Fox 6 Tower progress?

[mcq]

Originally posted by 950ash
Hehe, me being called a Noob.

I bought my system because of progressive dvd playing 3+ years ago. Live TV is only an afterthought because I am a Tivo series 1 addict. I have 4 current Tivo's 1 SA and 3 DSR6000's.


Oh and I didnt mention anything about complaining.

I just meant new to here... No offense intended!

I heard the TIVO - 1 is cool lotsa "hackability" We have a Tivo 2 (which by the way sucks as I was able to "slo-mo" through a missed interference call on the Favre interception.) I am fast becoming a slave to technology :blush:

Many of us here have been complaining, and it seems to fall on deaf ears...'ts'all I meant.

A thought just came to me..... Has our crack newspaper staff ever journalistically covered the fraud perpetrated by Faux6 on the taxpayers of the Milwaukee SMSA???

[digdugm]

Its all for not, I just spun the ol' antenna and wfld (chi) doesn't have it in widescreen either. Fox needs to support this (hdtv) from the top down. Fox get your act together!!

[foxeng]

Originally posted by digdugm
Its all for not, I just spun the ol' antenna and wfld (chi) doesn't have it in widescreen either. Fox needs to support this (hdtv) from the top down. Fox get your act together!!

I can't speak for your local station, but my station here in NC has Falcons/Cowboy game in WS from FOX. Looks pretty good for 480 WS.

[Greg Oman]

That was probably the A or B game I'd guess.  FOX Chicago had the Detroit/Arizona game, not widescreen though.  I really wanted to see it (the picture that is) and the conditions were working well for me yesterday.

Greg O.

[borghe]

they were listed. The Falcons/Cowboys game and Rams/? game were in widescreen. Only two games a week will be in widescreen, the A and B. AFAIK B will almost always be a later game if available, or if no later game than the second most "important" early game.

And if the packers keep playing like they did, don't expect to see too many Fox Widescreen presentations of it unless they are against a top contender...

[RRP]

Okay, so I was picking up one of my kids today from daycare which happens to be about 200-300 yds from the base of 6's tower.  I got a good look at the tower and the guys working on it and this is what I've concluded:
     
             It's almost impossible to see what progress they've made on reinforcing the tower let alone see any painting going on indicating the work is almost completed.  Jeesh, it's a long way up to be hanging by a cable!  :eek:


Richard

[mhz40]

I don't get all of this hoo-haa about the tower.  We've added tons of additional antennas on towers without any additions to the structures.  This includes cell antennas that utilize extremely heavy cable runs to them.
Initially I thought the tower they were moving the antenna on was the one in Brown Deer---the one with the radar mounted on it.  I'm not sure why---maybe because I didn't dream that the  tower off of Capital couldn't handle another run of waveguide and a UHF antenna...

[Gregg Lengling]

The current peanut whistle transmitter is on their wx radar tower in Brown Deer. Now about the self-supporting tower on Capitol Drive and the Milwaukee River Parkway.

Years ago the loading factors of towers were changed.  EIA code in this area only included Wind Factors.  Then they upgraded the standards to include 2 inches of ice on the tower and antennas and feedlines.  At that time channels 10 and 36 had to go and build their tower at the Blue Hole site in conjunction with channel 18.  To meet code both the 10 and 36 antennas and feedlines had to be removed from channel 6's tower.  Also even with the older looser codes channel 36's antenna was only fed with 3-1/4" line not the 6" they would have on the new tower.  Big difference in actual power losses.  In addition channel 6's installation is a very old format and has 2 feedlines feeding it's antenna (actually 2 antennas), so you have more loading.

So now they are reinforcing the tower to meet the needs of adding a full power antenna and feedline for digital 6 (channel 33).  However even when this is done they will only be transferring the small antenna they have at Brown Deer and the low power transmitter.

Personally I don't think a lot of us will be able to receive that as they are adjacent to 12's digital (channel 34) which is transmitting about 1/2 megawatt.  Receivers have a stage in them called AGC (automatic gain control) that protect overload in the stages from too much signal so as not to cause any intermodulation that can cause on analog stations fuzzy pictures...on digital stations it cause "Symbol Interference" which is the same as no picture at all.  Because 34 is running high power right next to 33, the AGC will activate on 33 from the high levels of 34, thus making 33 unreceivable.  So good luck on anyone receiving it .

People in the know think the rehab of the tower is going well and should be completed in the next few weeks.  However no one knows nothing about when the station will move the transmitter and antenna.

That's all for now...all we can do is wait or go to TWC (and I for one will not do business with TWC, but that is a personal problem here).

Good night all.

[John L]

I doubt that if Ch. 33 was high powered that it would interfere with ch. 34. If that would be the case, then why would the FCC assign the 2 digital channels right next to each other?

Actually we have 3 digital and one analog all next to each other, 33, 34, 35 and 36. I would think the FCC would not assigned these channels next to each other if digital signals on adjacent channels would present a problem.

How well is WISN-DT and WMVT-DT being received, are their any problems between 34 and 35?

-John L.

[Gregg Lengling]

No not when they are both running the same or near to power levels...however when you have 33 running a marginal signal at less than 1000 watts with a less than high gain antenna, the receiver will factor in.

There is a lot of noise with the manufacturers and the FCC about creating receiver standards, hang on for that.

[Tom Snyder]

Because 34 is running high power right next to 33, the AGC will activate on 33 from the high levels of 34, thus making 33 unreceivable. So good luck on anyone receiving it .

Do you think/know that Fox's engineering staff is aware of that? Or do they know and just don't care?

[Gregg Lengling]

They probably never thought about it because right now their receivers are right at the studio under their antenna, I think even they will have problems when they move to the main tower.  I used to be able to receive their digital at times, but since WISN went on air at 500kW their signal level went from 50 to 9 which is nothing.  BTW WISN's signal is 95 or better here.  Also need to get back on my high antenna which has a blown preamp, the unamplified antenna that is 15 feet below it can't lock on 58's digital anymore.

I sure wish these guys would up their power to respectable levels.

[Tom Snyder]

I wonder what will happen when they fire up their new "improved" digital signal and THEY can't even receive and view it from their studios...

[David Hendrickson]

I've just about had enough of this $%$# waiting. I've had 2 years of fooling around with cable first, now Directv, and OTA. If it's not "no, we don't have any idea when we'll carry HD over cable", it's overcrowded sat bandwith, and multi-casting OTA, not to mention FOX sitting on their hands.
I've converted my brother, mother, and father in-law to Hi-def and all of them are using TWC to receive their signals. Today, as my father in-law watched me again fooling with the antenna in a failed attempt to watch cbs or fox, he said _"Jeez Dave, why don't you just get cable like me":bang:

Must I surrender my dignity and make the dreaded phone call to Big Brother TWC? Someone tell me there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and very soon I will be able to get ALL our local HD signals either via sat or OTA. If not - appearing soon on the Yard sale board will be a Mits SR-HD5 receiver, an elliptical dish, loads of cable and a Channelmaster double bow tie ant.
Thank you for allowing me to vent.

[mhz40]

Originally posted by David Hendrickson
Must I surrender my dignity and make the dreaded phone call to Big Brother TWC? Someone tell me there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and very soon I will be able to get ALL our local HD signals either via sat or OTA. If not - appearing soon on the Yard sale board will be a Mits SR-HD5 receiver, an elliptical dish, loads of cable and a Channelmaster double bow tie ant.
Thank you for allowing me to vent.

What dignity is there in spending a ton of cash on a HDTV just to watch a blank screen during the season premiere of 24?  Besides, it's not all that bad... by the time you sell all that gear, you should have enough pocketed to pay for a year or so of HD on TW!  

Seriously-- to reiterate what I thought was happening:  Fox was/is raising their antenna, but NOT raising their power.  (This from the techs I spoke with last fall.)