_schedu...V-National.pdf

All the shows on the network:
http://www.myretrotv.com/shows.html

Retro TV homepage:
http://www.myretrotv.com/

WRNT has a deadline of April 18th of next year to turn off analog channel 48 and immediately turn on digital channel 48. This is called a "flash cut". But it may not happen then. Their sister station in Springfield had a deadline of this past May 14th to flash cut, but the FCC is now giving them until May 27, 2013. Both of these stations are owned by a husband and wife, with headquarters in Wethersfield, CT.

From reading in this thread and by word of mouth, WTNH's signal strength exhibits problems starting in West Hartford and its cut-off is about in Manchester/Vernon. Up here in the northeast corner, Ch. 8 was always one of the stronger signals at a campground where I did a few installs. It's in a nice, high spot and has a clear LOS... BUT now there's nothing for WTNH. This is using the gamut for equipment, from re-using older antenna setups, to a new DB-8 with a CM7777.

Adding a repeater in the Hartford environs would help dramatically. But, bear in mind that last I read, repeater towers can only broadcast in 480, so it wouldn't be HD. Repeater towers cost quite a bit, so I wouldn't be surprised with that kind of response. East of the River is probably a satisfactory red-line for them. Heaven knows it's an acceptable red-line for CT state gov't (well, besides the U).

Repeaters - or more accurately, translators and low power stations, broadcast in the same ATSC digital format as regular high power DTV stations do. The only thing different is they are lower power. There are a number of low power stations still on the air transmitting in the old NTSC analog format - which would be the equiv of 480i resolution. Maybe that is what you are referencing?



The cost in any transmission facility is quite expensive - both the initial capital as well as on-going expenses, including the power bill, site lease, etc. Further - there are a limited number of frequencies available for additional stations, translators - they are assigned based on not causing any interference to other existing users of a channel or nearby channels.

WTNH is pretty mushy on cable, too, so it's not just their OTA signal. Easily the worst PQ of the networks available on Charter's system. For the record, Charter's picture is generally pretty good, and living in VA for a few years I know that the mushymushy HD isn't ABC's fault, as WJLA in Arlington looked terrific. Between the picture quality and the lack of DD audio (really, people?) WTNH is doing fairly lousy work.