You’ve Got Questions, but….
Tonight was the first of our 5 part series on DTV and the analog shutdown this week, taking your calls live during our 6 PM and 7 PM Newscasts. We really enjoyed taking your calls and talking with each of you, and a few actually stumped me, the “Digital Expert”.
I certainly expected antenna questions, and there were plenty of those, and lots of questions about getting coupons and where to buy boxes. A couple of the callers had legitimate issues about the coupons which I can’t figure a way around.
One person stated she had 3 families living in one house, and each family needed coupons. The way the program is set up though, is one set of coupons per address. The address must be a valid street address, and not a Post Office Box. Once a coupon was issued for that address, the other’s couldn’t apply. I asked if she could try (house number) -A, -B, and -C, and she said she tried. They were not legitimate mailing addresses. I’m stumped on how to get around that issue. She said she’d talked to several folks, and I suggested she contact the FCC directly on their website, www.FCC.gov
Another man allowed a friend to use his phone to order his coupons, and when asked if the address of that number was the correct address, his friend said yes. But when he tried to order his coupons, that address was already assigned, and he could not apply. In his case, he may be able to give his friend’s address and get it that way. Making matters worse, both of these viewers were disabled and really have no way to turn.
Another topic people brought up was trying to determine if they needed a coupon. I say yes, every American household should get the coupons, even if you have cable or satellite. Early on I posted these systems do fail, bills may not get paid on time, and after Feb. 17, 2009 you will be out of luck. Even worse, after the coupon program ends, you’ll have to pay full price for the box! Go ahead and get those coupons now, even if you don’t use it, you may be able to help people in a jam like those I just mentioned.
I got a lot of calls from folks who were having issues with the boxes, scanning channels, and general reception issues, but few with my station. Fortunately I know what is happening at the other stations, and assured them things should be fine after 2-17-09.
The rest of the calls ran from young people asking about reception in downtown, and older folks trying to make sense of the menu structure. Clearly, we’ll need some help, so I’m urging everyone to pitch in and help each other. Not everyone has a computer, and can see this blog and the various sites offering help. Wilmington’s transition proved the need for hands on help. We are going to do the best we can to organize that help. I will be on a conference call with those Elon University students I wrote about earlier, Friday morning as they disclose the data they collected in Wilmington. I can’t wait to hear what they have to tell us.
We’ll be taking calls all this week during our evening newscasts, so please call in and we’ll do our best to help, and if you have any suggestions about the address thing, please let me know!
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Comments
Hi Bob,
I’m not much of an expert on
this DTV matter, but I see a
few points that might help
pinpoint your problem.
First, What kind of analog
reception do you usually get?
Bright and clear, a bit of
snow, or good but a little
ghosting?
Second, have you been using
a simple indoor antenna or
are you out a ways and have
had to use an outdoor setup?
Third, do you how far out
you are and the direction to
the transmitter? This last
is not independent of the
other two–hopefully you
would normally expect to
have a good chance to use
the same type (newer is a
bit more likely not to be
broken, covered with bird
droppings, or burnt out by
nearby lightning effects
for outdoor setups, though)
of antenna aimed the same
direction that you use for
analog.
There are, possibly, a few
locations that will be very
difficult to get DTV over
the air. Exactly what we
will have to do after the
analog broadcasts are gone
is a complete mystery so
it’s important to do all
the experiments now.
Regards,
Gene
Gene,
To answer your question, I have an indoor antenna. I bought the antenna from Target. The cost was about 40 dollars plus tax. My house is about 1,100 feet. I have 3 bedrooms and a kitchen and master bath and a half bath. I went to radio shack the other day and puchased a 50 foot premade cable. I positioned my cable in ALL of my rooms. I made a list and I check it twice… I got one channel and it was WTVD. That was in the half bath above shelf. I know where most of the market transmits from and its in the clayton area. So, after reading Russ’ blog once again I scan and scanned and I got WTVD.
The analog reception was fuzzy but I could make out the picture. At times there was ghosting but I could stand at the side of the antenna and I got a better picture?.. Weird I know.
I live on the outskirts of Elm City. Which is in the middle of know where. NO cable TV and I refuse to pay the high price of satellite. I can pick up WITN and WNCT very well, but its the Raleigh stations that I want!!!
Bob,
You may be too far from the transmitters for an indoor
antenna to work. I don’t know offhand how far Elm
City is from Raleigh (since I’m in Wisconsin–yeah, I
know I’m not in Russ’ market area but, what the heck,
he seems to be the only one in our whole country who
is making a reasonably good effort) but your report of
fuzzy reception sounds like you may have to put up
with an rooftop antenna and the maintenance that is
an unavoidable nuisance.
For reception and ghosting to be affected by where
you stand is not unusual. By the time it gets indoors,
the signal is apparently quite strange; as an example
of this, as nearly as I can make out from the physics
books, the **vertical** little round loop added, for
UHF channels, to the very minimal rabbit ears should
not work at all for TV signals which are horizontally
polarized! I can assure you, it does work at the five-
mile-plus-or-minus-a-little distance even though, at
times, where I stand in the room does cause some
of the blocky break-up that I gather is a result of the
tuner momentarily “losing it” due to multipath.
Although it doesn’t get any respect from the experts,
you probably should make a trial set up in your attic.
That’s still indoors, technically, but the extra height
might make a difference and maybe your 40-dollar
antenna might turn out OK.
For outdoor antennas, I think you should give the web
site antenna.com a look-see to find out what stations
you should be able to get, the best direction to start
with to aim your antenna, and how good an antenna
you need. If you go that route, again, I suggest a try
of the attic; it might work and you won’t have bird
droppings or weather problems. If you live in a rural
area or a small town you may not have municipal
inspections to pass, but whatever you do, climbing
safety is important and the proper grounding of an
outdoor antenna can be a life saver; Russ’ earlier blog
entries have links to one person’s take on grounding
so, if you aren’t up on such things, you probably need
to have your installation looked over by a competent
electrician who will be able to consider worst cases.
Regards,
Gene
Hi Anyone Else Checking This Thread,
Russ has sent emails to Bob and me that
might be of interest to anyone with any
similar questions who has not added a
comment.
With Russ’ permission, I have tried my
hand at writing a reflection:
Russ:
I think it’s possible since I personally know people
in Greenville using indoor antennas catching Raleigh
stations fine. You should be getting the analog signals
crystal clear, so I suspect you antenna is not up to
par with what you need. There’s some really useless
high gain rabbit ears on the shelves, and the retailers
tell me they are returned almost 1:1. You want
something a little directional, like the Terk or Silver
Sensor I have used. They should work fine for both VHF
and UHF. (WNCT will remain on VHF ch. 10)
As Gene mentioned the attic is a viable option. If the
antenna you bought has an amplifier with a gain control,
turn it down and scan for the channels. If your box
supports it, punch in ch 55 directly, and view the
signal strength menu. Gradually increase the gain until
it does not increase anymore. (it may in fact go down
around half way) Then run another scan.
Also look at the link below for the tvfool website. It
shows a big purple blotch right over Elm City, surrounded
by happy blues and cyan. That tells me you need more
height, either attic or roof. If you go with an outdoor
antenna, buy the Channel Master 4228. It is amazing, but
you’ll have to rotate it to get the Greenville stations.
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=80&q=call%3dwncn%26type%3dD
Let us know how it goes, and good luck. I’m sure you
are in a good signal location, but I have serious
doubts about your antenna. The main digital signals
are bolted to the same tower as my analog 17. If you
get 17 analog clean, the digitals will be no problem.
Also, if you want cheap and easy like me, build one
yourself using coat hangers and a piece of wood. It
might surprise you. I have not found any real advantage
to the rear reflector, so it is possible to make it with
just the bow ties on a 2X4 and put it in the corner behind
the TV. There’s several videos on You Tube showing this
thing.
http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/
Gene:
My thought on this is that **if** you have
a reflected signal coming from something
that is about 180 degrees degrees from the
(otherwise) best aiming direction, the
rear reflector it could have a great effect.
In my effort to reflect email content, I
think the URLs Russ referred to will not
show up as links but will rather have to
be Copied and Pasted into the address box
at the top of your browser; the long one
will probably have to be reassembled
because it falls on more than one line.
Regards,
Gene Falck
P.S.
Hmmm-
Judging from how my comment looks
above, the URLs may work OK without
any Cut and Paste!
Gene
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Russ,
I have a question. I have the converter box. I have the antenna. I have hooked up all the wires that I think I gotta have. I have read your posting about scan scan and rescan. I simply cannot get a picture. I have spent about 200 dollars at best buy to make sure I had all the parts I needed to receive DTV. I have moved my antenna all over my house and I simply cannot obtain a picutre. Would you happen to have any type of suggestions as to what I am doing wrong?