[jdmcdonald]

WBUI, our WB station appeared on Ch. 22 last night. It came

in barely with the antenna where it was. Moving it up 5 inches

or adding the preamp back in and it is very solid.


They are scaling their SD somewhat wrong ... some sort of

digital vertical interval stuff appears at the top unless I scroll

it all the way up, and there is a gap at the bottom with a black bar.

Also, it's skewed to the right about the width of their bug.


I visited the CC (in Champaign) last night to purchase a telephone so I could call and congratulate them from home (I've never before

owned a touchtone phone at home.) While there I saw a GWII

(see thread at proper place) and played with their OTA DTV

setup. This is some sort of Zenith STB.



As set up, it only received WCIA. But if I set the Silver Sensor

on the phone box, it readily got WCIA, WAND, and WBUI. Still

no trace of WICD, which is not unexpected considering the

store layout.


Doug McDonald

 

[Millsjr]

Hi Doug,


I recently learned of the dtv stations in the area from a few of your earlier posts. I am assembling my equipment to be able to get dtv, hopefully by the end of the year. Right now I have a dish 6000 that I need to purchase the ota module for. I live in the Homer Lake area and have an omni-directional antenna from radio shack in my 2nd story attic. Do you think that will pull these dtv channels in? What type of setup and equipment do you have? I realize these channels are all SD but I'm still excited about the new technology.


Are you the one that posted about WAND having their HD equip. on order?

If so, any more word on that?


Thanks, John

 

[jdmcdonald]

You have a problem, namely, the analog signal of WICD-15

being so close to it.


I've got a Samsung STB and a Radio Shack double bowtie antenna

with the screen taken off (making it a bidirectional antenna). The

antenna sits in the middle of my picture window on the second floor.

I live near the Assembly Hall.


I get WICD-DT (Ch 41) through two walls and it is a bit weak. The

others are strong.


You will be able to get all our channels, since WAND and WBUI

are half power as will be WCCU if they ever actually get on.

WCIA and WICD are low power, but WCIA is at full antenna

height and you will be able to get it if you try.


All you can do is try. You may need an outdoor antenna to get WCIA,

which is Ch. 48 and therefore a bit close in frequency to WICD (41)

which is blasting away behind you, so close in frequency.


You may also need an outdoor antenna to get WAND and WBUI

due only to overload from the analog WICD being so powerful and

so close.


Whatever you do, be careful not to use a cheapie amplifier in your line

without buying an expensive filter to kill WICD-15. Put your

effort in a better antenna if you have WICD troubles.


I live right next to WHMS-FM and have a terrible time with

overload from it. The best solution if you have trouble is an

outdoor antenna with a very high F/B ratio . I do assume you are

west of WICD. If somebody were a couple of miles east of it,

they will be paying big bucks to Blonder-Tongue for CATV grade

filters.




Doug

 

[Millsjr]

Doug,


Yes, I live west of the WICD tower, probably about 5 miles. What is F/B ratio in terms of an antenna? I didn't realize that the digital signal from WICD would interfer with the others. The analog signal doesn't seem to,do you know why there is a difference?



Thanks for all your help.


John

 

[dynamohum1]

With a good quality setup there should not be a problem, I have had problems trying to recieve a distant station shooting through a close adjacent local but not 2 or three channels away, I would get a decent directional antenna with a rotor and a high quality mast mounted preamp for those low power digitals.

 

[jdmcdonald]

5 miles from WICD is plenty to avoid disaster but still he should

avoid an amplifier of possible. There is absolutely no need

for a rotor ... just point a big UHF antenna west.


Just be sure WICD and WCCU are not in super deep nulls, a couple

of degrees rotation will fix any problem without bothering the

weaker stations to the west.


A rabbit ears will probably get WILL-DT, Ch. 9 just fine, if not

a small high VHF antenna will do it, and he can use a VHF-UHF

combiner in the downlead.


Doug

 

[dlclark]

Anyone in Bloomington having any luck with HDTV? I have Dish Network and was thinking about upgrading to their HDTV receiver to get more use out of my outdoor UHF antenna. Just ordered a front projector and curious if anything is available OTA.



Donnie

 

[rrrick8]

I live in Danville and I can't seem to be able to get any consistant signal from any of the DTV stations in the area however in the evenings I can usually pick up the Indy DTV stations which are actually further away. Is this because of the power the cent. Ill. stations are broadcasting or could it be caused by the fact that the WAND repeater (Ch-31) is located less than 1 mile to the rear of my antenna when pointing westward.

 

[dynamohum1]

Bloomington should be able to get PBS 46.3 peoria, WYZZ fox digital 28 is claimng to be on the air but I know of no-one that can recieve them, they are supposed to raise their antenna 180 more feet very soon, then you may have a shot, but they are owned by Sinclair so you can look forward to the trademark low power crappy upconvert and no passing of network signal that is making Sinclair infamous in the digital broadcast world.

 

[jdcolombo]

I live in the Arbour Meadows subdivision in Savoy, and I get the following with a Radio Shack VHF/UHF antenna pointed east, using a Channel Master preamp. The signal strengths are readings from my RCA DTC100:


WCIA (CBS 48-2): 94 Full-time.


WCFN (UPN 48-3): 94 full time.


WICD (NBC 41): 84 full time (note that this signal is coming from the back end of my antenna, which indicates that the RS antenna I'm using has poor F/B rejection, but in this situation, that works to my benefit!).


WAND (ABC 18): 65, on during prime-time only (7:00 - 10:00 p.m.)


WBUI (WB 22): 48-50 full time. As of 12/1, they were having audio problems - getting only the right channel from them.


Still nothing from Fox (WCCU).


John Colombo

 

[jdmcdonald]



Quote:
Originally posted by jdcolombo
I live in the Arbour Meadows subdivision in Savoy, and I get the following with a Radio Shack VHF/UHF antenna pointed east,


WICD (NBC 41): 84 full time (note that this signal is coming from the back end of my antenna,


John Colombo

Uh, WICD is east of you. the rest are west. I think you mean

the antenna points west.


Doug McDonald

 

[jdmcdonald]

Danville should get a big signal from WICD. I predicted that the

guy in Homer would be able to get all of them with a bit of work.

Danville however I'm not so sure about.


IF a Danvillite can get any but WICD (and WCCU when they appear)

it will be with a big antenna well above the roof. WBUI and

WAND should be about the same as a half-power station

from Terre Haute.


Doug McDonald

 

[jdcolombo]



Quote:
Originally posted by jdmcdonald
Uh, WICD is east of you. the rest are west. I think you mean

the antenna points west.


Doug McDonald

Uh - Yep. Got my directions mixed up. Antenna points west, gettin WICD from east (back side of antenna).


Also, I probably should add that this antenna was RS's "medium" range antenna and is in the attic of my two-story house. It probably sits about 20' above ground level. I don't get anything digital from Springfield (e.g., WICS) or Peoria. Wonder if a 100' tower would fit in my back yard . . .

John C.

 

[rrrick8]



Quote:
Originally posted by jdmcdonald



IF a Danvillite can get any but WICD (and WCCU when they appear)

it will be with a big antenna well above the roof. WBUI and

WAND should be about the same as a half-power station

from Terre Haute.


Doug McDonald

I'm just puzzled Doug, why I get good signals from Indy (80-85 miles away) but almost nothing to the west. Could the WAND repeater be interfering with my DTV reception to the west? It sits less than a mile to my NE and I rotate my RS-210 (big sucker) to appr. 265 degrees to get my best readings for Wcia-dt, Wbui-dt, Wand-dt, Wi(cd-dt. All 4 register only a 9-12 on my Hughes HD receiver while I can pick up WRTV Indy (25-1) at 30-50 during daytime and 50-80 in evenings. Is there a way to block out the signal from behind the antenna?

 

[edster67]

DL Clark, I live in Normal, and get 46.3 out of peoria clearly.

I also get channel 3 analog clear from Champaign with my attic mounted antenna pointed to Peoria. Should I be able to recieve the Champaign HD channels clearly?

 

[Millsjr]

Can anyone tell me what F/B means in reguards to antennas?


Thanks for all the info. guys.


John

 

[rrrick8]



Quote:
Originally posted by Millsjr
Can anyone tell me what F/B means in reguards to antennas?


Thanks for all the info. guys.


John

It stands for Front to Back gain. Probably along with heighth one of the 2 most important feature needed to obtain good signals from a distance. The more the better!!!

 

[dynamohum1]

edster,

have you tried to recieve the digital channel 28 signal at very low power from Fox WYZZ yet?

 

[jdmcdonald]

Dear rrrick in danville:



I don't understand why WRTV is so good. I could get it here

in Champaign, 40 miles to the west of you, from when

I got my box in August to late October. They are 5 times

the power of WBUI and WAND, but on a much lower tower.

Maybe it has something to do with the low land in the Wabash

valley.


Nevertheless, you should get a very respectable signal from

WICD. They are at low power (a couple kw) and low height, but I get them

just fine here in Champaign on a trivial bowtie antenna indoors.


WCIA is the same power as WICD but two or three times the height.

WAND and WBUI are much heigher than WICD or even WCIA and

are at half power (200 kW).


One mile from a repeater and off the back of a big antenna

should not be a big problem. Besides its not off the back

when you point to WRTV.


Can you get the other UHF DTV channels from Indy? In August I

could occasionally get ch. 45 and 46, even though there is

a low power ch. 46 analog two miles from me. This, however,

was with a huge single channel Yagi with a huge F/B ratio.


I have a Samsung receiver so I cannot compare signal readings

with you.


Are you using a preamp? It may help if you get a really good

one with good overload properties.


Doug

 

[rrrick8]



Quote:
Originally posted by jdmcdonald



Are you using a preamp? It may help if you get a really good

one with good overload properties.


Doug

Doug,

With my RS-210 antennae I use a CM 7778 preamp on top my 1 1/2 story home, mounted on a 15' mast above the roof.

Yes, Sometimes I can get other Indy stations at night CBS-9.1, NBC-13.1, Fox-59.1 signal strength varies widely on different nights though.

Do you know of any professional antenna installers in the central Illinois area?

Rick