Abilene, TX - HDTV - Page 34

Just did another channel scan....still didn't pick up ESPN HD on 68.1 and now I can't even tune it in manually. Is it still there for you guys? Also, I found the following channels have been moved:

KTAB CBS- 710
KXVA FOX- 706
KRBC NBC- 705
KTXS ABC- 704
and for some unknown reason..
BRAVO- 116.1
Weather- 89.7

And then the usual standard def duplicates of the locals (for who knows what reason) and the worthless (to me) shopping networks, religious channels and spanish language channels. If what pabel was saying a few posts back is true then we should be getting everything duplicated on digital channels soon...but it hasn't happened yet apparently.

SO i did a FULL rescan on both of my samsung tv's. here's my results:
on my newer samsung: i found channels that listed in the 700's, like espn, tnt-hd, locals AND other HD channels on lower numbers, bravo, cnbc
my OLDER samsung apparently can't read channels in that high 700 range, SO, i get only BravoHD an CNBC-HD(meh). I LOST ALL MY HD-LOCAL CHANNELS!!! what the heck is going on?!?! i did go home and try 68.1 on both my tv's, and the newer samsung went directly to 733 espn, however, the older one just couldnt catch the signal!! CRAP!!! nothing!!

I have a newer Panasonic plasma that supposedly has a good QAM tuner but it won't pick up ESPN HD for some reason. I'll have to dig my standalone Samsung DTB-H260F out of the closet and see what it does..

I wish Suddenlink would just give us what they are going to give us and leave it at that...this constant switching around to confuse QAM users is getting tiresome.

Ok, came home for lunch today..didn't feel like doing another channel scan (takes a while) but I found this just by punching in numbers directly starting with 700

ESPN HD- 720
TNT HD- 733
I don't understand why these won't lock-in from a scan...signal strength is good and the PQ/audio is as good as the locals in HD which do lock in...maybe they have a way of keeping it from getting flagged during a channel scan? I don't expect these to be around for long...or at least moved at some point. Even though I rarely wear a tinfoil hat, I wouldn't put it past S-link to monitor forums (using a name search) such as this to see what their customers have discovered using QAM tuners...maybe we should keep our findings to private messages from now on?

I am not sure why all the channels are skipping and then it goes off, and then maybe comes back on again. This is crazy. nbc is off the air. We have old tv's with a cecb. This really stinks. I wonder if it is going to be like this forever. Just a couple of days ago ktxs was in perfect, now it skips. Anyone have advice.?

We need '93geo' or somebody to explain the KTAB/KRBC situation. I caught the tail end of a story on KTXS 'dead at five' and they said KTAB is on over the air 12.3 to do a rescan. I missed what problems exactly KTAB/KRBC is having.

There's a message about it on the bigcountry website but I don't think they know yet what is wrong with it. The fact they bothered to put KTAB on 12.3 and are putting the San Angelo NBC on Dishnetwork makes me think it's pretty serious and that we may be stuck with this arrangement for some time.

Good thing the big May sweeps are ALMOST over.


By the way 93geo, my previous statements weren't meant to be taken as a personal attack at 'you'. The 'you' was meant to be a reference to KRBC/KTAB in general... didn't like the timing.

This is serious, a broadcast station that can't broadcast is in big trouble. This time there is no analog to fall back on, so I hope for their sake it's not going to take six months to fix this problem. This is new technology, and some bugs should probably be expected, but KRBC/KTAB are really having a time of it. I hope we get some details today about what the heck is wrong, and how long they are going to be off air.

I guess some of us are having the same problem. I just wonder why KTXS suddenly started skipping. What a complete mess.. I am glad to pick up CW. It is 12.2 which offers some good shows to watch.

I wouldn't exactly say that digital transmission is a new technology...it was standardized years ago in North America and congress mandated a cutoff date shortly thereafter. Some stations were better prepared than others....those who put off dealing with it are now paying the price of not having an analog backup. Funny how KXVA was the one station everyone was worried about not too long ago..

Since I have Suddenlink cable I haven't really been affected by any of this...but they do keep switching the digital channels for locals, we had digital duplicates of nearly all channels at one time and now we only have a few random (and mostly worthless) cable networks plus ESPN HD, CNBC HD and TNT HD..but who knows for how long. Maybe by this time next year everything will be settled and straightened out no matter if you have Dish/Direct, Suddenlink or only use OTA.

The bigger problem is that a lot of stations don't have backup facilities yet. Whereas with analog there might be a whole backup plant on a different tower or on the same tower with duplicate equipment, that hasn't been done with digital equipment yet for multiple reasons, including cost, weight of extra antennas on the tower could compromise structural integrity, etc..

Once the digital is the only way to get the signal out, more stations will put in backups for it.

- Trip

Well, as of 6:25pm TNTHD is still up so Suddenlink basic users can watch The Bourne Supremacy or Tomb Raider Cradle of Life in HD tonight if you like. There is little chance that Suddenlink isn't aware these aren't scrambled so I wouldn't expect it to last long....maybe even mid movie.

edit- mamoji or anyone else find anything I missed? I'm still going to do a scan every few days to see if what pabel told us is true...he did mention June as a target date for everyone to get digital duplicates iirc.

What is with KXVA and this Rangers game? I am trying to watch the Angels/Rangers game, and when it starts after a 90 minute rain delay, they cut it off and on with commercials and the Mets/Giants feed. It is now 30 minutes into the game and I have not seen the Rangers game since. It is really making me mad. I try to call them and all I get is a message saying that their voice mail is full.

What type of morons run that station? I have never seen such an incompetent group of people try to run a business.

If anyone who works at KXVA sees this, I demand an apology.

You aren't the only one that was miffed about that. It's called laziness...original broadcast was rain delayed so they switched to another (apparently random) game and never bothered to check if the original game had resumed. Oh, and...you won't recieve an apology or anything else from KXVA..trust me on that one.

Yeah, I trust you on that. I don't know how many times I tried e-mailing KXVA about something to see that their e-mail still does not work. Ugh..

So, was it KXVA's fault or FOX's fault? I'm nearly 100% sure it was KXVA, but what is weird is that they switched to the Angels/Rangers game, had the introduction with announcer guys, I saw the first couple of pitches, and then the game was interrupted by commercials. At the end of the commercials, it went to the Mets/Giants game.

I just don't get why they decided to show the beginning of the Angels/Rangers game, only to cut it off. Whoever made the mistake, they made a big one.

At least the Rangers won. Really would had liked to have seen it though.

The reason why is they only got about 2 pitches in before the rain delay...can't fault KXVA for that, but they should have had someone monitoring and switched back when they resumed play.

Hello all....this is the first chance I've had to get on here, and I know ya'll have tons of questions.

Unfortunately, I don't have very specific answers...I work in the News Dept., and while I'm the stations' primary and most-experienced ENG (Electronic News Gathering) live truck operator, I don't always get the lowdown on the Engineering dept. stuff.

From what I understand, here's the problem: While (thankfully) our multimillion-dollar ATSC transmitters are fine, the transmission lines going up the broadcast tower on Hwy 36, and possibly even the broadcast antenna array itself, are fried.

As a journalist, I really don't want to speculate on any causes, because only the facts are the facts, and I don't know the facts.

However, it's looking like "weeks" before the problem is fixed, though there may be a "duct-tape-and-bailing-wire" solution in the interim. I can guarantee that this is one of Nexstar/Mission's priorities, and all of the companies' resources are being devoted to it. Each hour that we're off the air is thousands of dollars of revenue lost.....

Compounding the problem, though, is that the 1,000' broadcast tower for KSNF, Nexstar's NBC station in Joplin, MO, collapsed during a severe thunderstorm on May 8. The goal is for them to be back on the air within 30 days, but, unlike here, their Mission sister station has seperate broadcast facilities. This situation is also consuming vital company resources.

For whatever reason, KTXS has chosen to air KTAB's ota signal on 20.3, instead of Telemundo. From what I understand there's no financial deals involved, but I heard an unconfirmed rumor that we helped out KTXS when they had transmitter issues decades ago, so they're repaying the favor.

And to keep KTAB on Dish Network, we're utilizing two of our "live trucks." One van is at the station, wired into master control, and sending the signal via digital microwave to the other van, located at Dish Network's Abilene headend....the signal is then piped directly into the Dish system. The signal is only SD, however. While the digital microwave infrastructure in all of our vans is HD-upgradeable, we currently have no need (or funding) to do HD live shots. That's still a few years down the line.

I'm not sure where exactly Dish's local facility is, but the live van's microwave dish is pointing due east of the t.v. station. KRBC is currently being replaced by San Angelo's KSAN on Dish Network. We would need one more microwave truck (we only have 3, which is 3 times more than KTXS, but they do have a locally-based satellite truck...ours is in Lubbock) in order to get KR's signal to Dish. Plus, we need at least one van free to do normal news live shots.....

Fortunately for me, as a Suddenlink HD customer, both stations have direct, digital fiber connections to the cable company, so my home viewing experience isn't affected

I'll try to keep ya'll updated.

Uggghhhhh. I was wondering if someone could give us an estimate of how much time might go by before we would see the return of full signal power, that's not good news. I rely completely on off air antenna for TV, and the lack of stability in the KRBC/KTAB broadcast transmission has been disappointing. With that said though, I think it was absolutely the right decision to end the analog a month early and move on. Stands to reason there will be hiccups in the transition to digital, but it seems you all have had more than your share of trouble. Please let us know if you get any word about when the stations will be back to full power. Also, I'm curious as to cause of the current problem. Thank you very much for your insight, and you posts here.

Upon further testing by the tower crews and our engineers, the antenna array itself is not damaged. That's the best news possible!

It turns out it's just the transmission lines going up the tower, from the transmitters to the antenna. They're completely fried, but I don't know how or why.

The good news: Our engineers think they can re-route the now-dormant transmission lines that fed KTAB's analog antenna to get both stations back on at lower power, much like things have been for most of this year. They hope to have this completed in the next couple of days!

However, it's "unclear" when new digital transmission lines will be installed and/or repaired, and we're back at 100% power. That's the part that could take weeks....

I know those that rely solely on OTA broadcasts are quite upset....I would be, too. And believe me, our engineers and station managers are furious that we've had such trouble the last several months. Broadcast systems are designed to operate at full power 24/7, 365, for decades on end. This fiasco has really been a black eye on us, but it just happened....none of it was caused by "cost-cutting" or using cheap parts.

Both stations' Acrodyne transmitters are top-of-the-line, and are identical to KTXS's. Even large-market stations rely on the same Acrodyne ATSC transmitters. Hopefully, we'll get past this.....and get back to business as usual.

I'd also like to address the issue of having backup transmission systems. 99% of smaller-market stations don't have them. Why? Because they're prohibitively expensive, especially in this day and age. Stations our size have anywhere from $1 to $5 million dollars invested in their DTV broadcast infrustructure. To have a backup system would cost another $1 to $5 million. It's basically duplicating everything....two transmitters, two antennas, etc. It's not going to happen here, ever.

KRBC did have a backup analog transmitter, which came in quite handy when the primary was out. The "backup" was the original GE tube transmitter installed in 1953. In 1979 the station replaced it with a space-age Harris transmitter (still tube-based, though), but the GE was left in place as the backup.

KTAB never had a backup transmitter, since its analog system was a near-identical Harris transmitter also installed in 1979. KTAB did install emergency generators at both the station and transmitter sites during the 1980s, so the station could keep broadcasting during power outages at either location, but they fell into disrepair and are now scrap metal. I have no earthly idea why Nexstar hasn't installed new emergency generator systems, but whatever (actually I do know why, because it costs money, which is quite limited).

Anyway, we'll get through this.....eventually

Darn it. Knew it was too good to be true. Went to watch Monday night Baseball on ESPNHD (68.1). Now it's encrypted.

As of 7pm, both stations are back up on 9.1 (29.1) and 32.1 (24.1)!

We're not at 100% power, but the engineers say we have about 90% market coverage.

Both stations are also back on Dish Network, but right now only in SD. The Dish HD should be switched on sometime this evening.

I'll have more news as it becomes available.

LOL, right after the season finally of Survivor! Oh well. My wife is still into Harpor's Island which is still airing new shows I believe so she'll be happy. After that, there's not much we watch on broadcast TV so you can take your time throughout the summer as far as we're concerned.

OH WAIT!!! I forgot... NBC moved the rest of 'Kings' to the summer. I'll be watching that. Good show.

93geo, I think I know who you are....

Congrats on the (temporary) fix! I've been there, and I know how it is when something isn't working at full power. Everyone needs to remember to thank the engineers. Too many people want to complain when something isn't working, yet nobody wants to thank the engineers when it's fixed.

Tell them 'good job' from me, and good luck getting the rest of it worked out.

Yes, the engineers, whether they're in t.v. or radio, and even former photogs, are awesome

Yes, Huge thanks to the engineers for busting their tails and getting everything back up and running. If it's not up to full power, you could have fooled me, I'm getting a strong signal here in Sweetwater, (92% to 99%). Occasionally there is some chop, but there always has been a little, especially during daytime hours, but it's never been enough to be terribly annoying. What a beautiful HD picture on both of those channels, nice to have it back.

Yup, it's gone..along with TNT HD. I guess my prediction of a turn-off right before the first Monday night football game was a little too optimistic. Call me paranoid if you will, but the next time something like this pops up on a channel scan, I won't mention it here...I'll try to remember who the Suddenlink basic people are and use PM's instead.

Looks they did get around to responding to that. This is what I got:

"I wanted to let you know I got an update concerning KXVA Abilene FOX. We are trying to get the provider to change the TSID number they are using.
Until this is done the guide information unfortunately will be wrong."

Today I wasn't able to locate ANY of the local HD channels on Suddenlink. I couldn't pick them up on the old numbers (like 102.1) or the new locations (705.0)

I have tried rescanning. With my built-in TV digital tuner I found NBC on 11.1 and CBS on 11.2, but it appears ABC and FOX are gone.

Is anyone else having the same problem?

I am getting very frustrated with this "hide-and-seek" game Suddenlink is playing. They are about to permanently lose a loyal customer who never switched to Dish but is about to.

A channel rescan on my TIVO HD (which I bought purposely to record HD) forced a reset of the channel list and that wiped out ALL my scheduled recordings (which had to be manually entered because the guide, season passes, etc. doesn't list the local HD channels program information since they aren't on the basic channel lineup Suddenlink provides!)

I also can't go over-the-air because where I am located in Sweetwater all I can pick up are KTXS and subchannels (12.1, 12.2, 12.3) no KRBC/KTAB/KXVA. (I have no idea if it is tree problems, wind-turbines, or just general location, but I have tried a 25 foot high digital all direction antenna and can't lock in anything other than KTXS.)

jkents-
Everything seems to be back now except for KXVA FOX. Suddenlink has a history of moving the digitals around for some unknown reason..maybe to confuse QAM users..who knows. I'm willing to give them a benefit of a doubt this time and just call it some kind of technical glitch since the stations came back to the channels they were before the outage.

sooooooo to the previous posts
i just went to suddenlink and was informed that they will be doing some 'testing' and if i were to do a scan i may find some temporary extra channels and or channels that have been moved....