Web MadCityHD

Members

• Total Members: 389
• Latest: xgda762n

Stats

• Total Posts: 492
• Total Topics: 125
• Online Today: 12
• Online Ever: 91
• (December 12, 2010, 01:23 pm)

Users Online

• Users: 0
• Guests: 9
• Total: 9

[hoophead]

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 

[hoophead]

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."

[Webmaster]

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

[craigcu]

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."

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

c²

[hoophead]

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 

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.

[Jam Pro]

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... 

[hoophead]

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."

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."

[Hib X]

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

[hoophead]

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.

[Jam Pro]

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...

[Jam Pro]

Any possibility Fox will broadcast in 1080 when they do go over to channel 49 UHF?

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.

[Jam Pro]

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

Details here.

[hoophead]

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

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

[Jam Pro]

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!

[hoophead]

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.