Albuquerque, NM - HDTV - Page 4

"Anyway just party on and drink your Klingon Bloodwine!! "
and enjoy HDnet.

Pete

Since ch 9 is allocated to Santa Fe, it makes sense to colocate the transmitter site with KCHF. If the old ch 2 tower is still there, all that is needed is a new antenna. I think the ch 2 bldg. is still there.

Possibly good news from Dish !!! Dish approached the FCC to allow them to provide HD programming to stations that can't get their stuff together by the May 2002 deadline. This would be even better for those remote areas of NM that will definitely not get their HD programming from ABQ stations for many decades from now. Contact the FCC showing your support for this by sending an email to the FCC contacts at www.fcc.org/contacts.html. Here is the summary of the proposal.

EchoStar Communications Corp. is seeking federal approval to offer
digital-broadcast signals in markets where TV stations have failed to meet
digital-TV rollout deadlines set by the Federal Communications Commission.

By next May, all 1,300 commercial TV stations are required to transmit digital
signals, but the industry expects about one-third of those stations to miss the
deadline and seek extensions from the FCC.

EchoStar -- the No. 2 direct-broadcast satellite carrier, with 6 million subscribers --
is asking the FCC to deny waivers to the affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox unless
those stations agree to allow EchoStar to provide out-of-town digital-TV signals in
markets where the rollout has stalled.

'Under our proposal,' EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen said in a Sept. 20 letter to
FCC chairman Michael Powell, 'a broadcaster that fails to meet its digital deadline
would not be able to receive relief from the [FCC] while denying consumers digital
television.'

EchoStar said its proposal would serve the dual purpose of exposing consumers to
broadcast digital-TV signals and spurring TV stations to advance the build-out of
digital TV has quickly as possible.

'In other words,' Ergen explained, 'if the broadcaster will not provide consumers
with a digital signal, we will.'

The National Association of Broadcasters, which represents hundreds of network
affiliates, immediately rejected EchoStar's proposal. For years, the NAB has been
fighting satellite carriers that invade local TV markets with network programming
from out-of-town markets.

'Given the tremendous effort broadcasters have made and are making to meet the
DTV deadlines, Mr. Ergen's request is ridiculous on its face,' NAB spokesman
Dennis Wharton said.

the only news I can provide is that Ch 35 is still on the air (so KNME probably isn't any closer to getting on the air than they might have been had ch 35 gone off the air).

robert

I finnaly got a waiver from KRQE for the CBS HD feed!!! After being denied, I sent another E-mail to Bill Anderson (KRQE) asking he reconsider the denial based on my location in the mountains on northern NM and getting a very poor signal from the Eagle Nest translator. After waiting about 3 weeks with no reply from Mr. Anderson, I assumed that the denial was final.

Yesterday, I received a E-mail from Steve Laughrin (KRQE translator engineer) asking some guestions about my location in Angel Fire, NM. After I answered his questions he called me on the phone, asked a couple more questions about my exact location. He agreed that I could not receive an adequate signal at my location and reversed the denial and granted the waiver for the CBS HD feed.

It took some time on the phone with Dish and their unknowledgable CSR's to get the CBS channel. They first connected me to the CBS East channel. After about an hour of talking with Tom, the CSR, then his suppervisor, and finally a "Tech" engineer assigned to a special group to CBS HD problems, I got the CBS HD feed (WCBS).

It looks great!! Thank's Steve (KRQE) and Tom (Dish).


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blackjack

Dear Blackjack,

Glad you got CBS-HD. I guess I will have to move from ABQ to Angel Fire to get it. I guess they have SOME compassion here at KRQE-TV. Now if they can get off their butts so the people in ABQ could enjoy it then it would be great.

I am at least looking forward to HD from our local PBS station. Hopefully by Thanksgiving as someone said.

I am totally behind Dish Network's request to the FCC to now allow any station a waiver from the May,2002 deadline unless they allow their viewers the right to receive it from Dish. Their reasoning is that "if the locals can't provide HD signals to their people, then we will".

Just read that Starchoice is moving their feeds off F1 to E2 so today's SEC game will be the only one I'll receive until KRQE get's off the dime and get's their signal on the air. I really wanted to see LSU/Florida next weekend.

KAZQ is on the air - the only thing I've noticed is that they have gone off the air overnights (to a color bar).

Channel 35 (HSE) is still on the air so it looks like nothing is being accomplished on the HDTV construction front.

robert

I ran an OTA scan on my Dish 6000 receiver last night and no digital signals detected (great surprise). I also called a week or so ago Jim Gail, lead engineer at KNME, to ask him of the status of HD from them and he never returned my call. Such is life in Albuquerque.

A few days ago I received this reply from Bill Anderson to my very nice request for a waiver for CBS:



"Dear Horton,
I am sorry that I can not grant this permission. My parent company is in active negotiations with both the network and the satellite companies and unless and until that is resolved I do not have the lattitude to honor these requests. "

It sounds like something is happening! I hope we get some good news soon.

Cheers, Horton

Yes, KWBQ-TV is so much nicer now that they are on the crest. Broadcast quality video! It's so weird to now not only have the choice of WB on satellite but also off-air! I have been taping the WB programs off the dish due to video quality but that may change now that off-air is great.

Channel 61 - is the move to 39 due to the fact the 60-69 channels have been auctioned off to wireless companies and this is the migration going on to clear off channels 60-69?

as for HDTV update, I"m not as bummed out as I thought I'd be. CBS has only the NFL in HDTV that I care about, so I'm not missing KRQE-DT not being on the air. All the other networks I can get off the dish so I've been getting my HDTV fix that way. I'm very impressed at all the HDTV material ABC is putting out this season! I've been watching a few more shows I might not normally have been due to the fact that ABC has increased their material available in HDTV.

as for off-air HDTV, channel 17 is still active as well as channel 35 so I guess not much progress is being made to get those transmissions active. I just hope it's in the tower construction/equipment wiring stage.

Robert

I spoke with the "underwriting" person (Carole Ross) at KNME the other day. She said that they were well under way installing the transmitter, and should be on the air sometime in November. I'll try to find out something from Jim Gail too.

I'm trying to light a fire under someone at KNME to do a "Colores" HDTV production with the help of HDNet. Carole thought it was a good idea and sent me email addresses for the people at KNME who can make it happen.

Pete

I have been scanning every evening now from my Dish 6000 and nothing thus far. The broadcasters had great weather on the crest for the past several months to install their hardward. Hope I won't be hearing any sob stories from them about the recent weather and what may be coming up that it may be keeping them from going on-line.

I sent an email to the director of engineering at KNME yesterday. I'll post news when I hear from him. Hopefully he's spending his time on top of the Sandias with a wrench or torch or whatever they use!

Pete

[quote]Originally posted by N5XZS
[b]BTW, have you noted that KRQE-TV was carrying the KRON-TV and DT's Lobos game feed!


kinda neat if you are into upconverted HDTV broadcasts (the feed from albuquerque to san francisco was 4:3 525 line NTSC).


It's seems that KRQE-TV can't hired the local TV crew or even worse can


It seemed to me to be a problem of how to incorporate the KRQE logo into the graphic, so it was easier to just use KRON's graphic and run a KRQE bug in the lower left corner.

channel 35 still active so I wonder if KNME is going to use their DT on channel 25 (they still seem to have that channel according to my records). No other NM stations running HDTV yet but I'm at the point it doesn't matter much as I am enjoying the HDTV from NBC, PBS, and ABC and my favorite shows on CBS are not in HDTV.

robert

Great!

I called my son at home to check it out. Now I have to write them a check! Horton