[protsch]

Well,


May 1st is here and we have 4 stations up now. Here's the breakdown and relative strengths (as measured from my 6000 and DTC-100)from my side of town.


10-1 WJXX ABC 1080i 16:9 upconvert (strong signal ~90/74)

13-1 WTLV NBC 1080i 16:9 HD (kinda weak ~62/46)

13-2 WJXX ABC 480 4:3 (same)

34-1 WJWB WB 480p 4:3 (really marginal ~56/40)

42-1 WJXT CBS 1080i 16:9 HD (strong ~92/76)

42-2 WJXT CBS 480p 4:3 (same)


note: 13-1 and 42-1 is upconverted 1080i 16:9 when HD programming not available. All 1080i upconverts are 16:9 with 4:3 picture and black sidebars.



If anybody (Don) can verify those 480i/p signals let me know. I have 2 RS bow tie antennas now. The RS guy told me most stores in town have at least one except for Jax Beach and Atlantic Beach now


Also, something is up with 13-1 as I saw a 16:9 HD test pattern for about a minute while I was writing this. It was color bars labelled with NBC BURBANK HD TAPE (It's on again!!) They must have gotten their decoder!!!


Paul

 

[DR Jax]

I just got an email from [email protected] . He said that Leno will be in HD tonight. They are testing for this. He said if it goes well, then Leno and Crossing Jordan will be in HD.


Send emails to [email protected] with picture quality reports about Leno in HD tonight.


Spread the word, Jacksonville is getting more and more HD now.

 

[Don Landis]

Check out the thread on WTLV. I would have put it here but didn't see it, sorry.


Re RS Bowtie- Go to RS Liquidation center. on Beach Blvd near point where Beach and Atlantic converge. They had about a dozen for $17.95.

I didn't get one because the bowtie I tried was not good enough for the channel 10 without an amp. But, they are much smaller than the yagi I put up.


FYI- Nobody is transmitting 480i now. They are all doing 480P or 1080i

We now have ABC,NBC,and CBS in 1080i upconvert and soon to be HDTV. Who'd-a-thunk it 3 months ago. Now if UPN doesn't screw it up we may continue to get HDTV after this summer. Earlier, I drove by WB17 and noticed their new tower scattered all over the yard waiting to be errected. Things happening but behind the program compared to other cities.


Here's a link that may be of interest for references:

http://100kwatts.tmi.net/tv/JAX.html

 

[rcibera]

Who'd-a-thunk indeed.


I would think that 10-1 will go HD real soon (as Paul sees the HD 16:9 test patterns flash on the screen). Otherwise, what would be the point of upconverting to 1080i?


I guess we'll be back on here after Leno starts tonight, hopefully to compare notes on how good the HD looks... (By the way, here's another show I'll be watching that I never, ever watch).


And in the spirit of Don's "Who'd-a-thunk it 3 months ago" comment, I guess I can now answer my own question from a little over 3 months ago:

Anyone in Jacksonville, FL getting HD Leno on NBC? Ahem, "Yes!"


Thanks... Ralph

 

[protsch]

Oh sorry, My BAD!! I meant 13-1. I also got the e-mail from Bill about Leno in HD. That is what I was thinking (that they got their HD decoder and was testing for HD tonight.)


I also got some e-mails regarding WB17 (34-1).

[email protected] wrote:


> Paul,

>

> Just so you know we are now on the air full time with DTV. Please feel

free

> to pass along any thing you find unusual regarding our transmission. With

> some luck we will move into some HDTV programming either in the fall or

next

> year.

>

> Thank you again for your help during testing.

>

> George Birnbaum

> Operations Manager, WJWB-TV/DT


ME::::::


George,


Thanks for the update. I have been monitoring your signal this morning and it is coming in very weak. I understand that you may be operating at low power

at this time. What kind of power levels are you transmitting at? Looking forward to some HD programming.


Thanks


Paul Rotsch


RESPONSE::::


Paul,


Yes we are operating with a low power DTV transmitter, our effective radiated power is 43.7kW. We will begin building our full-power transmitter next fall and move up to 1.0MegaWatt.


George B.

 

[protsch]

Edited original post. Should be mostly correct.


Don, If you can pick up 34-1, I'd like to know if that is 480i or 480p.


I'd like to start that Jax info page soon, but I don't know how much time I am going to have. I am going to sea in Dec and I will getting ready in the upcoming months.


Paul

 

[rcibera]

I'm very impressed with the PQ of HD Leno so far. Nice strong, stable signal too.


Makes you hope for more NBC HD programming, though I doubt it would look this good.

 

[protsch]

My signal has gone to hell all of a sudden. Very unstable for me tonight. I caught only a few seconds so far.

 

[rcibera]

Paul... My STB only has "bad, normal, good" readings. It's usually in the "normal" range for 13-1, and I get a fairly stable signal when its in that range. Right now, it's right in the middle of the "normal" range, and it is very stable. No changes on your end? You're at the beach, right?


Ralph

 

[Don Landis]

Leno came in with an excellent HDTV picture from the network. RF signal was as usual, in the low 60's here while the channel 10 is up in the 90's along with channel 42.


Channel 34 is in 480P. There are no stations in Jax currently using 480i. I'm happy to report this. I'm getting a solid signal but didn't switch to my DTC-100 to get a meter reading. I'll do that tomorrow. I will normally use my DST50 for locals because it affords me the opportunity to record HDTV easily. I'll eventually have the local channels on my network so both will get feed but not for now.


Channel 42-1,10-1and13-1 have all standardized at 1080i and mostly these are upconverted network and local analog conversions. WJXT has been very good with passing along all CBS network HDTV feeds automatically right on schedule. Let's see if Bill at WTLV can do the same for the few HDTV NBC feeds he will be getting. I did see the switchover from the analog 1080i upconvert to the NBC Leno HD feed and it looked a bit rough however, it happened on schedule, almost like they were sitting on a manual switch while WJXT appears to have the process automated. FWIW- Many stations across the nation have been reported to have problems remembering to switch the network feeds when HDTV is sent. Others do it without fail. Could be an automation vs. manual issue.


For you guys having signal problems, it may be that your antenna is just not broad band enough. This is why I went to a log periodic yagi as this tunes the entire VHF and UHF with uniform gain. The double bowtie will be weak in the lower VHF frequencies like channel 10 and 13 but work better in the UHF like channel 42 and 34. Stations normally use power (ERP) to compensate for frequency but this assumes a uniform gain antenna at the receiver. The double bowtie is not uniform gain receiving antenna.

 

[protsch]

Edited again. I don't know what was going on with the signal strengths last night (Yes, at the beach). I know the RS bow tie is for UHF but I have been getting pretty good signals on 10-1 and 13-1 before last night.


I tried a big yagi antenna from the upstairs bedroom and there was no real change. I think the heat and the ducting has something to do with it. I turned my antenna to the S and lo and behold, I was able to get 2 of their channels without a problem. When those signals started to die out, I moved the antenna back towards WTLV tower and the signal strength went up a little.


I'm pretty sure that some kind of atmospheric phenomenon was playing a big part. I may have to put the big antenna up now (which is going to be a mess) but if the heat keeps screwing with the signal (and everyone is operating at such low power), I won't be able to keep a good lock.


What's good for DXing may not be good for local reception!?!


I'll try again tonight


(What I did see looked pretty damn good though)


Paul

 

[satpro]

Their was an extreme level of atmospheric conditions last night that caused alot of frequencies to be jammed. Should be similar tonight.

http://www.iprimus.ca/~hepburnw/tropo_car.html


I switched to my attic ant last night instead of my big ant because the attic ant seemed a lot more isolated from the jamming.

 

[protsch]

Glad to see I wasn't the only one with problems last night. (Well I'm not glad you had problems!) The worst part is that a lot of our channels are jammed into a small freq spectrum

6,7,9,10,11,12,13,15,17(x2),18 (between Orlando/Jax)just to name a few

 

[jmorgis]

Ok, this is driving me nuts. I tune my antenna where I can get 13.1 and 13.2, stong signal. But then I loose 10.1 and the 42's. I live in Mandarin. Should I invest in a RS DBT??? What is the best overall indoor antenna for Jacksonville.


John Morgis

Sony HD100

Mists 65905

 

[protsch]

It's not bad for 18 bucks. The past couple of days, the signal has been wacky, but as far as indoor antennas, the RS DBT has worked the best for me.


Paul

 

[Don Landis]

Indoor antennas will always be sensitive and inconsistent. If you want consistency, you must use a good broadband antenna in the clear.


Yes, I used to use a piece of wire for an antenna but that was before the locals began HDTV. When the Olympics ran, I put up an outside Terk antenna because it was quick and consistent for channel 13 but later as 10 and 42 went on the air, even the Terk was not broadband enough to satisfy my needs. Thus, the need for an antenna that worked in the mid VHF as well as the UHF frequencies. This is the LP yagi. IF you are close enough to the tower, maybe a lessor antenna will work but inside will always be a problem. Your body walking around the room will change the pickup patterns, actually, everything in the house will become a part of the antenna and when the geometry of that house and the people change so does the pickup capability. To figure an antenna "in the clear" be sure you are at least 3 half waves of the lowest channel frequency away. This would be channel 10 and that would put the clear space at about 7.5 feet sphere around the antenna. Few people can do this inside.

eg. My yagi was giving moderate performance located 5 ft above the roof of my house. I raised it to 10 ft above the roof and the signal strength tripled on channel 10 using the DTC meter. ie from 35-40 to 95-98. Channel 42 was consistently running in the high 80's and now is also in the high 90's but it's 3 half wave sphere of clear space is much smaller and therefore the 5 ft. above the house was probably quite adequate.

 

[DR Jax]

NBC will broadcast the Derby in HD on Saturday at 5pm. No local commercials will be shown. This is another heads up from Bill Schneider.


Happy Viewing.

 

[rcibera]

I noticed that in Bill's email. No commercials is a nice perk, huh?


John... If you're trying to stick with an indoor antenna, I would at least give the RS double bow-tie a shot. Roughly where in Mandarin are you? It should work OK for you. I use one in Hampton Glen (off of Baymeadows and SouthSide) and it works fairly well.


I do agree with Don that when someone walks in front of it, it gets thrown out of whack for a few seconds. Plus its ugly as hell, so I'm sure we'll all eventually move them to the attic or replace them.


Thanks... Ralph

 

[Don Landis]

In any of you really want to play with this RS antenna- Check out the Liquidation Center on Beach Blvd. They have quite a few on the shelf for 17.95

 

[jmorgis]

I picked up the RS BT, from the RS on Beach today. They have 9 left. I had to remove the 300 Ohm wire and replace it with a 300->75 Ohm matching transformer. I can now pickup the 10's 13's and 42's. But I have to angle the antenna a couple of inched between the 13's and 42's. I is much better then my old antenna.


Mt signal for 42's is very good. 13's is much lower.


Im located south SJ and Orange Pickers. (Mandarin). I will let you know how it works tonight with ABC-HD


John Morgis