Johnstown, PA - HDTV - Page 101

Good news on the WWCP translator in State College. I had missed seeing that one.

I had heard from the Chief Engineer of WJAC that they were hoping to get the Altoona translator up and running by the end of September. Obviously that date has slipped. but they are actively working on the installation.

As for CW OTA for Altoona .. I never say never, but this might be the exception to that rule.

The main problem with this area its so business unfriendly and the local channels cant afford anything. Last I heard 8 and 23 was on the verge of collapse and they did shut down their news dept. My WPSU signal is pathetic and it should be strong. I emailed them and was basically told to purchase cable or dish, so I will remember that next time they come calling for money.

I think its time to dust off and fire up the old C-band dish.

[I think its time to dust off and fire up the old C-band dish.[/quote]

Well there's not much left even in the 4DTV systems. Motorola will end support to the bud 12/31/10 ....On the burner at this time is a 410 receiver that will pick up programming on the W5 satillite with limited content.They are also working on transforming the 920 and 922 receivers to the 410 system .Don't know if they can do that with the 905 ! If you do dust off the old unit you can get your PBS fix on the bud with Nebraska Ed.HD on T4 Sat. That's were I go when i can't receive channel 13 out of Pittsburgh. .Good Luck

There are quite a few gems still available though. I dont even know if the old dish will work, but I may just purchase a new one. Its far cheaper than a $70.00 cable bill monthly. Below is a good chart if anyone is interested.


http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/United-States.html

You could also go with a FTA [free to air] receiver with your Bud!!!!!

Yes, thats what I need. The dish is working like a charm, but the receiver is so old I need a new digital receiver. I did get QVC.

If you buy a MPEG-2/4 HD receiver, like the AZBox, you can get QVC in glorious HD. The detail of the products is so clear, it's like going to an actual store!

Boy things have changed since I last used the BUD. I need $300.00 in upgrades to convert to FTA (new LNBF, box, motor controller). Nice hobby.

Has anyone lost WPSU? The last 2 days I have 0 signal and the weathers been nice.

I went on the Mistery Tour yesterday(in Altoona) and because of that, I got to see all of the TV towers up on Wopsy(because the tour went up to the lookout). It was very cool(and windy).



I haven't had any problems with WPSU here in Tyrone.

It's coming in fine here in Johnstown.

Anyone experience wtaj signal loss in the last 6-8 weeks. I am in so central pa close to chambersburg and have gotten channel 10 very very well in the last several years i have not been veiwing much tv this summer and swing the ant towards altoona and no channel 10 just wondering if its just me or have they lowered power or something of that nature i seem to be getting all my other dc baltimore channels as in past so i think my system is still in order thanks mike

I did notice their OTA signal went from the usual 90% here in Johnstown to floating right at the noise floor yesterday. But this morning they were back and doing fine.

Just to let you guys know, if anyone subscribes to high speed internet service through a cable company try running a line into your digital tv. I was told to do this and finally get WPCW and WPSU crystal clear HD. No more antenna worries for me.

Thanks for the info i am up and running again also who knows but life is good again

WJAC's Altoona transmitter must have went on today I just checked 22 on my box and 100% signal.

You beat me to it. I just locked it in from Johnstown this evening. Signal here is barely above the noise floor, but it should boom into Blair County.

FYI, they are using the same channel numbers as the main station (6-1 and 6-2).

Has anyone been having problems with WJAC's Altoona translator dropping out on a fairly constant basis for several minutes at a time?

My assumption is that this is because they are still doing testing on it, but the consistency of the dropouts seems odd.

-Phillip

Yes, I am having the same problems. I checked the FCC site the other day and it still isnt licensed, so I think they are tweaking it. Contacting anyone at our local stations is damn near impossible. Staff must be cut to the bone.

They are "very efficiently staffed", as it were.

WJAC has applied for the license to cover the ch 22 transmitter earlier this week, so most of the tweaking should be done.

I've had good success hitting the email app on the WJAC web site. It's nearly buried on the lower right side of the page, but it IS there. And both the CE and the GM have been responsive to my emails.

Tried it several times to no avail. I will give WTAJ and WATM/WWCP credit they emailed me back the same day. I tried contacting WPSU several times and nobody was "home". I wish channel 23 would get us a good subchannel like This TV and give up the 23.2 SD feed.....maybe someday

From PBRTV.com: Tom Taylor on Radio-Info talks about TV today. In particular about Johnstown-Altoona's WWCP-TV (8) and WATM-TV (23). Elliot Evers and his colleagues at Media Venture Partners will enter the television business under Horseshoe Curve Communications (named for the stretch of railroad track in the region which curves as such). Horseshoe Curve is set to take over Peak Media Holdings which owns WWCP (Johnstown) and its State College translator. They will also inherit the 14-year-old LMA with Palm Television to continue operating WATM (Altoona). The deal is expected to close by the end of the year at which point the new Horseshoe Curve Communications will pay $100 (One-hundred dollars) and assume Peak's debt.

$100.00 for all that debt? Geeze what a rip off. Its no wonder our local stations are sinking, pittsburgh and harrisburg stations have been adding digital subchannels every chance they can and our local stations=nothing. Where is This TV a GREAT channel? Universal Sports? The country network? The cool TV? Accuweather? Antenna TV is coming online in january with a fantastic retro schedule and soon the Me-TV network out of Chicago is going national. Pretty sad we cant get CW either. If we had all the channels available to us like Pittsburgh/Harrisburg DMA does you could drop cable or satellite. That was one of the perks of going digital offering subchannels. Good luck to the new owners but most likely it will be the same and they will go bankrupt. Give me Pittsburgh ABC and FOX anyday.

On the topic of FTA Satelite, does anyone in the area take atvantage of this, and if so, can you please tell me what Ku band channels I can expect to recieve. RTV East? MHzWorldwide? PBS stuff? I see that many are available most of the time, but site such as FTAList(http://www.ftalist.com/english.php) don't really have an easy way to figure out what channels can likely be recieved by a person at a given location.

Thanks for any help.
-Phillip

MHz Worldview ended its satellite carriage as of December 1.

- Trip

I am going FTA in the spring. If you have the room C-Band is the way to go. It requires a 6ft dish, but you get more channels like This Tv, FOX movie channel, CW, RFDTV, C-SPAN. Sadoun sells the complete kit for $499.99 + shipping. If you want Ku-Band only many good channels such as history, biography, RTV, Tuff TV, PBS including Create and World. Many more subchannels are in the works including RTV2 and PBJ which should end up on ku-band. A motorized ku-band kit is around $250.00 Below is a link which shows the channels green are ku-band and pink are c-band.

http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/United-States.html

Comcast in State College : Did they just drop all HD from basic cable? My TV is coming up dry on 6.1, 8.2, 23.1, etc. If that is what happened I may be on my last month of their service.

I have a BUD and it is the way to go if you can. You could probably find one sitting in someone's yard and it'll only cost you the tank of gas to go pick it up in most cases.

http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html will give you an idea of what can be received in North America, and depending on what the terrain is like at your location, you might even be able to get some birds over the Atlantic Ocean. The satellites with Ku are highlighted in yellow and green. Get a receiver that is MPEG-2/4 capable and those feeds are marked "DVB" and "DVB-S2" respectively on that site.

RTV and PBS are available as well various regional stations of those networks. Unfortunately MHz Worldwide went to fiber optic distribution and is no longer available.

If I do this, I would need to buy a new LNB for it, correct?

Also, I have a friend with one of the later black screen c-band dishes, and he would likely give it to me to get rid of it, These don't work as well/correctly right?

Thanks for the help
-Phillip

Follow up on the Comcast HD post: Looks like they did something since a rescan with both digital TVs found 6-1, etc.