Charlotte, NC - OTA - Page 169

Crowders Mountain 045.JPG 1917k .JPG file

Here's a pic of the towers inside Crowders Mountain State Park. It was taken on Saturday (inside the park) on the summit off the Backside Trail. I just thought I'd post it for anyone interested in having a look.

I think several radio stations may use those towers in addition to WSOC RF30 translator.

WBAV-FM 101.9 and WSOC1-TV are the only broadcasters on the Crowder's Mtn tower...the other belongs to N&W and the other is a cell tower

I receive that V-101.9 radio station very clearly at my house, including the HDRadio version connected to rabbit ears. Just wish the FCC would allow WSOC RF30 to have a bit more power. And since that translator is designed to serve Shelby and areas west of Charlotte, I wonder if they could use a directional antenna that focuses a stronger signal in that direction at the same power level.

I haven't been up on Crowders Mtn. in about 10 years. At one time you could walk right up to those towers. Seems to me that years ago there was a Long Lines microwave tower there too, but it seems to be gone now. Looks like it might have been the shorter of the two towers.
Edited by blackcat6 - 9/2/12 at 3:39pm

There's more than one trail to the summit of Crowders Mountain; and there's more than one road access to the park. I took the Backside Trail (off of Linwood Road). But there's also the Tower Trail (off this same access road). The Tower Trail follows a gravel road to the broadcast/communication towers at the summit.

Did WCNC convert to HD for their news? I was flipping channels this morning and I hear kelly Patterson describing how nice the DNC convention arena with the beauty of HD. (or something like that)

WSOC seems to be having lots of audio problems with their arena news center.

I was coming on here to see if anyone else had noticed the WSOC issues. The live shots from the arena have left-only audio but the studio and taped shots are fine.

They said they are working on the audio issue. And not sure if WCNC is HD at the arena, but they are still SD in the studio.

It look like the WBTV 3 has a new studio set.

Their Satellite Uplink is only SD for the event.

They are broadcasting the news from the roof of their studio during the DNC, and it has a very nice view of the Charlotte skyline.

the W06AN translator is evidently only under construction. It is one of a number of translators being build for WLOS. Until they are on air, it will be impossible to determine what effect they might have on reception, either of the translator or other stations.

I notice that Bobby Sisk is back on WCNC.

I would rather watch WSOC than WLOS.

And the main 2 local stations I watch here are WYFF and WSPA.

I think he is just filling in this week on Charlotte Today. I was sorry when he left because he was one of their better anchors and reporters.

My Dad just told me that he is picking up WTBL-CD from Lenoir on channel 49. Is anyone else picking it up?

Where does he live and did he previously get their analog signal? I've been checking on their new digital signal for several weeks. Looking forward to trying it when I get home from work in about an hour. I can get their analog channel here SW of Morganton with about a 40% snowy picture.

Eric

I might try to pick it up from Huntersville once the leaves fall off the trees.

He lives just to the northwest of Patterson. The last time we checked their analog signal was in 2009, and that was with a weaker antenna. But, he was able to get a snowy picture from it back then.

Getting a decent WTBL signal - 66% where 58% starts the cliff effect on my tuner. I'm 15-20 miles from their tower, and my home/antenna are not in an ideal location to get the station. Therefore, I'm rather impressed.
But, I'm wondering if something is supposed to be on 49-2? There's only a blue screen, with interference lines near the top. There's also no program info on 49-1.

It sounds like you have one of the Dish Network converter boxes like my Dad has. He said WTBL was coming in at around 62% earlier this afternoon.

Is this WTBL a translator for TBN or some other programming?

I haven't picked up WTBL in almost a year since I moved from Lenoir. But, when I had it, they showed some programming from FamilyNet and a few local programs. They also showed newscasts and other local programs from WLNN-LP in Boone, which is ironically the only local OTA station for where I live now.

You're close - not a DISH converter box, but I have an OTA module in a 722k Dish sat receiver. However, these are poor tuners - least bit of interference and the picture is gone. This really wreaks havoc on the DVR feature of rewinding "live" TV, because if there's a break in the signal the DVR will not rewind past the signal loss. The built-in tuner on my Toshiba HDTV performs much better and maintains good audio/video even when the signal meter is barely showing a signal.

Last night there was a significant time delay (~couple of minutes) of ch. 58.1's coverage of the DNC (at least between 10:00pm and 11:30pm when I watched), compared to the apparently live coverage on 3.1 and 9.1. Does anyone know if the delay was a local decision by WUNG (UNC TV), or PBS policy. Either way, it sure seemed weird and begs the question, why?

as far as I know, there is no local decisions made at any of the UNC transmitter sites. All the UNC stations are on the same network. Part of the time disparities come from the need to acquire and retransmit the programs. There are time factors in sending from a location (such as Charlotte) to a network head, then through the network to the stations, which then has to acquire and transmit. In the case of the UNC network, there is at least an extra step in going through its own network.. Every once in a while, I'll cut on one TV before cutting off another, and if they are receiving the same program on different stations, same network, there will be a noticeable difference in when the sound and picture display. In the digital world, with untold numbers of buffers, there can be a BIG difference in when a "live" program is received. It is an antiquated notion that TV signals travel at the speed of light.. Electrons mat travel that fast, but today they hit a lot of speed bumps and stop lights these days.. Its possible that PBS was using an intentional time delay, also. I don't know about that.

Yep..as with a "Live" newscast on WCCB: 7 Second obscenity delay on production control. + over 1 second MPEG encoding & multiplexing delay..+4.5 seconds FOX Splicer delay...if via Time-Warner..another +4.5 seconds delay.. and a similar delay for Satellite.. It's not live, but it's not Memorex either..

DBS satellite will also have a natural delay due to the satellite being ~25,000 miles up. Since speed of electromagnetic waves is ~186,000 miles/sec then the 50K mile round trip adds a .27 second delay. If Dish or DirectTV is getting the original feed via satellite, then adding this delay too means more than 1/2 second delay before any of the above is added in. . Not a big deal for one way video but quite annoying if you try to hold a phone call over this type of connection.