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TechnoBabble

by Charlie_Layno from Greensboro, NC

Last Post 14 days, 12 hours Ago


Another DTV Test Oct 17th
Oct 16, 2008 | 4:27 PM
Category: News
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WGHP will be doing another DTV Test to see if you are DTV ready. This will be on Friday morning at 8:15 during the FOX8 Morning News.

As with the last time, if your TV is connected to cable or satellite, no matter what your screen says, your provider WILL do the conversion for you. DO NOT WORRY. YOU ARE COVERED. But any TV that is connected to an outside antenna or rabbit ears, you will need to either get a cable or satellite connection or a converter box or a new TV. For the $40 government coupon's for the digital to analog converters for your analog TV's, you can call 888-388-2009 or on the web at www.dtv2009.gov to order your coupons.

For the test, you will see one of the two different color screens.

If you see the screen with the blue background:

this means your TV is receiving our digital signal, either via your antenna or cable or satellite and you have nothing more to do. You are all set!!

If you see the screen with the red background:

this means that either your cable or satellite provider hasn't started converting our digital signal to analog yet or if your TV is digital ready it isn't on our digital channel either over the air or on digital cable (Time Warner and Lexcomm channel 510)/HD satellite (DIrecTV HD channel 8/Dish Network HD channel 8) or your TV isn't able to decode our digital signal and you need to do more to to continue to watch WGHP.

We will do a test every 17th of the month at different times of the day until February 17th, 2009 when you have to be ready one way or another!

If you have questions, feel free to call us here at the station or 888-CALL-FCC or 888-DTV-2009.

Are you ready for the next DTV Test?

8 Comments |  Add a Comment

Member Comments Total Comments: 8
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JQPublix read my blog view my photos
Oct 17, 2008 | 6:41 PM

Thanks for the test. It passed.
Charlie_Layno read my blog view my photos
Oct 18, 2008 | 12:03 PM

I am glad to hear it! The number of people who don't pass seem to be dropping and that is a good thing!
GroundhogW view my photos
Oct 18, 2008 | 7:35 PM

The recent September 8 test in Wilmington, NC has the FCC in a MAJOR LEAGUE PANIC. The test clearly shows that at best, several million people nationwide will lose the ability to receive some broadcast stations. The problem is signal strength. Some stations did better than others at choosing the transmit power and antenna combination to cover their existing area. The NBC affiliate WECT, for some reason, has a digital footprint that is much smaller than their analog footprint. Many of their current viewers have no hope of receiving their digital signal. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has initially estimated that 15% of the U.S. will be affected by a smaller digital footprint. (Meaning they will be unable to receive the station with the smaller footprint.)

I have a coworker who is an electrical engineer and lives in the rural eastern NC area. He receives Wilmington analog stations. He has setup the digital converter boxes and receivers for several family members and he confirms that there will be no way for any of them to receive the Wilmington NBC station. They will need new antennas (and rotators where they don't already have one) to receive other stations.

A recent viewer call-in program on UNC-TV largely confirmed that the Wilmington test accurately reflects what will happen statewide in NC and nationwide. High gain antennas and rotators will be required by a substantial portion, if not most, of those receiving TV over the air.

Wilmington is certainly not representative of the geographical terrain of the U.S. The U.S. as a whole will likely have much poor
GroundhogW view my photos
Oct 18, 2008 | 7:41 PM

poorer performance. Cable and satellite systems are not a viable option for these rural areas, either. Cable and satellite systems can only provide over-the-air stations in a single market.

In the Midwest, for example, areas such as southern Illinois are within reach (albeit often times on the fringe areas) of different TV markets. The only way to receive stations in a given market via cable or satellite is if you are close enough to the “TV market” and fall within the regulatory rules to receive that market. Viewers there may be within the range of stations in St. Louis Missouri, Cape Girardeau Missouri, Paducah Kentucky, Evansville Indiana, Harrisburg Illinois and Mount Vernon Illinois. Cable TV and satellite companies cannot offer a choice of which stations someone can receive.

There are three extremely problematic issues:

1.Will a high gain antenna provide the necessary signal strength? (No - in a lot of cases)
2.What will it and an antenna rotator cost? ($250 and up plus installation)
3.Where do you find someone to install such things if you don't know how to do it yourself? (Look in the yellow pages and you will probably find that you are out of luck on this one.)
GroundhogW view my photos
Oct 18, 2008 | 7:43 PM

The airwaves are a public resource and forcing people to pay a monthly fee to satellite or cable TV companies is bad enough, but now the ability to receive many stations will be completely taken away from many (millions) of people. There will be no way for them to receive the stations.

The FCC has a major problem.

The sad thing is this was all initiated by greedy people who wanted to make money by redistributing the radio frequency spectrum. In addition to the above, the digital conversion renders millions of portable TVs and radios with TV audio channels useless. (Check your hurricane/other emergency supplies and make note.)

Good luck, Charlie, and may your erp and propagation be good. :-)
Charlie_Layno read my blog view my photos
Oct 19, 2008 | 9:22 AM

Having grown up and then living as an adult in southeastern NC in the 60's, 70's and 80's watching WECT, and knowing what I know of the situation as a broadcaster, I think I can comment on the issue with WECT.

When WECT came on the air in the 50's their antenna was in Wilmington, not too far from where their digital is now. The next closest TV station was over 120 miles away. In the early 60's they built one of first 2000 ft towers in the country at White Lake, between Wilmington and Fayetteville to cover southeastern NC. The only stations viewable in that area then was a snowy WWAY Wilmington, and a snowy WBTV FLorance, SC. If you lived in Fayetteville, you might get WRAL Raleigh occasionally. For TV that was it.

Since then, there has been an explosion of TV stations and the Wilmington market has shrunk from southeastern NC to 6 countries around Wilmington. Since the 2000 ft tower is not able to handle a second TV antenna and now White Lake is on the edge of the Wilmington market. it didn't make sense to build another 2000 ft tower there to put the signal where no one would be counted by the ratings.

While it is disappointing for those viewers in the Fayetteville and Laurinburg areas who have been used to watching WECT no longer can get the station, they do have other NBC stations they can watch so it is not like they are completely out of luck. In this particular case, this was a foreseeable coverage area change due to market economics, not due to an FCC blunder, even though I can show you several FCC coverage blunders that will adversely effect some viewers but
Charlie_Layno read my blog view my photos
Oct 19, 2008 | 9:24 AM

in the end, stations had the choice to decide on whether to maximize or not and some stations chose not to while others couldn't because of causing interference to stations already on the air.

This isn't over yet though. You will see some stations changing channels and coverage patterns for the next five or so years to try and correct coverage issues. Remember, this is the first time in history that a whole broadcast service has been changed out while still in operation while using the same frequency spectrum. It is unprecedented and everyone from the industry to the FCC knew from the start there would be issues to resolve post transition and when the dust finally settles on this a few years from now, there will be some people who will not receive some of the stations they receive today. Sad, but true.
GroundhogW view my photos
Oct 21, 2008 | 2:56 PM

Yes, many stations will have unique circumstances. It will be interesting to see how it all sorts out.
For the most part, news is more of an issue than network coverage, I think. The Internet is becoming the substitute, I guess.
TV DXing is/used to be fun. Years ago I stumbled across “Roy's Folks” on WGHP. I'm in southern Wake county and beyond the range of anything that gets counted in the ratings. The ability to receive a picture now depends on propagation, of course, but the WGHP audio is always available on a good radio receiver. The digital change is the end of TV DXing. Oh, well...
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Charlie_Layno

I am one of the behind the scene people here at FOX8. I work in the Engineering department and speak quite a bit of technobabble. I run the TV transmitters that allows everyone to see all of the programs and news on FOX8. I like to say, if you see a good picture and hear good sound, I am not working very hard, but if you see or hear static, I am working very hard!

Member Since: 7/27/2006


 

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