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How's OTA DTV working out for YOU?
- Thread starter KR4BD
- Start date
From a station standpoint, OTA seems to be doing better than we thought. We're an LPTV serving the Greensboro, NC market, and the biggest reason for having an analog station was to get the programming to the cable headends that carried our programming. Initially that was seven headends, but consolidation brought it down to three.
With the digital transition, the opportunity presented itself to have 4 digital channels. We figured that since it wasn't going to cost us any more to have all four than to have only one, why not put something up there and see what happens. So we turned dot-2 into a repeat of our news and talk shows, updated daily by burning them to DVD. We took archived parades and cruise-in shows, all local productions, and set up a computer to air them on dot-3 in a random manner, and set up a slingbox to relay a cable-access channel we run in a different market and air it on dot-4.
We didn't expect much viewership on .2, .3 and .4, but our studio lines light up regularly when talk shows repeat on the dot-2. The dot-3 generates requests for copies of some of our local productions and the two live talk shows we have on dot-4 are getting more telephone calls.
We don't have Nielsens to back up any audience claims yet, but just having folks talk about it proves that we have some audience that goes beyond cable. The owners seem happy with what they're hearing, so at the very least the possibility of finding new audiences with our OTA signal encourages us to do more and better programming.
Later . . . .
With the digital transition, the opportunity presented itself to have 4 digital channels. We figured that since it wasn't going to cost us any more to have all four than to have only one, why not put something up there and see what happens. So we turned dot-2 into a repeat of our news and talk shows, updated daily by burning them to DVD. We took archived parades and cruise-in shows, all local productions, and set up a computer to air them on dot-3 in a random manner, and set up a slingbox to relay a cable-access channel we run in a different market and air it on dot-4.
We didn't expect much viewership on .2, .3 and .4, but our studio lines light up regularly when talk shows repeat on the dot-2. The dot-3 generates requests for copies of some of our local productions and the two live talk shows we have on dot-4 are getting more telephone calls.
We don't have Nielsens to back up any audience claims yet, but just having folks talk about it proves that we have some audience that goes beyond cable. The owners seem happy with what they're hearing, so at the very least the possibility of finding new audiences with our OTA signal encourages us to do more and better programming.
Later . . . .
I live in the next county over to the east of Nashville, Tennessee (had to specify because there's more than one Nashville in the U.S. for those of you who don't read too many maps) and I bought a Magnavox converter box and a decent Radio Shack antenna last summer.
Here's my scorecard: Before TV D-Day, I had picked up all but one of the full power stations in the market at least once (which was the good news) but I could not pick them up all at the same time mainly because where their RF frequencies and transmitters were located then.
After the first round of shut offs, things improved a bit and I could get 7 stations regularly with my antenna pointed in a certain direction.
After the end of the shut off period, I had my core channels, which I called the "Magnificent Seven": 2, 4, 17, 28, 30, 39, and 66 Channel 5 came in perfectly, Channel 50 came in perfectly (but not right away) and Channel 8 finally came in at all for the first time. Unfortunately, Channel 58 was still on the in/out line.
Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 7:15 pm C.S.T. will be remembered as the moment in time I finally got all 11 Nashville TV stations to come in on my Curtis Mathes circa 2000s set (mostly without pixeling up) at the same time.
DIGITAL TV HAS FINALLY BEEN CONQUERED BY YOURS TRULY!!! Now I can't wait for the "Digital Radio Conversion" if that ever happens...
Here's my scorecard: Before TV D-Day, I had picked up all but one of the full power stations in the market at least once (which was the good news) but I could not pick them up all at the same time mainly because where their RF frequencies and transmitters were located then.
After the first round of shut offs, things improved a bit and I could get 7 stations regularly with my antenna pointed in a certain direction.
After the end of the shut off period, I had my core channels, which I called the "Magnificent Seven": 2, 4, 17, 28, 30, 39, and 66 Channel 5 came in perfectly, Channel 50 came in perfectly (but not right away) and Channel 8 finally came in at all for the first time. Unfortunately, Channel 58 was still on the in/out line.
Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 7:15 pm C.S.T. will be remembered as the moment in time I finally got all 11 Nashville TV stations to come in on my Curtis Mathes circa 2000s set (mostly without pixeling up) at the same time.
DIGITAL TV HAS FINALLY BEEN CONQUERED BY YOURS TRULY!!! Now I can't wait for the "Digital Radio Conversion" if that ever happens...
K
kenrayc
Guest
I don't know why everybody is having a problem with DTV, I Receive Bakersfield Ca, and 110 miles away I get Fox58 and KBAK 29 CBS with no problem and I live in the Fresno Market and get all Central Valley LP and all major stations with no problem.
K
kenrayc
Guest
all of my antennas are above the roof, indoor antennas don't work very good unlest the site is right above you , all stations from Meadow lakes don't require a major antenna indoor o r outdoor, I can't figure out why theres such a problem in Phoenix, there tranmitter site is similar to Fresno, and the Baskersfield stations I get is like getting stations in Tucson AZ.
soundsandsports said:
Curious what kind of antenna you got?
When did channel 50 start working? Before and for a month or two after Transition, they were operating on 692.31MHz at 264kw directional. (not very directional -- I think they were protecting an analog in Louisville) About a month after Transition they moved to 584.31MHz with 1000kw non-directional. Didn't make much difference up here but I can imagine it helped elsewhere.
Channel 8 never built a full-power facility on their interim 662.31MHz frequency. They were running about 45,000 watts. At Transition they moved to 180.31. The power actually dropped to about 18,000 watts but at the lower frequency, coverage should have improved. (I could receive them up here on the interim facility but it's considerably more reliable on the 180MHz operation.)
Channel 58 has a directional antenna with a null at about 80deg. from their transmitter site at OHB and I-24 on the north side. There's another station on the same frequency in Knoxville. They're not all that powerful even in the main lobe, only 350kw.
If your experience is anything like mine, your reception of channel 2 improved markedly when you went from analog to digital!
Friday night, I tried out my second coverter box using the remote that changes the antenna direction.
All but two channels I had picked up were able to be received perfectly from at least one direction. I didn't reall have a way of choosing the specific direction. I'll have to do another test under less than ideal conditions. It turned out that the direction for "Roy's Folks" wasn't even the right one.
One channel I didn't know about because I never suspected I would pick it up. But it's an independent channel on my cable system anyway and I never watch it. This one, though, never got beyond the point where it didn't mess up.
Another channel I had picked up in that way, but I never got anything Friday night. I didn't really expect to, as far west as the transmitter is, but surprisingly another of those stations that's too far west did fine when the antenna was moved. I suspected I would pick it up because when it was a nightlight it came in perfectly, something that hadn't happened much in the days of analog.
All but two channels I had picked up were able to be received perfectly from at least one direction. I didn't reall have a way of choosing the specific direction. I'll have to do another test under less than ideal conditions. It turned out that the direction for "Roy's Folks" wasn't even the right one.
One channel I didn't know about because I never suspected I would pick it up. But it's an independent channel on my cable system anyway and I never watch it. This one, though, never got beyond the point where it didn't mess up.
Another channel I had picked up in that way, but I never got anything Friday night. I didn't really expect to, as far west as the transmitter is, but surprisingly another of those stations that's too far west did fine when the antenna was moved. I suspected I would pick it up because when it was a nightlight it came in perfectly, something that hadn't happened much in the days of analog.
OTA DTV has worked out OK for me, and yes it did require me to buy a new antenna - but heck it is worth it (and it still isn't installed correctly, just perched there on the front deck... a Winegard HD 8080....)
Matt Smith's WGSR now comes in well here in east Greensboro, in ye olden days we got nothing but static on their analog channels.... so now we have an extra multiplex. All the locals come in crystal clear with relatively little breakup. Given this is a DIRECTIONAL antenna and this is just slung up there, this is pretty good. The only major changes is that we now get our UNC-TV signal from WUNC-TV instead of WUNL. If we also tweak the antenna a bit the Raleigh stations come in nicely too. The antenna isn't even amplified - so what it would do if actually properly mounted on a pole and a little amplification, I just don't know. The antenna is supposedly only UHF but WGHP comes in well on VHF-8 and UHF-35, and with a bit of work the ABC station out of Raleigh comes in too.
Mark.
Matt Smith's WGSR now comes in well here in east Greensboro, in ye olden days we got nothing but static on their analog channels.... so now we have an extra multiplex. All the locals come in crystal clear with relatively little breakup. Given this is a DIRECTIONAL antenna and this is just slung up there, this is pretty good. The only major changes is that we now get our UNC-TV signal from WUNC-TV instead of WUNL. If we also tweak the antenna a bit the Raleigh stations come in nicely too. The antenna isn't even amplified - so what it would do if actually properly mounted on a pole and a little amplification, I just don't know. The antenna is supposedly only UHF but WGHP comes in well on VHF-8 and UHF-35, and with a bit of work the ABC station out of Raleigh comes in too.
Mark.
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