MadCityHD.com (Digital HDTV)

I live in Watertown and have my UHF-only antenna pointing towards Milwaukee since I have had it for the last 2.5yrs. Could've pointed it towards Madison but would not have received FOX47, since its digital frequency is only 11(VHF). But would now repoint it west if they are planning to switch to a UHC freq.

Thank you in advance for your timely response  ;D

I received this response today after emailing Fox47:

"Just last week our corporate management approved the project to move to UHF Channel 49.  We have a ton of work to do, but the biggest factor is antenna delivery, which is slated for the third week in September.  We hope to have the antenna mounted and be operational on Channel 49 either the last week in September or the first week in October."

Great News....  I can't wait till this happens

Fox47 would be wise to get this operational before the Packers season starts!

c²

In anticipation of Fox47 upgrading their digital frequency to UHF, this weekend I repointed the antenna in question towards Madison and while I was up there upgraded the original mast with a new 10' chain link fence top rail and now receive 3 and 27 @ 100 signal strength and 15 at about 95. So now I have both Madison and Milwaukee channels as DISH has the other market for us.

FYI most all-bands TV antennas have some pretty strong side lobes.  These side lobes give gain in directions that the antenna isn't pointed straight at.  If you're lucky, you can get enough gain from your primary lobe to get a good signal from Milwaukee, and still be able to pull in local stations from transmission facilities "behind" the antenna.  A little trial and error can yield results.  It can be tedious to set up, but once it is...  ;D

I received this follow-up on 8/23 after inquiring how everything was going so far:

"Some items are falling behind.  We are still shooting for early October
to make the switch to UHF."

Any possibility Fox will broadcast in 1080 when they do go over to channel 49 UHF? I also see they are to pick up The Cool TV, which is on 4-3 out of Milwaukee now.
http://thecooltv.com/THECOOLTV_SinclairTelevisionGroup.php

Latest I just received from Fox47 on this subject:

We won't be ready to change until November.  The FCC
requires us to run crawls informing the public of the channel change 30
days prior to the change.  We are still trying to determine the exact
date when we will be ready to transmit on the new channel. Once we
figure that out, we will put that info up on our website and 30 days
from that point begin running daily crawls indicating that change over date.

I saw one of those crawls the other day, and was left more confused than anything else.  The crawl mentioned "completing the transition to HDTV", which implied that their news and local programming would be HD soon.  But the crawl also mentioned having to re-scan our ATSC tuners or converters, which implied a RF frequency change.

The crawl gave a number to call, which I hoped would be a recording just about the changes "in the next 30 days", but it was the station's main number.  Tom Weeden, Chief Engineer at WMTV, has been pretty good at informing us about changes to WMTV, and I had hoped to find a post from a WMSN official about the change.  Maybe I can get a real WMSN engineer or PR person to post here, or at least talk to someone at the station who can give a more detailed plan that I can post...

I hope not!  The networks and stations that elected to go with 720p mainly because progressive scan has fewer motion artifacts.  So networks and stations that carry lots of sports programming chose 720p because it's easier to follow the ball and other action with a full 59.94 frames per second from the camera to the TV.

Some full 1080p TV sets and other devices have scan converters that automagically show 720p content in 1080p.  If your 1080p set boasts 120 or 240 Hz technology, it will probably show the 720p broadcast as 1080p by default.

Beware that some 1080p sets can only display 1080p at 24 frames per second.  If sports programming looks choppy or blurred, check your owners manual to see if you can disable the upscaling and have it display a native 720p59.94 picture.

The ATSC standard does allow for 1080p programming, but limitations of the current MPEG2 codec make it impractical right now.  Even 1080p59.94 capable cameras are too rare and expensive for most sports programming.

I have lots of news after talking with Kerry Maki, who is the Chief Engineer at WMSN-TV today.

Details here. (http://www.madcityhd.com/index.php?topic=135.msg477;topicseen#new)

Great!
October 28-29 sounds a lot better than November.

I am awaiting the UHF signal as my antenna is UHF only.

To be fair to the engineering staff at WMSN and their vendors, they're facing a tough challenge with plenty of unexpected surprises.  For example, the existing "channel 47" waveguide (fancy name for a pipe) that they had planned to use to feed their new UHF antenna...well it doesn't work at two frequency notches up.  After all that careful planning, and with their new transmitter and antenna ready to go, they got held up by a plumbing problem.

And they still have the "devil's in the details" phase to go through...

Kerry said not to hold him to that as a firm date.  So let's hope for the best, and not blame anyone if something else untold might happen.

That's TV. folks!

I am just hoping, since I have Dish, that it happens before 11/1 so I can utlilize the OTA in case there is no resolution by that time.

I understand the existing waveguide was for VHF 11, which is where they are digitally, not UHF 47.  You're correct that it won't work for UHF 49, which is where they are going digitally.

Yes, the active feed line* carries the 201 MHz VHF signal to the currently active antenna.  However before the change to ATSC, the NTSC station WMSN-TV was broadcast on UHF channel 47 at 668 MHz.  Hence the station name "Fox 47" and PSIP designator of 47.  The waveguide for the old "channel 47" was not torn down, even though it was no longer used.  When the station was awarded the 680 MHz frequency (which matches the obsolete NTSC channel 49), they had hoped that they could re-use the old waveguide, the rationale being that the frequencies were close enough that they could "make it fit".  To make a long story short, they couldn't.  So, because of this, a new waveguide tuned to what we used to call "channel 49" is being installed.

When that goes live, the PSIP tag will remind your tuner that ATSC station 47.1, 47.2 etc is at 680 MHz now.  When the change is made, we will need to re-scan our ATSC receivers to find the new PSIP so that when you "tune" to Fox 47, you will get Fox 47 on its new frequency.

*I doubt that a waveguide is used at 201 MHz.  It's generally not practical at VHF frequencies due to size and weight constraints.  Remember that the size of the wavelength is inversely proportional to the frequency.  At VHF frequencies it's more economical to use less efficient coaxial cable with more raw transmitter power to make up for cable losses, than it is to build a new, gigantic tower capable of supporting a VHF waveguide safely.

Looks like Tuesday, November 2nd, now according to Kerry

per Kerry, now -

"Today is not the day.  We are still working on the transmission line. Maybe this Thursday.  I will know more tomorrow afternoon."

No reply from Kerry in response to my email but noticed this posted on the station's website:

11/04/10
Fox 47 WMSN will begin transmitting on Channel 49 at 7:00am Friday November 5. At that time, rescan your receiver or converter box to pick up Fox 47 WMSN on our new channel. Do not do anything if you view us on cable or satellite or AT&T. All cable and satellite companies are making their own adjustments for this channel change.

Today I can watch 47 and subchannels from my 6th floor office in downtown Madison. Before wasn't able to. The past few days the channel was choppy at my home location near Gilbert & Whitney Way due to the winds. The other stations are fine. Hopefully the wind problem will disappear due to the channel relocation.

Thanks for keeping us up to date, hoophead!  I'll bet that the wind storm put them behind, and they had to wait until the World Series was over before making the big change.

Dennis, I live right between the TV towers.  Even with my proximity and omnidirectional antenna, I was getting macroblock errors (a.k.a. "pixelation") all during the storm.  I sure wouldn't want to be on either tower during that storm!

Many years ago, I visited the WMAQ-TV transmitter facility at the John Hancock Center in Chicago (before Sears Tower was complete).  The engineers there had rigged up a plumb bob on a string, hanging from the ceiling.  You could see the building move when a gust of wind hit it. :D

I just got off the phone with Kerry.  He says that WMSN is now active on its new UHF ("channel 49") frequency, and that the old ("channel 11") transmitter has been powered down.  If you haven't already re-scanned your tuner, or aren't getting WMSN (47.1, 47.2) right now, it's time to re-scan your tuner!

According to Kerry, calls to the station have been relatively light.  This may be because a lot of the tuners in DVRs and other "smart" equipment auto-detect the PSIP automatically.  My DISH VIP722 DVR found the new frequency without any input from me.  My year-old Sony TV didn't.  If you have multiple tuners, double-check them all.  Don't forget TVs in other rooms.

No problems with the updates!

Kerry did say to me the few days of high winds did delay the scheduled date.

My DISH 722 DVR only had me 'find channel' then plug in '49' and it was found so then I only had to 'add channel' without the need for a rescan. Now I have Milwaukee on DISH and Madison OTA

Happy camper here!