Atlanta, GA - OTA - Page 88

I just moved my antenna a few degrees to the East and now WSB (channel 2-1) is coming in with no problems. (this antenna hasn't moved in 3 years)

I know 2-1 has been off and on all month but this evening it was blocky and the sound was worthless.

I marked my antenna with a sharpie in case I need to move it back.

I live in South Forsyth County.

WANN Channel 32 is a Norcross-based low power TV station. I have talked to the engineer and right now they have 32.1-32.6 and will eventually go up to 32.12. They are testing right now so you may see a channel one day and not the next.

I just found this forum and wonder does anyone know about WDTA 53 Atlanta? I spoke to their engineer a few weeks ago and was told they would start their digital testing in August and I have yet to scan them in digitally. Their phone number is now disconnected. Their analog signal continues to run.

In browsing through the FCC DTV authorizations, there was a special temporary grant by the FCC for a (very) low power DTV station to operate from the East Lake Golf Club during The Tour Championship. The days they authorized to broadcast from East Lake are from September 23 to September 28, 2009. The ERP power will be very low at 80 watts (enough to probably cover the grounds and the very nearby neighborhoods). The channel to look for this special DTV station is channel 14 as per the grant letter issued by the FCC. Although, their listing with the FCC is a bit confusing as they are listed to broadcast on channel 26. So check either channel just in case if you are in the very nearby vicinity.

this is the coverage map for WANN channel 32 atlanta digital 29

I still can't receive WSB. They said they would email me
when the work was finished. No word as yet. Maybe
NEXT week - after Sept 21st.

Hey everyone, I am in East Cobb 30068. I am getting very good reception on 2.1 recently. I aimed my antenna few degrees east as opposed to Southeast and that cleared up the problem. I am also getting all 3 PBS stations and channel 30.1 very well which seem very hard to get. Looks like 32.1 and its subs have dissappeared and so has the relgious stations 65.1-5 not that they all matter but it's a ego thing. I have tried rescanning but no luck yet. Whats's my set up? Terk HDTVa with them amp off running into a 42'' plasma. Freaking rocks it. Anone have any experience with DTV boxes? Any recomendations? I hear tivax is decent.

There is a thread here on SDTV set top boxes. Two seem to stand out:
Channel master CM 7000 and Zenith ZTT901.

I don't get WSB up here SE of Canton. Used to was it was a 80-90% strength until they 'fixed' it.

tom

I was told the antenna wouldn't be broadcasting until Friday September 25th at the earliest. This will make an entire month that the ABC affiliate in one of the largest metro areas in the country is off the air. For some reason, this story hasn't been covered in the Atlanta area at all. WSB doesn't even post updates on its website - nobody wants to acknowledge the complete mismanagement of this antenna repair. It's kind of shocking that those of us with antennas will not be able to view a single ABC show on during premiere week. It's even worse that you can only get information by calling the station and talking to relatively clueless receptionists - this is not their fault, but the upper managers have put them in the position of being the fall guys for management's errors.

Welcome to AVSforum.

I won't quote it all, but your entire post is wildly overstated. Plenty of us continue to receive WSB fine. WSB has been responsive to some who have asked. The AJC has provided coverage. And so on, all covered in this thread. Sure, there are plenty of people who have lost WSB, and WSB could be more forthcoming on their website, and there could be more coverage in the press, but it's not quite the disaster you make it out to be. At least the outage is in the service of a future improvement in signal.

For the record, it appears that WHSG is having problems. Earlier this week they stopped appearing at 63.1/.2/.3/.4/.5 and started appearing at 44.1/.2/.3/.4/.5 , which is a sign that their PSIP generator has failed like happened to WPBA a while back. But simultaneously their .2/.3/.4/.5 services went to black, leaving only .1 running. This morning I see that .1 is back to appearing at 63.1, but the other 4 services are still down.

Chris, I saw that as well. 63.1 is showing up on 44.1 but no other subs. Wsb is coming in strong I suggest a more easterly setting. 32.1 is gone. I like my spanish MTV. Shakira rocks it!

WSB told me that they have been getting hundreds and hundreds of calls from people who can't get their signal at all. I am one of those, and I live less than 3 miles from their station. This has been going on for 4 solid weeks and counting. The AJC's most recent article was September 1st, and they haven't updated the situation since. WSB has not sent out follow-up emails to those of us who asked (the last email I got was from Sept.9th, saying service would be restored by the week of the 14th. It wasn't.) After calling the station again, I was told that they *hope* it will be back Sept. 25th (the poor receptionist said she wanted to quit answering the phones because she is inundated with calls about this.) The reason I've labeled this as mismanagement, is because they could easily post updates on their website, explain the situation clearly, and keep us informed, but they have chosen not to do that. They also should have done this in mid-summer rather than so close to the start of the new season. So if I sound frustrated, I am, but mainly because the communication has been so poor coming from the station.

It's easy to say "they should have done this in mid-summer" but unfortunately getting a tower crew that can do this type of work is difficult, and there aren't a lot of crews that climb towers at the heights we're thinking about.

Many stations had arranged their tower crews to come during the late spring or summer, and then the FCC decided to delay the transition and many stations were then unable to accept the tower crews at the planned time. Any station that was scheduled for a pre-June 12 date had to move to the back of the waiting list. Even some stations that were arranged right after June 12 by chance got delayed by stations that would otherwise be off the air or at severely reduced coverage and needed that tower crew ASAP.

Not to mention that weather delays at other jobs will lead to delays in when the crew will arrive. And a day that is almost calm at the ground can sometimes be too windy to work at the top of the tower.

I don't disagree they could be more communicative about the whole thing, but there's a lot of variables in this that are outside the station's control.

- Trip

Trip,
That is not exactly the case. The FCC delayed the REQUIREMENT to cease analog broadcasts, but allowed those that were ready to cutover to digital at their will. The stations were NOT precluded from going ahead with their switch.
WSB management or boss of whatever kind has not been communicative, and that is not very good customer relations.
I am 33 miles from downtown Atlanta, have an antenna in the yard I can reach with my fingertips, and got signals in the 80's and 90's before they did anything. And then they were gone. No notice, no advertisement, not a peep.
Personally, I think that broadcast television doesn't care any more. They don't have to. They have a license to print money. They have a franchise for a network, and can charge the cable co's on a per-head basis for the signal. The NEDA(?) did a survey and claimed that only 20%(less?) get analog signals of any kind, so WSB is still getting their $$ for the cable signal they are providing. This doesn't affect their bottom line, but it sure affects their original customer base.
Just my opinion, and we know what they are worth....
tom

The FCC did not make it easy to do so, however, so many stations kept analog on the air rather than attempt to meet the FCC's requirements.

Plus, why would you kill your analog signal while your competition kept theirs?

- Trip

I personelly think that WSB TV has been the "boss" in the market for so many years that they don't give a "rat's butt" what we think. I agree that the weather has been a major factor in the long delay in correcting their signal problems, but they could keep the public informed. WSPA ch 7 in Spartanburg lost their tower last March to ice and high winds, but they did not keep it a secret, and via their web site kept the public up to date on when they would be back at full power. I am not sure if WSB is just arrogate, or if they don't want their sponsors to know their signal is not reaching viewers in the market.

I live in Decatur near Dekalb Medical and WSB has been very consisitent, even with all these storms. Before the switch, it was one of the worst for me to get. Now WAGA, 5.1, is very poor. More and more dropouts. It was always rock solid. Have not made any antenna changes--still in the attic,/clear stream 1 model. My only guess is with the leaves starting to drop and all this rain I must be getting some multipath on 5.1.
Those who are having some problems with 2.1, have you tried re-aimming your antenna?
I really do not watch WSB much any more because of lack of good shows. Maybe one or two shows on that network and that is it. Mostly CBS. So have not had any reason to contact them lately, but in the past they had always been responsive. Perhaps they are just overwhelmed with calls and Emails that they can not personally respond to all. You would think that updating their Web site with progress reports is a no brainer, but in this digital age and business model that comes with it, no one thinks much about customer service any more. They know you are not going to just quit watching all together and if you do others will not. Just a lot of noise. They will do as they please--just like our elected officials who refuse to listen to the voters.
It is a different world now that we live. Just hide behind voice and Email, your web site, etc..., no real contact with the real world.
Michael

I emailed WSB last night about their signal troubles and just received an answer from them. I wanted to share their response....

"Thank you for writing to us with your questions. Here is what has been
happening:

WSB-TV began the process of changing out our DTV antenna on Tuesday
morning, Aug. 25th. Our over the air signal could be affected for the
period that the workers are on the tower. We have maintained close
contact with that crew. Wind and rain have impacted the progress of
their daily schedule as they work at heights up to 1,000 feet above the
ground. Each estimate for completion has been eclipsed. Currently we
believe the project will be finished as soon as we can get two good
weather days.

Our over the air viewers might receive our signal sporadically and at
varying strengths during this time. Our signal will return in force
once the upgrade is complete and, depending on where you are located,
you may even see a noticeable improvement. This is the reason for the
move.

We hope for your patience during this process of upgrading our signal.
We will update you again as to when we are a firm go with a return to
full power. If your reception does not improve at that point, please
let us know.

WSB-TV"

Wow, that is the most content-free response we've seen yet

Edit: I retract that, I missed the "need two good weather days" sentence buried in all that boilerplate.

I'm hoping the "2 good weather days" happen soon !

For that to happen, the crew would have to be made up of frogs.
On the other hand, maybe they could row on over to the tower as it surely must not be 1000 feet above water level...

tom

This should be the second of two dry days for WSB. Please let us know if they keep you up to date. Thanks

Hopefully, today is day two. I was in the Old Fourth Ward around 4 this afternoon and saw that the gate was open at the base of the tower, and a truck was there. I bothered some nice people who live nearby, and they told me they had noticed work going on today. They couldn't say about yesterday. I guess I'll find out when I tune in the series premier of Eastwick tonight.

Fred

I'm just guessing, but I doubt there was any work done yesterday. My signal for WSB is a little stronger now, but it's probably only because the weather is clear. I've noticed slight improvements in signal strength when the weather is better. My signals for other stations also vary.
I haven't received any more information from WSB, ( I'm not really expecting them to email me any further updates).

Mark

This is pretty frustrating to see what used to be the most consistent Atlanta signal down here near Forsyth GA get pretty poor with the change to HDTV. Prior to this antenna work they were all pixelated down here while everything else from Atlanta is good.

Now they are obviously having antenna problems, either a bad tower crew or bad antenna/feedline hardware, because they have been totally missing for weeks.

The worse thing about this is they are not keeping anyone informed.

When we did tower or station equipment work, it was always a top priority to keep the signal on. Any equipment or antenna changes were planned, even if there was extra expense, to not interrupt listeners or viewers. I remember being on a 350-foot tower in a blizzard changing a feedline while the feedline was blowing out at a 45 degree angle, and working on few towers in ice storms. I can't believe rain is slowing them down this much. Something else must be going on, like something doesn't fit right or something was broken or damaged.

Tom

Here's hoping WSB completes their work in time for the FlashForward premiere tomorrow night. It sounds like an intense pilot episode that'll provide a real kick in HD.

I'll be very curious to see how they fill all that bandwidth with programming. Hoping it's not going to be 10 channels of infomercials.

I read a recent interview online with Henry Luken, owner of RTV/RTN (WSB's 2.2 retro programming provider), and he is getting ready to launch 3 new digital channels. I'd really like to see more broadcasters try to find a market and make some money with all this new bandwidth at their disposal.

And . . . WSB is back!!

At least up here in Acworth it is. Here's hoping the work is finally completed!

I just received this email from WSB-TV.

"I am pleased to announce that we have resumed full digital over-the-air power from our transmitter site.



We apologize for the extended period of inconvenience. We planned on this being a one week work assignment and then nature intervened. Thank you for your patience and again we are deeply apologetic for the interruption.



If you cannot receive the WSB-TV signal now, please let us know.



Sincerely,



William S. Hoffman

Vice President & General Manager

WSB-TV"

I checked my signal (in Cleveland, GA.) and have a STRONG signal !!!
I hope everyone else has good reception.

Hooray! Thanks everyone for the updates. How's your reception out in the boonies now?



TomRauch, welcome to AVSforum. Now scroll up and see that we knew plenty about this. In fact I had added it to the FAQ (link below) because it was such a hot topic.