Hartford LPTV channels 38, 48 and 50

[rcs]

Someone asked a while back where these stations transmitted from. They are all on the WCCC-FM tower on Avon Mountain in West Hartford.

 

[KML0224]

And I get almost nothing on all three of them here in New Brtain's south end.

 

[dhett]

That's how it works sometimes. You must be in a dead spot, because WHCT-LP 38's signal is predicted to reach beyond Meriden, WRNT-LP 48's signal is predicted to reach the middle of Meriden, and so is WRDM-LP 50's signal.

I have the same situation in Phoenix: I'm about 6 miles east of the antenna farm, which is located atop South Mountain, about 1200' above the city, and I have an unobstructed view. I cannot receive KFPH-CA 35 on one television (JVC), and barely get it on another (Zenith), yet, 35 miles north of the signal, and 15 miles south, it's clear as a bell. I'm well within the station's coverage area. (I'm right below the "A" in KFPH-CA.)

 

[KML0224]

Here's my situation: I live in New Britain's south end. I'm near the bottom of Walnut Hill and the park bearing that name is nearby. Avon Mountain is to my north-northwest, which is in the same direction. In other words, the hill is blocking me. Even with a Silver Sensor indoor antenna, my results barely changed. It did help slightly with WUVN-DT channel 46 but made no difference with analog 18. Sigh!

 

[DJKraze]

I get all 3 here in Middletown, most of the time fairly clear.

 

[MarcB]

Is 50 even on the air? I remember when I used to have an indoor antenna hooked up to my TV that half the time channel 50 would be off the air. The other half of the time they would just be showing color bars.

 

[DJKraze]

50 has has it's ups and downs recently, they seem to have a flawless product going to our local cable here in Middletown even when the station goes off line and shows "Dish Network" bouncing around the screen (like a screensaver). They are on the air right now with no errors.

Tuning into them right now, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being near impossible to make out either sound or audio, and 10 being about as good as it gets:

50 is a little bit snowy, and there is a slight ripple effect scrolling up the screen with no audio problems at all and is watchable. I'd give the signal level a 6.

48 is also snowy, no ripple effect, audio is clear and is watchable. It's about a 6.5,

38 is very snowy, picture is in color, no problem with the audio, the WHCT bug in the lower right hand corner is legible, but only because I already know what it says, I'd bet someone never having seen it before would not be able to read it. I'd give it about a 4, but that's pushing it a bit.

I usually get 38 stronger than this with the antenna pointed in a different position, but when I do that the signals of both 48 & 50 drop a bit.

I have other antennas that I switch to for different purposes (mostly to bring in some of the Boston DX at night or get the best DTV signals I can, and with each, there always seems to be a different effect between 48 & 50 vs 38, almost as if they are located in different locations, very strange.

Hmm, speaking of DX, I wonder how things are for STV reception right now...
only listing stations I'm getting and purposly omitting WFSB, WTNH, WUVN, WTXX, WWLP, WEDH, WVIT, WGGB, WCTX & WTIC due to proximity & strength as I want the dx/lptv:

WMUR - I can see it's in there, but it's a mess, it's a 1
WCDC - I have B&W (footbal game) picture, horizontal hold was off but locked about 3 seconds later and is struggling to stay locked, audio is a buzzing mess totally overpowering what sound the station might have, it's a 2
WFXT - I have nearly no picture at all, with horizontal and vertical all over the place, sound is there, but lots of snow and cannot make out the program, it's a 1.5
WHCT - see above, but note signal has degraded somewhat, color is almost gone, downgraded to 3.5.
WUTA - I see a soccer game, but barely, video is slightly worse than WCDC, audio is 100% snow. Horizontal bar is locked at about 1/3rd from the top of the screen, it's a 1.5, almost a 2.
51 Springfield (Call?) Video is almost not there, but h/v is locked solid and occasionally a bit of color, sound is there, and it's very snowy, but I can make out that it's the same movie in spanish as on ch 50, I give it 1.5.
53 (darn, I think it's WEDN, but I get the WED*'s mixed up with the exception of the mothership WEDH Hartford) Signal is very snowy, audio has occasional snow, signal is in color. No trouble making out the britcom showing, but the CPTV bug is not legible, it's obvuious that it's there though, it's a 3
WGBY - Geez, it's pretty close to being the same signal as ch 50, but the wavering pattern isn't scrolling up, it's occasional bending left to right and right to left, sound is fine, it's a 6.
WSHM - Yes, I do see it struggling, but it's not enough of a signal to read as a 1, which is odd, as I've gotten it better before, especially if I get even a hint of boston signals, it's a .5

 

[smaug07]

I live about 15 miles west of Worcester, MA and am able to receive both Hartford LPTV channels 38 and 50 on a fairly regular basis, although 38 is overlapped by WSBK, channel 38 in Boston and 50 is somewhat weak. I can receive all Hartford stations rather strong despite the fact that I'm over 50 air miles away from the transmitters. I am about 920 feet in elevation, which I'm sure helps, but it seems amazing that I can receive 3,18,24,30, and 61 great, 8 from New Haven pretty good, 26 and 53 good, and the LPTV signals as watchable, and yet some of you living close to these stations have trouble getting even good signals. I am, however, impressed that some of you can receive some Boston DX signals and even Manchester, NH. For me, DX signals are generally New York City or Philadelphia. What other DX signals do some of you in Connecticut receive?

 

[MarcB]

51 Springfield (Call?) Video is almost not there, but h/v is locked solid and occasionally a bit of color, sound is there, and it's very snowy, but I can make out that it's the same movie in spanish as on ch 50, I give it 1.5.

51 is WDMR-LP. 50 is WRDM-LP.

53 (darn, I think it's WEDN, but I get the WED*'s mixed up with the exception of the mothership WEDH Hartford) Signal is very snowy, audio has occasional snow, signal is in color. No trouble making out the britcom showing, but the CPTV bug is not legible, it's obvuious that it's there though, it's a 3

You're right. 53 is WEDN. Their COL is Norwich, CT and their tower is in Bozrah.

 

[MarcB]

50 has has it's ups and downs recently, they seem to have a flawless product going to our local cable here in Middletown even when the station goes off line and shows "Dish Network" bouncing around the screen (like a screensaver). They are on the air right now with no errors.

Are you saying Channel 50 uses Dish Network to receive their feed of Telemundo and Jewelry TV?

That reminds me how come the feed of Jewelry TV on Channel 50 has noticeable inteference when COX carries the raw feed on CABLE-67 24/7 ?

 

[DJKraze]

50 has has it's ups and downs recently, they seem to have a flawless product going to our local cable here in Middletown even when the station goes off line and shows "Dish Network" bouncing around the screen (like a screensaver). They are on the air right now with no errors.

Are you saying Channel 50 uses Dish Network to receive their feed of Telemundo and Jewelry TV?

That reminds me how come the feed of Jewelry TV on Channel 50 has noticeable inteference when COX carries the raw feed on CABLE-67 24/7 ?

I'm not sure what they are doing, I know I mentioned this but the strangest part of that was while the "dish network" screensaver was randomly popping around the screen on the over-the-air signal, the normal programming that should be there was on the local cable, I would only guess they have a good feed to dish and cable systems (maybe using the same method?) and instead of a studio-transmitter link , they are using this?

On a side note, tongith I'm getting ch 21 WLIW in color, with lots of snow, about a 4 on my rankings, but 38 is lesser than normal, in fact, the way I can give them a 3 is that they are in color, 48 & 50 are looking better than normal

48 is about 7.5
50 is about an 8

67 is about a 1 tonight

 

[dhett]

Are you saying Channel 50 uses Dish Network to receive their feed of Telemundo and Jewelry TV?

They wouldn't be the first. I've seen an LPTV station lose its signal in a heavy rainstorm - first the signal began to degrade, then a DirecTV logo appeared onscreen, bouncing around like a screensaver.

 

[w9wi]

On a side note, tongith I'm getting ch 21 WLIW in color, with lots of snow, about a 4 on my rankings, but 38 is lesser than normal, in fact, the way I can give them a 3 is that they are in color, 48 & 50 are looking better than normal

38 may look worse than normal *because* of the tropo. WWOR-9's digital signal in NYC is on 38, and digital interference to an analog station causes the analog station to look weaker.