Chicago, IL - OTA - Page 368

Known issue they're working on. Not an easy fix. It's isolated to Sharp so far.

Awesome. What else can you tell us?

I didn't see this posted, but the modified translator application for WBBM-TV was approved. Instead of broadcasting the translator from the Sears Tower, it'll broadcasting off of the tower on top of the former WXRT studios. It'll mainly help those who live in Chicago and the nearby suburbs, but not much for those further out, & have to make VHF work.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/p...es/1474864.pdf

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS_...um=1&exhcnum=1

How does Comcast get the SD feed for WCIU? Does WCIU give them one, or does Comcast downconvert from the HD feed? I'm curious as I noticed that WCIU's digital SD feed on Comcast has 5.1 audio.

They only get an HD feed from us.

so when does this happen and when will we finally get wbbm tv like we are suppose to... how long until construction begins and when will the signal be up and running and on what rf

I suppose it's too much to hope for that the WBBM signal on RF26 will use something other than .1 as its minor channel number and that WBBM might actually not repeat WLS's mistake of virtual subchannel clashes that confuse some tuners.

Or the fact that WLS-TV can't seem to get RF 44 working properly on the Sears Tower, that they might be going on their third year using RF 7, if they can't get RF 44 to work by October (when they were granted a change from RF 7 to RF 44 in October 2009, & made RF 7 the translator) . At home, I have to rely on the VHF signal, because I have problems with it dropping out from time to time, despite right now, they're back on the John Hancock for UHF, while VHF is back on the Sears Tower, using their original eliptical antenna from 1973 - 1982 on the west tower. The UHF WLS-TV doesn't give me problems at work. I wonder for me, if WCPX could be interfering with WLS-TV at home, since it's sandwiched between WCPX (RF 43) & WSNS (RF 45). I've been getting interference on WCPX from time to time as well. I also changed out my antennas in December.

At least WBBM-TV is planning to stay on VHF, & use a translator for Chicago. I however believe that they'll still map it to 2.1. I'll know if I'm fortunate enough to get their translator, & see 2 2.1's.

This round of solar storms that are rocking our ionosphere, will they have any affect on DX? I haven't seen any so far.

I don't think it would have a significant impact, unless you had the necessary equipment to be able to do aurora or meteor shower DXing. HF is a different story, these storms will trash HF reception, especially trans-polar reception (which even includes Europe and grayline).

It was doing the same thing on our DTT-901s earlier.
WMAQ seems to have straightened it out as of 6:00 PM.

Did that for my converter box too. I figured it was crap signal from everywhere. My usual flaky signal stations were acting up at the time.

I got a new antenna for my downstairs TV. I don't have wiring through my house, so need an antenna per TV. Upstairs, I have a stealthtenna sitting in a corner in the bedroom on a tripod and it works quite well. I live only 8 miles from the towers in the inner-ring near west burbs. The silver sensor almost suffices, but just not quite.

So for the downstairs I got a Channel Master 4220HD METROtenna. It's really just a classic array & bowtie design, intended only for UHF (though it's hard to find that info on the box). I set it up on a mast in my uninsulated porch and hooked it up to the Dish receiver and scanned and i found everything (even the channel 25 streams and channel 56).

Everything came in great--except channel 7-1. Oddly, 7-2 and 7-3 were fine. I thought if you could get one stream the others were receivable. I simply added channel 7 manually to the dish receiver and it was fine.

And, as I expected, no problem receiving the high VHF channels. Everything comes booming in with channel 2 my lowest (65%).

So what's up with 7-1? Was it a matter of the receiver getting conflicting info from the repeater?

Dang, is WTTW channel 11 ever going to get back to normal programming. Is it just me imagining it, or did they expand how many weeks they run a pledge drive now?
This is like the 3rd week they have been running programs aimed around asking for money, I thought they normally only ran their pledge drives for two weeks.

Some TV tuners or even converter box tuners don't handle multiple virtual channels (in your case, the Dish Network converter box). WLS-TV is one of those stations that currently maps RF 7 & RF 44 to 7-1 - 7-3 (my converter box uses a "." rather than a "-"). I know for myself, both sets of virtual channel 7's show up on my Magnavox DTV box, as well as my VisionTek USB TV Tuner stick, Hauppauge USB TV tuner stick, & my Haier 7" portable TV. In the case of the USB TV tuner sticks, both of those have the software organize the channels by RF channel, though it lists the virtual channels, but list them in RF channel order. For the Magnavox DTV box (model# TB100MW9), it lists the VHF WLS-TV first with the virtual channels 7.1 - 7.3, then the UHF WLS-TV on RF 44 second with the virtual channels 7.1 - 7.3. For my Haier portable TV, it lists the virtual channels twice in order: 7-1 (RF 7), 7-1 (RF 44), 7-2 (RF 7), 7-2 (RF 44), 7-3 (RF 7), & 7-3 (RF 44).

Get prepared in the near future when WBBM-TV signs on their translator on RF 26 from the tower at 4949 West Belmont Avenue (former WXRT studios, & the backups for FM stations: 93.1 WXRT, 96.3 WBBM-FM, 99.5 WUSN, 104.3 WJMK, & 105.9 WCFS-FM). When the translator signs on & you rescan, you either will have 2 2.1's, or your converter box will have a difficult time locking in one of them.

As for what you're getting, I'm amazed that you get WYIN from your location with your antenna. That station is a challenge for some people on the Illinois side (especially for those in the city & northern suburbs). I have issues with WYIN, because low power station WHNW-LD on RF 18 in Gary interferes with WYIN from time to time. Do you get all 4 streams on WYIN on RF 17? If you don't, then it's no big deal, because 56.2 (720p HD) & 56.4 (16:9 SD) simulcast the main channel on 56.1 (720p HD), while 56.3 (16:9 SD) is the only channel that's programmed different, & is usually PBS Kids Go programming.

Seems to me that pledge drives have been running for three weeks each for some years now.

Ticks me off cos I've been waiting for them to finish their "current" season of Dr Who. After the last pledge drive, instead of continuing the season they started the season over again, showed the first 3 or 4 episodes and went back to pledging again. I know they need cash, but this is nuts.

On my METROtenna. Only with 60%, but not bad for an inside antenna.

I don't know if any of the episodes you're looking to see are on WTTW Prime, but they might have been shown on that channel (unless they simply stopped showing new episodes during the pledge drive). For the pledge drives in general, I'm also sick of them too, as they're going on longer than usually do. This economy doesn't help, along with the government cutting CPB funding. With some politicians wanting to see the CPB funding eliminated completely, we'll see these pledge drive even more often than we do now.

I forgot how often WYIN does pledge drives during normal viewing hours, but I know they do quite a bit too. They air pledge drive programming during the overnight hours just to stay on the air 24 hours, or they would sign off at the latest, 1am. At least WYCC doesn't have as many pledge drives. Instead, they usually ask people to donate whatever they can in-between promos throughout the year. I believe WYCC has pledge drives 2-4 times a year, & don't drag out as long as WTTW & WYIN do. Let's just hope WTTW doesn't try to hold separate pledge drive programming at the same time on 11.1, 11.2, & 11.3 (11.4 V-Me is currently a free service, & wouldn't be affected by pledge drive programming).

WTTW Prime stopped airing the episodes during pledge time as well.

Dave, don't know if you know about an accounting gimmick called baseline budgeting or not. PBS isn't getting less funding. They whine about it when really they are getting less of an increase than they planned and call that a cut. This is how many government programs make you feel sorry for them.
Not to mention they got nearly $450M of federal taxpayer money in FY2012.

Some of the figures I found online indicate they went from $340M in 2001 to $400M in 2007 for example. That's 18% more in 6 years. Pretty significant. So, if they had optimistically budgeted for 4% increase per year, they'd call that a 6% cut over the same time period!

Now, they are budgeted for $464M for 2013. not bad. But consider they are also getting $36M "for CPB Digital, which helps local public television and radio stations expand their community service in the digital age, the same amount as was appropriated in FY 2010."

Then you get $500M for 2013 vs. $444M for 2012. How sorry do you feel for them now?

Actually it could be worse, the pledge drives could get even more annoying. Just think, if PBS stations ever start broadcasting in 3D....

An interesting aspect of the funding issue I never see people bring up is National Datacasting. ND is a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of PBS, so it's not like it doesn't have side income or the potential to form more for-profit subsidiaries. Make of it what you will.

W25DW has two more subchannels now, "wisebuy" (with a lower-case w) on 25.5 and a color-bar testpattern (PSIP name is "W25DW" like the station itself) on 25.6.

At least that's what I remember from the few minutes I could receive it.

It is as you say. They're missing tone.

Is anyone else having issues with reception? I'm getting tons of audio/video dropouts over the past week. This is mainly during primetime evening shows; we don't watch much TV otherwise so can't really comment during the daytime. I'm hoping it's just atmospherics causing issues, but if no one else is experiencing this, I'll have to look into my equipment. It's only one channel in question - CBS/WBBM.

DB-4 antenna, Radio Shack rabbit ears combined into Channel Master amp (7777 I think). Located in Antioch, IL, antennas mounted in the attic facing directly towards the Chicago transmitters.

At 40-50 miles, a simple dipole isn't going to cut it with WBBM's flea-powered signal.

Add a small high-VHF antenna (5-element for Antennacraft, for example) by using the "Combine" function of the 7777 instead of the rabbit ears.

Yeah I was thinking of doing that. After a few years of no cable bills and banking all the glory, I was thinking it would be a good time to invest in a better VHF antenna. I was just curious if anyone else was experiencing the issues. Thought maybe I had another station from nearby Rockford or Milwaukee screwing with the signal. Or maybe WBBM cut their power slightly for repairs or something.

DB4's won't cut it for VHF (DB8's vary for people). You'll need to get either an Antennacraft Y5-7-13 or Y10-7-13, or the Winegard YA1713 just for WBBM-TV. That's the reality for VHF. You have to have an antenna optimized for the frequency range you're wanting to pick up (VHF will always require larger elements on the antenna). If you want to get a combo antenna, then the Winegard HD7695 or 7696 (discontinued by Winegard, but some online stores may still have them available), or at least the Antennacrafft HBU33 or 44. Since I use an antenna optimized for VHF, I've never had any problems getting WBBM-TV on RF 12, nor when their digital was on RF 3.

In case you're wonderng what I'm using; I'm using an Antennacraft CS600 antenna for VHF (got it for WOCK-CD to watch America One on 13.4) & Winegard HD9032 for UHF for the Chicago stations, & Winegard HD-1080 for WYIN. For Chicago stations, I used to use a Philips VHF/UHF/FM combo antenna for Chicago stations (when Chicago still had 5 VHF stations) & was using the Winegard HD-1080 antenna for WYIN 3 years ago (only carryover from my old array).