Chicago, IL - OTA - Page 367

I hadn't noticed them in "Napoleon Dynamite," except one case where a spoiled rich character voiced a prejudice in passing.

I noticed alot more than that, there's gotta be something we can do to stop this.

I set up my antenna last night and I'm getting good reception on most channels, but CBS. I live about 50 miles NW of Chicago. I'm using a powered, directional antenna in my attic. Getting it on the roof isn't an option for me. I haven't played a lot in pointing the antenna, but it's facing SE. The line is split in a 3 way splitter to get to my three tvs. I get OK reception on one tv, but not the others.

Help....

Start by identifying your specific antenna. If you have a UHF-only antenna, you won't get WBBM's wimpy VHF signal that far out and you'll need to add a VHF antenna to the mix.

As for reception on the other two TVs, do you have an amplifier (other than the powered antenna) of some sort in line before the splitter? If not, that's your problem there. A signal splitter is a passive circuit (that is, takes no external power) and therefore actually weakens the signal, since it splits the signal's power three-ways.

The line comes from the antenna to the amp that the antenna came with. From there it travels from my attic to my basement and is split and fed to my three tvs. Could I replace the splitter with an amp that has three outputs?

Replacing the splitter with an amp might work, but, now that you describe your setup, it sounds like it could also be line loss. The solution to line loss, besides moving the TVs, would be to put an amplifier in line closer to the antenna. If you can find a 3-way amp with a good return policy, try it first. Either way, it should help some, even if it's line loss.

What antenna do you have? It needs to be a multi-element VHF and UHF antenna. Channel Master CM-3018 or 3020, or Winegard HD7084P or HD8200U, or similar models from Radio Shack may be good for your application.

Insert a Winegard AP-8700 or a Channel Master 7777 preamp between the antenna and the splitter. Preamps are better than the distribution amps since they amplfy the signal at the antenna and have a low noise figure. The box like amps you plug next to your TV may have 7 dB more noise. Noise is bad! Make sure the coax you are using is RF-6 quad shield. Make sure the splitter is rated to 1 GHz.

Make sure the antenna is far away from metal structures such as conduit, gutters, etc. Metal near an antenna is also bad. That's about as good as you can do. Good luck.

Most people find that only high-VHF is needed in conjunction with a UHF antenna for Chicago unless you happen to find WOCK of interest. At 50 miles out, it isn't likely to be readily receivable anyway. In most cases, low-VHF simply isn't needed.

There is no need to use quad shield in almost all cases with an antenna unless you're in a very electrically-noisy environment. "Standard" RG6 is usually just fine.

Anyone think the PQ got better on 5.1 now that 5.3 is gone ?

I don't really know if they did anything otherwise - I can only answer that it doesn't appear any different to me.

The usual pattern is that a station will keep that subchannel slot open, once it's been allotted for, and something else will eventually pop up in it's place.

Well I did a rescan of on my tv and 5.3 is gone so I don't think the channel is on hold

Anyone know if and which station is sending out the signal to auto set the time and date
In the analog days I think wttw was the one sent that signal!?

Actually, all digital stations are supposed to have a time signal now, AFAIK. It's a bit fun on something like the Zenith DTT, which just uses the currentl channel's clock. It can change going from channel to channel!

Well the date and time has never been right on my tv

It is currently displaying a date of 2/28/08 and 7:06 am. Time
And the menu set is to auto set

So i dont know what's going on

AND a number of channels have already gone into daylight savings mode
which has the dtt-901 psip showing wrong program info

kd9fz
comments, criticisms and questions of sanity are always welcome

I never obliterated it from my channel list, and it's still registering the same signal strength as the other two WMAQ subs.

Telos on 25.2 seems to have gone black and silent, even though 25.1, 25.3, and 25.4 are coming in clearly.  Also, something is amiss with WOCK-LD's PSIP, because now 13.1, 13.3, and 13.4 have disappeared and the only channel tunable is 13.2.

The WOCK's were also missing from Comcast. They are back, but one has a big text message saying the broadcaster is having problems. Not certain if that's Comcast or WOCK (which I can never really pick up with an antenna.)

Is it an outdoor antenna? If not, then don't expect to pick it up with rabbit ears. My Aunt Dawn barely picks up WLS-TV on RF 7 with her rabbit ears, but doesn't pick up WBBM-TV with the same rabbit ears.

If your antenna is an outdoor antenna, is it the old fashioned all channel element antenna? If so, then is there a pre-amp on the antenna? You typically don't need a preamp for Chicago stations, but for WOCK-CD, you need a pre-amp and an antenna that is optimized for VHF-Lo. For me in Gary, IN, I only get WOCK-CD if I have a pre-amp on my antenna, or it doesn't come in, except for tropo. I used to use an all channel VHF/UHF/FM combo antenna, but switched to separate VHF & UHF antennas back in December (bought them in November, but installed them in December), & was surprised to get WOCK-CD with the Antennacraft CS600, when my area recommends a large directional antenna for that station. For UHF, I use the Winegard HD9032, & for pre-amp, the RCA TVPRAMP1R model. If WOCK-CD weren't at 300 watts (or 810 watts under an STA), more people could pick up the station with the right antenna. My last antenna picked up WBBM-TV when they were on RF 3 at 2.8kw.

Telos is back on W25DW's 25.2, but we're still getting only 13.2 from WOCK.

Maybe I should try it with a different television.  The indoor antennas here can't get WOCK-LD well enough, and if I split the signal from the signal from the roof antenna, WOCK-LD will likely be too weak to decode.  But the set that's connected to the roof antenna now always either got all four channels of 13.x or none of them, never only one and not the other three like yesterday and today.

I'm in Schaumburg and live in an apartment. I use the common antenna. I get most everything, but WOCK (RF4 if this is the right one) is hard to get.

I have Comcast, so the antenna is mainly as a backup or for experimenting.

It's not your TV. WOCK subchannels 13.1, 13.3 & 13.4 have been dead for a while.

As of 4:30pm today, I can (barely) pick up all 4 of them again. The signal seems weaker than normal. I can usually lock it with just an occasional break up with around 3/10 signal strength. Today it's 1/10 and breaking up more or less nonstop.

Thank you, Zzzzz.  Today I can't pull in WOCK-LD at all (probably can receive WOCH-CA on analog 41, haven't tried), so I can't tell for myself whether 13.1, 13.3, and 13.4 are back or not.

WOCK 13.1,13.2.13.3 & 13.4 are all up and running. I'm 20+mi straight west of the Loop and get a relatively good signal. RF41 seems to have the same programming as 13.2.

Yes, WOCH-CA on analog 41 has the same programming as WOCK-LD's 13.2.

I just tried again after reading Alnielsen's post, and 13.1, 13.3, and 13.4 came in but 13.2 didn't; go figure.  A few moments later I could get all four.

As long as I use a pre-amp, I have no problems with getting WOCK-CD. It's one of the easier channels for me to get with pre-amp, while WWME-LD is one of the more difficult (especially more so since getting the new antennas, as I must have it aligned just right). I personally wish WWME-LD would remove the null to the east, so I could get it easier. It's sad I can get W25DW-D better than WWME-LD. The only reason the null was there, was to protect then WZZM when they were on RF 39 (they went back to RF 13).

For low power stations, WCHU-LD does not come in at all for me, due to interference. Using TSReader on my laptop, & it detects a signal, but has so many error codes to decode to signal. WPVN-CD currently doesn't even come in (even with TSReader) at all in my area. I don't know if that will be the case when they ever move to the Trump Tower. For me, that's at home in Gary, IN.

Have poor audio on 32.1 Fox HD
All other stations ok.
What is Fox doing wrong?

Sharp brand TV?

Yes Sharp HDTV.