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Latest Area Repack Developments

According to the rabbitears website, their current ERP of 294 kW will be their permanent power level.

Who or what was responsible for the blunder in the antenna design or installation did not get revealed in FCC filings. WLNE shares the antenna with WJAR, which also owns the tower - and they chose to only refer to WJAR as "the other station" or the "the tower owner" in their filings.
 
Who or what was responsible for the blunder in the antenna design or installation did not get revealed in FCC filings. WLNE shares the antenna with WJAR, which also owns the tower - and they chose to only refer to WJAR as "the other station" or the "the tower owner" in their filings.

The station had their original construction permit to go to 465 kW, which according to rabbit ears would have given them almost 3 miles of extra overall coverage.
 
WBZ, WCVB, and WGBX (WBTS-CD) this week have each applied to the FCC to increase their power from the CBS tower to 1000 kW from their current 922 kW. It may help marginal reception slightly.

WGBH applied to remain at their recently increased 34 kW power level permanently.
 
In Boston, WCEA-LD, the multi-ethnic station and its six subchannels that were on virtual 58 has just moved to virtual 26.
This station, and its six subchannels, seems to have disappeared about a week ago. Just did a rescan, and it didn't show up anywhere else.

Here in Somerville, less than four miles practically line of sight of the Hancock tower, I used to get a strong signal with full "bars", so it's not a reception issue if it's still on the Hancock antenna.
 
This station, and its six subchannels, seems to have disappeared about a week ago. Just did a rescan, and it didn't show up anywhere else.

Here in Somerville, less than four miles practically line of sight of the Hancock tower, I used to get a strong signal with full "bars", so it's not a reception issue if it's still on the Hancock antenna.
They had been delayed moving to their permanent post-repack channel RF 36. Today they applied to the FCC to use the current ch 45 antenna temporarily on 36 by rotating it to change the pattern and reducing power if needed, which probably is not going to work very well:

Licensing and Management System
 
If they will be using RF36, wouldn't that interfere with WYCN-LP 8 which is on RF36 which from what I remember transmits from Norton, less than 35 miles away?
 
If they will be using RF36, wouldn't that interfere with WYCN-LP 8 which is on RF36 which from what I remember transmits from Norton, less than 35 miles away?
The directional antenna may be nulled in that direction.

The application has not been granted yet. However the map in the PDF attachment shows a notch toward Norton. Exactly how they will get that to work, with a mistuned antenna, is not clear.

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/api/download/attachment/25076f9178b37ea70178c6c7a97e0e3d
 
The application has not been granted yet. However the map in the PDF attachment shows a notch toward Norton. Exactly how they will get that to work, with a mistuned antenna, is not clear.

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/api/download/attachment/25076f9178b37ea70178c6c7a97e0e3d
WCEA-LD is now operating on RF36, presumably under the STA. The signal is much stronger here, west of the Hancock Tower. However the PSIP data seems to be missing a few pieces right now, so some TV's might not decode it.
 
WCEA-LD is now operating on RF36, presumably under the STA. The signal is much stronger here, west of the Hancock Tower. However the PSIP data seems to be missing a few pieces right now, so some TV's might not decode it.

I just rescanned and got WCEA back here in Somerville. Seems like a strong steady signal, with all six subchannels.

I can't tell how strong compared to before, because the small signal strength bar graph on my screen seems to have quit working. It now shows only one "bar" on all channels, even all the full power major channels that used to pin it at five "bars" (and WCEA also used to, I'm only a few miles north of the Hancock tower).

My reception hasn't degraded, I still get distant stations (Providence) and low power stations (WLEK 22, WCRN 31) the same as before, but it appears that the signal strength display quit working. Anyone know anything about that?

The set is less than a year old, Should I try to exchange it under warranty? Are other features, or the whole set itself, going to follow suit and just quit working?
 
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I just rescanned and got WCEA back here in Somerville. Seems like a strong steady signal, with all six subchannels.

I can't tell how strong compared to before, because the small signal strength bar graph on my screen seems to have quit working. It now shows only one "bar" on all channels, even all the full power major channels that used to pin it at five "bars" (and WCEA also used to, I'm only a few miles north of the Hancock tower).

My reception hasn't degraded, I still get distant stations (Providence) and low power stations (WLEK 22, WCRN 31) the same as before, but it appears that the signal strength display quit working. Anyone know anything about that?

The set is less than a year old, Should I try to exchange it under warranty? Are other features, or the whole set itself, going to follow suit and just quit working?
If something external to the TV weakened the signal to the point where the strong stations show 1 bar, there is no way the weak ones would still be watchable.

There is the possibility that there are options buried in an obscure menu to change the meter to display something other than signal strength. This might be a question to ask in the Displays area of another forum...

If there are no settings that can be changed, exchanging it is probably best. You don't want to find related problems showing up later when the warranty has run out.
 
If something external to the TV weakened the signal to the point where the strong stations show 1 bar, there is no way the weak ones would still be watchable.

There is the possibility that there are options buried in an obscure menu to change the meter to display something other than signal strength. This might be a question to ask in the Displays area of another forum...

If there are no settings that can be changed, exchanging it is probably best. You don't want to find related problems showing up later when the warranty has run out.
I couldn't find any meter display setting in any menu. And, if there was one, why would it change by itself?

I may exchange it. It's not very important to me to see the signal strength levels, but it's just emblematic of the chronic spontaneous failures of digital circuitry in consumer home electronic equipment nowadays, which makes me nervous and perpetually on-edge ("I just bought this thing, but will it still work tomorrow? The next day? The next month?").

I'm old enough to remember home electronic equipment lasting for decades, and if it didn't, a consumer could pop in a new tube, or maybe solder in a new capacitor.
 
I couldn't find any meter display setting in any menu. And, if there was one, why would it change by itself?

I may exchange it. It's not very important to me to see the signal strength levels, but it's just emblematic of the chronic spontaneous failures of digital circuitry in consumer home electronic equipment nowadays, which makes me nervous and perpetually on-edge ("I just bought this thing, but will it still work tomorrow? The next day? The next month?").

I'm old enough to remember home electronic equipment lasting for decades, and if it didn't, a consumer could pop in a new tube, or maybe solder in a new capacitor.
Bugs in the firmware/software, hardware issue, sensitivity to static electricity... It might have a reset option like this Samsung:


The remaining manufacturers just want to crank them out, provide a few firmware patches now and then if needed, and hope they last long enough that the owner will eventually throw them out and buy something new.
 
Bugs in the firmware/software, hardware issue, sensitivity to static electricity... It might have a reset option like this Samsung:


Thanks, I see similar reset options in my sets menu, but it may not be worth having to spend the time resetting all my personal preferences afterwards just to (maybe) restore a working signal strength meter.
 
Just noticed WUNI has added a subchannel 66.5 with "Twist" network, another women's "lifestyle" channel. Not interested, but at least it brings the number of scanned channels I get most of the time up to 75.
 
Here in Somerville my set just scanned in the Daystar religious affiliate W26EU on virtual 40.1 for the first time. Consistent signal.

Not a channel I'll be watching, but curious, was this the former W40BO? I remember that as a low power analog station. Did it just go digital, raise its power, or change its transmitter location?

Or, is it a translator for WYDN Lowell (tx-Concord, NH), virtual 48, which I can't get here?
 
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