Repack dates for Flint-Saginaw-Bay City Michigan DMA

[primestar31]

I've got this:

Update on WAQP:

It won't be back up to full power until AFTER the revised antenna is installed.

WAQP-TV, SAGINAW, MICHIGAN
REQUEST FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO COMPLETE TRANSITION

WAQP-TV, Saginaw, Michigan is a Phase 3 station scheduled to transition on June 21,
2019. TCT was recently notified that its antenna will not be available until August 1, 2019, at the
earliest. See the attached letter from Electronics Research, Inc.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...76432cf00f29&usg=AOvVaw0iOuY5E8xQFD97NdXQ3uI3

Bill Harland
Vice President of Marketing
EMAIL: bharland@eriinc.com
TEL: +1 (812) 925-6000 x. 214
Corporate:
7777 Gardner Road
Chandler, Indiana 47610-9219
USA
TEL: +1 (812) 925-6000
FAX: +1 (812) 925-4030
June 17, 2019
Mr. Mike Daly
Vice President - Legal and Regulatory Affairs
Mr. Bruce Hart
Vice President of Engineering
mjd@tct.tv
brh1@tct.tv
TCT Network
PO Box 1010
Marion, IL 62959
REF: WAQP (DT), FCC Facility ID 67792 ERI Sales Order 36728
Dear Mr. Daly and Mr. Hart:
Electronics Research, Inc. (“ERI”) has been diligently working to fulfill the equipment
and services included on ERI Sales Order Number 36728, placed on your behalf by
DTVPros.
The cardioid azimuth pattern specified by WAQP’s FCC Construction Permit,
requires a large mast pipe (“outer conductor”) in order to achieve the customer
requested pattern without external pattern shapers (grids). The larger outer conductor
was chosen to avoid external pattern shapers outside of the radome which would
create icing and wind load problems. However, the larger outer also resulted in an
unwanted mode at the channel frequency (RF Channel 25) which wasn’t predicted by
design software or the original physical model testing. This mode issue was
discovered after the antenna was assembled for tuning.
Additional testing has indicated that sleeving the mast pipe (“outer conductor”) to
decrease the inside diameter and eliminate the mode conditions. The parts required
are currently being made for the inner sleeve and we anticipate returning to final
assembly within one week to 10 days. Without any further issues we should have a
finished and tested antenna by approximately August 1st,2019.
The Key activity dates for your order are:
Order Received 10/15/2018
Contract Review and Order Release to Engineering 10/31/2018
Model Results Released to Design 1/10/2019
Design Release Components 1/25/2019
Design Release Weldments 2/7/2019
Assembly Start 5/2/2019
Tuning / Test Start (est.) 5/10/2019
Sincerely,
ELECTRONICS RESEARCH, INC.
2
Bill Harland
Vice President of Marketing

 

[Trip]

This is my source: Licensing and Management System

- Trip

 

[primestar31]

This is my source: Licensing and Management System

- Trip

Sorry, I don't believe it. There's NO WAY they are running at full power as of yet. Their tower is right next to WSMH-66, (RF16) which still comes in perfect, and also WJRT-12 (RF12) which also comes in perfect.

WAQP-49 used to come in perfect, but doesn't any longer. IMO, they have not jacked up their signal from the interim 16~ whatever KW they were running at with the temp. antenna. If they were, I'd be receiving them solid.

 

[Trip]

Fair enough. I assume these things are filed by an attorney far away, which is why I try to verify.

Let me know what you observe.

- Trip

 

[primestar31]

I just sent them another PM via Facebook asking if their power has been increased as of yet since I heard the new fixed repack antenna was installed yesterday, and explaining that I can still basically no longer receive them since repack. They aren't usually very responsive, so let's see if I can get an answer. If so, I'll share it here.

 

[primestar31]

Here you go Trip, I got a timely answer this time!

Also, I went up on the roof, and did a little re-config of my antenna system. I was able to remove my formerly dedicated to WBSF-46 HDB91x antenna completely, along with the Jan Jenca Jointenna, since they are now broadcasting from WEYI's tower and cranked up their signal.

I then slightly turned the "all channel but WBSF" HDB91x (which now also includes WBSF) to 1/2 the way in-between WEYI and WAQP/WSMH towers (it was pointing directly at WEYI before). I got WAQP up to a fairly solid 30%~, without affecting my other stations adversely, in fact all the rest come in solid at an average of 76%~ or more, even though WNEM and WDCQ are way off to the North in Azimuth. WSMH at the same time, is coming in at 78%, and they are right next to WAQP.

I'm in a unique situation where nearly ALL my local towers are in an arc almost exactly or close to about 35 miles away.

WJRT-12 is on it's own dedicated Y10-7-13 antenna, and bypasses the Kitztech KT-200 preamp, but has an added FM filter (older KT-200, before they added an FM filter) I use a Radio Shack UVSJ, so the Kitztech can get power through the UHF side.

 

[primestar31]

Trip, they installed the new-'new' (repaired/rebuilt) 70' repack antenna on top of WAQP's 1,000' tower the other day using a sky-crane helicopter. They showed a couple minute video of them doing it on TCT Today show last night. It was pretty cool. There were men up there that connected the antenna to the helicopter, then released the bolts. Then bolted down the new antenna when it was placed.

I had no idea one of these antennas all by itself could be 70' tall!

They have NOT turned the power up as of yet (Saturday 8/3 evening), so likely are still using the interim 16kw antenna at the lower tower level.

 

[Trip]

Great! They probably need to do other things like install transmission line and whatnot before they can go live with it. But that's great news.

- Trip

 

[primestar31]

Great! They probably need to do other things like install transmission line and whatnot before they can go live with it. But that's great news.

- Trip

They haven't announced it so far as I can see, but they are finally running at FULL power as of this morning, 8/9/2019.

 

[primestar31]

WJRT 12 Flint/Bay City/Saginaw

Now has 5 channels.

12.1 ABC
12.2 MeTV
12.3 WeatherNation
12.4 Start TV (just added)
12.5 Heroes & Icons (just added)

I've submitted a lineup change to Tivo, so we'd get proper guide data.

Also, two new low power stations have lit up, and I can receive them at my location:

25.1 (17) WFFC-LD Azteca America?
25.2 (17) WFFC-LD Infomercials?
25.3 (17) WFFC-LD Informercials?
(They come in on the same virtual channels (25) as the WEYI group for some reason!)

38.1 (19) WFKB-LD Azteca America?
38.2 (19) WFKB-LD Infomercials?
38.3 (19) WFKB-LD Infomercials?
38.4 (19) WFKB-LD (blank ATM)

I can't find much on those channels as of yet, so anybody please feel free to chip in any info you come across for them.

Also, WEYI-TV 25.4 is said to lite up a channel called "DABL" sometime in the very near future.

 

[primestar31]

WEYI 25.4 will light up DABL network on October 14th.

 

[primestar31]

New LP channel WFKB has changed it's lineup of stations. It's now worth watching!

WFKB-LD MIDLAND, MI

38-1 Grit

38-2 Court TV Mystery

38-3 Laff

38-4 Get Tv

Crap, I don't think it's broadcasting a TSID. If that's true, then I can't scan it in or record it with my Tivo Roamio. It scans in on my tv set just fine. But it won't scan in on my Tivo. I submitted a Tivo line-up change for it, but with no TSID, they probably can't set it up...

Trip, is there anything you can do through contacts to get a TSID assigned to them? I have no contact information to contact a station engineer and ask if they can do anything.

 

[Tower Guy]

To obtain a TSID for a LPTV station, the licensee would send an email to ntam@fcc.gov.

More info here; https://nab.org/xert/scitech/pdfs/tv040609.pdf

 

[primestar31]

Oh, and WFFC-LD is broadcasting on RF17 as you show on RabbitEars, but it's virtual channel comes up as 25, which is the same as our local Class A station WEYI. Stupid, but it's true.

Also, WCMU-TV has always shown on virtual channel 14. It's never, ever been on virtual 26 as per your listing.

One more: W24DL-D shows as virtual channel 24. It's never, ever been on virtual 42 as per your listing.

 

[Trip]

Nai Tam retired years ago. Someone else handles it now. The HC2 folks know who to contact at the FCC about TSID assignments, so I assume such a request will be forthcoming if it hasn't already been made.

I've been trying to get the WFFC-LD virtual channel fixed. I've listed it as non-conflicting in the hopes it becomes true soon.

Ack! I knew that about WCMU. Fixed. Wonder how it got that way.

And for W24DL-D, 3ABN was historically pretty good about using analog channels for PSIP. Is there any PSIP at all, or is it actually mapping to 24-1?

- Trip

 

[primestar31]

There's no PSIP data for W24DL-D, they are apparently directly mapping to 24-1, down the line 24.x for their sub channels.

Here's hoping they get WFFC-LD fixed soon, I know it's confused some people on Avs Forum, but my LG tv set is smart enough to handle both them and WEYI, even though they are both on the same virtual channel. However I've heard some devices can not handle that situation.

As for WFKB-LD, I've now found an email for a Kurt Hanson through LinkedIn who shows as their technical rep, and I sent him an email explaining the situation, who I was, and all info they hopefully need to get a TSID and set it up so Tivo's can record their channels. I also sent in a lineup request change to Tivo for them, but not sure if Tivo can do anything before a TSID is assigned. To my knowledge, they MUST have one to map their guide data, since Tivo doesn't use PSIP data in their system.

 

[primestar31]

Trip, I just got an email reply from the one I sent to Kurt Hanson:

"TSID is set to 0001 on this station."

Does this make sense to you?

 

[Trip]

Yes, it's the default value for stations that don't have a TSID.

- Trip

 

[primestar31]

Trip Ok, I emailed him back asking if one has been applied for, and he replied:

"A unique identifier is in process".

So, I'll take that to mean exactly what it says, and hope it gets done soon.

 

[primestar31]

Well, I put in a Tivo Line-up change for WFKB-LD and it's sub-channels way back on October 12th, and they still don't have it done! I did receive a follow-up email on October 22 saying they needed more time, but I've heard nothing since then. If I look up my support cases, it simple says: "Escalated" for this one.

I sent an email 4 days ago asking if there's anything they can update me with, and haven't received any reply.