AMC4 101W KUIL going dark in the future?

[digiblur]

Copy and paste from Beaumont local thread...someone else posted the CE's emails:

Reply from FOX 64 about PQ

My name is Mark Ewing Chief Engineer at KVHP/KUIL Fox Affiliates in Lake Charles, La and Beaumont, Tx. I understand you are having some problems with reception of KUIL through your local cable company. To give you some background, this transmission originates in Lake Charles, La and is uplinked via satellite into your area and received by satellite downlinks by cable systems and transmitter sites through out SE Texas. This is a Ku Band satellite transmission and is subject to rain fade (during torrential rains we may briefly lose signal). I am curious if these problems you've experienced were during these times?

I assure you we monitor the quality of our signal before it leaves our facility and the satellite downlink as well to make sure we are delivering a quality signal. If you are experiencing poor video quality at times other than bad weather we need to get with the cable company to see how they are handling the satellite transmission. We may need to have them receive us over the air from our transmitter and tower site in Beaumont rather than the downlink at their cable head end.

I would like to thank you for watching our station and I look forward to talking with you so we can resolve these problems you are experiencing.

Thanks,

Mark Ewing
Chief Engineer
KVHP/KUIL Fox 29/64
Lake Charles, La/Beaumont, Tx
(337)474-1316 Ext. 41

2nd email about a specific complaint around football and sports PQ and digital plans
-----

You probably know we are the only station in your area in which the signal is delivered by satellite and though we have plenty of bandwidth for most programming, it seems for sports you can never have enough. All satellite providers deal with this issue and we are no different. As far as the other issues you're experiencing I would be glad to show you the quality of our signal both before it is uplinked and after it is received by downlink so that you can see the problem isn't with our signal. Whenever you are in Lake Charles you have an open invitation to come by our studio, just call me first to make sure I'm going to be around.

As far a digital goes we should have a signal in your area in the not too distant future. Currently we are on channel 52 analog at a tower site just north of Orange off Hwy 62, this will become our channel 36 digital (this was done recently to secure the channel). We will be installing a new higher power transmitter and antenna at the site to replace the 1K analog currently in use. At this time we plan to microwave our signal from our studio as this will overcome all our rain fade issues as well as any with bandwidth. I can't give you an exact date but studies are being done as we speak.

I appreciate your patience and loyalty . . .



Mark Ewing

 

[mastermesh]

That'll be a shame if it does happen...

 

[RidgeRunner]

Hmm, they must get some serious rain down south, b/c I dont seem to have any rain faid issues, in fact my dish is partially covered in snow and I still get a good signal, but who knows he's a chief engineer and I'm just a FTA hobbiest.

 

[Mr Tony]

Kinda weird he says channel 52 in the e-mail yet their analog signal is 64 but yeah that would suck. Any time a channel leaves its bad but we've heard before that channels are going to leave but haven't

 

[Mr Tony]

Hmm, they must get some serious rain down south, b/c I dont seem to have any rain faid issues, in fact my dish is partially covered in snow and I still get a good signal, but who knows he's a chief engineer and I'm just a FTA hobbiest.

I've seen rain fade there only a couple times. What are these cable companies using? a 36" dish?

 

[DiscoLoveGrapes]

I've seen rain fade there only a couple times. What are these cable companies using? a 36" dish?

I've seen rain fade on this, if they count "Only 74% during a storm that is tearing down trees" as rain fade.

 

[bidaw]

I've seen rain fade there only a couple times. What are these cable companies using? a 36" dish?

If that's the case...I can safely say - "My dish is bigger than theirs!!!"

 

[Mr Tony]

It just seems odd that they say cable companies are getting rain fade. For a while, I had a Phase II dish, which is 22x20 and was able to get KUIL at 88% on the Pansat. The 30” buries the needle at 99. Unless they’re talking the uplink which is possible (Equity has been prone to the same thing) but lets see what happens

I liked it when they had a secondary UPN affiliate because Smackdown was on at midnight Saturday night so if I missed it, I could always catch it on KUIL

 

[1inabillion]

I been a KUIL fan for a while now and never had rain fade issues. If KUIL goes black someday i would say its all about saving satellite uplink dollars

 

[RVD420]

Gotta love watching the Car dealer commericals on KUIL.


It 'aint easy being cheesy.

 

[Tron]

I hope they don't discontinue the Ku feed, as most have noted, its one of the most powerful signals up there. KUIL is important to me, living in nearby New Orleans it gives me alternative Fox programming advantages I won't go into on an open thread

I know a couple of chief engineers for stations in my area, and when we chat, they're always trash-talking Ku as a means of signal distribution

 

[digiblur]

I hope they don't discontinue the Ku feed, as most have noted, its one of the most powerful signals up there. KUIL is important to me, living in nearby New Orleans it gives me alternative Fox programming advantages I won't go into on an open thread

I know a couple of chief engineers for stations in my area, and when we chat, they're always trash-talking Ku as a means of signal distribution

It has its pro's and con's. The big negative is the rain fade isssue. Get a big enough dish and you're good to go.

Is "airtime" cheaper on the KU side than the C side?

 

[Tron]

Is "airtime" cheaper on the KU side than the C side?

Probably, I'll ask those guys. I know from the horse's mouth that rainfade was giving ABC26/WB38 fits last year

 

[digiblur]

Probably, I'll ask those guys. I know from the horse's mouth that rainfade was giving ABC26/WB38 fits last year

If I remember right, the signal strength was only so-so on that signal. KUIL blows your doors off burying the needle. I could only imagine what the signal would be with a 6 foot KU solid dish.

 

[Tron]

KUIL's strength (quality) is very interesting. At first, I attributed it to being in the strong area of the footprint, figuring that they had the Gulf Coast targeted since that's where KUIL is located. But it seems it blows the meter off of receivers all around the country

The fluctuating quality on the ABC26/WB38 mux caused them to resort to fiber instead of Ku. WB38 studios presently aren't even located in New Orleans, they are somewhere in Indiana

 

[Mr Tony]

KUIL's strength (quality) is very interesting. At first, I attributed it to being in the strong area of the footprint, figuring that they had the Gulf Coast targeted since that's where KUIL is located. But it seems it blows the meter off of receivers all around the country

blows the meter here in Minnesota on a 30"
Gets a 80+ on the Pansat with the Phase II

 

[iafirebuff]

93% on 80cm in Iowa.

 

[Tron]

80+ even on an 18" dish! I can't understand how they could complain about rainfade, unless as Iceberg mentioned earlier, its an uplink issue.

 

[N5XZS]

Here in New Mexico my meter pins at 100 and on cloudy days its still up at 94 to 98 on my 90 CM dish!

To me it's superstation clear channel, and I am guessing they are running 1 KW TPO "Transmitting Power Output" into uplink dish.

Take your best guess on how much power output TPO not ERP!

 

[texasclaw]

Strength

I get 98% on my Wineguard 30" and 95-99% on my 10' BUD. It would be a shame if KUIL goes away, then I would not have my beloved Dallas Cowboys on each week (Shreveport shows New Orleans Saints games when they coincide), which is the reason I got Ku in the first place.