Roanoke, VA / Bluefield, WV - HDTV - Page 196

Thanks, Trip and Peggy. I've got a Pinnacle PCTV USB stick upstairs in my west-facing office with a single-dipole antenna that does ok with some of the channels; WDBJ and WSLS are spotty but I can grab them if I tweak the antenna just right. It's been a while since I've used it so I don't remember how it does with WBRA, and I can't find the antenna specs online to compare. Leaning towards either the Terk HTDVa or the amplified version of the Mohu Leaf, but I've heard reports that the latter won't receive VHF at all.

After looking over the TVfool output again, you're probably right. The only thing I probably want to think about an amp for would be WSET. Just ordered an unamplified Leaf; I'll report back once I get it set up.

Which one are you using now and where in the system is it located?

I hope you left at least one CM7777 in VA!

Does the Kitztech perform noticeably better that the CM7777 in the same configuration?

A few weeks ago I finally got around to getting on the roof and replacing the pre-amp. I was going to install a CM7777 but they have been on back order at Solid Signal for several months with no promise date. Based on some of the discussions in these forums I concluded I didn't need 25-26 dB of amplification. I went with the Winegard 19dB model and it does just fine. I probably could have gone with distribution amp in the attic, but then I would have been concerned about high temperatures in the attic.

A few general comments:

I was dreading having to lower the antenna but as it turned out things went very smoothly. I was able to stand on the chimney with one foot on either side of the chimney cap. (The cap wasn't there 20 years ago.) I sprayed some WD40 on the rusted U bolt threads and started to crank. Surprisingly the nuts started to unloosen, 1/8 of a turn at a time. Creak-Creak-Creak. After about 15 minutes I had all four nuts loosed to the point where I could shimmy the antenna down the mast and do all the rest of the work standing on the roof. (Eventually one nut on each U bolt unscrewed completely and the other one wrung off half way down the bolt.)

The connections inside the old pre-amp were pristine as were the exposed terminals on the antenna. Just unloosen the wing nuts and remove the flat lead. I hooked up the new pre-amp with a new balun, applied power and found out the problem was NOT the pre-amp!! I borrowed a 30 foot RG6 extension cord, ran it from the antenna down the side of the house around the gutter, onto the car port and into the attic and connected it to the splitter. Problem solved! Boy I wish I had checked the lead-in first!

After removing the old RG59 I noticed a gouge in the insulation about a foot from where the wire entered the house. A check with an Ohmmeter showed the center lead to be open. Inspection of the gouge showed the shield oxidized with some of it turning gray-green. After cutting into to the cable I found the center wire insulation melted and center conductor, at the site, gone, missing about an eight of an inch. I am guessing the when the contractors installed the vinyl siding they nicked the cable - on the top side of course. After 15 years of rain storms the shield shorted to the center conductor and the 19.5 VAC ate up the wire.

After rewiring with satellite grade RG6, for a test, I connected the antenna directly to the Sony (20-30 feet of wire and a two way splitter) The Lynchburg stations and WBRA came in fine (26dB SNR and reasonable level). The Roanoke stations were decoding fine at that time, but with about 20 dB SNR and 20% level) I probably could feed one TV without an amplifier but not four. After completing the installation things were back to the way they were before the failure. WDBJ was at 27dB SNR and 65% level and WPXR was decoding with errors, 18dB SNR and 20% level. TVFOOL data indicated a turn of about 20 degrees counterclockwise. After making that change WDBJ jumped to 30dB SNR and 80% level and WPXR 26dB SNR and 50% level. Everyone else improved slightly. At this point I locked everything down and decided to wait for the high wind event.

I mounted the wall transformer in the house rather than the attic. I know that most new wall transformers have a thermal fuse in series with the transformer primary winding. If the coil gets too warm that's it. The power inserter is in the attic. It runs warm even on a cool day and I really don't understand why. I think I'll mount it on a heat sink.

While I was at it, decided to clean up the rats nest behind the DVR's. I replaced a couple of 4 foot cheap coax cables that were bundled up behind the DVR's with custom made 8 inch cables. Old Tandy wire RG59 that had a glued foil shield around the center conductor. That really made a difference on the 30 something channels. WSLS is back to 33dB SNR and 98 level. Of course all the changes made after moving the antenna have made no improvement in the picture or sound.

I had a flimsy coax cable that was so cheap it didn't have an RG number on it. It just said 75 ohm. I cut it apart to check the internal construction. I was surprised to find it had a (non-glued) foil shield around the center conductor.

About two weeks after I finished this project as I was looking up at the antenna I had a thought. Why did I mount the pre-amp on the end of the boom - same place as the old one? I could have moved it a couple of feet toward the mast and then if I ever needed to, I could access it while standing on the chimney. Too late now, but if this amp runs 20 years it will last until at least 2032! At that time I will NOT be climbing on the roof! Assuming I -- and OTA -- are still around.

Is anyone in the market sending a signal for equipment to set time automatically? My Mag 515 clock drifts pretty badly.

How does the Mag 515 get its time? 7 & 15 are transmitting TVGOS data which includes a time signal. The only other time signal I am aware of is part of the PSIP data transmitted by each channel. The last time I looked (probably a year ago) most stations were within a couple of seconds while 21 was about two minutes off.

PSIP. The Mag thread says...

For 2160/2160A/513/515: These units can search either analog or digital channels. If you have analog channels, start by entering a FOX analog channel #, then press OK. If no analog channels, arrow left to "CH." Arrow up/down to change it to "DTV." Enter a major DIGITAL FOX channel # in "Set Channel No." box (no subchannel digits). A Time Zone (TZ) menu pops up. Select your TZ, then press OK.


Open the Clock > Clock Setting menu and set your clock for 11:57am (not pm). You must press OK after setting the time, then quickly turn DVDR OFF.
You can set for 11:58am if you're in a hurry and have experience with this procedure already. However, the clock MUST be on 11:58am or earlier when it shuts down completely or it might not start a search at 11:59am, and complete shutdown takes ~15-20 sec after power-off. Don't use pm cuz that makes the date change to next day during the time search and affects the order of your current timer rec programs. Make sure you press OK or your time setting won't take.


Watch for auto time change within 2-3 minutes after "whirring" sound at 11:59.
At 11:59am clock time, the TV pic will change to a black screen and the DVDR will make a light "whirring" sound as the fan starts up and the tuner switches to your designated channel. If there's a time signal on that channel, you'll see the time change within ~2 min. or sooner. If no signal, the fan will stop at ~12:01pm and the TV screen will return to its normal "no signal" color, indicating search is over.

If you find an active time signal, make sure it sets the "correct" time and am/pm compared to some other clock in the house and leave it set that way. My analog PBS sets a time but it's always WRONG, whereas my analog FOX has been dead-accurate for 10 months... until just recently! DO NOT CHANGE THE AUTO CLOCK SETTING MENU TO OFF AFTER FINDING A GOOD MANUAL CHANNEL... just leave machine set the way it is now!


If no active time signal on FOX analog, try other known active channels.
Go back to Step 2 and try (1) FOX digital, (2) CBS analog, (3) CBS digital, (4) PBS digital, (5) PBS analog.
As a last resort, try any other suspects (except local access channels)... varies by locale. However, no one has reported other good channels.


If you do NOT get an auto time change on ANY channel, you have two choices:
Keep Auto Clock on Manual with either FOX or CBS (not PBS) in the channel-entry box to give your DVDR a power-backup time of 2-3 min. rather than the typ. 30 sec. when Auto Clock is set to OFF. (Also helps the 515 as mentioned in next subject below.) Correct time manually if/when it drifts. Don't use a local community-access or CATV channel cuz they might freeze your unit.
Give up extra power backup time and set clock to correct time and Auto Clock OFF. Correct time manually when it drifts. All clocks seem to run slightly fast. One person who might opt for this is a 515 user who has a lot of "freezes" that require him to pull the power cord and replug after full power drain, Soft Reset, in which case he'll have a shorter wait time (~1.5 hr instead of 2.5 hr).


FINAL STEP: No matter what the results were, check timer rec programs.
Check your existing timer programs to make sure changing the clock time didn't MOVE today's timer program to the bottom of the timer list, assuming it was PAST the time or day/date for that program. This can happen if you choose 11:59pm instead of am in Step 4 above. If you find today's program NOT back in normal top position, check the clock setting again and make sure the day/date is correct. Today's timer rec program will pop back to top position once you enter a correct date.
TIP: If your clock doesn't sync to the exact second compared to an atomic or other accurate clock in your house, go back to the 1st clock setting option and arrow right until you're over the minutes. Arrow up to 1 minute AHEAD of the atomic/accurate clock . Watch only the atomic/accurate clock and, exactly when it changes to that minute, press OK. The clock will start keeping time with the seconds in sync.

So which channel is your mag getting PSIP data from? Have you tried selecting a different channel?

That's what I asked, who's sending PSIP data?

All broadcasters are required to transmit PSIP. It is part of the ATSC standard.

After a quick check I'd recommend you select 10 or 38. Do not use 21 or 15...

Why do you recommend 10 or 38 over 21 or 15 for PSIP information, because all broadcasters are required to do this.

Just curious.....

David S.

jdhdtv is looking for an accurate time source for his DVR. 15's time signal is + 2 minutes and 21's is +5 minutes. 10 and 38 appear to be dead on, the rest are close.

Question to the engineers: If you use a stat mux in your configuration how much of a time delay does it add? How do you compensate for it?

Thanks for the information, I will be looking into our +2 minutes discrepancy.


David S.

Wow, this is old - sorry I didn't see this earlier! . Stat mux (or statistical multiplexing) is the on the fly dynamic allocation of bandwith. This shouldn't add any *delay* to the signal - other than the normal mux signals. I just looked at the thread. If you are looking for this to blame for a time variance - No.

Do they stream their video?

A few more bits wasted....

I wonder who will be first in this DMA to create a .4

Figures Trip would figure that out. Our TBN O&O runs 5 SD streams...

The latest application filed by Millard S. Younts, receiver for WEFC, stated this on May 25th:

ON MAY 24, 2012, WEFC-TV RESUMED OPERATIONS USING ITS EXCITER AT LOW POWER. A NEW TRANSMITTER IS BEING INSTALLED, AND WHEN IT HAS BEEN INSTALLED AND TESTED, THE LICENSEE WILL RESUME REGULAR LICENSED OPERATION. THIS INTERIM OPERATION IS NECESSARY TO RETURN THE STATION TO OPERATIONAL STATUS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. THE LICENSEE INTENDS TO FILE A REQUEST FOR SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY.

That probably means you won't see this station unless you live in the immediate vicinity of Smith Mountain Lake. They have recently received a CP, and have another application for changed facilities on file with the FCC. My guess is that they have a buyer for the station lined up, but the buyer is demanding changes before they put their name on the line. Going back on with only exciter power is likely to keep from going dark for over 12 months, which is required to keep the licence from being cancelled.

Later . . . .
Matt

Until consummation of that transaction is confirmed with the FCC, and the money changes hands, one should never assume that a transfer and approved by the FCC will take place. The previous owner of this station proved this in his dealings with Liberty University and LFM Broadcasting. My question is what are they broadcasting? Is it a satellite signal or are they doing their own programming again. I guess only someone from the Smith Mountain Lake area could tell us for sure.

Matt

Finally have a chance to get back to this thread.

The Leaf works well. Haven't wall-mounted it yet, but it works quite well sitting horizontally in the middle of the living room next to the TV. I get some light degradation occasionally on WSLS and WFXR, but nothing that makes either channel unwatchable. WDBJ and WPXR both come in beautifully. If I orient the antenna vertically, the signal issues seem to disappear.

However, no joy with either WBRA or WSET.