What does your TV band look like? (2-14) (Analog/Digital)

[KeyTimes950]

Pittsburgh pre-digital ...

3 - no one locally, nearest outlets in Cleveland, Clearfield and northern Virginia. (This was DuMont's Channel 3 WDTV before Westinghouse [now CBS] bought it, moved it to Channel 2 and gave it the callsign of its AM 1020 radio station.)

DuMont moved WDTV from 3 to 2 as part of the 1952 frequency shuffle in the northeast, clearing the way for WNBK Cleveland to move from 4 to 3. (And for WLWC Columbus to move from 3 to 4, etc.)

The WDTV sale to Westinghouse and call change to KDKA-TV didn't come until 1955.

I stand corrected. Thank you, Scott.

 

[MarioMania]

Before 6/12/09 where I am only snow, my area sucks for analog/digital

but at my brothers, This is on my Sony Watchman..I get

2 KTVU (FOX) S.F
3 KCRA (NBC) Sac
4 KRON (IND) S.F
5 KPIX (CBS) S.F
6 KVIE (PBS) Sac
7 KGO (ABC) S.F
9 KQED (PBS) S.F
10 KXTV (ABC) Sac
11 KNTV (NBC) S.J
13 KOVR (CBS) Sac
14 KDTV (UNI) S.F

After 6/12/09

At my bros

7 KGO (ABC) RF7 Breaks up

 

[FreddyE1977]

from Pittsburgh area
(all digital at this point)

2 thru 6 nothing

7 - WTRF, Wheeling, WV and it's two subchannels that carry Fox and ABC (with very tough reception,
much freezing and pixilation)

8 - nothing (WWCP from Johnstown should be possible, used to get in analog, but have never caught it)

9 - WTOV, Steubenville, OH and it's RTV subchannel (actually comes in decent, the transmitter was moved
slightly inside Pennsylvania)

10 - nothing

11 - WPCW, Pittsburgh (The CW, on former analog frequency of WPXI)

12 - nothing

13 - WQED, Pittsburgh (PBS) and it's two subchannels Create and The Neighborhood Channel

14 - nothing

 

[kenrayc]

From Fresno/Clovis CA
Before Digital (analog only)
2 (Tropo) conditions KCBS CBS Los Angeles and KTVU Fox Oakland
3-KCRA NBC Sacramento
4 low power KVHF Fresno (Tropo) KRON San Francisco and KNBC Los Angeles
5 (Tropo) KPIX CBS S.F. and KTLA CW Los Angeles
6 KSBY NBC San Luis Obispo And KVIE PBS Sacramento
7 (tropo) KGO ABC S.F. and KABC Los Angeles
8 KSBW NBC Salinas/Monterey
9 (tropo) KQED PBS S.F. and KCAL Los Angeles
10 KXTV ABC Sacramento
11 KNTV NBC San Jose when tower was at Loma Prieta. (tropo) KNTV at Sutro tower,and KTTV Fox Los Angeles
12 LP (3 angels) and(tropo) KCOY Santa Maria
13 KOVR CBS Sacramento
14 nothing

Digital age:
2 nothing
3 nothing
4 nothing
5 nothing
6 Nothing
7 KAIL (7.1) (MNT) Fresno
(7.2) RTV
8 nothing
9 nothing
10 KERO (23.1) ABC Bakersfield
11 KNSO (51.1) Telemundo Fresno
12 nothing
13 nothing
14 nothing

 

[msugrad2000]

From Kosciusko, MS - about 60 miles north of Jackson - all virtual

2.1 - PBS - WMAB Mississippi State
2.2 - PBS HD - WMAB Mississippi State
2.3 - Create - WMAB Mississippi State
3.1 - NBC - WLBT Jackson, MS
3.2 - Weather
3.3 - THIS TV
4.1 - CBS - WCBI Columbus, MS
4.2 - My Network
4.3 - CW
5 - Nothing
6.1 - ABC - WABG Greenwood, MS
6.2 - FOX
7 - Nothing
8 - Nothing
9.1 - NBC - WTVA Tupelo, MS
9.2 - Familynet
10 - Nothing
11 - Nothing
12.1 - CBS - WJTV - Jackson, MS
12.2. - Weather
12.3 - RTV
13 - nothing

no analog channels

If you are looking at physical channels, then the only VHF channel would be
8.1 - NBC - WTVA Tupelo, MS
8.2 - Familynet

Everyone else is on UHF here.

 

[BMR]

Before 6/12/09 where I am only snow, my area sucks for analog/digital

but at my brothers, This is on my Sony Watchman..I get

2 KTVU (FOX) S.F
3 KCRA (NBC) Sac

4 KRON (IND) S.F
5 KPIX (CBS) S.F

(snip)

Hmm, I'm quite surprised they did that. I though adjacent channels in the same market was a no-no?

 

[fybush]

The US bandplan has a gap between channel 4 (66-72 MHz) and 5 (76-82 MHz), allowing channels 4 and 5 to coexist in the same market. In the analog era, there were many such cases, including Boston, NYC, Washington and Los Angeles.

 

[BMR]

The US bandplan has a gap between channel 4 (66-72 MHz) and 5 (76-82 MHz), allowing channels 4 and 5 to coexist in the same market. In the analog era, there were many such cases, including Boston, NYC, Washington and Los Angeles.

Thanks Scott.

 

[w9wi]

Hmm, I'm quite surprised they did that. I though adjacent channels in the same market was a no-no?

As Scott says, 4/5 is OK due to a 4MHz spectrum gap. 6/7 and 13/14 are OK for the same reason. 6/7 were, for example, both in use in Omaha and Boise.

In digital, all adjacent physical channel pairs are OK, as long as their transmitters are close enough. (20km IIRC but don't hold me to that number) Modern receivers are selective enough to split the difference.

 

[BMR]

Hmm, I'm quite surprised they did that. I though adjacent channels in the same market was a no-no?

As Scott says, 4/5 is OK due to a 4MHz spectrum gap. 6/7 and 13/14 are OK for the same reason. 6/7 were, for example, both in use in Omaha and Boise.

In digital, all adjacent physical channel pairs are OK, as long as their transmitters are close enough. (20km IIRC but don't hold me to that number) Modern receivers are selective enough to split the difference.

Can I have another? Are they planning to licence any new stations to take into account this possibility, or is all the bandwidth going to 3G/wifi etc?

 

[Bongwater]

Is it just me or has OTA reception of TV in general tanked since they went digital?

 

[kenrayc]

Is it just me or has OTA reception of TV in general tanked since they went digital?

YES.

 

[KeithE4]

Is it just me or has OTA reception of TV in general tanked since they went digital?

Depends on your location and your equipment. Mine (5 miles SE of the South Mountain antenna farm in Phoenix) is fine for the most part, with a decent Terk rabbit ears+UHF log periodic antenna (everything here is high-VHF and UHF). 720p digital is certainly much better than 525 analog. Even 480i looks a bit better than the old analog system.

There are exceptions, such as when an airplane flies overhead, causing multipath, or when the sun is directly over the towers (afternoons between about April 1 and September 15 - the towers are NW of me). I can't explain the latter problem.

Low cloud cover will also cause multipath, resulting in breakups. Some of the problems might even be due to the high-powered signals causing receiver overload. I don't have a spectrum analyzer so I can't tell for sure.

 

[KeyTimes950]

Over the air reception is not encouraged these days, not by the FCC, not with cable emphasizing local ADI markets and picking up signals by means that go beyond pulling them off the air.

Having said that, yes, I think the signals are poorer. Even the stations that are close to my rabbit ears sometimes come across shaky.

 

[vibe]

If one is experiencing breakups at 5 mi then the band should look like guvnow...

 

[stevations]

I think the maximum power for digital tv is lower than analog stations used to be. As far as I know the maximum power for DTV on UHF is one million watts but was five million watts for analog back in the good old days of analog.
I do like the Antenna TV network but most cities dropped the local 24 hr weather channels. Has anyone noticed that neighbors act strange when you put up a regular tv antenna? I get lots of questions....maybe they are afraid of RF exposure with the cell phone scare publicity if I am transmitting or they think I am a spy with secret radios. Another theory is they just don't like the looks of antennas near their house.