Abilene, TX - HDTV - Page 38

I finally got a chance to call and their chief engineer that I had talked to many times has resigned due to family health issues. I spoke with his assistant and he doesn't know the transmitter upgrade timetable so hope for February. I did report your issue to him and he did say he would investigate and correct.

KXVA is somewhat of a unique situation. Their master control is located with KIDY in San Angelo. From there it goes to Suddenlink in Abilene via fiber then they relay the signal via fiber to the transmitter. So it's possible that the problem may be with Suddenlink.

I think they are looking for a new CE. Any takers?
-ML

Cable companies (as in Suddenlink) have no control over the HD/SD switching of the various networks they have in their lineup. Having said that, beyond KXVA being asleep at the switch on numerous occasions...KTXS is wasting their time by showing a big Hollywood blockbuster like "POTC At Worlds End" until they figure out how to run weather alerts with the HD feed. KTAB/KRBC don't seem to have a problem with it..

Yup, KTXS really has a problem here. It's something to do with the equipment they have not being able to do the weather alerts with HD. Wasn't that big of a deal when they were the only local HD in town but it really stands out now. Has pretty much ruined several of their broadcast events. I think the people that run that station must only have SD at home and not really understand how important the difference is.

Hi all,
I have a few questions about the OTA locals. I will be doing somework around Brownwood and was wondering if anyone , on this forum, is receiving networks that far without a problem. I am also curious to know what type of antenna(s) ones are using .

Thanks,,

Carl

I am in Brownwood (in town), and I have the largest Radio Shack antenna with a signal booster/FM trap (also from Radio Shack). I get KTAB really well, KXVA is hit and miss, occasionally I get KRBC, and extremely rarely I get KTXS. I have it about 20' up. I once raised it to 30', but it didn't improve anything.

I am told that Radio Shack antennas are not that good, so perhaps you could do better with a different one. I'm not going to spend any more money on my setup though.

I bet if you are at the lake (out of the Brownwood "hole"), you might get them all very well.

When I first decided to put up an antenna, I contacted a local company that does professional installation. The guy told me that there was no way I would ever get even one station in town, no matter how high the tower was. I was intent on proving him wrong, so I bought all the stuff at Radio Shack and did it myself.

shy_guy,
Thanks for the information.
I won't be near the lake, but on the south east side about 15 miles out. I was in the area last week looking around to see what others were using for antennas. It seems to be a mix.
Are you having any RF or TI interference ?
I was really looking at getting a Winegard 8200u since there is enough room and I won't be in the city. Don't know if that would be over kill but I just don't want to get an antenna that is not strong enough for the lesser power.
I'm going to use a Pansat 9200HD with a built in ATSC tuner. I have used it in other cities and seems to be very stable. I can also use it for C/Ku fta reception.

Carl

Anybody else having trouble with KXVA Fox (OTA) in the last week or so? Seems to be "freezing" randomly - is certainly going to interfere with watching "24" if it doesn't get better!

I've never had a problem with 'freezing' but I do appear to lose signal for a moment or two a couple of times an hour despite normally having relatively strong signal. It may be the way my equipment handles the 'freezing' thing you're seeing. However, I've had this issue ever since they went digital.

I mostly use OTA but I also get this issue if using the Satellite feed from Dishnetwork at the same time it occurs OTA.

Yep - watching Cowboys game getting a "searching for signal" message - have checked signal strength - and it is in the upper 80's - don't know what is going on with this...

I think it has something to do with the cheapy low power transmitter they're using. I don't think there's anything you can do about it regarding antenna and signal strength because Dishnetwork loses the signal as well at the same time. Suddenlink probably doesn't lose it though because I think they use a direct link that bypasses the transmission.

They're going to eventually have to update that transmitter to a high power one to comply with the FCC requirements of their coverage area. When that happens, I'm sure it will be fixed.

I'm a 24 fan as well and was frustrated with the issue when they first went HD last year but it is WAY better than their crappy SD signal even with the occasional signal drops.

Thanks - sure doesn't fix it, but at least makes me feel better to know that it's not an equipment problem on my end that is causing the problem! Yes, I agree, it is still much better than the SD signal that they used to have...

This is normal for KXVA. I'm surprised people are just now talking about it.

Again, I think that as long as KXVA keeps getting an extension on putting in their higher powered transmitter they simply won't do anything about it. My guess would be the only thing that might work would be a petition to the FCC which says that KXVA is not serving their viewing area. Just a thought.

We got into 24 when we lived in another market but I swore I wouldn't get into a series on Fox until KXVA went HD otherwise I might have gotten interested in the Sarah Conner Chronicles. I think you're better off just renting 24 anyways. Waiting a week for the next episode can be tortuous.

The signal drops annoy me but not to the point of ruining the program. I can expect it to drop once during an episode of 24 and it doesn't ever last more that about 2 seconds.

So, KXVA 15.1 (OTA) went dark on me about 2.5 weeks ago, all the other channels are fine. I talked to a tech at KXVA and he said they made some changes around that time. Told me I needed to rescan and it would be fixed. He said there was also a 15.2/.3 as well and that some people have had to add those.

I use Windows Media Center under Windows 7 and I have rescanned and it does not change still nothing. I would delete the whole channel but I can't find a way to do it, just disable it.

I tried to add 15.2 but 7MC wants the frequency and I have not had any luck finding that info.

Anyone have any ideas?

Really? No one else seems to be able to get a hold of anyone there.


This part makes me think you're talking about KTXS. Anyway, I'll go and see if I can't pull in these 15.2 and .3 stations just to see.

Edit: Tried all three of my digital scanners and none are showig a 15.2 or .3. I do get 15.1 with better than 80% signal so I'd say that .2 and .3 are not there.

Thanks for the info tigepilot. The guy I talked to today was nice and told em to call him back if I had any problems but of course I could not work on it till tonight.

It is definitely KXVA 15.1. When I have Media Center show the signal strength it shows all but one notches like it has good signal. But when I try to watch that channel 7MC says no signal available. The tech said it is seeing signal but it is not actually a TV signal it can show. Had something to do with the changes they made, I can't remember what he said it was. They changed from one type of signal to another getting ready for a more powerful broadcast (he did not know when it would go live).

Does anyone know how to completely delete a channel from 7MC? Or how to edit the frequency and so forth for a channel?

Does anyone know the frequency for 15.1 (7MC only has 2 digits for it when it asks for it)? Maybe I can add it in manually but when i add a channel it wants the 15.1 then it wants a frequency. I found this thread looking for it.

Used guidetool to delete the channel then rescanned and it works fine now. Seems stupid 7MC has no way to delete a channel.

I live in Abilene, and I am having a problem like that with my tivo and my hd tv. The tivo shows 80% signal on 15.1 but just a black screen, no audio or picture. So apparently my tivo and tv can't use the signal it is receiving. When faux first went digital I could get the channel, but when they went hd I stopped getting a signal. I can get 15.1 on the analog tv in my bedroom with a digital converter box.

I am having the exact same problem with my tivo and 15.1. If I bypass the tivo, the tuner in my tv will pick up the signal, but the tivo gets nothing.

I think I read somewhere that the various DVRs don't have as good of a tuner than most TVs. I know I have an easier time picking up stations with my TV tuner than my Dish Network DVR but I'm close to the transmission towers and have a good size antenna ta boot so I can get them either way.

Yes, I've rescanned several times, with no luck. It's probably as tigepilot said, the tuner in the tivo is just not as sensitive as the one built into my tv. For now, it looks like I'll have to watch my fox programs live, commercials and all.

I know I responed several months back but here is a little update.

This past weekend I was in the Brownwood area and installed the Winegard HD 8200u antenna on a 10ft poll using the ATSC tuner from the Pansat 9200HD .
At 10ft there was no signal so I added another 10ft section and a Winegard 8275 preamp in the room next to the receiver. Actual height up is about 17 ft.
On the firts scan I was able to pick up Telemundo out of Kileen/Austin both channels on signal and quality were at 100%.
Then, I rotated the antenna and did a rescan and was able to get 2 channels.
KCWX SD & HD from San Antonio!!!!!!!! Signal & Quality were at 100%
No pixelation on any of the 4 channels , even though the weather was not that great.
Then, I rotated it again and was able to pick these up:

KLST PBS San Angelo Quality & Signal 69%
KXVA FOX Abilene Quality & Signal 80%
KTAB CBS Abliene Quality and Signal 80%.

On the 2 Abilene stations I was able to get 100% quality & signal but lost the San Angelo station. So by adjusting the antenna I was able to receive all 3 channles but lowering some of the reception. However, there was no pixelation on any of the 3.
In the weeks ahead I will probably go up another 5 or 10 ft to see I can pull more channels in. I know what you mean about Brownwood being in a hole but even on the outskirts it can be worse.
Would like to know if other have had any better results.

Carl

Anyone know why KXVA 15.1 is off air? I noticed it last night but just figured they were having technical problems. Noticed it's still off air tonight.

Yes I have noticed, on the tv I can usually get faux, I have not been able to get 15.1 for 2 days. I was at a friends house and he can't get fox on dish network either. KXVA is not good at getting information out so one can only speculate. My hope is they are upgrading the transmitter and going full power.

I can get Fox KXVA HD on cable but cannot get it over the air.