Pittsburgh-West (including Wheeling/Steubenville) Voomers

[zombie]

Zombie, about where are you located and what kind of antenna are you using. Ch.4 used to be a problem for almost everyone, but they are now at maximum power. Chs. 2,11,22,53 are all on the North Side, 13,16 in Oakland, and 4,40 are way to the south near Westmorland County.

I'm over near kennywood. I'm not that far from channel 4 according to antennaweb (only 6.8miles away) I should pick it up. The installer put everything on my porch roof because thats where my directv stuff is. He tried the upgrade antenna they sent, which picked up channel 4 very well but blew away a few others.

I'm wondering that if he had mounted the antenna on the roof if it would pick up the signal better.. I've considered moving it myself, but it was put really close to my power lines and like another poster said I'm allergic to being electrocuted.

As for channel 22, I'm stumped. Unless they keep powering up and down the signal it makes no sense. 53 is locked at 99 signal and they are located in the same spot.

 

[bryan27]

Ah, this may be your problem. Did the installer install the antenna with a pre-amp? What you are experienceing sounds a lot like multipath. In the analog world it would be ghosting.

You can test to see if multipath is your problem by going to the installers menu, channel tuning and checking the signal for ch.51 and ch.42. If the signal levels on one or both channels fluctuates way up and down then it is most likely a multipath problem.

Depending on what antenna you were installed with you could try removing the pre-amp which would help prevent the multipath signals from being so much stronger that it messes with the main signal you are trying to receive.

Another problem it could be is FM interference. Are there any FM stations transmitting close by? If so you might need to install an FM trap very close to the antenna. FM interference is a problem I experience, without a trap I can only receive 2,11,53 with the trap in I get everything.

For urban areas near towers I strongly recomend an FM trap if you appear to need one or not. Unlike analog where you can see FM interference on the screen, and even multipath on digital you can't see what is the problem. Even if the interference or multipath is small and not perceevable on analog that little bit will wipe put a digital channel.

BTW FM Traps at Radio Shack are really cheap, about 5 bucks. You would want one that is for external use and mount it near the antenna. I'm not sure what set up you have, but if the antenna coax is comming in a separate line you can unhook the coax from the grounding block and put the trap there if you can't or are afraid to mount it close to the antenna.

 

[zombie]

He installed the sensor II. Not sure if it has an amp or not, but i believe it does. He only ran a single coax (to each tv) and used the diplexer on the back of the box.

I don't have a signal jump/drop on this one (if i watch the signal), when he had the omni directional radio shack thing up there we saw that on almost every channel.

I'm very close to the county airport (a 2 to 3 miles by air), could that be causing the interference?

I'm willing to do/spend what it takes to get the signals coming in, but like I said the 22 seems to work different days and be horrible others which to me makes no sense.. The installer told me hardly anyone gets 22, I don't even think he checked it while he was here. He seemed to think they were not at full power yet.

 

[bryan27]

Ok, yep you have an amp and I don't think the amp comes out on the sensor. Airports will kill a signal. Yes, an airport is a massive interference generator and will cause massive amounts of multipath. Over in Imperial it is almost impossible to receive television because of Pit International.

I never liked diplexing the signal as it creates a host of problems. It is much better to feed the satellite and antenna with separate coax. I can understand VOOM's reasons for using them as people prefer 1 line and if you are using more than one receiver you have to run two lines to every TV.

Let's try something. Do you have a pair of rabbit ears laying around? If so, take the diplexer off the VOOM STB and connect the rabit ears directly into the 8VSB module. Then look at the signal strength of the channels with just the rabbit ears. If you now see signal then the amplified sensor is overloading the signal. I want to rule this out first. If this is the case you would need to try an unamplified antenna.


We will get you squared away

 

[zombie]

I don't have any antennas, but I need to run by BB & radioshack this week anyway. Any suggestions on what to pick up for testing?

A a different note 22 seems to be working every time I check it now. Not sure whats going on with that. I'll check it again tonight and keep an eye on it..

 

[bryan27]

I would say the
Cat# 930-0998 would be good for testing and is $14.99. It is 300Ohm so you'll need an adapter for 75Ohm
Cat# 15-1296 it is $4.99. If you ever get a portable TV and don't want a 3rd VOOM receiver you'll be all set.

The FM trap I was talking about and the one that I use is Cat#15-577 and it is $5.99

Most of the people at Radio Shack are clueless so I have gotten in the habit of taking a list of catalog numbers rather than try to explain what it is I need.

 

[bryan27]

FCC to act on WNPA's channel assignment

Finally nothing like waiting for action for almost a decade They probably started this action because WNPA said it couldn't make a channel choice when their channel request was still outstanding.

Anyway the FCC also made a mistake by allocating WNPA's digital channel to Johnstown and not Jeanette The FCC has now proposed to allocate ch.49 to Jeanette and has opened the proposal for comment. The comment period is only for those wishing to suggest an alternative channel instead of 49. Comments will be completed by April 19th, and a formal decision to allocated 49 to Jeanette in May with approval of WNPA's application before the end of summer if not sooner.

Attached is a quick coverage area map using what WNPA will be granted to use (40.29.34NL 79.46.54WL, 437Kw ERP, 301m HAAT). An antenna hasn't been chosen so the map shows an onmidirectional antenna with the 48dBu City Grade and 41dBu Noise Limited Contours.

 

[zombie]

I would say the
Cat# 930-0998 would be good for testing and is $14.99. It is 300Ohm so you'll need an adapter for 75Ohm
Cat# 15-1296 it is $4.99. If you ever get a portable TV and don't want a 3rd VOOM receiver you'll be all set.

The FM trap I was talking about and the one that I use is Cat#15-577 and it is $5.99

Most of the people at Radio Shack are clueless so I have gotten in the habit of taking a list of catalog numbers rather than try to explain what it is I need.

Radio shack has the antenna listed as special order, I'll try the store anyway.. Any other suggestions?

BTW 22 went off again.. I checked the signal and noticed it was down around 64, then while i was scratching my head it jumped back to 96, I put it on for about 20 minutes and it went off again..

 

[zombie]

bryan27,

Radio shack don't stock that antenna and tried to sell me a $50 one. I told them it was just for testing and explained my problem. Then they went into a bunch of stuff about how it sounds like it's not pointed right and tried to sell me a rotor. I told them I would play with the antenna itself and see what I could do.. Since it appears that 22 is one degree off of 53 (according to antenna web), maybe I could nudge the antenna and make the difference..

What do you think?

On the upside since its on my porch roof, I can see a tv through the window and check all the channels easy enough. If i can just stay away from the power lines i'll try it..

 

[bryan27]

Sure, go for it. Be careful though.One degree isn't anything, antennas aren't that directional. Let me know what you find.

It figures Radio Shack tried to sell you something else.

 

[timjf]

DMA received

I have a bunch of new locals in the PG - can't tune in a single one of them though. Pretty much as I expected! Oh well...

 

[bryan27]

Sorry to hear that Tim, when WTOV completes it's upgrade it will cover all of Pittsburgh and should be easily received.

I do notice a number of mistakes in the new guide.

WTOV is listed on 57, it sends PSIP data so I get it listed as 9-1 with no info and 57-1 with guide data. No really major I just hide 9-1 and watch 57-1. Since there is also a 9-2 that shows radar it does make the guide look weird to have 9-2 out there by itself.

I can typically receive WNEO, WYTV, and WFMJ when I point the antenna in that direction, but I figure why bother those stations aren't all that important Unless you live in Weirton, Stubenville, or East Liverpool where it is the local PBS station.

I have no idea why they added WPSX that station is in Clearfield and nowhere near the Pittsburgh DMA. That would be like adding Erie to the PG

WJAC is a surprise since it's power is so low I doupt many in Johnstown can receive it.

Still missing are WQEX and WNPB. I thought those would have been added for sure since both are in the Pittsburgh Market. Anyway I'll let Ilya know we got the new PG and the little mistakes I mentioned.

 

[zombie]

Sure, go for it. Be careful though.One degree isn't anything, antennas aren't that directional. Let me know what you find.

It figures Radio Shack tried to sell you something else.

I had voom send out an installer. He came out yesterday and tried to put up a second antenna to pull in channel 4 since its in the opposite direction from me than all the others.

Seemed like it was working until we noticed there seemed to be a problem with channel 11. He got voom to ok a rotor after he already installed it. Now I get all the locals I expect and I only need to use the rotor if I want to watch channel 4.

 

[bryan27]

Cool, what kind of antenna did he put up? I've never had much luck with rotors. They end up burning up becase I use far to big of an antenna, lightning fries them or the motor freezes up from rust.

 

[Scotty]

I beleive that all the channels from the super dma are now appearing in my local channles screen. Not receiving any of the newly added channels except 16(26) every now and then.

 

[zombie]

Cool, what kind of antenna did he put up? I've never had much luck with rotors. They end up burning up becase I use far to big of an antenna, lightning fries them or the motor freezes up from rust.

Same antenna (winegard) it just needed to be able to move the other direction.

Are you having any problems with FOX 53? 2 days ago the signal seemed to take a dive.

 

[bryan27]

I haven't noticed, but this evening WPGH is at 99. I've also noticed that VOOM is working on the channel map as listings for 22-2 are now up, not that they are different from 22-1.

 

[Scotty]

almost all my channels call letters on sub 1 have changed to d1 suffix. 22 went to d1 and d2 instead of hd and sd, 53 still calls hd and sd but changed slightly to hd1 and -sd. I see the new guide info on 22-2 as well. Is that the stations, or a the voom box doing that?

 

[bryan27]

That's a good question. I don't know. I assume the VOOM box can only receive guide data from the satellite. If it came from the stations you would think 53-2 would have data too.

 

[timjf]

WQED PG on 13-2 now...

...where the actual program lives. Better late than never I suppose.