31.4 in DFW now has Retro TV

[Bob E. Nelson]

Oh no...I thought I had this thing figured out! WHY do 8 and 52 need rabbit ears?? I can seldom get either one, but did for a while, then it changed. So these days, it's 8 sometimes, and 52 never. I'm missing some "Book'em Dano" every day now.

Mike --

All of our long-held notions about television reception were turned upside down with the transition from analog to digital. If Weird Al were to remake 1989's ``UHF'', he'd have to call it ``VHF'' nowadays.

In the good old analog (NTSC) days, channels 2-6 were prime real estate for TV. It was prestigious to transmit on low-band VHF. Next in the pecking order was the high-VHF band of channels 7-13. And, of course, UHF was relegated to the low budget operators.

With digital (ATSC), the onetime slums of UHF became the prime real estate. By and large, VHF became a loser in the new world of DTV. Of course, with virtual channel mapping, most consumers aren't aware of the REAL (RF) channel. For the big operators in D/FW (English language), the virtual and real mappings are:

Virtual Real(RF)  Calls
4    35     KDFW
5    41     KXAS
8    8     WFAA
11    19     KTVT
13    14     KERA
21    18     KTXA
27    36     KDFI
33    32     KDAF
52    9     KFWD
68    42     KPXD

So, WFAA/8 and KFWD/52 are the only two on the VHF band. That's why they need rabbit ears and all of the others can be received with much smaller antennas. The VHF frequencies use a longer wavelength, thus the receiving antenna must also be larger.

What works for me is to extend the dipoles of the rabbit ears straight out (flat) to a tip-to-tip length of 29 inches. Then orient those flattened dipoles to Cedar Hill in order to receive two lone VHFs operating in our market. At my site (some 40 miles north of Cedar Hill in Frisco), I've found that a Terk HDTVa (available at Best Buy or online at Amazon) works quite well for all of the D/FW facilities.

This is already a lengthy message. If you want more info, send me a personal message and I'll yak some more.

 

[JHBrandt]

Oh no...I thought I had this thing figured out! WHY do 8 and 52 need rabbit ears?? I can seldom get either one, but did for a while, then it changed. So these days, it's 8 sometimes, and 52 never. I'm missing some "Book'em Dano" every day now.

Hi Mike, I enjoy my weekly blast to the past on the Hi-Fi Club!

Channels 8 and 52 are the only ones in DFW still using VHF (other than a couple of LP stations nobody cares about except us geeks). WFAA really is on channel 8, but KFWD is really on channel 9 (52 is just their "virtual" channel now). All the others are on UHF now, so a UHF antenna works fine for every station except 8 and 52. (If you get a really strong signal, a UHF antenna can sort of work for VHF stations, but it usually won't work very well.) So you need a VHF antenna for those two. Indoors, that pretty much means rabbit ears (unless you're an antenna geek who can design and build your own).

 

[JHBrandt]

Uh-oh

Noticed today that K31GL 31.4 has flipped to Retro TV. Love that!

I hope someone will pick up AMG-TV, though. They do run some ``interesting'' B movies (as well as C, D, E and F movies).

31.4 and 31.3 have been dark for a couple days, but 31.1 and 31.2 are fine. Did they lose RTV the way they lost TheCoolTV?

 

[arnoldevns]

A note on the website for 31.4 says it's a technical problem and they'll be back soon. Not sure I buy that, but I have no reason to believe otherwise.

 

[arnoldevns]

It returned overnight. It's back on today. Woo Hoo!

 

[JHBrandt]

It returned overnight. It's back on today. Woo Hoo!

Good. 31.3 is still dark but 31.4 is the biggie.

 

[jras20]

To bad Austin // San antonio can't get this channel. Or This TV?? Come on...

 

[JHBrandt]

It returned overnight. It's back on today. Woo Hoo!

Good. 31.3 is still dark but 31.4 is the biggie.

Programming returned to 31.3 yesterday. Not sure, but it looked like AMGTV (which used to be on 31.4 before RTV).

 

[arnoldevns]

That's cool. I liked some of the stuff on AMG.

 

[arnoldevns]

Okay, looking at 31.3 now.. looks like it's done by the same people who do 31.4.
They have a logo on screen that says "Hot TV" It's the same basic design as the 31.4 bug.
It could be AMG.. but may just be some of the old shows 31.4 airs in non-RTV timeslots.

 

[JHBrandt]

Okay, looking at 31.3 now.. looks like it's done by the same people who do 31.4.
They have a logo on screen that says "Hot TV" It's the same basic design as the 31.4 bug.
It could be AMG.. but may just be some of the old shows 31.4 airs in non-RTV timeslots.

On second look I don't think it's AMG. They're saying "HOT TV" stands for "History Of Television Television." A bit redundant, but I give them credit for trying!

It does appear to be mostly very old shows. Saw a movie last night that looked like a predecessor of the "Dragnet" TV series - a very young Jack Webb starred in it as an L.A. cop (and he did look quite a bit like Dan Aykroyd)!

 

[arnoldevns]

They appear to have a website under construction: http://www.hottvchannel.com/

 

[eskipper411]

I think this station may be the first one in the DFW market that has it **** together. Low power wise. I have not seen color bars for months on there. It's switching subchannels sometimes but it's new.

 

[arnoldevns]

I'm with you there. I think they do a very nice job on a low budget. I am facinated by this operation. 31.4 has a billboard up on I-20 near Sunnyvale now. They found antique TV shows and movies for 31.3 that I never knew existed. They don't just rely on RTV for all the programming on 31.4 either. They run a fair number of PI spots that you see on most TV stations, but they also have several local advertisers who air spots on the station that never air ads anywhere else. (and I'm pretty likely to patronize those businesses) I would assume the addition of a second channel means they're doing fairly well. Good for them!

 

[X-Man]

Nice lineup, it looks like they're seperating the older programs from 31.4 and putting them on 31.3 and airing RTV full-time on 31.4. Sounds like a good move, I hope they stick with it for a while.