Salt Lake City, UT - HDTV - Page 117

As in post 3465 above, there will be similar power reductions of all stations on Farnsworth Peak, on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 18 and 19th.

This is due to required tower inspections on the DTV Utah TV tower and antenna. The power reductions will be from 7:00 AM until 7:00 PM, this time.

We believe the outage problem in southwest Utah, which was due to receive problems at Levan Peak, will not re-occur. The KSL receive antenna at Levan has been moved to a bit better location (the Levan site does not get a totally direct signal from Farnsworth Peak....never has, never will).

Also, a "heads-up" here...........
The DTV Utah stations, kUTV(2), KTVX(4), KSL(5) KUED(7), KUEN(9), KBYU(11), KJZZ(14), and KUCW(30) will be off the air during late-night and early morning hours of the weekend of October 13-15, for work on the DTV antenna and combiner system.

Low-powered RF sweep work (checking all of the tuning of the system) requires the stations to be off the air.

Details will follow later.
Edited by kenglish - 9/17/12 at 3:25pm

The first stage of the RF sweep work will be done on the weekend of September 22-24. That's THIS WEEKEND.

All of the DTV Utah stations will be off the air during the following hours:

Saturday September 22nd, 12AM to 6AM (Friday night)
Sunday September 23rd, 12AM to 6AM (Saturday night)
Sun-Mon September 24th, 11PM to 4AM (Sunday night)

There will continue to be service via Comcast, on analog, SDTV and HDTV on stations that have direct fiber-optic feeds to Comcast's Salt lake City headend facility.

There will be no service via over the air, translators, DirecTV (SDTV and HDTV) or DISH Network (SDTV and HDTV) during those hours.
Some stations have had direct feeds to the local satellite pickup point, but those are not in service at this time. All satellite pickup is now via the over the air signals.

The October work will be done on a similar schedule, October 13-15.

5 am, 9/22/2012, Logan UT: Woke up, couldn't get back to sleep. Turned on the TV, and all SLC stations off air, as Ken said.... except for Fox 13?

Now I can really appreciate being able to pick up channels 3 and 8 from Idaho, as well as my local LP channels 8 and 39.

KSTU is not part of the DTV Utah consortium.

KSTU and KUPX are full-power stations that are not part of DTV Utah.
KPNZ is also not a part, but I think they went off due to the location of their transmit antenna, which is very close to the DTV Utah antennas.

I just recently got my ClearQAM channels working reliably on my Windows Media Center. It seems I have Nick, Animal Planet, VH1, MTV, HGTV, and a load of ESPN's. I swear the last time I tried this, I also got some of the broadcast stations but the reception was sketchy. Now I try to scan and I have none of them. I'm in Spanish Fork and using the Spanish Fork Community Network. Does anyone know of a way to get them to work correctly?

Also, I know it was a couple years ago but someone on this topic was having issues using the ClearQAM with media center (wouldn't update the guide and get listings). Let me know if anyone is still having this problem, as I know how to fix it.

Thanks!

Hope you weren't scanning late at night, this weekend.

The majority of SLC stations were off the air for antenna maintenance, so only Comcast had signals (they have a direct feed). OTA, translators, satellite and many other Cable systems were down.

So maybe try again? And do so during daytime hours too, just in case?

Update for anyone living in the Spanish Fork area (and apologies if you don't):

SFCN will be gradually upgrading all of their channels to be entirely digital within the next 12 months. This is coinciding with their move to DOCSIS 3.0 for cable internet (indeed, I'm already on their new 55Mb plan). If you have the Basic or Extended Basic packages, every single one of those channels will be upgraded to be fully digital HD. This will also free up some bandwidth so they are planning on bringing in additional channels to the lineup.

Also, for reference, all local channels are already in place on ClearQAM in the 132-1 to 135-14 range. The tech I spoke with pointed me to the updated listings over at Silicon Dust. More specifically http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:84660#lineup_8348641

The engineers on Farnsworth reported that they found serious deterioration of the "bullets", which fit between center sections of the transmission line in the main antenna.
Those will have to be replaced.
This is part of the normal wear-and-tear of the system, due to expansion and contraction, but it could have become a serious problem.

The sweep in October will check for similar problems in the back-up antenna system.

Nice little article and photos here, of the type thing that we're talking about:

http://radiomagonline.com/transmission/towers/transmission-line-maintenance//index2.html

Noticed last night that KUPX (16) seems to have an audio PID problem on 16-2, QUBO.
If I punched in 16-2 directly, there was no audio. If I surfed to 16-2 from 16-1, I still had 16-1's audio. Same sort of thing if I surfed down from 16-3....I got 16-3 audio on 16-2.

Checking at work this morning, on a big Sony, the audio is there, but badly garbled. It also shows "English: Dual Mono" and "Spanish: Dual Mono" on the Info bar.

Noticed Friday that 19-5 is lit up. They were working on aligning a DISH Network receiver and dish, and eventually got it set up on AlmaVision, a Spanish-language religious channel. Still has no audio, as of last night.
19-4 is off, though. maybe they "borrowed" the encoder from that one, temporarily?

Ken,

I am noticing the same choppy audio on 16-2 at my location in West Jordan. I am assuming it is a problem on their end and there is nothing I can do on my TV's to fix it. Are you still noticing the problem?

Thanks!

Ben

Sounds fine here in Taylorsville. Perhaps it was the program...

Had no audio on 16-2 or 16-3 last night, on the LG box.
16-2 and 16-3 are both garbled on the shop Sony, this morning.
Also, I noticed that 16-1 looks "bit-starved" on the video.

I tried to look at their Transport Stream yesterday, but the analyzer is acting up again.

Re-scanned a TV set here that did not have 16 programmed into it previously. It was fine. Other sets were still bad. I'll check at home and here (tomorrow) and see if things have changed.
Might be some software issue, that only affects some brands or models.

All of the KUPX channels are OK now.

Thanks Ken. I noticed improvement now as well. Funny that it was only showing symptoms on one of my tv's (both same model). My kids watch too much QUBO otherwise I wouldn't care. The HEMAN reruns are nostalgic though...

Take care.

Sterling in Saratoga, (or anyone else in Saratoga with OTA expertise) newbie here so please forgive me. I also live in Saratoga (the Benches area about 4 miles south of Smiths). I would like to dump Comcast and go OTA. About a year ago I went to the Radio Shack in American Fork to ask them about antennas and when they found out I lived in Saratoga they told me I could buy and try any of their antennas I wanted but that I'd just end up bringing them back because they said that Saratoga is basically a dead zone. I tried a few of the antennas they sell (sorry, I can't remember which ones now) but I got zero reception just connecting them directly to my HDTV in my living room so I didn't even bother trying to put it in the attic. Today at work a guy was telling me he lives in Herriman and had a similar situation until some told him about a Yagi type antenna. He said he bought one online and gets great OTA now. Can you share your expertise and experience about getting OTA reception in Saratoga? Thanks, Shawn.

Your best bet down there is a good rooftop antenna on a mast, well above the roof line.
Indoor antennas won't cut it. Most "gimmick" antennas (those little amplified things that have "HD" written all over them) will be useless.
A preamp would need to be very high quality too, due to having some close-by UHF transmitters there on Lake Mountain.

The final stage of the RF sweep work will be done on the weekend of October 13-15. That's THIS WEEKEND.

All of the DTV Utah stations will be off the air during the following hours:

Saturday October 13th, 12AM to 6AM (Friday night)
Sunday October 14th, 12AM to 6AM (Saturday night)
Sun-Mon October 15th, 11PM to 4AM (Sunday night)

There will continue to be service via Comcast, on analog, SDTV and HDTV on stations that have direct fiber-optic feeds to Comcast's Salt lake City headend facility.

There will be no service via over the air, translators, DirecTV (SDTV and HDTV) or DISH Network (SDTV and HDTV) during those hours.
Some stations have had direct feeds to the local satellite pickup point, but those are not in service at this time. All satellite pickup is now via the over the air signals.

The DTV Utah stations, kUTV(2), KTVX(4), KSL(5) KUED(7), KUEN(9), KBYU(11), KJZZ(14), and KUCW(30) will be off the air during late-night and early morning hours of the weekend of October 13-15, for work on the DTV antenna and combiner system. This may also include kPNZ and other UHF stations located on the Farnsworth Peak site.

Low-powered RF sweep work (checking all of the tuning of the system) requires the stations to be off the air.

Seems like some DX reception is a possibility this weekend.

Thanks kenglish. Would either one of the following antennas by Winegard fit your description of a 'good rooftop antenna'? The first one is both VHF and UHF, do I even need one with VHF capability? The second one is UHF only. Both are similarly priced. Again, sorry for the newbie questions. Trying to learn.

Winegard HD7694P High Definition VHF/UHF Antenna
http://www.amazon.com/Winegard-HD7694P-High-Definition-Antenna/dp/B001DFTGR4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349974031&sr=1-1&keywords=hd7694p

WINEGARD HD-9032 UHF High-Gain 35-Element HDTV Antenna
http://www.amazon.com/WINEGARD-HD-9032-High-Gain-35-Element-Antenna/dp/B0029U2XCC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349973945&sr=1-1&keywords=WINEGARD+HD-9032+UHF+High-Gain+35-Element+HDTV+Antenna

Also, are you saying I'd need a preamp, or just that if I have one it needs to be high quality.

Shair,

Of the two antennas you suggested, only the 9032 would be in the class of "appropriate". The 7694 is a dual band (don't need VHF) and is a lot smaller on the UHF side. There are probably a half a dozen UHF antennas and two or three pre-amps that should work for you.

Much depends on your EXACT location. If yo can run a TVFool plot for your exact location, we can better analyze what it's going to take at your specific location.

Thank you ProjectSH089. Is this what you're asking for: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d2df9b312d33057

Yes, that's it.

Ken's advice is spot on (as it should be). A large, rooftop Yagi with a high-input preamp is the only thing likely to work. You're shadowed by a 6600' peak, 7.8 miles away, that is almost dead in your signal's path from Farnsworth to your location which is at about 4700' elevation.

Suggested antennas for consideration would be the Winegard HD9095 or HD9032 or the Antennas Direct 43XG or 91XG. Amplifiers appropriate for this area would be the Winegard HDP-269, Antennas Direct CPA19, ChannelMaster 7778, or the Antennacraft 10G201.

Because of the sharp angle of diffraction off that last peak, don't be surprised if you find that signals are of a height above ground that varies with the channel's frequency. You might find some way up there and some down near ground level. You will likely have to try different antenna heights to see what you might get. In any case, there won't much there to work with and I suspect that TVFool's calculations may turn out to be too optimistic.

Thanks ProjectSHO89. Not what I hoped to hear, but truth is better than falsehoods even when the truth is bad news. It almost sounds like it would be a lot of wasted effort and expense to even try in my area huh? Not sure what the terminology is for me to use, but what are the chances of someone (the owners of the equipment on Farnworth?) adding some type of equipment that would allow the thousands of us out here to receive a good signal?

There has been some talk about installing a translator someplace down that way, but only KSL and KUED have expressed any interest. There are substantial costs involved, even if the County was to donate space on one of the existing radio sites. Then, there's the FCC's desire to take all of the spectrum away from broadcast, so I'm not sure anyone could even file an application right now.

Either of the two antennas would work right now. There are no VHF Low-band stations (2-6) or high-band (7-13), in the area right now, but that could change in the next couple of years. The DTV Utah stations have said they will not move from UHF (it would be technically impossible without more space, but the low-power stations might have to move to VHF. Also, a low-band antenna is nice for FM Radio reception. You might want to go with the 9032, and maybe use a VHF/UHF diplexer to add in a small FM antenna. Just be aware that things could chnage in the next year or two.

Why might they have to go to VHF? Propagation issues?

There's just the problem of packing 23 or more DTV stations in to the remaining channels, if the FCC takes so many away.
The problem with DTV Utah going on to the VHF bands would be the size of the transmitting antennas, and the larger size of the components in the RF combiners, not to mention having to replace all the UHF transmitters (and, simulcast them).
There would likely need to be multiple antennas for full (low-band and high-band VHF) coverage, and the combiner, though lower power, would have some larger components.

I think the LP stations would be the losers, since they would likely be back on VHF, or sandwiched between high-powered UHF's.
I don't even want to think about the receive antenna issues, with (UHF-only) "HDTV" antennas, and the noise environment.
We had a viewer on the SLC East Bench, who couldn't get KSL analog on VHF channel 5, due to his refrigerator.