CBS multicasting?

[Dknow]

This morning I picked up some strange channels. I noticed I had a signal on channels 15, 17, 23, and 31 this morning. When I added 23 my receiver said "FOUND 24-2,24-3,24-4. What the hell?!?! Was I picking up another regions stations? Channel 17 came up as 18-1 and the others were too weak to be added. This evening they are gone. Has anyone else experienced this?

[teampozer]

Digital 17 is WB-18 WKCF-Orlando. That explains 18-1. You were also probably picking up digital 23, WMFE-Orlando (PBS) which is analog 24. It then remapped to the 24-1, 24-2, 24-3 that you say.

[Dknow]

Well that makes sense. What is really should be embarassing for this market is that I had a stronger signal from Orlando's WB thank I do from Tampa's. That is sad! Have you ever picked these stations up also?

[teampozer]

Oh yeah!!! When the weather is "right", I get WB-18 before any of the others followed by WFTV-9 and WRDU-27. And you're right, I've checked the signal levels too.... WB-18 is usually stronger than WB-38. I NEVER pull in WTTA at more than 30%. I know Sinclair (the owner/manager) is moving on upping the power on their digital signals so I'm hoping they'll complete this soon. This low power stuff from WB-38 is getting very old. It's the only LOCAL station I still watch off my DirecTV.

[Dknow]

Well my hypothesis has become reality. I made Orlando my secondary local station market on my directv setup screen which makes it possible to not have to "add" stations. This way they are already added. On rainy nights I pick up 9-1,9-2(ABC) 6-1,6-2(CBS) 18-1(WB) 65-1(UPN) and 27-1(IND) at signal strengths that range from 30-65%. On nights where there are no t-storms in the area (like tonight), I don't pick up even a blip of signal off any of those channels. Is that weird or what? Is the density of the thunderstorm clouds somehow giving the signal a boost? Am I the only one experiencing this?

[jaymer]

thx for adding this about the clouds,
i'll try to tune to Orlando WB next time its tossin' down.
In the past, I've had no luck even with a 25ft pole and a Yagi,
but unsure if it was a 'bad weather' night.

jaymer...

[Dknow]

Well Jaymer, I'm pulling in a 72% signal on digital channel 39 (Orlando's ABC virtual 9-1,9-2). I'm watching their late news. The only constant is that it did rain hard today in both areas. If you're online right now, give it a shot.

[OccamMD]

Maybe your getting atmospheric reflections due to the density?

[Dknow]

You know Ocean I think you may be right. As far as I can tell, each station concentrates their broadcast toward their DMA. What I mean is the transmitters aren't in the center of their DMA radius. For example our towers are in Riverview (all except for CBS but since it is right on the water it still fits my theory) and I believe that the signal is concentrated west. The reason I think this is because the Orlando/Daytona DMA has their towers situated WEST of Orlando which would make absolutely no sense if they were to cover Daytona which is as far east as you can go. I think they do this to keep adjacent DMAs "back to back" so they can better separate their broadcast areas. In conclusion, I think that the storms reflect the Orlando signals westward and then the density of the clouds helps carry the signal here. If the signal was consistent 360 degress around the transmitter I think we'd get their signal as good as Daytona does. Anyhow, it sounds good to me. I know that soundwaves carry 300% better underwater than in dry air so why wouldn't radiowaves travel better in gaseous water? Anyone want to put in their two cents? What do you think about this theory?

[emmis]

I live in LOL and just switched from a 6' yagi to the Wineguard squareshooter. I got every station on my Sony hd-100 with 90-95% signal on the yagi and have dropped to 85-95% on the squareshooter.

After the squareshooter, I noticed that ABC (28.1) was a bit pixelated and would experience a loss of signal occaisonally but would stay up and viewable for the most part. Now that the clouds have cleared since yesterday, I have lost the ABC signal entirely..

Is ABC pointed differently or is it lower power than the other transmitters in the cluster?

[Dknow]

ABC puts out about the same wattage as Fox and NBC. I notice that I experience fallouts with ABC when they BOOST their power (for example during the Stanley Cup) I know this because I have several antennas and when it falls out I would switch to an antenna that wouldn't pick up ABC in the daytime (lowpowertime) and the World Champion BOLTS would come in perfect. It must be some sort of ghosting effect. Do you constantly pick up ABC during the daytime? What Tampa channels are you getting? What Orlando channels are you getting?

[emmis]

This morning, with nay a cloud in the sky, I am seeing the old ABC signal habits again--85-90% signal with a few dropouts. At least I am getting a signal as compared to last night with I received nothing.

I get ABC regulalry throughout the day. I get 3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 10.1, 13.1, 28.1, 32.1, 44.1, 66.1,2,3,4. I dont get 38.1 since I switched to the SS and I don't get any Orlando stations--probably because I've never tried.

What website tells you what stations are broadcast from each location with their power output?

[Dknow]

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx

[teampozer]

Sounds like you guys got way too much happening in your setups. Remember, NBC-8 and FOX-13 digitals are on VHF and ABC-28 and all the others are on UHF. ABC-28's broadcast levels are about the same as all the others (except WB-38). Since they all broadcast from the same antenna farm, if you get one, you should get em all. Ofcourse, CBS-10 is outta Pasco but since it sounds like you're pretty close to them that's not an issue. I'd switch back to you other antenna.... I think you may have some mutipath issues or something. I guess I've gotta wonder why you switched to begin with. 80-90% signals are excellent. As long as you've got at least a 70%, you're probably good. Thie only way your gonna pull close to 100 is if you've got a clear line of sight and or right up on the antenna. Digital signals are gonna look the same at 75% or 95%.

[teampozer]

One more thing.... what's all this talk about daytime, nighttime, low power and so forth. No one is changing power or at least going up and down over FCC levels. The only station that is operating at an appoved lower power setting is WTTA, Channel 38. Once I got my setup right, I haven't had a blip in 10 months. I don't know exactly what your setups look like but I can tell you from experience that the more antennas and wires you add will make a problem worse. Here's the easy Tampa Bay antenna solution: 1 combo VHF/UHF pointed at Riverview, 1 UHF Yagi with a Channel 24 Jointenna pointed at Holiday, and 1 amplifier if you need it. It's as simple as that.

[Dknow]

I so wish that was true!

[emmis]

hmm.. What would cause my ABC signal to fluctuate so much? It goes from 90% to 50% to 90% to 0% to 90% to 0% . All this is happening when the other stations stay constant with a 90% + signal--no fluctuations.

:?: