Chicago, IL - OTA - Page 379

Gilbert, analog 30 is still on the air. They never did take down the W24AJ Aurora ID even though they no longer own that channel nor is it in use by Polvision.

Is anyone receiving WKQX on 61.2?  I still get it on analog 6, but when WCHU comes in, virtual subchannel .2 has no audio or video.  WCHU is still there on 61.1 (when I get RF33 at all), and CCTV News and CCTV 9 are on 61.4 and 61.5, but 61.2 is still apparently a subchannel in use but there's no signal on it.

W25DW is making another change: they replaced Telos with TVC+ Latino on 25.2, and 25.4 is going to be something called Punch.  Right now there's just a still card saying that P-TV is coming soon.
Edited by dattier - 1/2/13 at 10:24pm

It's this network. It appears that they have tons of original programming gearing towards a Black audience. It's been getting LPs here and their but it has lacked cable carriage.

I can not get WCHU-LD at all in Gary, IN, despite the station having a strong signal over Gary (according to TV Fool). It's possible that with WEDE-CA 34 still broadcasting in analog, that that station could be interfering with WCHU-LD (I remembered WHNW-LP's analog signal interfering with WYIN for 2 years, after WYIN went digital, until WHNW-LP (now WHNW-LD) went digital). I know my TSReader Lite program can very well detect a signal on RF 33, but it detects lots of interference. I just replaced my Winegard HD9032 yagi antenna for an Antennas Direct DB8, & it still does not come in. So I'm not able to see what's all on that RF channel. My DB8 has allowed me to pick up W25DW-D again, & noticed TVC+ on the PSIP info, along with Punch TV. I was also surprised to see LATV on this translator now. I don't remember when that happened, unless it around the time that WOCK-CD moved Mega TV from the main channel, down to 13.5, & added Mundo Fox to the main channel, along with making 13.1 HD.

On Comcast, it is working, unless it was just a glitch when you posted. I assume Comcast is getting it via antenna. I do know a week or two ago there was audio, but no video, for a few days.

With no quoted text in your post and no antecedent for "it," I'm not sure what you're speaking of, Andy.  If you were posting about WKQX, yes, Comcast still has it on channel 877.

My reception of WCHU is intermittent and unpredictable, so right now I can't even find out what the name is for the channel on 61.4.

Thank you.  The "coming soon" screen has multi-colored cartoon dinosaurs celebrating a holiday, so I thought it was going to be fare for preschoolers.

It appears Punch TV is now operating on 25.4, but I wish they can fix the visuals, because it keeps on stopping every few seconds. It's hard to even watch it. It's like watching a slow-buffered online video. At 11:53pm, now the audio has gone off. I hope they are working on fixing their issues. All the other streams (HSN, TVC, LATV, Swaggart's Network, and ALMA with that bird), are working perfectly.

Anyone else getting 38.4 that says "Shop-TV" by the name of the channel? When I watched it earlier, it was showing the same as 38.3, but I'm guessing that'll change eventually.

Getting ShopTV on 38.4 here too, still duplicating IonLife for now, but with no hyphen in the PSIP name.

WCHU and W25DW reception sucks for 3/4 of the metro viewing area do to the low power and highly SW directional antenna. I wish they would just go off the air and stop interfering with WCGV and WITI, which generally has better programming anyhow.

The only reason WCHU-LD doesn't reach me well is because of interference (primarily from WEDE-CA, since it's still in analog). My TSReader Lite program can detect WCHU-LD's signal, but it gets way too many errors to decode the signal. Being in Gary, IN, I still get a clear analog signal on RF 34. The people that own WEDE-CA need to get their signal flash-cut to digital, instead of relying heavily on WJYS to reach their viewers. It does help that they're on a subchannel to a full power signal, but they need to go digital themselves, or just pay WJYS to lease out the channel alone, shut off the analog signal, & turn in the license. Or sell the station to someone who will go digital.

W25DW-D barely covers Lake County Indiana, & only comes in with an outdoor antenna, & a UHF antenna that isn't as directional. A 4 or 8 bay antenna works for me at getting W25DW-D, though I wasn't trying to get it in. I recently switched from a Winegard HD9032 antenna to an Antennas Direct DB8 & solved a lot of my reception problems with RF 43, RF 44, & sometimes RF 47, & got RF 25 & RF 40 in again, along with getting RF 39 in better.

Onto something else. I just got an HDTV, & did my scan. While checking out some of the channels, I noticed that Bounce pixelates quite a bit, but not MeTV. Is Bounce still having problems at their end, or is it Weigel's problem at getting a good signal of Bounce?

Since getting an HDTV, I thought 7.1's picture was fine on the other TV & my portable TV. I was wrong, though not as bad as 7.2's picture. I knew WMAQ-TV's picture looked terrible, since it looks terrible on my portable TV. Even 5.2 looks like crap on the HDTV. Even all of Weigel's channels (including WWME-LD & WMEU-CD) look bit-starved. I was surprised that WGN-TV looked good, considering people normally complain about the picture quality.

Since I'm one a few that gets WOCK-CD, I'm surprised that the picture quality isn't better for Mundo Fox.

ShopTV has been there for a few days and I thought it was already mentioned in this thread.  It's still an echo (or a simulcast, but I hope not) of IonLife on 38.3 and doesn't have its own programming yet.

Channel 13.1 is showing MundoFox. is this new?

It wasn't an echo during the day today. It was playing a different infomercial.

And ShopTV isn't an echo this evening either; it has an infomercial while IonLife has something else.
MundoFox has been on 13.1 in 720p for five or six months now.
 
Edited by dattier - 1/2/13 at 10:27pm

Now CCTV News (PSIP name changed from "CCTV Ne" to CCTV-4) is on 61.2, CCTV 9 is on 61.3, and WKQX is only on analog 6 with no subchannel from WCHU at all.

Comcast's 877 is still carrying WKQX. Either they have been picking it up from analog 6, or something different is going on. I have sometimes seen it 'dead' or having issues at the same the other 61.x channels have problems, so I always thought Comcast was getting it from the digital signal.

I guess I'm not the only one...

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/get-answers/question/2256-i-cant-get-channel-2-on-my-television-set-every-other-station-comes-in-fine-when-is-channel-2-going-to-fix-their-broadcast-problems-its-been-years-since-they-knew-they-had-a-problem-why-isnt/

I posted a reply on that WBBM site.

Here at KSL (Salt Lake City), we made up some kits containing an (full-band, 88-108 MHz) FM Trap, a couple of attenuators (one 3 dB, and one 6 dB, which can stack together to equal 9 dB), and a couple of terminators (for unused splitter ports), together with a page or two of information and drawings, and sent these to people who wrote to us with reception problems.
We are not on a VHF channel (one low-power station was on RF 10, but has since moved to UHF), but felt that the FM transmitters were still capable of over-driving the RF amplifiers on many tuners. So, "better safe than sorry", we included the FM Trap as well.

Be aware that there are two types of FM Traps. One covers the entire FM Band. The other, which is an older design, only starts working at about 92 MHz (thru 108), and will allow strong lower frequency FM stations to still affect reception. It was designed back when stations at the low end of the FM band were mostly lower powered "educational" stations, and it was intended to be used where you had a Channel 6 TV you wanted to receive. A "full-band" FM Trap would cut in to TV Channel 6, which is at 82-88 MHz, right below FM.
You usually want a "full-band" one, nowadays.

Right now at 3am/CT. WLS on RF 7 is off the air. 44 is on though. I dunno if its due to maintenance or otherwise.

Edit 3:15am, 7 is back on. Boy I thought they gonna get rid of 7 for good without proper notice. It was completely off during the 2am hour.
Edited by csworldwide1 - 1/14/13 at 1:17am

Thanks kenglish for the details on the FM trap. I'll look into getting one and having it installed.

It will be a letdown for me when RF7 goes dark.  Both RF7 and RF44 come in well through our roof antenna, but without some rewiring that is beyond my capabiliity and beyond my budget to hire anyone for, there's no connection to the roof antenna in the room where the DVR has to be.  The DVR depends on an indoor antenna, which picks up RF7 fairly reliably but RF44 not so well.

Since changing over to a DB8 from a Winegard HD9032, WLS-TV on RF 44 comes in better, but it's not as strong as it is on RF 7. When I used the Winegard antenna, it either pixelated, or dropped out without warning on and off.It seems to me that that peticular antenna isn't as well optimized for stations in the 40's, since RF 43 always pixelated & would go in and out after sunset. Changing the cables alone would not have solved the problem. Regardless, I'll also miss WLS-TV on RF 7, when it does finally sign off. I however believe it won't be vacant, should Venture Technologies decides to go after the channel again, & try to put WCHU-LD on the channel (providing they'll be allowed to go more than 3kw, as their original app. was for 4.375kw (basically a full market LPTV station).

Then your issue with RF44 differs from mine.  The same antenna that has dropouts with RF44 never seems to have trouble with 43 or 45, but I just glance at WCPX and WSNS and their subchannels from time to time to see how they're coming in, never hanging around to watch any programming, so perhaps I'm not getting sufficient sampling of those channels to say how well I receive them.

Has anybody else noticed a drop in signal strength on just about every channel in the last few days? I have checked all my cables and tried a re-position of my antenna but my signals are low. most have dropped by 12-15 points on my scale.
I'm hoping it's just a problem with ice on the transmitters and it will go away soon.

EDIT: Some more background info. I'm in Schaumburg and my antenna is inside but I'm up 12 stories and I have a clear view of the city.
The channels with the worst drop:
32-1 went from high 80's to low 70's
9-1 went from mid 90's to low 70's
For reference below 70 and I start to get macroblocking.
Edited by jpeckinp - 1/14/13 at 4:35pm

The poor signals could very well be caused by the high humidity levels we've had with the warm temps. Water vapor does a real good job absorbing RF, especially at UHF frequencies.

CH32 disappeared one foggy night for me this last week, CH20 disappeared another night.

The ironic thing with the Winegard HD9032, is that I never had problems with RF 45. I forgot that I had occasional problems with WTTW on RF 47 as well. Regardless, the beam was too narrow, & despite all the signals being only 3 degrees apart (between the Sears Tower & John Hancock), it was especially way too picky with LPTV stations that I couldn't get WWME-LD well, & for my mom, W25DW-D. I'm happy with the new DB8 antenna. I have small amounts of ice on the antenna, but so far, it hasn't affected reception on any UHF channel.