Answers To Your DTV Questions
Published: October 28, 2008
Updated: February 9, 2009
Ron Peeler, WSPA’s Chief Engineer, answered questions from our users on the DTV changeover process. If you want to submit a question leave a comment on this page.
Posted by ( marshall ) on October 22, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I have a channel master antenna we are getting 21 channels, but we live in a high location, radio shack has a 190-100 mile range VHF, UHF, what I am under standing VHF will be gone in June 2009 a big antenna for UHF which is for nothing, my father is having trouble his location is in a lower location trees, hills putting the convertor box in 2 channels, Wal-Marts antenna 5 channels trying to find something to get channel 16 no luck so far correct me if I am not under standing digital right thanks
You will need a UHF and VHF antenna after the June transition. Channel 7 now on channel 53 will be going back to channel 7 at that time. The other stations in our area will also be returning back to their original channel except Channel 4. If you want to receive channel 16 your best bet will be a good bowtie UHF outdoor antenna. Antenna is about $50.
Posted by ( rphillips ) on September 27, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I recently got my Mother a digital converter for her T.V. She now gets all
the old and new stations except WSPA-TV. It doesn’t matter how we adjust the antenna. Will 7 become something different?
Have A Great Day!!!!!
Randy Phillips
Yes WSPA will be going back to channel 7, VHF and your mothers reception should improve. We are presently on channel 53, the upper part of the UHF band and it doesn’t travel as well as VHF.
Posted by (just_a_thought ) on August 15, 2008 at 12:49 am
DTV is not so simple for everyone as shown on your segments. We live in somewhat of a dead spot. Although we normally pick up between 8-10 channels with our regular antenna, when the dtv converter is hooked to the line, we are only able to pick up 1-2 channel roots (each with 0-3 sub-channels) and those usually do not actually come in without some frequent scrambling of the channel signals. Our regular antenna is giving us better reception (and picture quality) than our converter box. We have tried several different signal enhancers for our antenna and also tried a different antenna altogether; all were returned because the reception with them either stayed the same or sometimes got worse. If we cannot receive enough digital signal to have dtv, we will be completely without tv reception in June as we cannot fit cable or satellite into our already tight budget. All of your examples I have seen are people in fairly flatlands with fairly open space. What about people who live in hilly or mountainous areas? I realize that this is the government’s decision and not the station’s, but your representation of how easy it is does not truly represent the general public.
From your described location you may experience terrain shielding and it will be difficult to receive any channels. The only suggestion I can make is a good outdoor UHF, VHF antenna with a rotor. May also need an in-line amplifier.
What was the Oct 30 DTV test supposed to accomplish? DTV sets require that a scan be performed to add a channel. On the cue at 6:20 with a solid analog signal I switched to the digital tuner, went to menu and performed a scan to no avail. I repeated the scan, again no results. Then because Tom Crabtree while holding rabbit ears had said DTV was UHF I switched to my amplified UHF yagi, again nothing.
It seems to me that more than one minute should have been allocated for the test and that some simple instructions should have been given the viewer as to what to do. I suspect many people just sat there viewing snow without a clue as to what they should have done. Now the test is over and the question as to whether I will be able to receive WSPA remains unanswered.
Hello Ed,
I can understand your confusion. Yes we will be on channel 7 after the June transition and we did not transmit any digital signal on channel 7 during our test. We were actually transmitting a snowy analog signal.
We will be doing a few technical tests (middle of the night) on the channel 7 DT before June and are looking at ways we can actually turn both DT channels on at the same time but don’t know how the receivers will handle two channel 7s at this time.
The sure way to have Channel 7 on the 18th will be to do a rescan because there are several other stations in this market that will be moving to another channel on the 18th. Hope this answers your questions.
Posted by ( Powell ) on October 28, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I live out in rural NW Newberry county and get an excellent picture on WSPA 7. To get the digital, I have an outside high gain UHF antenna ....inside on an old light stand that failed. It[the antenna] has an amplifier added to it to boost the signal. Now, everyone DOES understand that WSPA-TV’s digital signal upon analog cut off goes from a high UHF channel back to channel 7. That means you have to have an antenna that covers 7-13 as well as UHF. I find the digital signal much more fragile than the analog one. Switching on a light switch causes a burp in the audio and a momentary freeze in the picture. BUT the move to channel 7 (or any station putting their digital on VHF for that matter) is a poor decision. Why? Well there’s impulse noise, power line noise and thunderstorm static. It’s way worse on channels 2-6, but still is a significant problem on the 7-13 channels. The other is the power level. First of all UHF channels are getting 1 million watts. Remember analog gets up to 5 million. But WSPA got only 50,000 watts for their digital. Oh, GREAT. Now I have to go buy another antenna, and a more powerful amplifier. And if the weather is bad…. I won’t get a reliable signal.
Most of your understanding is true. WSPA will go back to VHF channel 7 for its final DT channel. The power issue is not quite correct. Don’t want to get to technical but signals travel much shorter distance the higher the frequency thus the power difference from UHF and VHF. In order to get a UHF signal transmitted to Newberry would require a 1,000kW but the VHF would require only a 32kW transmitter. The reason for staying on VHF in power savings alone is one reason to remain on VHF. Another reason to transmit on VHF is that it travels better thru our pine trees. Channel 7 has little terrestrial interference verses the lower VHF channels. Now the down side to VHF has only been realized within the last two years is that VHF is not a good frequency for mobile TV devices. Our selection to remain on VHF was made back in 1999 when things were not so clear but we feel technology will develop and overcome the mobile issue. Hold on to that VHF antenna because I feel you will have a good signal.
Advertisement