DTV Delay: Effects in Indiana

[PTBoardOp94]

According to Rabbit-Ears.info, several Indiana TV stations have filed forms stating that they will go all-digital on Feb 17 instead of the Jun 12 date approved by Congress today.

They include;
WEVV/Evansville, WRTV/Indianapolis, and most of the stations in South Bend and Ft. Wayne.

I strongly suspect that the Nexstar stations in Terre Haute will remain in analog as long as possible -- as far as I know, there still is no WTWO-DT service.

I think Evansville will go all digital on Feb 17. As reported earlier, WFIE is planning to file for Feb 17th transition. I've not heard anything about WEHT or WTVW.

I suspect the same about Indianpolis. As far as I know, all the stations have their facilities ready, perhaps with the exception of TBN 42.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

The Evansville Courier & Press now reports that DMA will remain in Analog until June. http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/feb/09/local-television-stations-wont-make-early-switch-d/

WTHR now says on its website it will also broadcast until June 12th in Analog. Wishtv.com still indicates February 17, however.

I haven't seen any other updates on other Indiana markets.

 

[Juan Bodley]

In Fort Wayne WISE and WPTA (in the Granite family) are running on-air ads saying they'll cease analog broadcasts on Feb. 18th.
WFWA (PBS) has run an ad as well.
The other stations, WANE and WFFT, I cannot recall or verify anywhere what they are going to do, although I think WFFT HAS to stay on air on analog as long as possible unless they've got a secret we don't know yet.

As they say, stay tooned...

 

[Stitch]

According to Rabbit-Ears.info, several Indiana TV stations have filed forms stating that they will go all-digital on Feb 17 instead of the Jun 12 date approved by Congress today.

They include;
WEVV/Evansville, WRTV/Indianapolis, and most of the stations in South Bend and Ft. Wayne.

I strongly suspect that the Nexstar stations in Terre Haute will remain in analog as long as possible -- as far as I know, there still is no WTWO-DT service.

I think Evansville will go all digital on Feb 17. As reported earlier, WFIE is planning to file for Feb 17th transition. I've not heard anything about WEHT or WTVW.

I suspect the same about Indianpolis. As far as I know, all the stations have their facilities ready, perhaps with the exception of TBN 42.

WTWO-DT isn't quite full power, but it is passing HD on a temporary antenna while their main antenna is in for repairs after some technical glitches. Same problems affected WFXW-DT, which is back to it's STA transmitter. I was told both are expected to be back to full working order by March (and that was before the DTV delay was announced). They're running spots on both stations mentioning the June 12th deadline.

Last I saw WTHI-TV/DT was still running a February 17th crawl, so apparently they're sticking with the date (unless it just changed in the last day or two).

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Anyone know if WISH 8 is shutting down on 2/17? I've been looking forward to 2/17...my WISH DT reception is the most iffy of anything from Indy & it's for 1 of 2 reasons...

1) The analog signal on 8 is interfering with the DT signal on 9

or

2) WCPO 9 from Cincy is interfering with the WISH DT signal.

In any case, with a dedicated 7-13 yagi at 39 miles, the WISH DT 9 "quality" indicator on the DISH DVR/receiver never exceeds 73%, whereas all the other Indy and Louisville (70 miles) channels are at or very near 100%. Been counting the days until Feb 17...I can only assume that HD reception will improve once 1/2 the transmitters on the TV band are gone. Guess I get to wait another few months...Is this "Change We Can Believe In"? It sure isn't change we can count on.

 

[bigtime]

WHMB 40 killed their analog signal a couple of weeks ago.

 

[RDO]

Obama's decision has created at least a few jobs. Someone has to go into all the stores (at least I know of Walmart) and reset all the countdown clocks that read X days until DTV.

I saw one today that still reads 6 days.

Doh!

 

[jegrant]

I'm most interested in the WNDY 23 analog shutoff, which will allow WIPB DT 23 to begin operation. Will this still happen on 2/17?

 

[kd8hho]

I'm most interested in the WNDY 23 analog shutoff, which will allow WIPB DT 23 to begin operation. Will this still happen on 2/17?

whats sad is i get better WNDY analog signal better then the digital

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I'm most interested in the WNDY 23 analog shutoff, which will allow WIPB DT 23 to begin operation. Will this still happen on 2/17?

whats sad is i get better WNDY analog signal better then the digital

Same here...but that's because I have 5000000 watts from WLKY at 70 miles on 32. On rare occasions, with the 7' dish aimed at WNDY, I have seen their DT, but it's rare.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

I havent been able to pick up any UHF for awhile now, and I dont know why.. Im in Bobs area/Slightly more north east, I used to get CH 23 WNDY ANALOG and Fox 59( Analog clear as a bell) and Snowy but watchable could get Louisville 32 CBS, Fox 41, Big 58 sometimes barely CH 17 which I think is Salem, but very fuzzy) but I cant get anything above 13 now, and they are all snowy, Oddly enough the only UHF I get is CH 38 terre haute, which is pretty clear, but not even served by our local cable here,,, i cant get WTWO 2, or WTHI 10 barely at all,,,,, 10 used to be real clear here... not any more.

 

[KyDXIn]

I havent been able to pick up any UHF for awhile now, and I dont know why.. Im in Bobs area/Slightly more north east, I used to get CH 23 WNDY ANALOG and Fox 59( Analog clear as a bell) and Snowy but watchable could get Louisville 32 CBS, Fox 41, Big 58 sometimes barely CH 17 which I think is Salem, but very fuzzy) but I cant get anything above 13 now, and they are all snowy, Oddly enough the only UHF I get is CH 38 terre haute, which is pretty clear, but not even served by our local cable here,,, i cant get WTWO 2, or WTHI 10 barely at all,,,,, 10 used to be real clear here... not any more.

About the Channel 17 here in Indiana... You are correct that it is in Salem as WHAN, but WKPC DT from Louisville is also on Channel 17! Stupid FCC. I'm 15 miles from Salem and can't get WHAN!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHAN-LP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WKPC

 

[IndyDan]

Being how the Salem station is LP, would they be required to move of they are displaced by a full-powered DTV station? Kinds surprises me that there are tow stations this close together on the same channel. I see that station is owned by Becky White, who also holds the license for WSLM-FM...I can only imagine what they put on the air.

 

[KyDXIn]

Being how the Salem station is LP, would they be required to move of they are displaced by a full-powered DTV station? Kinds surprises me that there are tow stations this close together on the same channel. I see that station is owned by Becky White, who also holds the license for WSLM-FM...I can only imagine what they put on the air.

I'm not sure if you can get WSLM on 97.9, but they used to own and operate the same station on the original 98.9 which was a huge 50,000 watts and covered a large territory with just above amatuer programming. I haven't seen the TV station in years, but my parents could receive a snowy signal prior to the dtv station signing on air. The 6pm news consisted of the radio reporter sitting at a desk reading wire copy for 15 minutes ala 1950!

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Did 98.9 used to be really located in Salem back when they were country??? Even with their current 50kw signal from Greenville Ind,,, serving Louisville Metro, I can almost always pick it up in the car, or especially if the 60 ft rotar Antenna is hooked up to the streeo,, Im near Indianapolis and can get Kiss 98.9,,, 99.7 WDJX very regularly here,,, sometimes 107.7 WSFR or 95.7 QMF, and Lite 106.9 will make a visit as well.

As for CH 17,,, their programing was horrible,,, mostly old black and white Westerns from the 1940s, old cartoons, and religion.... I wonder when the analog goes away, will i be able to get the Louisville and Terre Haute stations still, or will I even get consistent reception on the indy DTVs...

 

[w9wi]

Being how the Salem station is LP, would they be required to move of they are displaced by a full-powered DTV station? Kinds surprises me that there are tow stations this close together on the same channel. I see that station is owned by Becky White, who also holds the license for WSLM-FM...I can only imagine what they put on the air.

WHAN is a Class A station - that puts it in a kind of limbo, between LP and full-power. If WKPC were a completely new station, it probably couldn't have used channel 17 - WHAN would have had priority on the channel. But WKPC was an existing station that was assigned channel 17 by the FCC.

WKPC is on at relatively low power, about 60kw. I rather suspect they will not be allowed to increase that power as long as WHAN is on channel 17. However, WHAN has a permit to switch to digital operation on channel 40. I would imagine WKPC would be allowed to increase once that permit is implemented. Not that KET seems inclined to run more than minimum power on their DTVs.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Being how the Salem station is LP, would they be required to move of they are displaced by a full-powered DTV station? Kinds surprises me that there are tow stations this close together on the same channel. I see that station is owned by Becky White, who also holds the license for WSLM-FM...I can only imagine what they put on the air.

WHAN is a Class A station - that puts it in a kind of limbo, between LP and full-power. If WKPC were a completely new station, it probably couldn't have used channel 17 - WHAN would have had priority on the channel. But WKPC was an existing station that was assigned channel 17 by the FCC.

WKPC is on at relatively low power, about 60kw. I rather suspect they will not be allowed to increase that power as long as WHAN is on channel 17. However, WHAN has a permit to switch to digital operation on channel 40. I would imagine WKPC would be allowed to increase once that permit is implemented. Not that KET seems inclined to run more than minimum power on their DTVs.

I'm 53 miles from WHAN & it was maybe 20% snow before WKPC-DT came along...now WKPC-DT rules the channel at 70 miles, even though they are directional away from me, running what? 15KW to the north? And you are so correct...I talked to one of their engineers once & IIRC, he said their target was to run their DT's at 10% of their existing analog power. Guess they aren't into flame throwers. And based on that, I'd guess the DA is to give them the same signal over Louisville while spending even less on their electric bill. Cheap, Cheap...

 

[ChiefEngineer]

fcc.gov/media then TV Query any TV station in the country. WRTV has a Digital transition application and also has an STA request to go siletn on analog "today" because they don't have cash budgeted for the operation past today. Signed by Don Lundy.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

fcc.gov/media then TV Query any TV station in the country. WRTV has a Digital transition application and also has an STA request to go siletn on analog "today" because they don't have cash budgeted for the operation past today. Signed by Don Lundy.

Looks like WRTV took up a collection...they're still there. Either that or they failed to budget for an engineer to shut it down.

Wonder what happens to the 88.7 that's on their channel 6 antenna? One would presume that the channel 6 antenna will be dismantled. That's a lot of wind load for a 5KW horizontal only FM station. Based on how well WRTV doesn't get out, WICR would do well to put up a better antenna anyways...

A scan of the TV dial from here shows that WCLJ 42 is all that's gone. The Indy, Louisville, Cincinnati, Dayton & Terre Haute mainstays are all still there in analog. More "change we can believe in" I see...

 

[KyDXIn]

Did 98.9 used to be really located in Salem back when they were country??? Even with their current 50kw signal from Greenville Ind,,, serving Louisville Metro, I can almost always pick it up in the car, or especially if the 60 ft rotar Antenna is hooked up to the streeo,, Im near Indianapolis and can get Kiss 98.9,,, 99.7 WDJX very regularly here,,, sometimes 107.7 WSFR or 95.7 QMF, and Lite 106.9 will make a visit as well.

As for CH 17,,, their programing was horrible,,, mostly old black and white Westerns from the 1940s, old cartoons, and religion.... I wonder when the analog goes away, will i be able to get the Louisville and Terre Haute stations still, or will I even get consistent reception on the indy DTVs...

WSLM was on 98.9 and had a huge signal from "Radio Ridge" in Salem. I guess when Don Martin, Becky's dad, began to think about selling the big signal, he applied for the signal on 97.9 and ran the second signal as WHAN FM I believe. They still have WSLM AM on 1220 and this was a simucast of the FM signal.

Most of the stations you mentioned being able to receive are located in Harrison or Floyd Counties west of downtown Louisville. I would think the elevation of these towers would be in the 800-900 ft above sea level, which I would think would be good for Indiana. QMF's antenna is near the Horseshoe (formerly Caesar's) Casino. Most of the others are just NW of Indiana University Southeast in New Albany and visible from I-265.

The elevation at my house is 692, and I'm saving up to get an outdoor mast and antenna. Still not sure which antenna to get, possibly a Channelmaster 4228, which I've read online is a good antenna. Planning on getting a rotor too so I can aim the antenna toward the 4 winds. My best TV DXing was getting Channel 7 one day from Dayton on rabbit ears! I thought it was WTVW from Evansville which at one time was on our local cable system. Radio wise I get WTTS 92.3 easily on the car radio and 950AM from Indy.