WYOU/WBRE TV Central PA - Problems

[Radioguy41]

Here's a statement from them posted 16 hours ago on their Facebook page:

Update on our signal: Our engineering team has restored our over-the-air broadcast signal to full power. Viewers who receive our signal via antenna should rescan their TV's now.
We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Unfortunately I still can't get either channel. If you go to the Eyewitness News Facebook page and click on Comments for that statement it seems the majority of people still can't scan them in. Something's still not right.

https://www.facebook.com/eyewitnessnewstv/

 

[FTA4PA]

Here's a statement from them posted 16 hours ago on their Facebook page:


Unfortunately I still can't get either channel.

I guess you could contact their engineer and let them know they do not have the range they had before the change. Also anyone else in your area that you know that isn't getting it. They likely won't do anything for just one person but if enough get in touch they may.

 

[primestar31]

Wilkes Barre, PA - HDTV - Page 28 - AVS Forum | Home Theater Discussions And Reviews Read the last couple of posted comments.

Also, since they are HIGH-VHF, are you actually using a high-vhf antenna? A mudflap antenna isn't very good for VHF signals.

This one is good: https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/30-2476/deep-fringe-directional-antenna/dp/71Y5462

Here is it's little brother: https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/30-2475/fringe-directional-antenna-vhf/dp/48Y8141

 

[Tower Guy]

I guess either their signal is weaker or their coverage area has changed, whether intentional or not.

Apparently, it was a surprise that WBRE did not work properly into WYOU’s existing antenna. As a retired TV engineer, this is totally unexpected. The antenna should have easily accommodated the two stations.
I would guess that there is probably a peak power problem in the combiner. Note that when you combine two transmitters into a single antenna and feed line, the average power is doubled, but the peak power is quadrupled. The only component in these combiners that includes both channels simultaneously is called a hybrid. The hybrid may have been undersized or manufactured improperly.
If you are interested in the method to combine adjacent TV channels take a look at page 56 of 130 in this catalog.

https://www.kathreinusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/catalogo_vhf-uhf_150218_bassa.pdf

Page 57 shows a combiner rated at 5 KW per station. Page 58 has the same filters but uses a larger output hybrid rated at 10 KW per station. (WYOU’s transmitter should run 3.81 KW)

 

[FTA4PA]

Wilkes Barre, PA - HDTV - Page 28 - AVS Forum | Home Theater Discussions And Reviews Read the last couple of posted comments.

Also, since they are HIGH-VHF, are you actually using a high-vhf antenna? A mudflap antenna isn't very good for VHF signals.

This one is good: https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/30-2476/deep-fringe-directional-antenna/dp/71Y5462

Here is it's little brother: https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/30-2475/fringe-directional-antenna-vhf/dp/48Y8141

I'm using the 30-2476 myself, great antenna. Good info in that AVS Forum. From his signature he is using an old Radio Shack VU-190-XR antenna. I had one of those years back. It is a beast - something over 13 feet long - and should pick up signals from the moon. Maybe it is too good and is also picking up other stations with those rf frequencies and then the tuner can't lock either?

 

[Radioguy41]

Heh, I've locked as many as 73 channels but with the rain today can only lock 69.

 

[Radioguy41]

This is getting weird. While doing the rescans this morning here's what happened with the big Vizio. I did a fresh scan. No luck with 22 & 28. In an earlier post I mentioned that annoying station out of Phila (WMCN) that scans in and occupies 44.1 instead of the legit 44 (WVIA) out of SWB and it did it again this time. Here's the weird part, WVIA actually did scan in this time but at 21.6! What the !!?? With this messed up repack I'm becoming good friends with Dr Jim Beam!

 

[FTA4PA]

This is getting weird. While doing the rescans this morning here's what happened with the big Vizio. I did a fresh scan. No luck with 22 & 28. In an earlier post I mentioned that annoying station out of Phila (WMCN) that scans in and occupies 44.1 instead of the legit 44 (WVIA) out of SWB and it did it again this time. Here's the weird part, WVIA actually did scan in this time but at 21.6! What the !!?? With this messed up repack I'm becoming good friends with Dr Jim Beam!

View attachment 146267

Weird but kind of makes sense as WNEP 'hosts' WVIA and they are broadcasting on RF 21.

 

[Radioguy41]

So I rescanned this morning and lo & behold I locked 28.1 (but not 22). Yowza, I thought, until I turned to it and discovered a real surprise, it was actually MPT PBS. Take a guess? Talk about your freaky atmospheric anomalies, MPT is Maryland Public Television. Now that is one heckuva bounce to reach from Maryland to NEPA and I must have hit it just right because 5 minutes later it faded out. Chalk one up on the DX board.

 

[FTA4PA]

So I rescanned this morning and lo & behold I locked 28.1 (but not 22). Yowza, I thought, until I turned to it and discovered a real surprise, it was actually MPT PBS. Take a guess? Talk about your freaky atmospheric anomalies, MPT is Maryland Public Television. Now that is one heckuva bounce to reach from Maryland to NEPA and I must have hit it just right because 5 minutes later it faded out. Chalk one up on the DX board.

I should have kept my VU-190-XR but didn't think there would be much use for it once analog was gone. Seems you can still get some surprises with digital and I've seen claims that the ATSC 3.0 signal will be much easier to receive. Would be fun to see what comes in after all the changes are done.

 

[Radioguy41]

Here's what the VU-190-XR and a mast mounted pre-amp can get you:

 

[Radioguy41]

Still can't scan them in. Either they really screwed this up or they're oblivious to the problem but any way you look at it they've lost viewers and that's never a good thing.

 

[FTA4PA]

Still can't scan them in. Either they really screwed this up or they're oblivious to the problem but any way you look at it they've lost viewers and that's never a good thing.

We are still getting them fine here ever since they fixed whatever was causing them to break up so horribly. Maybe try contacting the station engineer. At least they would know they aren't covering an area they did before. You might not get anywhere but it couldn't hurt.

 

[Radioguy41]

They have a blurb on the home page saying they know there's a problem and are working on it. My question would be, seriously, more than 3 weeks and you still haven't figured it out? Maybe it's time to bring in the pros since it's obvious the locals are stumped. Unless a tower falls down or a transmitter explodes there's no excuse for a stations signal to be this screwed up for this long and not just one channel but two.

Information on our broadcast signal

 

[FTA4PA]

They have a blurb on the home page saying they know there's a problem and are working on it. My question would be, seriously, more than 3 weeks and you still haven't figured it out? Maybe it's time to bring in the pros since it's obvious the locals are stumped. Unless a tower falls down or a transmitter explodes there's no excuse for a stations signal to be this screwed up for this long and not just one channel but two.

Information on our broadcast signal

Guess there is still some hope it will get straightened out then. We shall see.

 

[Trip]

If it turns out that they need to replace the combiner outright, the lead time on new combiners is something like 6-8 weeks at minimum. In Wilmington NC, they were supposed to move in Phase 5 (mid-September) but the new combiner failed entirely. They didn't get the [second] new combiner in place and tested and the stations transitioned to their new channels on it until the end of Phase 7 (mid-January).

- Trip

 

[Radioguy41]

This is the response from the asst engineer.

Hello,

We still have some viewers experiencing over the air reception issues and are still working on our transmission system.

Thank you for the report.

 

[FTA4PA]

This is the response from the asst engineer.

I guess it's just a game of wait and see then.

 

[Jim5506]

Translation - "We don't have any idea what we are doing, we just keep hoping that tomorrow it will work - HEY!! DON'T PUSH THAT RED BUTTON!!."

 

[Radioguy41]

Still no joy. Nexstar issued this statement on August 6th:

For our viewers who were not able to tune in WBRE or WYOU after rescanning your antenna in July, our engineering team is working on issues at our transmitter site that is preventing some viewers from receiving our signal. We apologize for the inconvenience. Our team is working to find a solution to restore our signal for all our viewers as soon as possible.