• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Dallas Shutoff

E

eskipper411

The DTV Transition is complete but not without the nightlight program on KDFW, and KXAS with that gay guy on there.
 
I can see this will require a few re-scans since they are not all done. When 8 digital went away on 9, I rescanned, still have 10 analogs, and lost 21.1, and there are errors on 14.8. 14.9 and 19.1. And then after the dust has settled, get to go in and delete al the Spanish language stations that don't use SAP for English. 11.1 signal is full scale now that it's on VHF. That's the only improvement I see so far.
 
14.8 and 14.9 are data-only signals for "automatic update" service that runs on PBS stations.

KERA has announced that they will finally launch a -DT2, using "PBS World" (the documentary station)
 
I thought that KERA would sign off at 12 midnight? And when will the 14.8 and 9 go away? And when will the rest of the analog go away(not low power)?
 
Not surprisingly, WFAA's analog shutdown was well-done. The old signoff from the 70's was run and then the flash-cut from DT-9 to DT-8. The signal strength improved (LBJ near Denton Drive) using a Terk HDTVa from 37 to 61 on the DigitalStream converter box.

KTVT's move from DT-19 to DT-11 isn't working out so well for that indoor rabbit ears setup. The signal strength dropped from 91 on the UHF facility down to a mere 37 on hi-VHF, with numerous dropouts. I'm sure it's great with an outdoor antenna -- but, given how close we are to Cedar Hill here at work in Farmers Branch, I would have thought that 23.0 kw at 1707' HAAT would have performed somewhat better for KTVT.

I may not be able to get KTVT at all in Frisco when I try it from home later tonight.

If I ran things at CBS11, I'd be on the phone with Lenard Leiberman arranging for a swap with KMPX! :)
 
Bob E. Nelson said:
Not surprisingly, WFAA's analog shutdown was well-done. The old signoff from the 70's was run and then the flash-cut from DT-9 to DT-8. The signal strength improved (LBJ near Denton Drive) using a Terk HDTVa from 37 to 61 on the DigitalStream converter box.

KTVT's move from DT-19 to DT-11 isn't working out so well for that indoor rabbit ears setup. The signal strength dropped from 91 on the UHF facility down to a mere 37 on hi-VHF, with numerous dropouts. I'm sure it's great with an outdoor antenna -- but, given how close we are to Cedar Hill here at work in Farmers Branch, I would have thought that 23.0 kw at 1707' HAAT would have performed somewhat better for KTVT.

I may not be able to get KTVT at all in Frisco when I try it from home later tonight.

If I ran things at CBS11, I'd be on the phone with Lenard Leiberman arranging for a swap with KMPX! :)
Click to expand...
yeah on the DTVPal box here in Decatur, it is 88-90 percent for WFAA(finally) and with KTVT at 58-60 what a shame that it ent from 88-90 down to the current levels. There is now some problems with KERA with my box saying no service and going from 16 to 90 percent with no service another rescan every minute should do it.
 
I thought it went pretty well. I noticed 4, 5, and 13 got drafted for the nightlight service.

One disappointment: I was hoping 4 would be off the air. I'm using 4 in-house, but a bit of the broadcast signal leaks in and causes some interference. Besides, I figured 4 going off might give me a better shot at picking up KHPK-DT on channel 3.

Darn. Now I'll have to wait another month or so :(
 
I don't think this switch over was as smooth as the government wanted to be but this is no surprise.

I got home about 3 and did a rescan of channels on my TV and it picked up all the channels on new frequencies and I was happy about it.

However, I am not happy that Channel 11 (KTVT) pretty much disappeared due to low signal of 30-40% when it was 80% yesterday. WFAA still barely comes in and it took TV52 with it since TV52 is on WFAA's old frequency.

Is there any talk of WFAA, TV52 and/or KTVT boosting their signal in the next week or so?

As my wife tells me, cable is an overpriced scam and the digital switch is one big digital "glitch".

;D
 
Although I understood maybe 60% at best of what was being said, KUVN's analog shutdown at 2300 tonight was very impressive with a well-produced half-hour program. The shutdown itself had a countdown (a la New Years at Times Square) on a split screen from New York and then...poof...off it went (after a legal ID).

The only glitch was that there was delay of several minutes before the flash cut to digital on RF 23 and the shutdown of pre-transition 24.

As of this writing (00:48), D/FW has completed the transition. Everyone's now on their final RF channel, notably KLDT moving from out-of-core 54 down to 39, vacated by KXTX's NTSC.

The only full-power NTSC signals left are the nightlights from KDFW and KXAS.

However, KSEX-LP is still on...using channel 57. I realize that CA and LP facilities didn't have to change to digital by the end of 12 June 2009. But weren't all out-of-core (52-69) stations supposed to move or shutdown, regardless of power level?
 
This good thread.

Down here in Navarro County -- At the office our new HDTV with rabbit ears was not picking up WFAA-8 or CH 52 and after the scan we are still not, plus no longer picking up CBS 11.

At home where I have HDTV's and an antenna in the attic I was picking up everything except channel 52. After a re-scan I pick up channel 52 great and still have CBS 11. Only problem so far was during the 10PM news the video kept dropping off on WFAA 8, but I had the audio.

Would be interested in hearing the locations and stations others can not pick up or have fade out from.
 
I have to agree with Bob, KUVN's sign off was GREAT. They had a big party somewhere in Addison to celebrate and Univision apparently bought the screen in Times Square for the countdown in spanish. The half hour show to go over everything appeared to be well done.

Channel 8's sign off (BIG thanks for the Youtube link) was very good too. I was a little surprised Pete Delkus introduced the sign off video.
Thought maybe John or Gloria would do that. No matter, it was well done. On the digital channel, I loved seeing all the old time engineers there for the switch.

Didn't see what channels 4, 5, and 11 did. I get the impression they made little effort to call attention to the switch. Very foolish.
 
sathman01 said:
I don't think this switch over was as smooth as the government wanted to be but this is no surprise.

I got home about 3 and did a rescan of channels on my TV and it picked up all the channels on new frequencies and I was happy about it.

However, I am not happy that Channel 11 (KTVT) pretty much disappeared due to low signal of 30-40% when it was 80% yesterday. WFAA still barely comes in and it took TV52 with it since TV52 is on WFAA's old frequency.

Is there any talk of WFAA, TV52 and/or KTVT boosting their signal in the next week or so?

As my wife tells me, cable is an overpriced scam and the digital switch is one big digital "glitch".

;D
Click to expand...
actually it comes pretty good here in 76234
 
sathman01 said:
However, I am not happy that Channel 11 (KTVT) pretty much disappeared due to low signal of 30-40% when it was 80% yesterday. WFAA still barely comes in and it took TV52 with it since TV52 is on WFAA's old frequency.
Click to expand...

You need to get an antenna that performs equally on upper VHF (Chs 7-13) as well as on UHF. If you are getting all others but 8,11 and 52, you are in range of the stations. You just need some gain from the antenna on VHF. I use an old hail damaged RadioShack TV antenna that's missing a couple of the longest elements, and they all come in strong in NW DAllas, 11 being the strongest, 100%, of the three on VHF. Just a matter of getting the right antenna.
 
Megapsycle said:
You need to get an antenna that performs equally on upper VHF (Chs 7-13) as well as on UHF. If you are getting all others but 8,11 and 52, you are in range of the stations. You just need some gain from the antenna on VHF. I use an old hail damaged RadioShack TV antenna that's missing a couple of the longest elements, and they all come in strong in NW DAllas, 11 being the strongest, 100%, of the three on VHF. Just a matter of getting the right antenna.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I sat down and worked with the antenna I have and have got all the channels to come in except for WFAA and I had the same issue as before WFAA switched to frequency 8.

I suspect that WFAA is just to get in the 75150 area due to either the location of WFAA transmitter at Cedar Hill or the amount of output power or it could be both or neither.

Suggestions on how to look for a good indoor VHF antenna or how to strength the one I have?

Thanks
 
sathman01 said:
Megapsycle said:
You need to get an antenna that performs equally on upper VHF (Chs 7-13) as well as on UHF. If you are getting all others but 8,11 and 52, you are in range of the stations. You just need some gain from the antenna on VHF. I use an old hail damaged RadioShack TV antenna that's missing a couple of the longest elements, and they all come in strong in NW DAllas, 11 being the strongest, 100%, of the three on VHF. Just a matter of getting the right antenna.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I sat down and worked with the antenna I have and have got all the channels to come in except for WFAA and I had the same issue as before WFAA switched to frequency 8.

I suspect that WFAA is just to get in the 75150 area due to either the location of WFAA transmitter at Cedar Hill or the amount of output power or it could be both or neither.

Suggestions on how to look for a good indoor VHF antenna or how to strength the one I have?
Click to expand...


I take it you are in the Town East area, in an apartment? Do you have a view from a balcony or out a window to the southwest from there? Could be you have severe multipath out that way in your situation. I read of a lot of people that have problems with indoor antennas and VHF. I don't know of any compact indoor antenna that stands out as actually working as well as on VHF as UHF.

Would have been really nice and made sense to move ALL DTV to UHF. That would have resolved these kind of problems. For whatever reason, that didn't happen.
 
Megapsycle said:
Would have been really nice and made sense to move ALL DTV to UHF. That would have resolved these kind of problems. For whatever reason, that didn't happen.
Click to expand...

This would've been the opportunity to do what Britain did when all-UHF colour TV was introduced in the mid-to-late 1960's with the PAL system. ATSC is optimized for UHF, so keeping the VHF TV band doesn't make sense. It would also remove the clutter and the height of rabbit ears in front of the loop that plagues the VHF/UHF combo antennas; it simplifies home decorating and antenna design. Maybe a UHF only lineup would have seen the introduction of built-in UHF loops to the digital televisions.
 
Here is a problem: I can not pick up KLDT-39. I could pick up KLDT-54 very easily. Because of PSIP, when I try to direct tune ch.39, I get KXTX-38. I realize that was how the FCC intends for things to work, but how are we going to figure out if an physical channel is on the air if we are unable to tune to it?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom