WMTV-DT Madison: power increase

[Tom Weeden]

For the western side of the forum...

On August 13th WMTV-DT 19 (NBC 15-1) switched to a new antenna at a higher elevation.  Effective radiated power went from 21 kW to 56 kW (full authorized power), antenna height increased from approx. 1000 feet above ground to 1200 feet.

Reception reports welcome.  Depending on your antenna height, it should be receivable as far east as Waukesha...then the earth curvature starts to take its toll.

[dlhoppe]

Getting a solid signal here in West Bend. Signal strength shows 87-89 on my Voom receiver. Not the strongest, but no drop-outs at all. Just watched some coverage of the olympics and it looks good.

[John L]

Hmmm...  myabe thats what I was getting on ch. 19.  I noticed a weak digital signal on ch. 19 the other day, but it wasn't strong enough to play the video/audio.

-John L.

[Kevin Arnold]

Solid 90+ here in Hartland. That means 3 of the 4 networks out of Madison are at full or near full power. Fox 47 is easily receivable too. Finally don't have to worry about leaves on trees or fluky weather interefering with the signals.

[Tom Weeden]

Originally posted by dlhoppe
Getting a solid signal here in West Bend. Signal strength shows 87-89 on my Voom receiver. Not the strongest, but no drop-outs at all. Just watched some coverage of the olympics and it looks good.

That's great!  I would have expected West Bend to be down in a dip and pretty much out of the picture so to speak...  Are you right in town, or in the hills just to the west?

West Bend: about 71 miles from WMTV-DT
Hartland: about 57 miles

Thanks guys.

[dlhoppe]

I'm actually about 3 miles east-southeast of West Bend in the town of Trenton. I am up on a small hill which is probably just enough to allow me to peek over the other surrounding hills. Up at the end of my road (maybe 1000 feet away), I can see Holy Hill clearly on the horizon so I do have some elevation here.

I expect things to improve for me a little when the leaves are gone. When I'm at the top of my tower, I can see that the antenna points directly into the trees on the hills to the south and south west of my house. The good thing is I'm getting pretty good performance in lousy weather. It'll be fun when the tropo kicks in.

[Scott Sippel]

This is good news.  I now get 90's for 3, 15, 21 & 27 here in Dousman.
Fox 47 is a bit less in the 70's.    The readings are from my HR10-250.

[Malamute]

Tom  I get all the same as scott by watertown 3,15,21,27 & Fox 47 are all 75 to 95 and I do get the UPN channel 14 out of madison , just enough signal about 75 only.   I drive though madison alot and watch the new tower go up at WMTV 15 (NBC). Was surprise that dlhoppe gets in west bend.

Malamute

[John L]

Originally posted by Malamute
Was surprise that dlhoppe gets in west bend.

Malamute

Dlhoppe has a large tower in his backyard.  He gets Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, Madison and Grand Rapids.

However DTV ch. 19 is not only in Madison, there is also DTVs on ch. 19 in Chicago (WGN) and Grand Rapids (WZZM-TV).  So in order to get WMTV-DT he has to aim his antenna towards Madison to the West.  He can watch the Cubs Baseball games in HD with the antenna aimed South.  WGN has promoted themselves airing the Chicago Cub games in High Definition.

-John L.

[dlhoppe]

I thought I'd post an update on my reception after a week of playing with the new antenna installation.  I can get everything in Milw and Green Bay with very consistent signal strength. Channel 19 (15) out of Madison is reliable, but the rest of the stations there are sporadic. Today I wasn't able to lock on anything out of Chicago. I guess I'm at the mercy of atmospheric conditions for markets that are more distant than Madison. I still have a little more tweaking I'd like to do to see if I can improve the distant markets. We'll see.  I'm still pretty happy so far. My initial intent was to get Milw and Green Bay and I've accomplished that with very good results.

[pretzelkid]

Hey since we're talking about Madison ota I was wondering if anyone had info about when Fox 47 might be broadcasting HD.
     I also noticed 15's power boost. I was getting 30-40 before and now into the 70-80's on my zenith hd420 stb. If Fox47 got onboard I wouldn't have to go to milwaukee to get Fox's HD stuff intermittently at best...Fox39 out of Rockford isn't even broadcasting yet so it looks like watching Da Bears will be stricly an analog experience this year(can't get Fox32 ota chicago). Their website has no email contacts and the couple of calls i made to their broadcast engineer were not returned but hey he's probable busy enough with their antenna going down in July '03.

[Scott Sippel]

I've been watching this thread over at the AVSForums regarding Fox 47 and HD.  

Madison/Central WI HDTV Post 39

I'm hoping for it too since Fox 6 is too marginal for me.

[pretzelkid]

Hey thanks for the link. Last time I checked AVSForum must have been before that thread started. The answer seems to be a resounding maybe!!!   :bang: