Duluth, MN - HDTV - Page 7

I know this may be more of a hardware question but it's also region specific (and I just stumbled onto this thread so I'm giving it a shot lol).

I'm up in Grand Rapids - actually ~7 miles south - and am attempting to get OTA channels for the first time in an attempt to get Sunday football games in HD . I've got a D* HR20 which is their HD receiver with an OTA tuner builtin and did some searching. Both antennaweb and TV Fool say channel 29 (which antennaweb lists as a Fox channel - not sure if they'd carry the Vikings game or not and if so whether it'd be in HD?) has the best chance of coming in as there's a tower only 16 miles from me.

So this weekend I started messing around building one of the antennas I read about in this thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=798265, specifically the 9 x 8.5" whiskers one from this link: http://m4antenna.eastmasonvilleweath...0Drawings.html. I hooked it up yesterday evening and ran through the HR20's setup but found that it doesn't even attempt to get channel 29 when I put in zip code 55744. I tried again and entered 55805 (Duluth) as a secondary market which gave me lots of other channels in the list - none of which come in as the antenna's still just propped up outside my house - but still no channel 29! One more time I put in a twin cities zip code and still didn't get 29 on the list?

I was able to get 4 substations of PBS on channel 31 though - a couple even in HD - which was a surprise since like I said the antenna is just propped on the side of the house (oh and I haven't built a reflector for it yet either) but I'm bummed that it's not trying for channel 29.

Any ideas? Am I missing something silly here?

Channel 29 is a translator of KQDS, so it is a Fox station, and it does serve Grand Rapids (the transmitter is actually near Taconite), but it's still in analog, meaning there's no HD picture. This likely won't change anytime soon, as KQDS is not required to convert the station to digital until the end of 2015, and, even then, the requirement is just that the station be in digital, which doesn't necessarily mean HD.

If you live on relatively higher elevation south of Grand Rapids, you may have a shot of getting KQDS's signal from Duluth in HD with a good rooftop antenna mounted 30 feet or more above ground. That's really your only hope of getting Fox in HD with any sort of antenna, and you would still need to have quite a lot of luck for it to work.

Thanks for the information! So even if I could get it to come in it wouldn't be HD... I was afraid of that but was hopeful I'll have to play around and see if I have any luck getting Duluth stations with the reflector added and mounted on the roof (which will be ~30 ft up but)

Metv replacing RTV on WDIO/WIRT
http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/...html?cat=10335

DULUTH, Minn. – November 7, 2011 – Me-TV (Memorable Entertainment Television), the new digital classic television network from Weigel Broadcasting Co. and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) is coming to the Northland, launching November 28 on Channels 10.2 in Duluth and 13.2 in Hibbing. Me-TV has now surpassed the 60% national clearance mark.

Better late than never (courtesy of northpine)

After a two-and-a-half year wait, the FCC has granted WDSE/8 (Duluth) a UHF translator on channel 38. WDSE requested the UHF translator a month after the digital transition in 2009, saying some viewers using indoor antennas reported reception problems after WDSE moved digital broadcasts from UHF to VHF. The new translator will use 15kW and operate on the same UHF channel WDSE had occupied during the DTV transition.

Probably had to wait for Canadian approval.

- Trip

I dont understand why?
38 is what they used pre-conversion and this is just a fill in 15kw translator. Canada is a good 150 miles up the highway

Why? Because the 19 dBu F(50,10) interference contour crosses into Canada.

http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.p...3&site=1&int=Y

Note the green line.

The treaty with Canada gives them the right to approve or disapprove any station whose 19 dBu F(50,10) interference contour crosses over Canadian territory.

- Trip

Duluth locals launched on Directv today

KDLH CBS 3
KBJR NBC 6
WDSE PBS 8
WDIO ABC 10
KQDS FOX 21

supposedly that religious station KCWV is launching too (assume in MPEG4 SD) but D* site doesnt reflect that station on there

Ladies and Gentlemen. I need your help. My sister lives in Duluth, She is using a old 26 inch tube TV with a charter SD cable box. I'm trying to help her out from Phoenix AZ. I haven't been to Duluth in 20 years, she usually visits me here in January for some reason.... I am buying her a 32 inch HDTV and would like her to actually see HDTV. What does she have for options. She is in a North facing apartment with no satellite view. So it is Charter or over the air. If she takes Charter coax to back of TV any idea what channels she would get in HD. It looks like a Charter HD box is a 5 dollar a month upgrade. Or should I just have her get SD from Charter and get her a cheap OTH antenna. I remember years ago that the antennas where all together at the top of the hill. Last question, are the HD channels all UHF or are some still VHF like they are here in Phoenix? Thanks in advance for any help... Well answered part of my question antenna web shows only 5? HD Channels clustered 2 miles from her address.
Edited by aland12345 - 11/23/12 at 4:31pm

My sis lives on Park Point and they can see the antenna towers. Reception for them OTA is easy without much of an antenna. Coat hanger would probably work.
Two of the stations there are VHF as you probably noticed at AntennaWeb.

If the HDTV has a QAM tuner, she might be able to just connect the Charter coax, scan for stations and get the locals that way.

Over-the-air digital reception from Park Point with an indoor VHF/UHF antenna should be no problem - she'll get 13 channels, 5 of them in HD. She can also get the same channels by plugging the Charter cable feed directly into her TV. If she needs the box to get premium channels but doesn't want to upgrade to an HD box, she could split the incoming signal, sending one coax cable directly to the TV and the other to the cable box. Then hook the cable box to the TV with the A/V inputs.

This is the (mostly current) list of what you get from Charter in Duluth with a QAM tuner:

Thanks, I'm stupid I didn't even think about a QAM tuner when I bought the TV. I need to check. She isn't out at Park Point she is back the other way on the hill top 2 miles North West. I will need to work with her. I know she was just going to take coax out of the SD Box. I think they said the HD box is only 5 dollars more so that would be an option. She says cable system is bad in her apartment building. I think she may need a Electronics intervention. I built her PC for her I can do some fine tuning. I haven't been to Duluth since 1990 and I remember the Northern lights where pretty. I might have to take one of those cheap Allegient air flights from Mesa to Duluth after the holidays when things slow down.. If you guys see a fool in a T-shirt wind breaker and tennis shoes shivering uncontrollably drinking a half frozen bottle of Corona say hello. Thanks again.

Most new HD TVs have a QAM tuner so the one you bought probably does too. The likelyhood that all the channels Jon listed will be there forever is not too probable. Rumors have it that even the locals from cable will be scrambled eventually. For 5 bucks the HD box from the cable company would probably be a good idea. She is already used to using cable so may be an easier out for her.
If you decide to try OTA, I would try a simple rabbit ears antenna to start.

For those of us expats who grew up in Duluth, a wonderful site to check from time to time is http://www.duluthharborcam.com/. I travel back to Duluth a couple times every five years. Once in the summer to visit, class reunion and relatives, and once in a while in the winter to remind me why I like living in warmer climates.

Have a nice trip.................brrrrrrrr:D

Wow, that is amazing. Here in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco we get maybe a dozen channels with a QAM tuner using Comcast cable.

Off topic: It just occurred to me that when I lived and worked in Duluth, I worked under Rod Ellis at Burroughs Corp. and you could be a relative of his. I know that he also moved to California and is no longer with us. Sad, he was a wonderful guy.
Edited by Grandude - 11/25/12 at 9:50am

Nope, no relation to Rod Ellis or any of the other Ellis' in this area. My version of the Ellis family came from Iowa.