Fox 6 Digital signal MIA?

[Tom Snyder]

Fox 6's signal has been typically at 22-24 signal strength. Tonight I see it has disappeared entirely... means one of two things:

1.) They've removed the digital antenna from their relay tower at the studio, and are about to run it up the big stick

or

2.) Too many leaves now between me and the antenna to get any signal.

Hope it's #1....

[Greg Oman]

Only time I saw it was briefly for the Daytona 500.  Other than that, never get it.  Nada. Zip.

Madison stations?? No problem.  I don't think it's my stuff...

Welcome to #2  

Greg O.

[StarvingForHDTV]

Tom,

It must be option 2 because I remember seeing their signal  last night.  Wishful thinking on moving to the big stick...  They must be waiting for an 80 degree day or something.

Any idea what the D))))  means on some of their shows?  Could that signify the possibility of DD5.1?  Our local station is not passing any DD5.1 yet.  Hopefully they will fix the jitters before moving to the big stick.

Starving

[maksen]

I believe the D))) you are referring to stands for "Descriptive Television." If you switch to the SAP mode you will get the regular sound plus someone narrating the program. (for the visually impaired)

[Talos4]

Well, Driving by the tower site today, what do I spy?

Snow fencing around the tower base and structural steel being dropped off.

OR

They forgot to change the battery at daylight savings time.

[Tom Sielicki]

I have been getting it without any problems.   It is still the same weak signal with no changes.

[Kevin Arnold]

Tom, what's your general location?

[Tom Snyder]

There was a post on a local radio site about Channel 6 analog being off the air for a while early on Sunday morning... Maybe they're getting ready to start working on it?

[Tom Sielicki]

I just watched it tonight.  I am in Germantown.   I have an yagi pointed right at it and it has been coming in OK lately.   It was worse for me during the winter. (some drop outs)  I hope they boost their antenna so  I can turn my yagi back toward Capital Drive and have high signals on the other channels.  It sounds like me and a few guys in Mequon are the only ones watching.

[Tom Snyder]

Just heard from Earl Arbuckle, a Fox Engineer in New York regarding Fox 6.

They are, in fact, in the midst of restarting the tower reinforcement work for this season.  Once that is done, they'll move the antenna, etc.  But it appears that it will be a while yet before it's complete.

He says it's safe to say their initial transmission from Shorewood will be with the existing transmitter and antenna, which will be moved once the tower is ready.  At some point in the future, the power will be increased, but he couldn't hazard a guess as to when that might be.

He did predict, however, that the increased height at Shorewood will offer a significant improvement in reception throughout the area.

I asked him if the work would be done in time for Packer Widescreen games.  But he wouldn't say.

[Joseph S]

Now that I've moved mostly to rechargables, I have some spare Alkaline AA's to help the cause.

[kwinrich]

After driving by the Fox 6 studios a few weeks ago, I highly doubt they are planning on putting the antenna currently in use on the big tower.  It is not a high power antenna and would not be able to handle the type of power they will be running.

The full power antennas are quite a bit bigger, and have radomes (fancy name for a "plastic" cover) over the antenna.

Is Fox 6 saying they need to shore up their present tower to put up a DTV transmitting antenna?  If so, they have bigger troubles than trying to get a DTV antenna on that tower.  Just my humble opinion.......

Kent, K9EZ
Tower Geek

[Tom Snyder]

They have said that they won't be putting a full power antenna up for now... just\ the same low power antenna they're currently using over on Green Bay Road.

Eventually, they'll have to go full power.

But either way, the current tower is unable to support any addional antennae. Back in the mid 1980's when I was an applicant for a new FM station on the 88.1 frequency,  Channel 6 was our biggest problem. They opposed the allocation of the frquency because 88.1 is right next to their audio channel (which is on 87.75). They were concerned about possible interference unless our antenna was co-located on the 6 tower.  But they wouldn't let us put our antenna on their tower because their engeneers said the tower couldn't support even the added weight and wind load of a three bay FM antenna. I'm not sure what the guys who eventually got 88.1 did, but unless they're broadcasting from a multicast subchannel from their main TV antenna, the added weight of their antenna undoubtedly completely maxed out the tower.

My guess is that the reinforcements that they're doing right now will be necessary before they can hang another single piece of hardware on that thing... much less a Full-power Digital Antenna.