Fort Smith, AR - HDTV - Page 107

Arkyman,
It's still worth a try. I consistently get K17DL, a puny 2.1kW station North of Branson. Here's their service contour. My house is near the orange pointer in the lower left corner of the map.

This map of the 24 signal from my website might be more useful than the contour. http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.p...=1392679&map=Y

- Trip

Anyone seeing K22HS-D in Eureka Springs? It's religious, probably just in SD, may not even be on the air. Figured it's worth asking though. http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.p...=1339727&map=Y

- Trip

Funny you should ask, Trip. I just looked through analog land yesterday, to see if K22HS analog was still around (it isn't). And K22HS-D is not there, either. I'm about 5 miles from the transmitter and can see the blinky red light from my house at night.


Good riddance to that station that has been nothing but trouble for people in this area. The analog station used to be on channel 18, which prevented anyone in this area from watching KFSM RF 18. After area residents including me, complained to the FCC, the station owner and KFSM (who knew nothing of the station's existence), the station moved to ch 22. Now, after going to all of that trouble, KSFM has removed Carroll County from their weather maps.

thanks for the maps. Doesnt look good on paper but you never know until you try. I give it a shot later and see if I can pull it in.

I live near Centerton and used to get 24.1/24.2 until some time around Feb. 2010 but have also started getting a strong signal again but I have not heard about any changes or upgrades.

I just got an email from KNWA. They have done no upgrades to KFTA 27/24-n, so any improvement is due to improved summertime propagation characteristics of TV signals. They also said that they have recently increased power at KNWA 50/51-n, so if you've never received that station in the past, try a rescan.

Anyone else having trouble with KHOG this morning.
Signal strength is 100% but no A/V.

Lightning tripped a circuit breaker at the Sunset (right next to KAFT's tower) microwave relay site and it ran on battery power until they drained. That site has no telemetry to let us know the breaker tripped. It took a while to get an engineer to the site.
Larry

Hey everyone,

I'm new to OTA TV and wondering why I have problems pulling KPBI and KNWA. TVFOOL says their transmitters are only 9 miles away from my house in Rogers, and I used to get them at 100% strength. Now I don't get KPBI at all, while KNWA fluctuates between 100% and 0% all the time, making picture and sound drop off constantly.
I have my antenna pointing south to pull KFSM and 40/29 (KHOG i think) because I feel I should be able to get KPBI and KNWL without pointing the antenna in their direction. That approach worked till about a few months ago.
Anyone have any suggestions what could be wrong?

KNWA recently upped their power, according to people at the station. Since your antenna is not pointed directly at the tower, it's possible that multipath (bounced signals off hills or buildings) are stronger now that they increased power. It that's the case, bounced signals that previously were too weak to interfere with the main signal, may now be strong enough to cause reception problems.

Another possibility: If you're using an antenna amp, it's possible that the increased power of KNWA + the amp is now causing over amplification and overloading your TV tuner.

Re: KPBI: A while back, I'm pretty sure they mucked with their PSIP data, the data that tells your TV what channel to display, what program is on, ratings, and other stuff. I think the PSIP data now has errors that some TV tuners cannot deal with. On two of my TVs, there is no longer picture or sound for this station. On another TV, there is video but no audio. Signal strength is fine on all TVs.

Getting in touch with anyone that works for KPBI seems to be impossible and I have given up on KPBI.

FWIW, I am just west of Eureka, and also 9 miles from these two stations' towers at Garfield. But 9 miles to the East.

Thanks for the info. I really don't care for KPBI programming, but figured i'd add it to the list of free tv channels I get with my antenna. What should I do about KNWA? I don't have an amplifier, and I bought my current antenna because it only picked up strong signals (green color code). Would an omni-directional antenna make matters worse or better? Or can I do something about my current antenna to make it work? My current antenna is a channelmaster 3010 on the eave of my roof.

To give an idea of what you're dealing with, signal-wise, please post a link to the TVFool results page based on your address.
http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?opti...pper&Itemid=29
Your address will not display on the results page.

I can't post the link until I've made 3 posts. I think this is my third so I'll post it right after this.
Thanks for your help. The KNWA problem really bothers me because I watch NBC and FOX alot.

Here's the link:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...2193bac611c775

Try aiming your existing antenna E/NE at KNWA, just to see if it works. If it does, gradually move it back toward the South until your other stations come in. If you're lucky, you'll find a sweet spot where all of your stations of interest come in, with the antenna aimed in one direction. Make sure your antenna is aimed correctly.


If no luck finding a sweet spot, you would likely do better with a conventional antenna. Try this first, though, and see if it works. It appears you also have a shot at getting NBC and some other stations out of Joplin (if they're still on the air). But that would require a better antenna and probably a preamp.

I'll give it a shot. What's a "conventional antenna"? Do you mean a set top?

No, a conventional outdoor antenna. More metal, less plastic. Like a yagi or a bowtie. Examples:
Yagi> http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=HD7694P
Bowtie> http://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master.../dp/B000FVVKQM

I use a bowtie antenna. With it, and a good low noise preamp like this one, you could probably aim it N/NE and get Joplin stations, plus the NWA stations to the South that you're currently getting.

But do the trial & error method first with your existing antenna. I suspect that with a bit of patience, you may luck out and find a sweet spot where you can get KNWA + the other NWA stations you're getting. I would start by aiming it to the East, then move it toward the South in 10° increments, to see if you can get all the stations reliably.

If that doesn't work, I would get the 8 bay antenna and preamp linked to above. Don't bother with a cheap walmart/homedepot amp. Most of them are junk.

I'll head up to my roof this weekend and reposition the antenna. I'll let you know how it goes.

I think what you suggested will work. I went up to the roof to see if I could get KXUN (ch. 34-2) to watch the Gold Cup (I'm a bit of a soccer fan). Pointing the antenna as much east as I could till it touched the wall roof (the antenna is mounted on the base of my A-frame roof) brought in KXUN and KNWA without the signal interruptions. The rest of the channels are coming in with very low signal strengths but I think rotating the antenna southward will find the sweet spot I need. I'll do that after the Gold Cup is over since I won't need Univision for much else after that.

Post back with your results.

I cant get 24. However, it is a very weak signal between 56-59 and I do get slight drop outs. I installed an antenna recently for my uncle who lives near Blue Mountain Lake (Yell county, Logan county line). Even without an amp, he gets 13.1-4, 24.1 & 2 and also 40.1 & 2. When I took down his old antenna, he was only getting 40.1 occasionally. Needless to say, he is very happy now that he has 8 channels to watch. His signal strength was very good on all channels. Hes probably about 10 miles closer to the F.S. area transmitters.

Location + a good antenna (and sometimes adding a preamp) make a huge difference. I get KFTA just fine here and I'm outside the predicted coverage area for it.

@Arkyman. I get KFSM and KHOG at 51% signal strength and they come in just fine without drop outs. I'm surprised you're experiencing drop outs with up to 59% strength.

@arxaw. Is an omni-directional better than a directional one in cases where towers are all over the place (like here in NWA)? Or will the problem I have with the powerful KNWA signal become even more pronounced? I guess I'd like to keep as many channels as I can if all it takes is the one-time purchase of an omni-directional antenna.

doskyis,
The % signal strength readout is only a reference number and varies for each type of TV. IOW, the signal % is meaningless when comparing ease of reception between brands. A more meaningful number is Signal to Noise Ratio. You typically need 15-16dB SNR to keep a lock on the digital signal. Most TV signal meters do not display SNR. Some Sonys do.

Generally speaking, omni antennas do not work well with DTV. They pick up signals equally bad in all directions, and cannot be aimed to ignore bounced signals that you don't want. Some TV tuners may work with an omni, while other TVs connected to the same antenna cannot keep a lock. I'm not saying it wont' work for you, it's impossible to tell without trying. But if you buy one, purchase it locally, so you can return it if needed.

I would first do the trial and error method of moving the antenna in small increments to see if you can find a sweet spot for good reception of all your channels.

Hey Trip,
FWIW, K22HS in Eureka Springs is back on the air now in ATSC SD instead of NTSC SD

Thanks for the update.

- Trip

Hey Im in Rogers AR and was hoping to install an antenna in the attic, and get ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. I was thinking of going with a 4 or 8 bow tie. Some think I am too close for the 8 bow tie, and that may over power my closer towers. But I want a shot at FOX. Anybody in the Rogers area have any luck? Or what say you Arxaw, I remember talking to you like 8 years ago and you were a great help then.

Generally, in Benton/Carroll counties, reliable KFTA FOX-HD is a stretch. And attic reception may really be a stretch. It's all in the elevation, the hills and how many are between you and their tower South of here.

For an idea of how much signal you're dealing with, post a link to the TVFool results for your address, back here in this thread.

Does anyone know if KFTA is broadcasting in HD? Im picking it up on QAM tuner, but no HD. Im getting everything else in HD but the one showing it is suppose to be HD is actually SD. 118.1