Madison, WI - HDTV - Page 174

Originally Posted by terster

Hi,

I'm East Side Madison, WI.

I'm looking to add an outdoor antenna and am wondering if it's possible to pick up any Milwaukee stations?

Madison is 863' in elevation.

Milwaukee is at 634' in elevation and approx. 75 miles away. Madison is much higher and so I'd think it would be fairly easy to get those stations for there would be little line of sight blockage. I would think.

I've read that several people in Madison can pick up Janesville, WI stations. Janesville is at 858 elevation 41 miles away. We are only a few feet higher than Janesville.

I've read too, that several in Madison can also pick up Rockford, IL stations. Rockford is at 740' elevation and is 72 miles away.

So when I compare these 2 cities to Milwaukee, it's comparable in distance but we are much higher up in elevation.

My questions are... can anyone recommend an outdoor antenna, amplifier, pre-amplifier, rotor, etc? A complete package?

I would be mounting this to the SIDE of the house (not the roof) about 15' (feet) off the ground.

I found 2 possibilities from Denny's, Denny's EZ-HD antenna and his Double Decker, but I'm unable to find any reviews on his products. Both of these antenna's are, I believe, designed and built by his shop and not name brands. I know they have a great return policy but, it costs $$ to return, $$ I'd rather put into a good antenna.

I have done considerable reading and to be quite frank... I'm totally confused. There are so many different makes, models, rotor types, amplifier and preamplifier types, etc... that I just don't know what to do. Plus, seems there are a lot of opinions on both sides with most of these. I'm not finding any landslide opinions about what to go with or stay away from.

Can anyone please advise and provide recommendations which includes the entire package... from the mounting hardware (not roof mounted, probably a bracket across the eves or a J Mount or just a 10' pole straight up) to the antenna make/model as well as additional hardware (amp's/pre-amp's)?

I also don't know what the difference is between a PRE-Amplifier and a regular Amplifier. I may need both. Yes?

What I currently have is this I have 4 RG59 cables from and older sat. dish running to the location where the Antenna will go. All 4 runs terminate in one spot in the basement. In that same spot, I have 3 RG6 Quad Shield cables running to every room in the house (2 for sat. connections and one for either CATV or a future OTA antenna).

The run from where the antenna is, to the spot in the basement is approximately 40 feet. Maybe 50, but I think it's closer to 40. From that same spot, the LONGEST run in the house to the furthest room is 25 feet.

Immediately, I would be connecting the OTA antenna to 3 televisions. I will likely add a 4th TV in a few years when my son gets older.

Please advise on a full package/recommendations and/or whether you think this is even possible.

Here is my TVFOOL report that I've seen others post. This accounts, though, for just my local stuff and not stations 40 - 70 miles away: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...14f35b306ba9d4

Please advise if I have the right forum for this posting and then SPECIFIC recommendations.

Thanks!

T

Originally Posted by feh

I live 10 miles south of Madison, with no obstructions to the south. I get channel 13 no problem. There have been times when I received another Rockford station, but I don't seek it out, so I can't tell you what it was (maybe 23?).

I have a UHF antenna in my attic.

Originally Posted by ehren

I get Rockford CBS and ABC with an indoor Terk antenna here in Edgerton. 70%

Also, will WKOW suck for PQ the rest of my life? Ohio St/Nebraska game is BRUTAL.

Originally Posted by ehren

Did NBC 13 in Rockford change back to UHF? I thought they were on VHF 13?

Originally Posted by whosbest1

Although they apparently flash cut to digital on UHF 38 on February 17 2009, I'm only now seeing this channel with a digital scan. Maybe they moved their transmitter or upped their power?

Not that I'd ever watch this station anyway. Just curious as to what folks know.

Originally Posted by cgmv123

Fox 47: SD weather warnings are unacceptable, especially during a Packers game in 2011 and when Weather Central's LIVE:Wire and LIVE:Wire LX products interface with the splicer. (Hint, Hint...)
If you don't want to drop the money, you may want to consider loading the images for Severe Thunderstorm Watch, Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Tornado Watch and Tornado Warning into the Splicer.
(The preceding was NOT a paid sponsorship, although one of my family members is a former employee of said company.)

Originally Posted by cgmv123

Fox 47: SD weather warnings are unacceptable, especially during a Packers game in 2011 and when Weather Central's LIVE:Wire™ and LIVE:Wire™ LX products interface with the splicer. (Hint, Hint...)
If you don't want to drop the money, you may want to consider loading the images for Severe Thunderstorm Watch, Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Tornado Watch and Tornado Warning into the Splicer.

Originally Posted by feh

Yes, that was lame. My son asked what happened to the picture, and I explained how the station was too cheap to buy the necessary equipment.

Originally Posted by mrvideo

Since you are relatively new to this forum, you probably do not know that Fox47 has extremely little say as to what happens to the facility. Sinclair holds the purse strings. I've been told, face-to-face, at times they have no idea what they will be getting until it shows up at their door. Big ticket items, like transmitters, antennas, etc., is known.

As for getting the station updated for Splicer 2.0, I do not know if Fox has done that yet (should have by now). But, it is up to Sinclair to spend the money to buy the gear to interface to the upgraded splicer. Madison, unfortunately, is low on the totem pole when it comes to Sinclair spending money for upgrades.

Originally Posted by mrvideo

Since you are relatively new to this forum, you probably do not know that Fox47 has extremely little say as to what happens to the facility. Sinclair holds the purse strings. I've been told, face-to-face, at times they have no idea what they will be getting until it shows up at their door. Big ticket items, like transmitters, antennas, etc., is known.

As for getting the station updated for Splicer 2.0, I do not know if Fox has done that yet (should have by now). But, it is up to Sinclair to spend the money to buy the gear to interface to the upgraded splicer. Madison, unfortunately, is low on the totem pole when it comes to Sinclair spending money for upgrades.

Originally Posted by cgmv123

but I find it hard to believe that FOX 47 can't tell Sinclair, "Hey, I just heard about this new piece of gear that can give us HD weather warnings, and won't break the bank."

Originally Posted by mrvideo

Believe me when I say that Sinclair engineering knows all about what Fox engineering is doing.

It still comes down to pecking order.

Keep in mind that the main blame for what Fox affiliates are forced to do is because of Fox network not allowing the affiliates to have access to the HD video for these types of warning. Of course, with Fox47 still being an analog plant, having access to the HD video wouldn't have helped.

IMHO, if it weren't for the splicer system (as much as it is universally hated by a lot of people), I doubt that Fox47 would be HD for network programming. Don't know if the situation would have forced Sinclair to open the purse strings to do the minimum that WMTV did to go HD with network programming. We'll never know the answer to that situation.

Originally Posted by WRacer

FYI, We are planning to upgrade Fox47 to locak HD in the first quarter of next year.

Originally Posted by WRacer

FYI, We are planning to upgrade Fox47 to locak HD in the first quarter of next year.

Originally Posted by cgmv123

The system that I'm referring to (Weather Central's LiveWIRE) interfaces with the FOX Splicer, providing HD weather warnings. No splicer upgrade should be needed.

Originally Posted by mrvideo

Yes there is indeed a Splicer upgrade required. Splicer V1 doesn't not do anything that allows for the Fox Network tested boxes to be attached. V1 just doesn't have the ability to do emergency stuff.

It takes Splicer V2 for this to happen. All stations should be at V2 by now.

Plus, all devices to do this emergency stuff, have to be tested and approved by Fox engineering. I'm not ssaying that LiveWire is not approved, only that thid party devices will not be allowed to talk to the splicer unless approved.

Fox is damn picky when it comes to this stuff.

Originally Posted by mrvideo

Keep in mind that the main blame for what Fox affiliates are forced to do is because of Fox network not allowing the affiliates to have access to the HD video for these types of warning. Of course, with Fox47 still being an analog plant, having access to the HD video wouldn't have helped.

Originally Posted by LoopinFool

Not entirely true. The weather alert system can be installed as the last thing before the encoder. Quite a few stations set-up HD weather alerts before converting their local studios to HD/digital. Up-converters and A->D converters are relatively inexpensive.

Originally Posted by cgmv123

Via @WMTVTech: http://twitter.com/#!/WMTVtech/statu...98452400701441
I think Tom is happy it's not his station.

Originally Posted by whosbest1

Not much info here. All of a sudden in the last 2 weeks or so I'm having trouble getting Fox47 (DTV UHF 49) at times after many months of no problems since they moved to that frequency from VHF 11. It cuts out momentarily at random on some days. More than one tuner is seeing this, some older and some newer external tuners all hooked to the same fixed roof antenna in the Vilas area. No problem with WISC (DTV UHF 50).

Anyone else seeing this?

This article give me some understanding of the 4G potential issues. Anyway, my particular problem could be caused by a number of things, not necessarily 4G.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/124128