[JimmyB-78]

WKEF and WRGT are now on their final antenna, so the signal should be a lot better than it was right after. They're waiting for the permanent transmitters to be installed and remain at low power from the final antennas.

- Trip

Trip, thanks for your reply. You appear to have some first-hand knowledge on this topic. But my original concern remains. Of the hundreds of broadcasters around the country, how many others have been off-the-air for 4 months like here in Dayton? If this were a common problem nationwide, many others, especially recent cordcutters like me, would have raised a stink and it would have been a national news story. Instead, I personally hear nothing except local residents complaining on the Dayton stations' Facebook page. My suspicion is that, whether the problem is local or nationwide, one media outlet does not want to criticize another outlet and therefore the real story never comes out. All we get is "We apologize for the inconvenience" from the broadcasters.

 

[RRDave]

It may just be a reflection on the level of importance that stations place on the OTA viewers. They do not get a direct revenue stream from them like they do from retransmission fees they charge the cable companies.


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[hall]

Dayton OH Fox 45 and ABC 22 have been at best low-power since the repack in October!

I contacted the Dayton Daily News, but nobody seems interested in covering this. I contacted the FCC but just got a canned reply.

DDN is owned by Cox Media, a competitor to Sinclair. If they did a story, it could be seen as "bashing" them. These media conglomerates would just prefer to never acknowledge the existence of the others (unless one of their employees gets busted for a DUI, a 2nd DUI, etc).

 

[hall]

It may just be a reflection on the level of importance that stations place on the OTA viewers. They do not get a direct revenue stream from them like they do from retransmission fees they charge the cable companies.

That, IMO, is a very large factor in this. Much to the dismay of many, their numbers are just so small in comparison to cable, satellite, and now streaming services, that they're not too concerned about the downtime or giving it add'l priority.

 

[DrDon]

First time posting here. Dayton OH Fox 45 and ABC 22 have been at best low-power since the repack in October! They are blaming it on lack of crews to install new antennas. Is this common around the country? I contacted the Dayton Daily News, but nobody seems interested in covering this. I contacted the FCC but just got a canned reply. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but is this a conspiracy of silence? My real question is, Is this a local Dayton problem with ineptitude on the part of Sinclair Broadcasting management, or are other TV operations around the country experiencing the same difficulty? Wasn't there at least a year's advance notice of the repack?

Of the hundreds of broadcasters around the country, how many others have been off-the-air for 4 months like here in Dayton?

Ok, were they off the air or just on an antenna and at a power level where you couldn't receive them. I'm a bit confused.

FWIW, yes, this is a common problem around the country on a normal day, let alone when all of the repack stations increase the demand for tower crews.

I can tell you from personal, non-repack experience, scheduling a tower crew is an exercise in frustration. There are only so many of them and a lot of things can wreck their schedules. Winds, rain, snow, low ceilings... any of that will put the brakes on a tower climb. If the delay's long enough, it impacts the next job on their schedule, starting a domino effect. Add to that flat-out emergencies, such as a tower collapse or feed-line damage that actually DOES put a station off-the-air and the schedule gets wrecked, again. Don't forget, some of the same crews also have to work FM stations into their schedule.

Someone put a bullet into our helix, forcing us to run at low power on a pathetic backup antenna. It rained on our first crew appointment, so they ditched us and went on to the next, which had complications and took longer than planned. That bumped us, again and snow wrecked another date. Finally got it fixed after a month.

Companies such as American Tower have added more crews, but even that's tough as there's not a lot of people with the skill set or the desire to spend a few days a thousand feet in the air in November in Ohio.

There's no conspiracy. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

[RRDave]

It really isn’t the voice of the viewers the stations listen to, it is the voice of the advertisers and the cable companies. I’ll bet they have data that they show to the advertisers that shows where most of the eyeballs are, and OTA must be a small enough percentage that the advertisers just don’t care. Also, it was pointed out in a previous post that the demographic of an OTA viewer may be such that they are not viewed as a lucrative source of revenue by the advertisers.


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[RRDave]

Ok, were they off the air or just on an antenna and at a power level where you couldn't receive them. I'm a bit confused.



FWIW, yes, this is a common problem around the country on a normal day, let alone when all of the repack stations increase the demand for tower crews.



I can tell you from personal, non-repack experience, scheduling a tower crew is an exercise in frustration. There are only so many of them and a lot of things can wreck their schedules. Winds, rain, snow, low ceilings... any of that will put the brakes on a tower climb. If the delay's long enough, it impacts the next job on their schedule, starting a domino effect. Add to that flat-out emergencies, such as a tower collapse or feed-line damage that actually DOES put a station off-the-air and the schedule gets wrecked, again. Don't forget, some of the same crews also have to work FM stations into their schedule.



Someone put a bullet into our helix, forcing us to run at low power on a pathetic backup antenna. It rained on our first crew appointment, so they ditched us and went on to the next, which had complications and took longer than planned. That bumped us, again and snow wrecked another date. Finally got it fixed after a month.



Companies such as American Tower have added more crews, but even that's tough as there's not a lot of people with the skill set or the desire to spend a few days a thousand feet in the air in November in Ohio.



There's no conspiracy. It's just the nature of the beast.

Sounds reasonable, but why all the secrecy? On the FB page there was so little comments from the stations it was just inviting the rumor mill to start running. It was IMO very poorly communicated what was going on. If the station had communicated the tower schedules with dates and reasons for not making the planned timeline then 90% of the negative comments would have been avoided. It’s like they just didn’t care about the OTA viewers.


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[DrDon]

Sounds reasonable, but why all the secrecy? On the FB page there was so little comments from the stations it was just inviting the rumor mill to start running. It was IMO very poorly communicated what was going on. If the station had communicated the tower schedules with dates and reasons for not making the planned timeline then 90% of the negative comments would have been avoided. It’s like they just didn’t care about the OTA viewers..

You answered your own question one post up. Never telegraph to advertisers they might not be getting what they’re paying for. If I were a client and I saw that schedule, I’d demand a lower rate for my ads airing during those times. We never mentioned our signal issues. Clients that noticed got rebates or freebies. The rest either didn’t notice or care.

 

[Nitewatchman]

WRGT's DA along with current STA (which isn't really "low power", at least as I can think of it, now, at around 200KW ERP) might be biggest issue now(along with probably more importantly the use of indoor receive antennas/etc) for some to South, particularly SE and SW ....

As Trip said, They're on their final, "permanent" antenna now at top of stick, and seem to be getting out quite well now for most part, especially to North ... If I recall correctly it is pretty much the same, if not exactly the same DA pattern as before the repack, but back then without a not quite co-located N-1 full power station.... so yeah, 6+Db more from them at 1000KW ERP will likely help a lot regarding that in the nulls and especially for those trying to find the "sweet spots" to solidly decode any given station with their indoor receive antennas ...

 

[Bubster]

Ch 22/45 now at full power

Randomly flipping through Dayton channels last night at late news time and through sheer coincidence, the girl on 22 news was saying the tower for 22 and 45 is now at full power. I did a quick signal check on my 2012 Sammy and sure enough, both stations are pegged at 32dB.

 

[RRDave]

Funny. No announcement to “rescan for channels” which was what they said when they knew it would do no good.


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[Bubster]

https://dayton247now.com/news/local/antenna-work-finally-finished-rescan-your-channels-now

 

[mrfattbill]

Anyone else lose WDTN/WBDT today about 3:55PM?

Thanks

Bill

 

[RRDave]

Yes.


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[DarkeRider]

Ditto

Their website says technical issues for OTA, Nothing about when it will be back

 

[RRDave]

Seems to be back


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[asm2000]

Hi all , I was directed here hoping for cable advice. Building a new house, plan for OTA HD only. Xenia are near country club of the north

RabbitEars.Info

RabbitEars, where you can learn all about local, over-the-air TV channels.

www.rabbitears.info

Looking for RG6 advice - 95% braid, tri shield, etc?

Greene county regional airport within a mile and runway faces/ inline with neigborhood

MOD EDIT: Additional information in this thread.

 

[asm2000]

Hi all , I was directed here hoping for cable advice. Building a new house, plan for OTA HD only. Xenia are near country club of the north

RabbitEars.Info

RabbitEars, where you can learn all about local, over-the-air TV channels.

www.rabbitears.info

Looking for RG6 advice - 95% braid, tri shield, etc?

Greene county regional airport within a mile and runway faces/ inline with neigborhood

MOD EDIT: Additional information in this thread.

Not a lot of recommendations I guess. I noticed I ran Belden 1694A in my current house, not sure I need that in the new one. But I know that my run from antenna to splitter could be 100', should that matter, or will any solid core copper suffice?

But I did realize I have a 100’ run from cable demarc (Internet) to my patch panel too, so might as well go with Belden 1694 again.

 

[KyL416]

WDTN filed for their license to cover today. At around 12:30pm they signed on their full power signal

 

[ThoraX695]

WDTN filed for their license to cover today. At around 12:30pm they signed on their full power signal

I’m now receiving it loud and clear here in northwest Hamilton County.