WBZ TV - O.T.A. outage 4/9

[robotique]

whats the deal?

 

[robotique]

nevermind. found it.


http://bostonglobe.com/business/tec...on-stations/Zm9dt4ZZ3GHMeBTzRLMAnI/story.html

 

[DanStrassberg]

nevermind. found it.
http://bostonglobe.com/business/tec...on-stations/Zm9dt4ZZ3GHMeBTzRLMAnI/story.html

I can't make the above link work even though I copied it to Windows Notepad and made sure that all of it was present and properly spliced together. If it's really true that the cause of an outage that affects four major market TV stations could remain unexplained--let alone, unrepaired--for almost 48 hours is rather remarkable. I guess it shows that TV stations don't really give a damn about a service (their over-the-air signals) that accounts for only about 20% of the potential viewers. But I've heard that Channel "5," which is on the air using an auxiliary antenna, is not being seen by viewers of some cable systems. That part is hard to understand on several counts. If I can get "5's" aux signal OTA, why can't the cable head ends pick it up?

 

[raccoonradio]

Ch 4 site's statement (crews working on it since Sunday). Not too specific on what caused
the problem, but they're at least keeping their viewers up to date.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/04/09/wbz-tv-statement-on-over-the-air-technical-difficulties/

>>Update 4/10: We have identified the issue and are working as quickly as possible to correct it.
BOSTON (CBS) – Due to technical difficulties at a transmitter site in Needham, WBZ-TV and myTV38′s over the air signals are not working at this time. This problem is affecting other stations as well, Paul Pabis, the Director of Broadcast Operations & Engineering, said in a statement Monday.

They go on to say their signal is avail. on cable and satellite and if you miss any CBS shows you can see them at CBS.com

And here is Ch 5's statement
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/30859064/detail.html
>>A likely transmission line or antenna fault at the Needham community tower site took many Boston broadcast stations off the air Sunday evening at approximately 7:35 p.m.
WCVB was able to return to the air via its auxiliary antenna under reduced power at 8:20 p.m. and will remain in this condition until issues are resolved at the site.
A tower inspection and repairs are underway. There is no definitive word on when WCVB-TV will return to full power.

 

[Uncle Kaimbridge]

Everyone’s now back on, full power, a/o 1:55pm.
I believe WGBX:44-43 was on with subdecodably reduced power, yesterday around 4:25pm, but was off again by 8:10pm.

 

[robotique]

the article i linked said they climbed up (40 minutes) and then realized they didn't have the connector part with them so they had to climb down again to get it LOL

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

If it's really true that the cause of an outage that affects four major market TV stations could remain unexplained--let alone, unrepaired--for almost 48 hours is rather remarkable. I guess it shows that TV stations don't really give a damn about a service (their over-the-air signals) that accounts for only about 20% of the potential viewers. But I've heard that Channel "5," which is on the air using an auxiliary antenna, is not being seen by viewers of some cable systems. That part is hard to understand on several counts. If I can get "5's" aux signal OTA, why can't the cable head ends pick it up?

The explanation is called "master antenna." One transmission line and one antenna, fed from a combiner, broadcast all the signals from that site, and any problem in either transmission line or antenna takes the whole system down. It's known to some of us on the engineering side as the "World Trade Center problem." When the north tower went down on 9/11/2001, only WCBS-TV had aux facilities at Empire and was, for a few weeks, the only OTA signal in the NYC metro area, and just as in this case, only cable and DBS subscribers had the other signals.

As for WCVB's aux transmitter site (lower ERP at lower height): there are cable systems that carry WCVB which must receive it OTA instead of receiving a direct feed from the station and cannot receive the signal OTA from the aux facilities.