Johnstown, PA - HDTV - Page 104

ThisTV is now on Atlantic broadband. I have a 2 way splitter hooked up to my internet line and its on channel 104.8

I wanted to share my recent experience for others in this area wanting to pick up OTA HD signals. I live in Hollidaysburg and recently cancelled my Atlantic Broadband cable service, keeping their internet and making it the Mega Max 15Mbps down / 1.5Mbps up.

I purchased the Winegard FreeVision FV-30BB HDTV Antenna (also known as the FV-HD30) and planned on installing it outdoors. The link below is my location reference:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8d17a22116a6fb

Luckily the back of my house faces the direction to most of the close antennas, and it was right where my main connection into the house is located. I had hopes of being able to pick up all 4 locals in HD, and I had complete success. My antenna is mounted about 10ft off the ground on the one corner of my house and it works perfectly. All the TV's in my house then share the signal and I get no quality/signal degradation. What's interesting is that there seems to be a new antenna/listing that's not on the maps yet. Below are the local's that i pick up:

10.1 - WTAJ-HD (CBS) - approx 10mi away
23.1 - WATM-HD (ABC) - approx 10mi away
23.2 - WWCP-HD (FOX) - not sure where this is located?
6.1 - WJAC-HD (NBC) -approx 33.5mi away

I was unable to pick up 8.1 - WWCP-HD (Fox) which was ~45mi away, which I expected overall. What I didn't expect was the seemingly much closer Fox signal of 23.2, a pleasant surprise which meant I can get all my locals!

I was also unable to locate channel 22 which seems to be a much closer WJAC (NBC) signal - but it was no loss for me since channel 6.1 picks up just fine.

I also picked up a few other DTV stations but I'll never really watch them, so I'm ignoring them at this point.

All these channels come in with plenty of strength and quality, I was pleasantly surprised - it barely took any tweaking of the antenna position to pick them up. The quality is outstanding - when watching primetime HD shows I can honestly say the quality looks better than what Atlantic Broadband's HD service provided, a great bonus!

I'm a happy camper now with my internet service, local OTA HD, Roku/hulu+/Xbox/Etc saving me alot of money each month!

23.2 is a second HD channel over the ABC23 feed, that is why it comes in so well. I also recommend 23.3 ThisTV, because it has some great old movies on it.


Also, are you sure that your channel 6.1 isn't coming over 22? If it is, it would still be displayed as 6.1 on the TV. Related to channel 6, I also recommend 6.2 RTV which shows classic TV, and will be changing in th near future to MeTV, which has great shows such as MASH, Cheers, and Bob Newhart.

when i type channel 22 in I get nothing - how can I test/be sure that channel 6.1 is actually channel 22 coming in?

I can assure you its 22 out of altoona. Try typing in 22.0 with your remote and see if it goes to 6.1

I would also try to get WPSU HD and WHVL HD if possible. I use a xg-91 with a preamp and get 12 stations.

Speaking of MeTV it should be on in June.

Hmm when i tried 22.0 and 22-0 (my sony uses a dot, my samsung uses a dash) they pull back nothing. I just have to enter 6.1

Thanks for the info!

Just out of curiosity, what happens if you type 34.0 in your tuner?

On your Sony, go to Product Support in the main menu, and you can view the true RF signal there.

You can try entering the RF channel number (22 for the WJAC Altoona repeater), or 24 for ABC 23. Do not include the dash or decimal. Your tuner should lock onto the signals and remap them to the advertised channel numbers.


In Altoona:
WJAC (RF 22 in Altoona, 34 in Johnstown) shows up as 6-1 (NBC) and 6-2 (RTV)
WTAJ (RF 32) shows up as 10-1 (CBS)
WATM (RF 24) 23-1 (ABC23), 23-2 (FOX8), and 23-3 (THIS)
WKBS (RF 46) shows up as 47-1 (Cornerstone)

From State College:
WHVL-LD (RF 27) shows up as 29-1 (MyTV) and 29-2 (America One)

I finally got my FTA dish installed and it works great. One problem was the receiver can not decode the pbs HD channels or sound. I had to send the box back for an openbox HD receiver. Well worth the investment.

Cool! Is it a motorized setup? How big of a dish?

- Trip

Hi, yes it is motorized so I can get all the freebies. I am using a 31" dish from sadoun. Its nice to have all the PBS stuff, history, bio, tuff tv, and RTV which we will be losing to MeTV. Makes cutting the cord alot easier!

Does anyone know if Atlantic Broadband will ever offer WHVL or ABB's channel 97 as a ClearQAM station? I would think they would be it's a "local channel".

Also, is there any hopes that WXPI's June MeTV will end up on Atlantic Broadband, or is there really no hope being that WJAC is J-Town's NBC affiliate?

Also, any idea if Johnstown could ever look at getting "Antenna TV", as a subchannel of anybody?

EDIT: I noticed according to Wikipedia:

"Along with sister stations WPXI and WTOV, WJAC 6.2 is expected to transition to MeTV at some point in the future (likely around 13th June, 2011 when WPXI will).[2]" from WJAC's Wikipedia page.

I so hope it happens, I've always wanted MeTV, to me RTV is old news, they basically repeat the same shows (same episodes of the shows I mean) and basically remind me so much of iON who had great ideas for a channel but never pulled through.

I doubt they will offer WHVL since its low powered. MeTV will replace RTV this june on Atlantic broadband. You can go to MeTV's website and enter your zipcode for the schedule and channel numbers. AntennaTV has a good lineup and the only stations who may offer it would be WHVL or on the WWCP VHF transmitter in Johnstown.

On that note, is anyone not in the State College area able to pick up the channel 36 WNEP translator? The map shows that it only serves a small area in SC, and if it could be recieved further away, it WOULD be a local source of AntennaTV, as well as another source for news/ABC.

What many people may not know, is that ABB is being provided with a direct HD fiber feed of WHVL's main channel. If customers would ask ABB for it, maybe it would be offered.

Maybe, I emailed them at emailsupport@atlanticbb.net but got no response.

Congrats on the new toy!

I've been building my HTPC, and after setbacks like a malfunctioning LCD front panel display, it's finally ready to roll except all it needs is a satellite card.

The dish is the best investment one could make along with a good antenna setup if you want to cut the cord. The news and sports feeds are an extra treat. Here is a good site where people post feeds. Tons of PBS which I like.

http://rickcaylor.websitetoolbox.com/

Talk to me about HD options?

I'm familiar with that site. I have the RSS feed bookmarked in FireFox so I can just click on it to see what's newly found.

There are several various HD set top boxes or computer cards that you can buy to receive FTA satellite signals. Unlike with DIRECTV and DISH, you can decide which works before for you.

As for programming, it isn't like those two services. You might find The History Channel in the clear one day and encrypted the next. There are a few full-time, unencrypted HD signals such as QVC, ION (soon to be on 16), and PBS. http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html lists the signals available in North America, with HD services in light green (free) and dark green (encrypted).

Does it ever look like WJAC would ever add a third subchannel?

I know their current config has room for a 6.3, as they had it for a while as WJAC-SD.

I just truly enjoy ABB covering even local subchannels in ClearQAM, as I heard they don't even have to offer the subs just as long as main feed is offered.

Being in an apartment all I can use is an indoor antenna and all I ever can get is WJAC, so it's a treat to get ThisTV free from ABB.

Given how bit-starved RTV often looks on 6.2, an additional sub would not look terribly good.
More to the point, can they sell enough local ad time to support two subchannels? In this economy, I think that's a tall order. It appears to me the majority of local ad time on RTV is devoted to promoting wjac.com, rather than paying customers.

As for ABB (and Comcast) airing the local subs.... that's through agreements negotiated between the respective stations and the cable operators.

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this or cares, but I see that WNEP RF 50 out of Scranton is being picked up by my DS box again this year, and will probably be decode-able in the next week or so based on previous years. I always enjoy it, because it is a fun anomaly, but doesn't require me to put in any actual DXing effort. I'm also hoping that I may finally figure out once and for all what is slightly showing up on RF 49 and shows up only when WNEP does. Anyway, I will have fun with it.

Also, I hope everyone has fared well during the recent storms and was safe.

-Phillip

Sounds like WVIA to me.

- Trip

Hello folks, new to the forum, but have been utilizing OTA for quite a while. I encountered the same problem as chum1976 with PBS in the State College area...and he actually helped me out in another forum with a reception question. I'm getting a 91XG in hopes that it'll cure a potential multipath problem with WPSU, but not certain this will solve it or not.

I know this question is a bit off topic, but it is for chum1976-what ku band equipment do you have for FTA? I was thinking about trying this to pick up PBS/RTV in a similar manner, but know next to nothing about FTA equipment. Any guidance or suggestions for equipment would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Any new news on subchannels in the area? I personally like RTV and hate to see it go...but I do love Hogan's Heros, so it might be a good trade. Anywho, if you need a person to send more emails to companies to try and coax them to add subchannels, I'll be happy to help

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/ You might check out this site for your info...Lots of it here

dary0362, I hope the 91xg solves your problem, but where I live reception is very poor. I know several people with antennas and none can lock a decent signal from channel 3. A friend of mine lives in martinsburg can pull in ION and WJAL with his 91xg/vhf homemade stacker antenna, but no channel 3.


I purchased my kit from Sadoun http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Order/Sate...ed-Systems.htm

You will need the $299.99 system so you can watch the PBS stations and for the dolby sound. The most important thing is you have a clear view of the southern sky, and a pole that is 100% plumb. Satellite guys is the best site to learn about the FTA hobby. You could always pay a satellite installer to mount your dish. Here is a list of channels on FTA not including all the sports & news feeds:http://www.global-cm.net/MPEGlistKuBandUS.html

The only news on subchannels is Nexstar will add BounceTV to several stations. BounceTV is all black entertainment programming. Nexstar must have changed their ways.........they were 100% against subchannels.

Thanks for the info chum1976. I figure I have at least two OTA signals to choose from for the 91XG (one from State College and one from Clearfield)...it's just hard for me to believe I can't pick either tower. I'll let you guys know how it goes when I get the antenna.