However, when they rebuild, I have the impression they'll probably go digital only. There's no point in putting up an analog one that they'll have to take down in only a few months.

You are probably correct. If by some miracle they can salvage the antenna for the analog station then they could reuse it, but it isn't worth the cost of buying a new one unless they can get the insurance company to pay for it.

anyone still having the problem with pbs 33 VPT HD (black and picture on /off)even with signal stable over 80%??

J

It's been reported elsewhere that they changed something in their PSIP stream that made it incompatible with some tuners. They apparently are aware of it so it should be fixed soon. They had the same problem when they signed on in October.

It is carried on the channel 53 from Mt. Mansfield (which now re-maps as 3-1, 3-2, and 57-1).

Right now they seem to only be testing, alternating between test patterns and regular programming without audio.

I don't know how much WCAX is going to have to compress CBS-HD in order to fit them in, as their weather channel is still up.

I would have prefered if it would have been carried on WFFF though, since they already have an empty subchannel running and the bitrate for Fox-HD is controlled remotely by the Fox network, so there cannot be a loss of quality.

The problem with pbs 33 VPT HD was solve yesterday. (At least for me)

same here Kro,good job PBS

http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html



*It was a rough weather week all over the region, but no broadcast facility was hit worse than the 445-foot tower of WCFE-TV (Channel 57)/WCFE-DT (Channel 38) in NEW YORK's Adirondacks, on Lyon Mountain about 10 miles west of WCFE's city of license, Plattsburgh.

The tower, built in 1976, collapsed shortly after 7 on Wednesday morning (April 18), taking WCFE (known on-air as "Mountain Lake PBS") off the air just as the station was about to launch into its Art Auction, its biggest fundraiser of the year.

Early reports suggest that a combination of heavy icing and high winds brought the tower crashing down, damaging the transmitter building at the base of the tower as well.

WCFE had recently spent about $1.5 million to reinforce the tower and to build out its DTV signal, and the station says insurance won't cover the full amount of the rebuilding effort, particularly because of the remote Lyon Mountain location, more than 3600' above sea level and unreachable by car or truck.

(We'd never been up there ourselves, so we're grateful to fellow tower hunter Rick Lucas, who hiked up there a few years ago, for sharing his "before" pictures.)

To make matters worse, unlike many TV stations that are now connected by fiber or microwave to most of the cable and satellite companies in their viewing area, WCFE depended on its on-air signal to reach the bulk of its viewership across Lake Champlain in northern Vermont and across the border in Quebec.

At press time Sunday night, WCFE was being seen only on the Charter Cable system in Plattsburgh, which gets a direct feed from the station's studio; it's working on ways to restore the feed to the other systems while it works on rebuilding. And NERW wonders - with just 22 months remaining for analog television, will WCFE even bother to rebuild the Channel 57 signal that will go dark for good in February 2009, or will this be the cue for Mountain Lake to go DTV-only on 38?

As for the weight, the tower was brand new from two years ago and it was designed specifically for the two antennas.

From the link that alebowgm provided, it sounds like the tower wasn't new after all, but reinforced to handle the weight of both antennas. I guess someone miscalculated when figuring out how much reinforcing was needed.

Confirming Post # 164 PBS Plattsburg 57.1 is now transmitting piggyback on CBS ch53.3

53.3... which we cannot get from Ottawa. :(

-gmd

Well, you have WPBS/WNPI right?

WNPI does not have the PBS HD feed, just the Upconvert of their SD.

The problem is that low-band VHF travels too far for its own good.
Looks like you're not aware of the problems we're all having trying to pick up our ABC affiliate in Montreal. They are on VHF 13 which was "predicted" to travel further but in reality is unwatchable, unlike the other stations on UHF that are coming in loud and clear.

Looks like you're not aware of the problems we're all having trying to pick up our ABC affiliate in Montreal. They are on VHF 13 which was "predicted" to travel further but in reality is unwatchable, unlike the other stations on UHF that are coming in loud and clear.What is the effective radiated power of the VHF channel 13 station? Are they running on full power at the final antenna height or some interim simulcast arrangement? Does anyone have any information on potential adjacent channel interference from the sidebands of CFCF on channel 12?

WVNY says they are at full power (10kw) on their permanent location. The problem is not CFCF because the signal stays pretty much the same when CFCF goes off the air.

Foxfan WVNY-dt is running a directional antenna sending very little power north.

Yes I know that but WPTZ-14 has the same pattern and still comes in blazingly strong.

All these stations list Montreal in their station IDs, so they do intend on reaching them. The only problem is that WVNY (like most VHF stations) is over-estimating the reach of its VHF signal. "VHF travels further" is a MYTH!

Foxfan 10KW VHF vs 650KW UHF is no contest.They need 50KW or loose the directional transmitter to match.

Well, WFFF-43 is currently operating at only 18kw, yet still comes in strong.

It was the same situation with analog. WCAX-3 was at 38kw, but never came in clear with an outdoor antenna, even when CBFT-2 was off the air. The analog UHFs however came in fine even with just a loop used indoors.

The fact is that VHF is constantly overrated. Supposedly it "bends" more over the horizon, but here where we have line-of-sight, I have the impression that UHF hugs the ground while VHF just gets sent up and gets lost in space.

Well, WFFF-43 is currently operating at only 18kw, yet still comes in strong.
According to the FCC database, WFFF on channel 43 has an ERP of 18.8Kw with a non-directional antenna. The Fox station is directional with maximum power toward 130 degrees and very little to the north, around 1.5 Kw. CJOH Ottawa is co-channel on 13 as well. The lack of digital reception on channel 13 is no surprise at all and nothing to do with VHF versus UHF propagation.