[Lee Wood]

Updated 11-29-2010 - Added coverage map links


Because stations are transitioning at different times it may be necessary rescan tuners several times between midnight and noon on June 12.


Now, here is where DTV is at in the Portland market:

KATU (2, ABC) - Final DTV 43 effective 6/12/2009 - Operating at full power (1,000 kW) from the Sylvan Site shared omnidirectional antenna (KATU, KOIN and KRCW all use the same transmitting antenna). Runs 4:3 with sidepanels added inside 16:9 upconverted when not on true HD. They pass ABC HD and Local (720p) including DD 5.1 audio on 2-1. Transmits This movie network on 2-2 in standard definition. Includes 3 days of PSIP Program Guide, 708 and 608 Closed Captioning on 2-1 and 608 captions on 2-2 when available (due to the age of some of the programming captioning is not always required). Local news studio content is produced in HD while field material is upconverted widescreen format. KATU remains on UHF channel 43. Analog transmissions ended on evening of June 12 at 11:35 PM making KATU the last station to be digital only.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour

KOIN (6, CBS) - Final DTV 40 effective 6/12/2009 - Operating at full power (1,000 kW) from the Sylvan Site shared omnidirectional antenna. Passes CBS HD (1080i) and DD5.1 audio. Runs 4:3 inside 16:9 upconverted when not on true HD on 6-1. Includes one day of PSIP Program Guide, 608 and 708 (DTV) Closed Captioning on the HD service and SAP/Descriptive Video when available. Local news is produced in widescreen format. Carries 'TVGuide on Screen' data service. KOIN remains on UHF channel 40. Regular analog transmissions ended the morning of June 12 at 7:28 AM. KOIN remained an Analog Nightlight station until 7:30 AM June 27. KOIN commemorated the end of analog service by re-running a special produced in 1978 for the station's 25th anniversary just before the off button was pressed.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour

KGW (8, NBC) - Final DTV 8 effective 6/12/2009 - Operating at full power (25 kW) and has applied to increase power to 45 kw from the Skyline Site with an omnidirectional antenna. They pass NBC and Local HD (1080i) on 8-1 and 4:3 inside 16:9 upconverted at other times. 8-2 carries KGW24/7 a mix of news and other programming. 8-3 carries the Spanish language programming of Estrella. Includes 12 hours of PSIP Program Guide, 608 and 708 (DTV) Closed Captioning on the HD service and no Closed Captions on the Weather Channel. Local news studio content is produced in HD while field material is upconverted widescreen format. Analog transmissions ended on the morning of June 12. Digital transmission on channel 8 has begun.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour


KOPB (10, PBS) - Final DTV 10 effective 6/12/2009 - Operating at full power (32.4 kW) from the Skyline Site with an omnidirectional antenna. Passes PBS HD (1080i) on 10-1 (includes Descriptive Video audio service when available). HD Programming frequently does not match the analog channel, a mirror of the analog channel can be found on 10-2 (includes Descriptive Video and Spanish sound tracks when available), a localized version of PBS Create called OPBPlus is carried in standard definition on 10-3 (includes Descriptive Video audio service when available), and OPB Radio and OPB Music audio services on 10-4. Includes one day of PSIP Program Guide, 608 and 708 (DTV) Closed Captioning on the HD service and 608 Closed Captions on the SD service. Analog transmissions ended the morning of June 12. Digital transmission on channel 10 has begun.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour

KPTV (12, FOX) - Final DTV 12 effective 6/12/2009 - Operating at full power (24.5 kW) from the KPTV site with an omnidirectional antenna. Carries FOX HD (720p), including DD 5.1 audio, and 4:3 inside 16:9 upconverted programs on 12-1. Includes one day of PSIP Program Guide, 608 and 708 (DTV) Closed Captioning on the HD service. Local news is produced in widescreen format. Analog transmissions ended the morning of June 12. Digital transmission on channel 12 has begun.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour

KPXG (22, Ion) - Final DTV 22 Effective 12/03/2008 - Operating at full power (745 kW) from the Skyline Tower site with an omnidirectional antenna. Carrys one HD and three SD programs in a multicast. 22-1 is Ion HD (720p), 22-2 Qubo childrens programming (including a Spanish audio track), 22-3 Ion Life and 22-4 Worship TV and Paid Programs. Includes one day of PSIP Program Guide and 608 Closed Captions on all services. KPXG changed to UHF channel 22 on December 3, 2008 ending it's analog broadcasts on the same channel and becoming the first Portland station to be digital only.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour

KNMT (24, TBN) - Final DTV 45 Effective 4/16/2009 - Operating a full power (1,000 kw) DTV station at the Sylvan Site with an omnidirectional antenna. Carrys Five SD programs in a multicast. 24-1 mirrors the KNMT analog programming, 24-2 and 24-3 various religious programs, 24-4 religious programs in Spanish and 24-5 consists of childrens programming. Includes 7 days of PSIP Program Guide and 708 and 608 Closed Captions. KNMT remains on UHF channel 45. Analog transmissions ended April 16, 2009 making KNMT Portland's second all digital television station.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour

KRCW (32, The CW) - Final DTV 33 effective 6/12/2009 - On the air at full power (750 kW) from the Sylvan Site shared omnidirectional antenna. They pass The CW HD (1080i) on 32-1 and 4:3 inside 16:9 upconverted when not on true HD and Universal Sports on 32-2. Includes 2-1/2 days of PSIP Program Guide, 608 and 708 (DTV) Closed Captioning on the HD service. KRCW remains on UHF channel 33. Analog transmissions ended the morning of June 12.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour

KPDX (49, My Network TV) - Final DTV 30 effective 6/12/2009 - On the air at full power (741kW) and has applied for 1,000 kw from the KPTV site with an omnidirectional antenna. Carries My Network TV HD (720p) and 4:3 inside 16:9 upconverted programs on 49-1. Includes PSIP Program Guide, 608 and 708 (DTV) Closed Captioning on the HD service. Analog transmissions ended the morning of June 12. Digital transmission on channel 30 has begun.
TV Fool Predicted Signal Level
FCC Service Contour



For antenna aiming, all of the stations are clustered near SW Burnside and Skyline. The Sylvan Site (KOIN, KATU, KRCW and KNMT) are the two equal height towers furthest east. The Skyline Site (KGW, KOPB and KPXG), the tower with a 'forked' antenna mount on the top, is in the center. The KPTV and former KPDX sites are the two tall towers furthest west.


That's where things are to date.


Now, let's see if we can keep the Portland interests focused here instead of scattered all over the place.

 

[dlarsen]

Thanks Lee, Great idea!

Quote:
KATU (2, ABC) DTV 43 - Currently off the air due to damage to their microwave receiver caused by a power hit at the Sylvan transmitter site.

They did come back up briefly for a few days a few days ago after they got their microwave receiver back from repair? It seems somethings died a second time?

Quote:
KPTV (12, FOX) DTV 30 - Currently off the air while the studios are moved to Beaverton.

Any 'industry insider' info on a time frame for this?


Thanks for all your help and info.


Dave

 

[Marissadad]

KATU is back on the air now.


Lee, what's up with KOIN? I turned it on to watch the 12 hr HD Sports marathon this morning and it is breaking up a lot. I have a Dish 6000 receiver and I keep getting the transparent browser that shows channel number, signal strength etc that I get when changing to a new channel, except I only lose the signal breifly, it pixelates, breaks up, goes blank then tunes right back in.


HELP! This is totally unwatchable, thanks.

 

[dlarsen]

Yea! KATU is indeed back up. Lets hope they can stay up. (Viagra?)


Re: KOIN- I've just watched the first 2.5 sets of the Agassi/Hewitt match. I didn't see a single drop out. I do get some pixelization (mainly with the flaming CBS eye that flys across the screen prior to replays) but no drop outs. I'm using an AccessDTV card and have a 25/25 signal.


No Multicasting! Thank you CBS/KOIN!


Dave

 

[PatNOregon]

Finally a Portland Thread!, well I was all pumped up for todays 12 hr marathon on CBS as well, but I am getting frustrated as hell with my CBS reception. I've got a RCA 38in F38310 and my signal is going from 0 to 50 and I cant even watch the Florida / Miami game. I'm out in hillsboro, and have a clear line a site and all my other channels come in 80+, going to check on ABC now, but hopefully the 5ft mast the installer is bringing will help out and at least get me a constant 50+ signal . Any ideas on what may be causing this or any tips? Has anyone else had this problem? how did you fix it?

Thanks!

 

[michael goldman]

Lee

Thanks for taking the time to put this thread together


Does anyone have a recommmendation on antenna installers. Have a high pitched roof incompatible with my age. Will need a big CM antenna and rotor as I am down by the river in West Linn and currently can't get all channels reliably with a single direction Thanks in advance

 

[Karl Englebright]

Hi Lee,


I'm another one of those having breakup problems with KOIN. It really is unwatchable right now. I can't go more than 1 or 2 minutes without breaking up, muting or pixelating. My signal varies from 89 to 94% strength. I also have a Dish 6000 and I'm in eastern Vancouver.

 

[dan76]

Your a life save Lee. Great job.


And thanks again for letting me know about the problems with KOIN and Mitsubishi TV decoders. It is frustrating to not be able to watch the US Open on KOIN when it was working a week ago with crisp reception. I guess I'll keep on waiting but it sucks that KOIN has the most programming OTA. Again thanks again and keep us posted.


Dan

 

[Andy64]

Let me ad my "Thanks" to Lee for creating this thread.


Does anyone else sense that there may be a compatibility issue with the Dish 6000 and KOIN?

 

[Karl Englebright]

I would think the same thing, except reception has been great up to a few days ago. I don't think we've had new code downloaded in the last few days, have we?

 

[HB111]

I live in Hillsboro and have a Panasonic STB. Worked great all week-end except this morning 6-1 kept resetting my on screen display.(6-2 was OK). This resetting happened Thurs. night as well.

 

[PatNOregon]

Hey HB111, where in hillsboro do you live and are you getting OTA reception? I'm curious as to your location and the type of antenna you are using, do you have any signal fluctuation probs with KOIN?

Thanks!

 

[R11]

I have a mits receiver and watched a little of the tennis sat morning, the womens final sat evening and the mens final yesterday. Both of the finals were fine although the mens seemed a degree or two sharper to me (was the weather cam on 6-3 shut down or something?). There were drop outs sat morning while I had it on as I was reading the paper. Also had the pixelation from the flying graphics that dlarson mentioned although I don't remember noticing it yesterday though. Note to CBS: ditch the zoomy/noisy graphics on tennis. this isn't Fox football you know and we don't need to see/hear a bunch of stuff flying around between points (especially the sound).


ron

 

[foelker]

Hi Lee

Thanks for getting us all together.

HB111 mentioned that 6-1 kept resetting his receiver on Sunday. I had tennis on Saturday and Sunday and my DST-3000 would lock up and do a reset occasionally (maybe 5-6 times). I was cursing my bad luck and thinking that I would have to send it in for repairs until I read HB's post. I know that some people have had problems with the DISH 6000 but I have never experienced this before. I've had HDNet on this afternoon in HD and haven't had a single reset since the tennis on Sunday. Is it possible for KOIN's signal to prompt a receiver reset spontaneously? If so, I would be interested in hearing about anyone else that has had this experience.


This is truly the power of this forum. I was ready to ship the thing off today until I read HB's post. It might still be broken, but at least I had more knowledge of possible other causes.


Thanks

Scott

 

[Lee Wood]

Sorry, gang. It was a busy weekend. School's back in session, soccer is back in full swing, and a couple of dinners with friends. (Even TV folks have a life - REALLY!)


It appears that the Triveni PSIP system decided to get weird sometime Friday or Saturday. Monday morning it was putting out things at the wrong intervals and it wasn't putting out all the right stuff. This seems to have affected Dish 6000 and Mitsubishi receivers the most. The Samsung based Harris ARX-100, RCA DTC-100 and Toshiba DST-3000 at the studio ignored the problems. Sorry about this. It always seems to happen when there is a REALLY good sporting event on the schedule. When I tried to do a manual restart of the program (it is Windows after all) Monday morning it forgot everything it ever knew about its job and I had to completely rebuild all of the settings. This is NOT my favorite thing to do on a Monday morning!! In any case, all should be well now (at least the Mist in the lobby is happy again).


KATU-DT got back on the air some time Friday.


Still no word on KPTV-DT. They are having lots of shakedown problems from the studio move and I'm not inclined to bug Ed yet.

 

[Marissadad]

I noticed it Friday night, Lee. I was hoping it was a temporary problem and would have been gone by Saturday morning. Since you run the PSIP on NT, maybe you should consider rebooting that thing weekly. Better yet, can you put it on Linux?


All is well now, thanks a lot, Lee.

 

[Marissadad]

Lee, elsewhere on this forum was posted that CBS is upgrading their satellite to handle DD 5.1 by early 2003. Is KOIN ready to pass this through when it's available?


Thanks.

 

[BarryO]

Hey, Lee,


BTW, I've had flakey reception on KOIN for several weeks. I haven't said anything, since I figured it was just my particular case. But it was basically unwatchable. 'figured it was some kind of summer foliage or atmosphere propagation weirdness thing (although almost all of the foliage around here are evergreens).


Anyway, last night, reception was back to normal. I wonder if the manual restart fixed it.

 

[Lee Wood]



Quote:
Originally posted by Marissadad
Lee, elsewhere on this forum was posted that CBS is upgrading their satellite to handle DD 5.1 by early 2003. Is KOIN ready to pass this through when it's available?

CBS hasn't clued us into their plans yet. Our biggest problem is getting the signal from the satellite earth station in Milwaukie to the studio. The present system uses separate receivers (in Milwaukie) and decoders (at the studio) so we are able to pass through the DD2.0 embedded in the video without problem. In theory we can do the same with DD5.1, but how we handle local audio becomes the problem then.

Quote:
Originally posted by BarryO
BTW, I've had flakey reception on KOIN for several weeks. I haven't said anything, since I figured it was just my particular case. But it was basically unwatchable. 'figured it was some kind of summer foliage or atmosphere propagation weirdness thing (although almost all of the foliage around here are evergreens).


Anyway, last night, reception was back to normal. I wonder if the manual restart fixed it.

The last time I did a full reboot was in early August just before going on vacation. I had not noticed anything odd since then until Monday. But, who knows for sure since the three brands of receivers monitored in Master Control didn't have any problems.

 

[Dean Prestholt]

As of last night KPTV 12 is back on the air. I didn't watch long enough or check to see if there were any Fox widescreen programming on but it is back up none the less.