Fox WITI Antenna issues

[Steve Mann]

I'm not sure if this has been posted or discussed, but I saw the following from a post by 'foxeng' on the AVS boards. As the name implies, I believe he's an engineer for Fox in the North Carolina area.

A person asked if he knew anything about WITI's low power/antenna issues. He replied:

"Funny you should ask now. I just talked to their Transmitter Supervisor Tuesday about that. He was calling asking some advise since they basically want to copy what I am doing and from what he says, it will be very close to what I am doing, including coverage area size (We get about 35 miles with our 4200 watts). There is a desire there to get it done, but the weather and they need a couple of other items to finish it up. They aren't that far away though, but when it will happen, I don't know, he didn't say what a target date was and I didn't think to ask. Sorry."

Here's the link to the entire discussion on AVS.

[borghe]

I am a little sore for WITI not finishing this up before winter.. In my mind it is inexcusable, but that is in the past and sulking about it won't get anything accomplished. That being said, I can understand them not getting things up at this very second, but do hope that what is left doesn't go too far into spring. It sure would be nice to record Fox Widescreen on my HD Tivo when it ships the first week of April... or hopefully not too far after that...

[John L]

Just hope it gets done before the Packer season starts.

-John L.

[SRW1000]

Originally posted by Steve Mann
coverage area size (We get about 35 miles with our 4200 watts)

35 miles?  Ugh, how utterly depressing and dissapointing.  To wait this long, and still have to settle for such a reduced range, it just seem wrong.

Scott

[foxeng]

Well 35 miles isn't nothing to sneeze at. We cover THREE metro areas (the 4th and 6th and 10th largest cities in NC are in our coverage area - over 1 million people) with that 35 mile signal.

Unless you live on the analog fringe, with a decent outside antenna, people pick us up pretty good.

YMMV.

[SRW1000]

Does anyone know how 4200 watts compares to the signal put out by channel 58, err 1-1?  My reception with them was very spotty, even though it was solid with all of the other local stations.  I figure if channel 6 is the same or higher, I should be alright.

Scott

[Steve Mann]

Originally posted by foxeng
Unless you live on the analog fringe, with a decent outside antenna, people pick us up pretty good.

Hey foxeng,

I guess I completely forgot you've contributed here in the past. I hope you didn't mind me sharing your AVS posting.

As always, thanks for sharing your insight and knowledge.

[Gregg Lengling]

Originally posted by SRW1000
Does anyone know how 4200 watts compares to the signal put out by channel 58, err 1-1?  My reception with them was very spotty, even though it was solid with all of the other local stations.  I figure if channel 6 is the same or higher, I should be alright.

Scott

WDJT-DT is operating at 10,000 watts ERP.

[SRW1000]

Thanks, Greg.  I guess my chances of getting the channel 6 HD signal are pretty slim.  

Scott

[SRW1000]

So, why is WITI (and FOX, by default) only doing this project half-a$$ed?  (I don't know if I'm allowed to use the s' so I left them out.)  As long as their going through all of the work, why not just invest the money now and do it right?

It's embarrassing that a little station like 58 can put out a more powerful signal than FOX.  I understand how Rupert isn't all that thrilled with HD, but to have to go through this twice while leaving their viewers on the outskirts hanging - it just doesn't make sense to me.  But then again, I'm an early-adopting HD lover.  Make that a frustrated, early-adopting HD lover.

Scott

[borghe]

I have to agree that 35 miles isn't all that skimpy. That should technically take them around half way through Waukesha County, all the way through Racine and part of Kenosha, and through most of Ozaukee county. These are just rough guesstimates but that seems about right.. certainly it seems that at 35 miles people on the fringe of such reception will likely be able to pick up another fox DTV station if WITI isn't available.

As for a peace offering, I don't exactly know what that may be.. It seems for the most part this board has laid off on WITI. The tower is going up, up until recently it has been cold as hell and no one expected it to be finished, and Fox as a company has announced a huge move forward in the broadcast of HD by this fall. I would almost say that the feelings on Fox and WITI have changed dramatically over the past year or two. All of this with virtually no contact from anyone inside the company, just observation from fellow board members and occasional contributions from a Fox employee at another station. If that isn't an olive branch, I don't know what is. If anything, to continue an improved relationship it sure would be nice for someone from WITI to at least make a post here and say hi, maybe even give a broad gameplan as to a general turn up date of the new tower/transmitter and if they plan to have HD up and running when Fox turns it on this fall. Heck, they do that and they would instantly be 100,000x more proactive than Sinclair has EVER been.

[Tom Snyder]

From the get-go, this site made the same offer to all the locals to be a resource for feedback and testing.

And since then, we have had varying degrees of co-operation, dialogue and even station representatives who are the conduit for information in and out. Several have even given us private phone and pager numbers to reach them in the event of a problem.

While we appreciate that, both we and they know that if they don't give us what we want (What do we want: all HDTV all the time, When do we want it, NOW!) they'll get criticism from us.

News Flash: We have an agenda, DUH!

Some use the criticism as a convenient justification to hide.  Attempts to reconcile have always come from this side and rermain unappreciated, unacknowledged and unanswered.

The good ones pay attention to it and use it as a way to get better at what they do.

And the market will ultimately determine whether it matters.

[John L]

This is good, so by June or so I should be able to receive something on channel 33 here in Muskego.

-John L.

[jcwillia]

So I get my Samsung T-151 in time for American Idol last night which my wife watches religiously, and come to find out I can't get Fox on my box...?

I can't even get a weak signal - I get nothing.  Is there something between Capitol Drive and Howard Avenue that physically obstructs my access to the signal?

Is it a source problem or my antenna problem?  My antenna is on my roof and its one of those old really big ones with a cable running down the side of the house into the basement.  I confess I have not gone up to the roof to make sure all the connections are good, but if the other channels are fine...?

What do you guys think?

Jason - Bay View resident

[tbarney]

If you are in bay view then you are too far away to get it. The concensus here is that if you are more then a mile or two from the tower then you won't be able to get witi.  New tower is in the works if you read the other posts here, hopefully soon in your case.  The only luck ones here are those with Timewarner who get the Faux WS sometimes.