Orlando, FL - OTA - Page 104

satpro,

Gave you heard anything on when Telemundo will become available in HD OTA?

I am seeing WTMO 31 in the 60s & 70s even outside their contour on the protected north western side, which I assume was done for WOGX's benefit, but the protection is not working for them, so I am thinking they have not installed the protection to the NW side of the TX.

With analog WTMO 31 they were barely visible for me just last week when I aimed right at them. Yesterday afternoon when they fired up digital WTMO, WOGX via my GNX aimed ant immediatly went black for me and my meter said 100%, then last night I found the reason why, when I scanned my Bithlo pointed ant to see if I could see WPB at the end it said 2 channels added; WTMO and Tele. Both are SD, Tele 31.2 has no audio and is actually a satellite circuit for telemundo feeds, so far I have seen them doing some pre feeds, test patterns and some promo reels. It's surprising that this station is a 15kw.

I do not see any mention about the OTA signals digital conversion, or doing HD on the telemudo orlando facebook or twitter pages. Don't believe they cared much about OTA til now, other then to have a technicality to impose a local feed of Telemundo on BHN. If they were to ever do HD they are going to have a lot more work to do at the studio first which used to be by the FL mall. The Transmitter is SW of Altamonte.

satpro,

Thanks for the info as always.

Tonight 8/11/11 at 8:12 pm WTMO ran a scroll in Spanish that read,

Attention: If you are watching by over the air antenna WTMO Telemundo Orlando is in digital on channel 31.1 Enter the menu of your television and do a scan. Once it finishes tune to channel 31.1.

Ironic scroll, how would I be receiving the scroll unless I already scanned the station in???? Perhaps, they still have a couple of distant analog translators in Kissimmee, Melbourne or Daytona. Of course there they may not be able to get 31 in digital so still kind of strange. Probably required by the flash cut.

Digital and analog channel identifiers are quite different. For analog, the actual channel numbers were used. But for digital they can use any channel number. But when you do the channel scan on your tv, it is scanning through actual channel frequencies for programming. If 31.1 switched the actual frequency from for example channel 44 to 48, without scanning you will lose the ability to watch 31.1.

I live out in the Malabar, FL area and have had trouble receiving WFTV CH 9 OTA since last week (around Aug 10th, 2011 or so). I emailed WFTV and told them what I was seeing and I received a call back from them. The message that they left stated that they are currently running at reduced power and that they are installing a new antenna and transmitter. They are expecting to finish the work by mid-week next week (that would be Wed Aug 24th, 2011). An early completion date would be Sunday, Aug 21st, but that would be dependent on the weather.

I ordered a signal pre-amp for my house, so maybe that will help. I ordered it before I got the message from them.

I just want to say kudos to WFTV for even calling me back and leaving a message. They didn't have to do that, and I really appreciate it when people take a few extra minutes to keep people informed.

The WFTV staff, particularly Engineering, are a class act.

Harry

I noticed the same drop in WFTV about 5 days ago, but after reporting the WOFL drop here and seeing very little interest I figured I would just ride it out and not bother reporting what I saw with WFTV.

A real class act would pro-actively inform all viewers with a scroll, news report, or god forbid an official post here, so that somebody does not spend hours working on their antenna and falls/gets hurt or wastes their hard earned money on amps thinking the problem is on the receive side.

Same thing goes for me up here, I was going nuts running around checking cables, connections, etc. Glad I checked this board 'cause I was ready to call the antenna guy (not cheap!) And yes,I know about WCJB (ABC) in G'ville but it's an iffy signal here.

Recorded ABC Tampa WFTS 28 (RF 29) last night (Thursday), since WFTV was, in addition to, operating at reduced power this week, also incapable of providing ABC original 1st run episode network programming on Thursday. Instead they had a planned NFL preseason game cancelled 48 hours in advance due to black out restrictions because of ticket sales and could not just switch back to running ABC network instead, so they went with some canned rain event movie and moved the make good of Thursday's primetime to Sunday from 1-4 am. And then somehow managed to still find a way to run the blacked out game anyway this time after it ended Friday overnight from 1- 4 am and still delay the whole necessary ABC make good to Sunday early morning. So again with Cox broadcasting having 4 channels OTA in total between 9.1, 9.2, 27.1, 27.2, a regular "class act," indeed.

Today's the 25th and it appears today they finally starting to increase power again, but they don't seem to be completely back to normal, during reduced power mode I was seeing 67-77%, now seeing 85-91%, before any work started had 100%.

The Antenna TV network sub channel starts Monday 9/5/11 in Orlando. According to this it is replacing retro on WRDQ 27.2.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/ent...from-wrdq.html

http://www.antennatv.tv/

http://affiliate.zap2it.com/tvlistin...?aid=antennatv

It's better than the current RTV line-up, that's for sure, but I find MeTV to be more to my taste and liking.

MeTV goes back deeper into the '60s. AntennaTV seems to concentrate on the '70s. That's a generalization, I realize, but that's the impression.

Obviously MeTV has '70s shows with Mary Tyler Moore, Streets Of San Francisco, Cannon, Hawaii Five-O, but they really dig out the '60s classics like Dick Van Dyke, Perry Mason, Dobie Gillis, Hillbillies/Petticoat Junction, Twelve O'Clock High, Combat, The Untouchables - and even back to some '50s with early Gunsmoke half-hours.

Antenna TV's schedule looks more '70s based to me with the All In The Family and Three's Company stables of shows.

But thanks for the tip. I can actually receive 27 some of the time here in the Davenport area.

Harry

The WBCC (alias WUCF, ha ha) request to increase the power was granted on 7/22, I assume after it was granted they simply turned up the cabinets because sometime in August I remember seeing my meter went from 93% to 100% and I also noticed a 3db increase on RF 30. For Ocala the increased power is not going to make much of a difference for those on the ground since it only increased the contour in the direction of the NW by 2 miles. If you have a communications tower like those at a cable headend then it makes a world of difference. There is always WUFT RF 36 VC 5 for OTA viewers there.

The bigger interest for me is what becomes of the WMFE transfer and also if as it stands now if the current WMFE license holder is even fulfilling their licensing requirements since July 1st.

Does anyone make an inexpensive ATSC meter? I need something for around the house.

What kind of a meter are you looking for?

- Trip

I think I am just looking for signal strength. Something I can go to the end of each cable run, dial up a channel and have a repeatable measurement.

Thanks

Re-evaluate "inexpensive".

For that sort of thing, I use a Sencore SLM-1456CM, which was recommended to me by ProjectSHO89. It has a spectrum analyzer and will provide SNR readings among other things, but mine cost me just under $600 on eBay. Friends of mine have gotten them (or lesser models) for less than that, but right now I don't see any on eBay except the 1454 which guesses at the SNR instead of using an actual demodulator like the 1456 does.

Not nearly as convenient, but my HDHomeRun has a signal meter whose values correspond almost directly to the SNR and other numbers provided by my Sencore. The problem is that you need a computer and a wired network connection available to use it, but it is significantly cheaper than the Sencore.

Some of the USB tuners might be decent too in terms of meters, but I haven't personally found one with the kind of signal meter I would need to recommend it for something like this.

- Trip

I've been wondering myself...obviously they are just broadcasting the one available programming stream they have left (V-me) to keep the license and their cable/satellite slots active. But as a basically passive repeater now, no local programming, no E/I (well, there may be a few V-me shows that qualify), they are hardly serving the public interest. (Not that I consider the proposed Daystar programming to "serve the public interest" in any way, shape or form, either...but I digress...) I guess they can get away with it long enough to consummate the sale to Daystar, but I thought it would be wrapped up by now (it HAS been about 3 months, no?).

WMFE originally announced the sale / shunned the local community on 4/1 or April Fools Day, so it has now actually been more than 6 months. Perhaps we will hear something by 10/31, Trick or treat. Trick in WMFE's case.

Thanks. USB Tuner and net book would make a lot of sese if you there was access to any of the signal info. I dont see anything like that in WMC.

Thanks again.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/suppor...l_monitor.html

Given the right tuner, the info is available. This works with my PCI based ATSC tuner.

I know that Bright House has removed this station, and replaced that channel with a slate directing viewers to various forms of WBCC (WUCF-TV Ha Ha). Has Comcast or others also removed WMFE?

It seems silly to run the transmitter just to get slots, especially since the largest cable company has dumped them off their system. Did they not claim to not have the money to operate this television station? If so, the more honest thing for them to do at this point is to apply for a silent STA.

Update today on WMFE:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/ent...e-through.html

Nothing about how the current owner is still meeting their licensing requirements by broadcasting only VME. Nothing about how dish network is still obligated to provide WMFE in HD instead of the new PBS WUCF in HD. Nothing about Centurylink PrismTV (their version of Uverse) not having WUCF at all in SD or HD, etc, etc, etc.

I would love to see the FCC pull this license for failure to serve the public interest as a public trustee.

Let Daystar try to compete for the non-commercial assignment alongside of locals like Valencia and UCF. In that case, UCF has a very good chance of taking the license.

At that point, WMFE could either sell the transmitter to UCF at fire-sale prices or just eat the loss. Since UCF is the second largest school in the state, and does not hold a television license, like the remaining top state schools, they would clearly have a good chance of winning.

WTGL 45 has added a forth channel

45.1 WTGLDT1
45.2 Nacion Test card
45.3 Aliento Vision Spanish
45.4 CTNi


WMFE continues ad supported commercial broadcasts of VME across three channels one 1080i and two 480i.

Hi Guys, I need help installing In-ceiling speakers that require extra Bracing. Can anyone recommend me to a good installer?
Thanks in Advance.

welcome back, tropo... we've missed you...

WJTC digital ch. 45 from Pensacola last night... 385 miles...