Cedar Rapids, IA - HDTV - Page 156

Yes... Both KGAN & KFXA, which share the same facilities.

I checked Mediacom and they appeared fine there.

Everything cleared up now (just in time for me to watch my Steelers), but it was all locals for me.

The FCC has moved quickly in granting Quincy Newspapers construction permits for new translators in Dubuque, IA and Tomah, WI. The Dubuque translator will rebroadcast NBC affiliate KWWL/7 (Waterloo) in synchronous transmission on channel 7 with 300W. (11/10/2010)

I had trouble with D* up until the 8PM time slot, then everything was ok. Don't know what the problem was.

Anyone know what tower KWWL will use for the Dubuque repeater??

This one: http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrS...?regKey=105714

Thanks for your help. This is an unusual location for a repeater if they intend to help anyone living in the city of Dubuque?? They must be going after the St. Catherine market, or maybe St. Donatus. Maybe both!!

Dubuque lies in a valley and is largely blocked from KWWL's primary signal. See http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.p...=1362418&map=Y The translator is situated to cover that valley. See
http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.p...7&site=1&map=Y

I find it curious that they're using an on-channel repeater. It will be interesting to see how that works out for locations that will be able to get both signals.

I'm interested in that as well. I just read an article about it a few days ago and it sounds like a good receiver can likely deal with it fairly well, as long as the stronger signal reaches it first. The adaptive equalization in ATSC tuners doesn't like leading "echos", and the signal will appear to have echos in overlapping coverage areas. If it were my choice, I would avoid the on-channel repeater, but frequency congestion is a problem and it may have been hard to find a channel they could use.

I'd find it difficult to believe that "frequency congestion" would be an issue in east central Iowa...

I can believe it. The tri-state area is at the edge of our market (and has one station of its own), stations from Madison and the Quad Cities are close enough for some folks out there to watch, and La Crosse and Rockford are probably too close for comfort.

Believe it. It's hard to find an open channel in Eastern Iowa. Lansing and Decorah had their translator channels changed more than once due to interference issues.

Good news on the cable front: Sinclair and Mediacom have decided to spare us the drama as their one-year retransmission extension draws to a close -- they've reached a two-year agreement.

Source: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/art...trans_Deal.php

Still, reading that quote from the Sinclair guy, it's one of those compliments that is really a slam, like, well LAST time they weren't professional or reasonable, but at least during THESE negotiations... right.

So how much is my Mediacom bill going up from this "professional and reasonable approach Mediacom took in these negotiations"? I would gladly give up KGAN and KFXA to teach Sinclair a lesson, but unfortunately most of Mediacom's customers don't share this view. So Sinclair will continue to hold Mediacom customers as hostages.

It's not like MediaCom is a "good corporate citizen" or anything. Thirty bucks a month for less than 15 analog channels? The only Free HD that's offered is the locals, unless you pay for the "Digital" package ON TOP of the "Family Package", all for the low, low price of somewhere on the order of $75/mo?

It's a shame that ImOn isn't expanding faster. I don't think they'd actually cause MediaCom to lower their prices in competition, but at least with ImOn, I can get more than just locals in HD via QAM...

Mediacom already raised the price of "Family Cable" a couple months ago.


Nearly all of the non-broadcast HD stations are in fact part of the "Family Cable" package, not the optional "Digital Plus" package which are stations that are all in SD. Other than the premium movie channels, the only HD stations which cost extra beyond "Family Cable" are the three stations in their "HD Pak" (Universal, Smithsonian, and MGM). The non-broadcast HD stations are of course encrypted, though, so it is true you also need either their HD receiver/DVR or CableCARD(s) for one's TiVo/Moxi/HTPC.

I don't have a TiVo, Moxi, or HTPC. All of my QAM is done right inside of my XBR-960. With ImOn, I wouldn't need to subscribe to any special package or order any extra equipment to be able to get the non-broadcast stations in HD. That, combined with ImOn's price point, makes it a significant competitor to MediaCom; if they only had wiring run to more of the city...

I couldn't agree more. Mediacom badly needs some competition where I live (Marion). I had high hopes when ImOn took the cable business over from McLeod. They said they intended to complete the buildout that McLeod started. A couple years ago, ImOn did finish the construction of a hut in my neighborhood that McLeod had started and abandoned several years ago. But I don't see any evidence that it is building out the infrastructure to hook up individual residences. Has ImOn added any new service areas since they took over?

Yes two neighborhoods I know of for certain is Rolling Green in SW Cedar Rapids and also the area between Mt. Vernon Rd and Bever from about 24th St to Memorial Drive.

As for Marion, I have no idea if ImOn has a franchise agreement with the city of Marion so that may be why they're not building anything out in that area yet. I thought I had heard a rumor that they were going to be using a company in Marion for all their CLEC phone services so that could explain the new fiber closet they installed (if you're around 10th St and 10th Ave).

Was KFXA (Fox) off the air last night?

Gazette: Mediacom to shut off analog channels above 22 in Linn, Johnson and 7 other counties in March

http://thegazette.com/2011/01/19/med...digital-cable/

It's been talked about for years as viewers clamor for more HD; now it's finally starting to happen.

Too bad it doesn't include any more HD than it did before. As your tagline said, they're shutting off analog cable; they're taking away service, and charging more for it (regardless of whether or not the STBs are "free")

I, personally, use analog cable to quickly scan through the local channels, as they are a) logically and numerically ordered, unlike their QAM assignment counter-parts, and b) tune MUCH faster than switching digital channels. Once I find what I want to watch, I'll flip over to the digital, HD version of the local (except for KWKB; their HD QAM feed is completely screwed up about 95% of the times that I switch to it).

There goes Fox News, the silent, black-and-white-but-still-watchable ESPN, and some of the 75-80 channels, all of which came through with the filter in place.

I honestly think that this is their way of clamping down on all of the subscribers who only pay $30/mo for the 17 analog channels but whose filters had been removed for cable internet, netting them channels 23-80 for "free" (as if $30+/mo for 50 analog-only channels is even a bargain).

Mediacom's clearQAM implementation in Grinnell at my parents' isn't that bad. The Des Moines locals' (5, 8, 11, and 13) HD variants are on 5.1, 8.1, 11.1, and 13.1. Most of the clearQAMs are at least clumped together so that you can channel surf them relatively easy (albeit much slower because they are digital and take time to initially decode).

I wish ImOn would use PSIP or whatever technology is used to remap RF channels to more logical channel numbers. Right now the locals and everything else they offer in the clear is scattered all over the place in a seemingly random fashion and challenging to use without cheat sheets. Digital channels are intermixed with analogs to where channel surfing is a pain.

Hopefully MediaCom will do the same in CR after they kill off analog. The locals right now are on 114.x-116.x, with PBS showing up on 11.1, .2, and .3. Luckily for me, my TV has a "favorite channel" list that I can pull up at the touch of a button to grab one of the local HDs via QAM, because I doub't I'd be able to (or even care to try to) memorize the assignments. The variation with PBS actually makes my analog surfing mode about as cumbersome as it sounds like ImOn has been, but I am loathe to block PBS-HD from my lineup.

Most people would suggest that removing FOX News is doing you a favor.

As for the rest of your comment, the channels are not going anywhere. If you get them today, you'll get them after 3/1 they'll just be in ClearQAM. This has nothing to do with signal theft, this has to do with freeing up bandwidth on the line. If your line is trapped for basic, then you'll still get basic channels. If someone has removed the trap from their line, then after the conversion they'll still get the same channels. Also there are traps that can block expanded but let the HSI through. The HSI in this area is at 111MHz downstream, which is within the basic lineup... (between channels 6 and 7 if I remember correctly).

If that's the case, then I sincerely hope that they re-map all of the QAM channels to logical channel assignments.

I doubt that too many people are going to want to have to re-learn the entire channel lineup, especially if they're all on some variation of 5x.yy.

"So, wait, Discovery used to be 29, and now it's 51.11, and A&E used to be 30, but now it's 54.11? And History was 60, but now it's 54.13???"

http://mediacomcable.com/order/chann...ar_rapids.html

I'll give MediaCom the benefit of the doubt about that part for now, but I won't be surprised if they leave the QAM assignments on whatever channel the random-number-generator assigned them to.

Their FAQ claims that this change will allow them to bring customers more HD channels and more digital channels, but that you will still need a CableCARD or premium STB and pay for an HD package in order to receive any HD other than the locals. As long as they continue to lock out the HD versions of the Family Cable package, even after the transition to all-digital, they'll remain "MediaCon" in my every day conversations.

Is it Mediacom's (or any other cable co) right to send out licensed content from Disney, Viacom, TBS, Discovery, FOX, etc., unencrypted to our homes? Are you saying they have permission to do so, but just choose to encrypt regardless?

Given that ImOn leaves all of the HD versions of their package channels in the clear on QAM, I would imagine that MediaCom has permission but chooses to encrypt it, for whatever reason they came up with (which, as has been seen in their other dealings, can easily be attributed to greed, rather than incompetence).

Or ImOn is breaking their contracts with every single content provider.

However, considering that ImOn only provides it to their paying customers, I don't see how it would be any sort of "licensed content" issue, any more than it's a "licensed content" issue for ImOn or MediaCom to charge introductory customers one rate, long-standing customers another rate, schools yet another rate, etc, and filter out or not filter out the analog-SD versions of those same exact channels.

So, I'd put my money on the former, not the latter.

As far as I can tell, ImOn has done a very nice job of providing clearQAM for a lot of desirable channels (more than just locals). Bravo! A very happy customer.