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WGSR files for channel 47 DTV

All of the hardware arrived and the crew is installing it on the towers. If you are reading this shortly after I posted it, you can watch the crew at work on the studio tower live on our webcam [url]http://www.reidsvilletowercam.info [/url].

I'll leave the camera on the crew until 4:00pm, or until they're finished. Enjoy . . . .

Later . . . .
 
I just checked it and I'm seeing a shot of what I assume is the town. Did they finish already?

- Trip
 
Yep. Didn't take them but about 2 1/2 hours start to finish. We're showing video I shot from the camera during our afternoon talk shows. [url]http://www.wgsr47.tv [/url]

Later . . . .
 
Does Mark Childrey still work at the station? I know he did a show there in the mid to late 80s. Somebody told me he was back there again. Anybody know? ???
 
Mark Childrey does indeed work for us. He's our news anchor, and along with Ken Echols still does a comedy show called "Monday Night Live".

BTW . . . the new digital transmitter was delivered this morning. The engineers tell me we could see on-air testing in 8-10 days.

Later . . . .
 
Excellent! I'll be home for another two weeks or so, and would love to see if I can get your station via DX. This morning around 1AM I had WCWG, WMYV, WXII, and WGHP, with close-but-not-quite signals on WFMY, WGPX, WUNL, and WXLV.

- Trip
 
That's cool! Thanks. It is smaller than I though it would be for the area it is suppose to cover, but then I don't know what it is suppose to look like anyway.
 
Good news . . . .

Steve Raymer, the transmitter engineer, was able to get back to our site early and began assembling the transmitter. Physical and electrical installation will be done tomorrow, followed by RF testing into the dummy load on Friday. Because we're actually getting things done ahead of the arrival of electrical service, we're bringing in a generator to provide power for a few days.

That means that on-air tests of the transmitter and antenna could happen as early as Saturday. Since Saturday is the day the STL system is planned to be set up, we could possibly have the entire system set up and in operating condition by end of day Saturday.

Those of you who live in/around Greensboro, NC are encouraged to re-scan your digital tuners and converter boxes over this coming weekend and let us know if you get a signal on channel 47. If you look for us, you will likely only see bars/tones or black on carrier.

If the new transmitter passes proof, actual program testing could begin by the end of May . . . . just in time for digital conversion on June 12th. Keep watching!

Later . . . .
 
So I heard from a contact in the area that WGSR-LD is on the air testing this afternoon. Just a carrier with no actual data in it yet, only null packets at this point. I'm much too far away, but here's to hoping the coverage is good!

- Trip
 
We've had the video stream on it, but there's a PSIP-related problem we're going to have to wait 'til Monday to fix.

At least receivers are stopping on the carrier.

Later . . . .
 
PSIP issues have been resolved, and you can now see us on 47.1.

Schedule will be intermittent until our power is installed later this week, but at least we're up and running!

Later . . . .
 
Well, this is going to take a bit longer.

1) Duke Energy doesn't like the fact that we wired this for a power level they don't provide at the tower site. They've told us two weeks minimum for them to get power to us, so we will be on generator until they send someone out to run four wires ten feet to connect us.

2) The STL receiver at the tower site died on us yesterday. Memorial Day weekend is the worst of all possible times to get replacement equipment, so it looks like Wednesday at the latest until this gets replaced. I'm just glad it didn't happen after the analog was shut off.

Bottom line is that we are in a holding pattern for a few days.

Later . . . .
 
We have the station up and running on the generator today (Sunday).

Duke Energy tells us they will hook up our power lines on Thursday (6/4). At that point, we'll be on 47.1 with a 24/7 signal.

We're still seeing occasional signal glitches (every 10-15 seconds) that the engineers should fine-tune this week. As usual, anyone in central NC/VA is encouraged to check the over-the-air signal and let us know how it looks where you are. You can e-mail us at starnewscorp (at) yahoo.com.

Later . . . .
 
Matt,

Why do you only have sound on the right channel? Also, the picture looks more fuzzy than on other channels, even channel 61. How come?
 
All good questions, to be handled by the engineer during fine tuning this week.

Later . . . .
 
Well . . . .

90 days behind schedule and still in need of some tweaking, but WGSR is now digital on channel 47 24/7. The power was installed at the site around 2:00. We'll keep the analog up on 39 until it looks right, but at least I can put the Maalox bottle back on the medicine cabinet shelf :) .

Thanks for all the moral support in getting our station to this point.

Later . . . .
 
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