Am I the ONLY one that affected more negatively the positively by this??

Buffalo has always been near-100% for me, and suddenly it's not.

Am I the ONLY one that affected more negatively the positively by this??

Buffalo has always been near-100% for me, and suddenly it's not.

The Tropo curse is upon us for the summer. Tropo for me is a case of the unreliable messing up the reliable.:mad:

Hey everybody,

The Summer's hot, but the tropo is even HOTTER! Geez....Before I left for work in the afternoon, I noticed Rochester was starting to come in. Then when I got home at 11pm the tropo wave was unleashed! I was blown away by what came in! Here's what I had:

- All Rochester, NY digitals
- Syracuse, NY's WSYR (RF17) and WSPX (RF15) and I *finally* got a picture with WSPX's elusive call letters that only pop up in tiny print at the top of each hour!
- Utica, NY's WKTV (RF29) and WUTR (RF30)
- Watertown, NY's WWTI (RF21) and the biggest surprise of the night WWNY (RF7) which came in over WNGS! I got some great pics of their Fox subchannel WNYF-SD!

The funny part was that my non-tropo loving friend (who lives in the amazing downtown Toronto apartment on the 27th floor facing Lake Ontario.) Actually called me in the middle of my Markham receptionfest to tell me that *he* was getting all the Upstate NY tropo. Even more shocking he got Syracuse's WSTM on RF24 through CBLFT digital and he's very close to the CN Tower. (I was squealing and ordering him to take pics!) He also got Utica's WFXV on RF27, which I can never get due to Global Peterborough's analog transmitter.

@HWP - Glad you got to see WKTV! It's one of my fav tropo stations!

@bigcam406 - You have a great location for sneaking Syracuse digital stations over Toronto analogs! WSYT is a great catch with TVO analog still on air!

Now things seems to have slowed down, but it was intense while it lasted! Keep up the great tropo'ing everyone! :)

thanks Garth,your location rocks as well.:)

The Tropo curse is upon us for the summer. Tropo for me is a case of the unreliable messing up the reliable.:mad:

MY TV can still pull in all the Buffalo stations + some Rochester, but my HTPC can only get one. The HTPC is basically all that we use though.

So, this tropo has highlighted just how poor the HVR1650 in my HTPC has become over the years. Time for an upgrade, which I'd planned on anyway.

It seems a little odd to be unhappy when others are practically jumping for joy.:rolleyes:

Am I the ONLY one that affected more negatively the positively by this??

Buffalo has always been near-100% for me, and suddenly it's not.
Post-Sept there should be less negative and more positive as the airwaves get a dose of decongestant ;)

lol,thats one way of putting it:D

Post-Sept there should be less negative and more positive as the airwaves get a dose of decongestant ;)

You know, I was going to ask if the Buffalo signals were weaker - or - just being interfered with by similar frequencies from far off places.

So you are inferring the latter, or an I reading to much into that?

EDIT: Buffalo stations have returned to pretty-much normal for me, finally.

I don't believe that in the post transition period, that these tropo co-channel issues caused by tropo having same/similar freq's will improve. co-channels will either over power one or the other source, or they will simply cancel each other out as being scrambled program content. Some tuners can jump/add on extra .x's to accomodate similar PSIP channel usage, but I don't believe that the same can be done with the real RF channel usage.

Anyone have any thoughts on how a tuner could possibly control or identify the origin and content of RF sources in order to keep multiple incoming co-channels separated for simultaneous viewing? Would it be possible for a broadcasters to encode their 'program stream' and a tuner to decode individual program content within any given shared [co-channel] frequency?

An update for you guys...

I lost the three ION channels and never got them back. No biggie.

I'm sure the ridiculously humid weather might attribute to this but I now get CHCH-DT perfectly and CTS-HD pretty well. All the Canadian channels come in strong now, including CITY-HD and the OMNIs.

During the day and at night, I can pick up all the Buffalo channels very well but at prime time, they begin to struggle. For two straight nights, WUTV was having problems between 20:30-22:00 and the other major Buffalo networks were strong. Last night between the same times, WUTV was strong BUT this time, I was having problems with WGRZ, WIVB and WKBW.

Any idea why this happens to the Buffalo channels during prime time?

Typically its less tropo because the temperature is dropping off, but right now it could honestly be more. As we said in the past, you are going to have trouble with the Buffalo stations at your location with an indoor antenna.

Could it be done? Sure! But it means there would have to be a list kept of all the channels/call letters and what area they are in. Don't see it happening.

Since digital signals don't bleed the way that analog signals do, there should be some improvement.

After a new scan, I can now pick up 21-1 WXXI-HD, 21-2 WXXI-W and 21-3 WXXI-C. I can also get 8-1 WROC-TV and the three ION channels again. Also, I can pick up 16-7 which has just audio and no video. Radio station?

How did I get these channels you ask besides the help of tropo? Well currently the TV is placed on the South-West corner of the room for aesthetic reasons (not my choice) so I am forced to point my antenna to the South-East part of the window. During my latest scan, I literally held my antenna up as steady as possible and pointed it to the South-West. Somehow, when I put the antenna back to its original position, I can still hang on to the stations. I can probably thank tropo for that.

The point of this post is to mention that when I hold up my antenna at ridiculous positions during a scan, I can get a lot more channels. If only I were able to put the TV at the other side of the room and have tropo last for 12 months a year, I'd be laughing.

16.7 would be WXXI-AM 1370

All I can say is WOW this morning. Started off with WCAX, Burlington, VT, and WPTZ from Plattsburg, NY, both off of Mt. Mansfield. Then came the Albany stations WRGB, WCWN, WMHT, WTEN and WNYT. For the topper, was WCDC from Adams Mass. It's part of the Albany DMA but the transmitter is in Massachusetts. First Mass. channel that I've been able to receive. Still scanning.........

On some nights you should also be able to get more Rochester and Syracuse channels, though Rochester is easier. I have the most trouble with FOX Buffalo and NBC Buffalo (though most nights and early mornings I get NBC), and I only get 4 Canadian digital channels (CBC, CTV, Omni 2 and CBC French).

Thanks to tropo, I watched the following channels with an Eastern view from the Yonge and Sheppard area using a cheap indoor antenna and a long cable (moving my antenna from one side to another), so on the right night/early morning, you might also be able to watch:

2-1 WKTV NBC Utica New York (UHF 29)
2-2 WKTV The CW

3-1 WSTM NBC Syracuse (UHF 54)
3-2 WSTQ The CW
3-3 CNY Weather station for Central New York

5-1 WTVH CBS Syracuse (UHF 47, but only got it scanned in with no picture)

9-1 WSYR ABC (UHF 17)
9-2 Independent various programming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSYR-TV

10-1 WHEC NBC Rochester (UHF 10)
10-2 Weather for Rochester and surrounding areas

13-1 WHAM ABC Rochester (UHF 13 -- has NY Yankee Baseball)
13-2 The CW

31-1 WUHF FOX (UHF 28)
31-2 Cool TV

42-1 W42CO Rochester (UHF 42 -- Only Religious stuff?)
42-2 More Religious programming?
43-3 TCT Family (Bonanza, I Love Lucy, etc.)
43-4 Fuente (Sunsets with Spanish? music when I watched)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Christian_Television

Good Luck!

Why would a list need to be maintained?

If you're dxing and get out of market stations on same RF with different Virtual, then you'd think the TV should be able to be made to handle it.

The TV would save the channel map containing the remap, as they already do. Two functions would need to be added. First, when the remap is typed in, it would have to tune the correct RF & then check the PSIP. If it did not match the channel you entered (because the other channel on that RF is coming in), then the TV shows "no signal". Second, a non destructive method of scanning a certain RF would need to be added to the FW, where a new entry mapping to a different VC would not wipe out the first entry in the channel map.

This would be great for being able to keep all those dx catches in the list.

Is WNED off the air right now? Not getting any signal at all here in Oakville but it usually comes in fine signal wise.


EDIT: Coming in again now but it's pretty weak. Also, WGRZ is affected as well. Probably the current hot humid weather affecting the signal.

but it's pretty weak.

It is this crazy hot weather.

Everyone is picking up tropo channels and all I am getting is weaker Buffalo signals.

Opposite now, buffalo's crazy strong and rochester's nowhere to be seen (ION borderline)

For perspective, WNLO (which has always been really strong, mind you)
Is literally reading 100% signal strength on HDHR.
I don't think I've ever seen a station read 100 on it. Max has usually been about 95% (and that would be the megawatt analog's from TO)

WNED's 95%
WGRZ is 80% (normally in the 60's, but stable)
WUTV is 85% (normally in 60's, but stable)

..yet 49 and 7 remain below the cliff :(