My DTV Experience in Rural New England

[Gregg]

I had not been looking forward to June 12, since my family owns a lakeside cottage on the New Hampshire-Maine border. (East Wakefield NH, not far from where Routes 110 and 153 intersect.) That's about 100 miles north of Boston, about 35 miles west of Portland and about 45 miles northeast of Manchester.

Since it's a summer cottage, it doesn't pay to get cable or satellite for the six weeks or so each year the place is used. Till now, with analog TV, we had been getting several TV signals quite clearly:

WCSH Portland NBC 6
WMUR Manchester ABC 9
WENH Durham PBS 11

We also got WMTW Poland Spring ABC 8 fairly well and both WGME Portland CBS 13 and WPXG Concord Ion 21 were watchable.

And many nights Boston stations came in from sunset till around 8 or 9 the next morning. WHDH NBC 7 was the best but WGBH PBS 2 also came in, then WBZ CBS 4, WCVB ABC 5, WFXT Fox 25 and WSBK 38. On a really good night we might even catch WJAR NBC 10 and WPRI CBS 12 from Providence.

Being lakeside, the cottage has no elevation and is surrounded by hills. We have a rooftop antenna and an antenna booster but the rotor on the roof wasn't working so we had the antenna pointed east toward Portland. That way we could pick up a decent CBS signal.

When I installed the Magnovox converter I bought at Walmart with my coupon, I was quite disappointed. NBC 6.1 and .2 (WCSH DT 44 Portland) was the only channel that came in reliably. The scan on the converter also recognized ABC 8.1 and .2 (WMTW DT 46 Poland Spring) but the picture frequently froze and the sound dropped out every 10 seconds or so.

And that was it for our digital TV choices. All those other analog signals we had been getting didn't even create a blip on our DTV converter box.

I figured before June 12, I better get a professional to go on the roof and replace the non-working rotor. I bought a new Radio Shack rotor set ($79.99) and made an appointment with a local roofer.

Before he arrived, I installed the new control box with the rotating knob next to the TV... and the rotor on the roof started working again. That was a pleasant surprise. I quickly called the roofer and canceled the appointment for later that day with my apologies. It turns out the rotor on the roof was fine. It was the old control box next to the TV that had stopped working.

So when I turned on my TV, I realized that DTV reception is VERY sensitive. A slight turn of the knob on the control box means getting a signal perfectly or not getting it at all. In my rural part of New England, with analog, if your antenna is pointed somewhere near the direction of the station, you'll pull it in. But NOT DTV, at least not if you're several dozen miles from the station's transmitter.

So now if I set the rotor just so, we can pick up perfect digital signals from

WCSH NBC 44 (and weather on .2)
WMTW ABC 46/soon 8 (and weather on .2) (analog signal always had ghosts, even when they were on Mt. Washington)
WGME CBS 38 (same program on .1 and .2) (analog signal never very good)
WENH PBS 57/soon 11 (same program on .1 and .2, PBS Explore on .3)

Now according to the chart on www.tvfool.com I should be able to get Maine PBS WMEA 45 Biddeford just about the same or better than the other Portland major network stations. But so far I haven't found the right antenna setting to get them. Are they putting their DTV transmitter on WCSH or WMTW's tower? In the past, we got no signal on analog Channel 28 from them. So maybe that's an inaccuracy.

Also I'm assuming that when WMUR ABC Manchester switches their digital signal to Channel 9, we'll get a good signal from them too. Currently their analog signal on 9 gives us an excellent picture but I can't find their DTV signal.

I thought we'd have to give up the Boston stations we had been getting at night, since we know DTV signals don't travel like analog signals do. But to my surprise, WHDH 42, WBZ 30 and WFXT 31 give us perfect signals many nights. Sometimes we also get WCVB 20, WGBH 19 and WMFP 18 as well.

Any ideas why some Boston signals come in so well and some not at all? They're all UHF (till WHDH moves back to Channel 7), all have towers within a few miles of each other and I assume have similar power outputs. During analog days, you could say that the VHFs were more likely to come in than the UHFs. But now EVERYONE is UHF, till WHDH moves.

And it really is amazing to get a perfect signal on all these stations, even the Boston ones when conditions are right at night.

Just one more thing I noticed. On a sunny day between 1pm and 4pm or so, even the best signals will have occasional signal losses for a second or two. It doesn't happen when it's cloudy.



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[necrat123]

Now according to the chart on www.tvfool.com I should be able to get Maine PBS WMEA 45 Biddeford just about the same or better than the other Portland major network stations. But so far I haven't found the right antenna setting to get them. Are they putting their DTV transmitter on WCSH or WMTW's tower? In the past, we got no signal on analog Channel 28 from them. So maybe that's an inaccuracy.

WMEA-DT transmits from Mt Hope in Sanford, ME., nowhere near WCSH or WMTW.

Also I'm assuming that when WMUR ABC Manchester switches their digital signal to Channel 9, we'll get a good signal from them too. Currently their analog signal on 9 gives us an excellent picture but I can't find their DTV signal.

That is a very good chance. They are a very high UHF digital assignment (59).

I thought we'd have to give up the Boston stations we had been getting at night, since we know DTV signals don't travel like analog signals do. But to my surprise, WHDH 42, WBZ 30 and WFXT 31 give us perfect signals many nights. Sometimes we also get WCVB 20, WGBH 19 and WMFP 18 as well.

That is actually incorrect. While the term digital is thrown, the actual signal is still analog RF. It's a "digitally encoded on an analog rf carrier" signal. So it propigates exactly the same way analog does.

Any ideas why some Boston signals come in so well and some not at all? They're all UHF (till WHDH moves back to Channel 7), all have towers within a few miles of each other and I assume have similar power outputs. During analog days, you could say that the VHFs were more likely to come in than the UHFs. But now EVERYONE is UHF, till WHDH moves.

I know exactly why they do and don't. They aren't all similar power. In fact there is a wide range in power, from the highest powered (WBZ tops at 915kW) to some relatively low in power (WSBK 135kW from the same tower as WBZ).
Also stations "directionalize" their power. They literally restrict the direction in which power radiates from the antenna to protect other stations. WFXT-DT is directional against 31 in Hartford, VT for example.
The stations on the Cedar St tower (WGBH-DT, WBZ-DT, WCVB-DT, WSBK-DT, WGBX-DT) are all non directional.
WHDH-DT will be too. Everyone else is directional (limiting the direction of the RF signal). Plus take into account antenna heights, "tower shadow" (when the antenna is side mounted to the tower, where the antenna's radiating signal is restricted by the tower. In fact WWBB-FM in Providence, RI uses the tower TO directionalize the FM signal).

So it is very possible that you can receive some but not all signals from a relatively central spot.

 

[KML0224]

WMEA-TV (PBS) of Biddeford, ME was channel 26 analog, not channel 28. Was Mount Hope of Sanford their analog site this whole time?

As for the former channel 31 of White River Junction, VT, what channel is WNNE-DT (NBC) going to be on?

Lastly, Boston has issues now with WTIC-DT (FOX) of Hartford being on channel 31. It's going to get worse on Friday when WTXX-DT (CW) of Waterbury, CT switches from channel 12 to channel 20 (their analog is presently on channel 20). That will impact the reception of WCVB-DT (ABC) channel 20 for some.

As for the town in New Hampshire, I've never been to it. I was in Wolfeboro, NH once and I never want to be there again.

 

[alg2468]

WNNE-DT is going to be on channel 25. After tomorrow's transition, there will probably be several spacing issues, among them:

WCVB-DT 20 BOSTON, MA AND WTXX-DT 20 WATERBURY, CT
WFXT-DT 31 BOSTON, MA AND WTIC-DT 31 HARTFORD, CT
WLNE-DT 49 PROVIDENCE, RI AND WEKW-DT 49 KEENE, NH AND WEDW-DT 49 BRIDGEPORT, CT
WZMY-DT 35 DERRY, NH AND WPME-DT 35 LEWISTON, ME
WLWC-DT 22 NEW BEDFORD,MA AND WGBY-DT 22 SPRINGFIELD, MA
WDPX-DT 40 VINEYARD HAVEN,MA AND WGGB-DT 40 SPRINGFIELD,MA
WFSB-DT 33 HARTFORD, CT AND WCBS-DT 33 NEW YORK, NY

 

[Gregg]

WGBX Boston and WPXT Portland are also sharing a channel within 100 miles or so of each other... Channel 43.

I know the Northeast has more stations than the FCC could assign without some overlap. But it seems the FCC did little to stop these shared channels from being so close to each other.

Gregg
[email protected]