Chattanooga, TN - HDTV - Page 6

Anyone in our area (i'm in N Ga) had any luck with the HDTV Wonder card? What antenna did you use? Internal or external? Thanks

I think everything that is known about our local Fox is already posted in the thread. But if it isn't already HD I doubt it will be anytime soon.

The only time I talked to the engineer there he didn't really seem to care about the whole HD thing. He seemed to think it was a waste of money...

Thanks coldbrew. Football season is only a few short months away and this year is will be my forst with HD. I will have everything out there if FOX 61 gets there act together. Last year was my first season with DTV ST. Big STEELERS fan. Good year to get ST. Please update if anyone finds out more on FOX

Just happened upon this NG today and thought I would post some info concerning FOX 61 HD. I got HD installed in April this year and was disturbed, as many of you were, that there was no fox HD (primarily for football; big Patriotrs fan here(sorry Steelerfans)). I contacted FOX 61 and asked for a waiver so I could get FOX HD through Directv. Here is a cut and paste of their reply:

Mr. .........

WDSI is currently constructing our full power digital facility. We are on schedule to begin broadcasting from that facility on July 1st. We will be offering high definition programming at that time as well. Until then we invite you to enjoy our programming on channel 61. Company policy prohibits us from granting waivers for out of market distant signals.

With Kindest Regards,
Lee Carpenter - Chief Engineer

I guess we'll see on July 1st.

Can someone give me more details on this July 1st deadline?

I have DirecTV and an OTA antenna, I live in Harrison. I used to have a Samsung HD reciever and we currently have an RCA HD reciever upstairs. The current STB on the TV in question is the DirecTV/Hughes HR10-250 HD DVR. Ever since I put this box on that TV the OTA is crazy. I can get channel 3-1 flawlessly, and I can get channel 9-1 decent on 1 of the 2 tuners as long as it's nice out. I get a few of the channel 29's but not a single other HD OTA channel. What puzzles me is that these are channels that I used to recieve on this TV with the Samsung box and that we still recieve (clear as day) upstairs on the RCA STB upstairs. Can anyone offer any solutions or suggestions to this (besides call DirecTV because they have been out twice and I'm on my second HD DVR because they said the first was broken.)

I sent an email to the engineer at WDSI regarding their future plans for HD. This is the response I got from him.

Mr. *********

WDSI is currently constructing its digital facility. They are planning to sign on August 1st pending no delays from equipment vendors or the FCC. The transmitter site is located at the North end of Signal Mountain at the same location of the analog system.

With Kindest Regards,
Lee Carpenter

I was very specific about HD or not. So we do not know a whole lot maybe someone else could send him an email and we could find out more, but for now July 1 does not appear to be happening

If anyone knows the email for the new chief engineer and could send him an email to confirm this date it would be appreciated. WDSI's website still lists Lee Carpenter as chief engineer. Hopefully August is when it will actually happen. I have been able to recieve the DT station (61-1,) for a couple of months, but is has not been HD or even close for that matter it is a bad DT channel. I have also read that WB 53 is going HD in Feb, 2006. Does anyone know any more on this. Listed below is the email from Lee Carpenter. He was very quick to reply to all my emails.

Hello Mr. *******,

Last I heard, WDSI was expecting to sign on their HD around August 1st. My consulting contract with the station has been completed so I don't have any current information on them. Depending on how they set up their encoding equipment, it should come across as 40-1. Recommend you contact Patrick Motley, their Chief Engineer, for local updates.

With Kindest Regards,
Lee Carpenter

I live in the Dalton area. I noticed a couple of posts from someone in the dalton area. Just bought a new tv and was interested in knowing if anyone in this area had had good luck picking up HDTV out of Chattanooga, and if so, what their setup was. Thanks for the info.

Hello Brauchtw: Last word i had from wdsi was that they were suppose to start up around the last of august i sent there eng. patrick motley an e-mail but he never answered it and you can't catch him by phone, wb53/wfli told me today that they area trying to start up between 1-15 of august.

I placed an order for the new wingard ss-3000 antenna today for a good price any one else buying or already have this OTA antenna ;make a post and let me know.Anyone who wants to know the co. i purchased it from can e-mail me.

Is there a HD CBS station in the Chattanooga area? Also, what antennas are people in Ooltewah having any luck with?

Yes there is CBS, ABC, NBC, and PBS in Chattanooga. Go to antennaweb.org to see what is available to you and what antenna you would need. Hopefully FOX will be up and running by Sept. (NFL must have in HD). WB should be coming soon as well.

Just received an e-mail from Dennis Brown, chief eng. at wtvc-dt he said that they were transmitting at 200 KW and that the fcc had granted them a power increase to 575 KW which will be achieved later this summer(sepetember). He stated that they were being received as far as Murphy NC.

If there are any weather junkies out there, WDEF is now running "Dopplernet 12000" on their subchannel (12-2 or 47-2) 24 hours a day.

I am about to move into a new home in Ringgold, GA (north of Dalton and south of Chatanooga). I'm coming from the Columbus, Ohio area. I have two complete HDTV systems, including OTA tuners and one Dish 811 tuner.

1. Will I be able to get locals OTA where I will be? If so, what kind of OTA antenna will I need? Will an indoor Silver Sensor do or will I need an outdoor? If I can get the OTA, I will probably reinstate Dish Network.

2. If I need to get my locals from cable, who are my alternative providers and who is best. I know Comcast is there, but is anyone else? They don't appear to have FOX or CBS, only NBC and ABC.

THanks for any help you can provide. If you want to contact me directly, please feel free to e-mail alanmcdonald@mindspring.com.

Yes you should be able to receive CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS from Ringgold. Your barely over the state line there. The silver sensor may or may not work, if not then any decent outdoor/attic mount antenna will be fine.

Comcast currently carries CBS, NBC, and PBS. ABC hasn't negotiated cable carriage for their digital signal, and FOX is still using a hamster wheel to power their transmitter.

I have a Hitachi 51F710S (included tuner) and I can pickup ESPN HD, CBS HD and PBS HD with straight cable. I'm not far from Ringgold about 10 mins. I don't know about the antenna connections yet I haven't had time to try. Also, I gained all the digital music stations. This was quite a surprise when I first turned on my new TV. Good luck, I'm still learning about my HDTV. With a STB you should be able to get NBC, Discovery HD, a Braves HD Baseball channel and I think TNT is HD now.

Do you subscribe to the HD package from Comcast? Those channels should be encrypted and would require you to have a STB, or a CableCard. If you don't have a CableCard or a STB, that is good news to hear that the local Comcast is lazy.

Actually -
Comcast allows those channels to be "in the clear" on purpose - and I'm glad.
I'm receiving PBS-HD, WDEF, WRCB, and ESPN - plus a bunch of audio only music channels via an LG LST 4200A HD Receiver.

Funny thing is - when I first plugged it up I could also get TNT-HD, but it went away after a few weeks.

I hear the additional HD channels are worth the investment, but that their HD Receiver has inferior picture quality compared to most stand alone HD receivers.

Hey Alan,

Welcome!!!! One thing you may want to look into is Ringgolds NextTv option. Phone/Cable/3Mb internet all on one calble. They are "supposedly" adding HD channels now. My inlaws have it and it works great. Let me know if you want to talk to someone there; my best friend it one of the techs!

Andy

Guess everybody knows but if you missed it wfli started transmitting this afternoon on wfli-2, wfli-1 is suppose to be hd but there is no picture or sound, maybe they don't have any hd programming yet. wfli-2 does not come across as a very good picture, looks more like analog. If anyone else is viewing them post a reply and lets compare.

I am getting wfli-2 as well and agree that it is analog. Hopefully, they will have some HD stuff on wfli-1. Does anyone know what SHOULD be in HD on the WB? Nice to see another channel out there, I cant wait for wdsi to start brodcasting where they can get picked up by anyone outside of downtown Chattanooga.

Recieved an e-mail from wdsi general manager; Tracye McCarty that stated they would be up in about 2 weeks.

Got an e-mail from Robert Daffron Oper. Mgr. at WFLI and he stated that they didn't have the in house monitoring equipt. yet and are aware of the poor picture(redish hue of picture) buy they will try to have that problem fixed and also try to get the HD going in the next two weeks.

Hey there. I am in Ringgold and I have gone through many different setups to get HDTV in my area. Right now I am using a channel master 4228 8-bay UHF antenna (about 50 bucks), a Channel master spartan 3 Pre Amp (about 75 bucks), a channel master rotor and about a 20 foot mast. I get PBS,ABC,CBS,NBC all in the 90's as far as signal go and if Fox would get off their ass I would get them all the same. I am out of town till tomorrow but I will check the WFLI broadcast when I get home. But to stay on topic, HDTV reception in Ringgold is very possible but let me recommend the Bowtie setup as it is less directional and is much better than my huge Channel master 3020 that I was using. Anyways Good luck... and lets just hope Fox is really gonna come through! Falcons games in HD would be really nice this year!!!!

Yeah they are really pissing me off. They were supposed to have it up on July 1. They will not let me get FOX-HD on Direct TV because I am in their protected area. If they do not have it by football time I will boycott every advetiser on WDSI and send and e-mail to the advetiser telling them so and why!

I was gone on vacation the past week and expected to have HD Fox when I returned... But guess what? Still no HD Fox. But on the plus side I now receive digital WB (not HD but better than nothing).

They also have a channel researved for the HD broadcast (WB). But of course no signal...

Well.... Pretty sad when WB beats you to the punch. I mean the WB is the WB of broadcasting ;-P.....anyways, We are like the 19th largest DMA in the country to not have FOX HD. I think it is pathetic. But...... If we get Fox HD before World Series and Football season I will stop bitching.

Hello all!
I just got a Toshiba with built-in HD tuner. I live on Signal Mountain, and get all the local channels good with a small rooftop antenna. The problem is I can't get any HD signals (3.1, 12.1, 9.1) I thought that since im within 3 to 5 miles of the towers, I wouldn't have any trouble. Any advice?