[jdmcdonald]

We need a new Central Illinois (Champaign-Decatur-Springfield market)

thread.


This is it, and WBUI has died again. I've become somewhat attached

to some of their cheesy programs.


Doug McDonald

 

[Chilli_Dog]

WBUI seems to be back up this morning. Also, WSEC (PBS) is planning on broadcasting in June now. They've been doing some sporadic testing the last couple of weeks.

 

[Chilli_Dog]

I don't know how long they've been doing this, but I noticed WAND was broadcasting in DD 5.1 tonight. Very, very cool.

 

[jdmcdonald]

Last evening there was a tropo event here in Illinois and I got

Quad Cities stations very strongly. There were several digital

channels, including one with box Fox and WB. Also visible was the

pathetically poor digital of Fox in Bloomington.


Finally, the analog CBS station Ch. 18 in Lafayette was so strong that it began to interfere with WAND-DT on my bidirectional antenna and

I had to go to a backup directional one.


Doug McDonald

 

[brenden]

Since Peoria is also considered central Illinois, but I think only has PBS, I did not think a new thread was necessary for this...


I noticed that WEEK-TV (NBC affiliate ch25) is currently running on a backup antenna while they prepare their tower for HDTV http://www.week.com/program/


I sent a question to engineering , asking if they were going to brodcast 1080i when available, and got this reply:


We will provide all 1080i programming that NBC provides us. Our

NTSC signal will be upconverted to 1080i, but you probably won't see

much

difference.


Dennis Riley

Chief Engineer, WEEK-TV

2709 Springfield Road

E. Peoria, IL. 61611


Now, I just do not know when..

 

[dgreen]

Congrats to WEEK Peoria for coming online this afternoon. And HD from the start--fantastic. No problem receiving the signal on the East side of Bloomington.


We were able to catch the Kentucky Derby this afternoon. And while many of the shots in the production were SD, the ones that were in HD were great. The good weather with the sunlight, the colorful jockey jerseys, and the atmosphere all contributed to showing what's possible.


Thanks WEEK!

 

[jdcolombo]

Still no digital from WCCU Fox27, eh?


John C.

 

[jdmcdonald]

Yep, Fox WCCU and WRSP got another 6 month extension.


And WILL got one too, but they will come on (in HD) when they

get the equipment, rather than waiting for the end of the

extension.


Doug McDonald

 

[jdmcdonald]

WBUI-DT is off the air because their shack is overheating. The

final is water cooled but apparently other stuff is heating up the

analog transmitter equipment too much. So they have to

upgrade air conditioning.


WICD-DT got sick over the weekend. This is or was a pre-transmitter

problem ... maybe encoder, maybe PSIP, etc. They were putting

out the usual strength signal but I got the old "no signal"

from my T-151 just like I did from WCIA before they got

their PSIP fixed.


Doug McDonald

 

[jdmcdonald]

I talked to a non-engineer at WCIA today and got some info. They

didn't want to say anything but did anyway.


They know they are going to go sometime to HDTV. They didn't want to talk dates but she let slip 6 months - a year - two years and

"sooner rather than later". The way the latter was said might imply

stress from the network (my guess.)


This is actually good news .... I'd never before gotten an impression

any better than "when hell freezes over". This was also the

prognostication from NBC, though it never has been from the WB.


But a call to WICD show changes .... they now admit it will happen,

no time, but they (i.e. corporate) know it will or rather must. And

"corporate" of WICD is Sinclair, former biggest enemy of all digital and HDTV.


Doug McDonald

 

[stevet96]

I'm in the Morton area trying to get HDTV. Has anyone in the area tried to get the DT OTA channels with VOOMs receiver? I have a Terk-TV35 that is in my attic. I can get WMBD, but it seems to drop the signal every few minutes. WEEK doesn't come in at all. WAOE comes in perfectly. WHOI is not registered with the VOOM box, so I guess I have to call them and have it added to the menu. WTVP comes in great and WYZZ, I get nothing. I'm guessing a preamp will clean up most of my problems. What is my chance of getting WYZZ with a preamp and an attenna pointing to Peoria instead of Bloomington?


Any suggestions on a better setup for Morton?