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Old 26-Feb-2011, 1:09 PM   #1
suzanrush
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 17
Channel Errors, Bethany Beach, DE--O.C., MD

It's no wonder that the nation is lost in Dtv-land. No one is giving correct information. Like how important is not to buy these stupid, waste-of-money, and time antennas that are available locally in stores.

As with most things in life, I you want the best, you've got to get the best. And that's a Winegard antenna, specifically an outdoor (roof-mounted ideally) Winegard Square Shooter 2000 for those of us who are far away from tv stations and towers. Those who live closer-in and who don't want to bother with attaching antennas to the roof can get by with an indoor (rabbit ears) antenna but I'd still get the best one which is still a Winegard. They have a long proven history with electronics equipment. They are the best money can buy and the really good news is that the price continues to drop, for those who are just finding out about this great free dtv signal.

Also, if you live in the sticks (rural and far away), it can be very useful to attach a rotor to your outdoor antenna. This way you can turn it in different directions (careful not to turn full circle) and pick-up stations in different areas. This is what I do because my signals are all scattered in somewhat of a buckshot pattern. So rotors are very helpful and don't fret because it's a one time cost. Pay once to set it up and never ever pay again to watch tv.

Now then, about those inaccuracies ... for zip code 19930, you say that I should get 10 channels and I actually get 16+ (when I turn my rotor) - - this in an area that only got 2 measly snow (analog) channels before the transition.

This is a great example of how Commerce and money drive this country. There's simply no money to be made on telling people the truth. That's a harsh reality and it's sickening. The government (FCC, NTIA, which is part of Commerce ...) did everything they could to prevent the citizens of this country from discovering the real truth about DTV. The pay-tv industry should've been finished, at least how we know it, with the introduction of the digital broadcast signal.

************************
Here's the specifics of the errors on the channel line-up:
You say that I should receive W65EF 41 (65.1) out of O.C., MD but I don't.
Also, I don't get WNDC 2 (11.1). _________________________
I do however get FOX 21.2 and
WMDT-2 (The CW) 47.2 plus
2 extra channels each on the 3 PBS networks, 23.2, 23.3 NJN (PBS) +
28.2, 28.3 MPT (PBS) +
64.2, 64.3 WHYY (PBS)
These PBS channels are the best with no commercials!! which I absolutely love love love and they replace many (a dozen or more) of the pay-tv channels such as the History channel, Food Network, HGTV, CNN, MSNBC, just to name a few.

They have the only decent news broadcast, BBC World News, which there's nothing better. Talk about more news in less time, this truly is because it's commercial free and not filled with garbage/spin news, if you understand my meaning. It's tops, bar none, in a category all it's own. It's smart tv without those stupid, insulting, assaulting, lying commercials and advertisements.

So there you have it. It's too bad that all my uninformed neighbors are still paying for sub-par 100 channels of crap tv with no customer service and outages and don't know they have this free option available to them because of the lies the government perpetrated and kept secret. Why? To keep people ignorant of course and to keep them paying. Greed of money!

Last edited by suzanrush; 26-Feb-2011 at 1:14 PM.
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Old 28-Feb-2011, 3:20 AM   #2
mtownsend
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 632
Thanks for the feedback!

Couple of questions:

1) Can you post a TV Fool report for your exact location? A zip code lookup is very generalized, and you might see different results with a report for your exact address.

2) Can you provide more details on your setup (i.e., antenna model, antenna location, amp?, splitters?)?



In regards to possible database corrections:

a) W65EF is a low power broadcaster. They used to have an analog broadcast on channel 65 (license granted in April 2006). They now have a construction permit to build a digital transmitter on channel 41 (granted October 2009).

Low power broadcasters were not forced to switch to digital in June of 2009 (that rule only applied to the top 1200 or so "full power" broadcasters), so they have been allowed to continue analog broadcasts until they are ready with their digital transmitter.

TV Fool extracts all of its transmitter data from the FCC database, which tells us who is licensed to be on the air legally, but it does not always mean that any given facility is actually active and transmitting. At the moment, there are more than 12,000 valid TV transmitter records in the FCC database.

In the case of low power broadcasters, some of them are still operating under their analog authorization, some have migrated to digital, and still others may be off the air completely. At this time, we do not have any solid feedback to indicate whether W65EF is on the air or not (analog or digital).

All we know is that if W65EF is broadcasting according to the information provided in their FCC application, then they should have the coverage and signal strength as indicated in our reports.

W65EF's analog license only allows them to broadcast with 200 watts of power, so if they are still running their analog transmitter, it's very unlikely that you would be able to pick them up. Their digital construction permit allows them to go up to 15 kilowatts, but we don't know if this signal is actually on the air yet. It's quite possible that they have not yet completed construction of their new transmitter (maybe for financial or business reasons).

If you or anyone is able to confirm the actual on-air status of this broadcaster, we'll gladly make that change to our database.



b) WNDC is also a low power transmitter, so it's on-air status is also uncertain. Furthermore, their digital construction permit is for channel 2, a low-VHF channel. If your antenna is a poor performer at low-VHF frequencies then you might not pick up the station even if they are on the air. If you suspect that their transmitter is really on the air, you'll need to make sure your antenna is the correct type to pick up that frequency.



c) The Fox station you are getting (21.2) is actually being carried on WBOC's signal. With digital TV broadcasts, a single transmitter can carry multiple sub-channels (a.k.a., virtual channels). Fox does not have their own transmitter in the area, so they are "piggy-backing" on WBOC's signal as their second digital sub-channel. There's no separate callsign or transmitter ID associated with Fox since there is really just one transmitter involved here (WBOC) in the eyes of the FCC.



d) WMDT is another dual-network broadcast. They carry ABC on 47.1 and CW on 47.2. Only one transmitter is involved, so again, we only list WMDT as the signal to get.



e) The other channels you listed are just sub-channels of a broadcast already listed in your signal analysis. Broadcasters are free to change their sub-channels however they like, so it's not something that the FCC keeps track of in their database. A lot of broadcasters are experimenting with adding sub-channels (perhaps for more video choices, data delivery services, audio-only channels, etc.), so you may see your total number of virtual channels change from time to time even though the number of physical transmitters remain the same.

Our signal reports list each transmitter once regardless of how many virtual channels are actually carried on that signal. If you can lock onto any of these broadcasts, you will automatically get all of the sub-channels carried on that signal (it's all or nothing).
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