WA - Bellingham, Anacortes, northern State of Washington

[TwoDogs]

I'm on a extended weekend holiday in my rv at the Northern Lights Casino RV Park overlooking Fildago Bay just west of the bridge and thought I would see how the OTA HD reception was...suprised that I got CBC HD without any problem. No CTV though. Looks like the north facing Anacortes, WA viewers will get CBC HD anyway...

The gear in the RV is two 27" Viewsonics with a preamped Winegard Batwing III rv antenna.

[ksnive]

South End of Everett, WA

Been reading as much as I can stand to off & on for the past month or so about OTA. Been watching CBUT, CHEK & KVOS OTA since the days of Black & White Tv from about 1 mile due east from Pane Field. I live at about 600 Ft above sea level. There is no substitute for elevation & our family has always thought this was one of the high points between Vancouver & Seattle. I live in the house dad built & I grew up in. Oddly enough when I'm watching CDN Tv I point my antenna just a smidge west of true north. These days I see CHAN better than CHEK Could only get it's audio when I was a kid & can see KVOS (duh) & CKVU best of any.

Made the switch to an HDTv this past year & been dissatisfied with my northern reception for a while. I looking to put up a new antenna in the spring. With the trouble it looks like most of you are having seeing Seattle in DTV I'm starting to wonder if my habit of looking north is a lost cause. I know your trying to get the CTRC to turn up the power. I know DTV only needs 1/3 the power of NTSC. Is there any hope from here or do I just turn my back on the neighbors to the north?

Kind of missing Corner Gas & Curling.

kevin

[stampeder]

Hi ksnive and welcome here!

[ksnive]

Sorry if this has been covered before but:

Getting a few things sorted out in my head I think. My guess is I lost CTV on Ch 32 at or about the same moment that KHCV-DT Bellvue started using it down here for their digital broadcast. I'll even bet that the CTRC will allow CTV-DT to turn up it's signal on 33 shortly after Feb. 2009 when KHCV shuts down it's signal on that channel. But then again who knows where every one will land.

As for KBTC-DT Tacoma, there is supposidly a low power translator broadcasting on CH 27 about 10 or 15 north east of me. If you know where the little square is for Lake Stevens on the Google Earth thing it would be right about there. REF: the link below, Know that the page I'm showing you is out of date & that K27CI still shows up in the current DB as active.

http://www.northwestradio.net/interceptnw/fm.htm

I'll point my antenna that way tomorrow & see what there is to see. Could it be messing me up at least because of it's proximity as I try to look at KBTC-DT and possibly you all too by being between you & Tacoma?

kevin

[ksnive]

Well That wasn't it. the Intercept NW database is wrong and AntennaWeb.org is right. K27CI is up on 29 not down on 27 so it is not my signal trouble with KBTC-DT. I read some where else in the list about how many SD stations can piggy back along with an HD channel & what the trade offs are for doing it. KCTS just dropped one of it's SD feeds this month. Annenberg network wil stop operating on the 30th KBTC will be dropping the feed on the 29th. Do you suppose this might improve reception for each?

The rest of the report from last night is that with an OLD deep fringe Antenna poorly located relative to local trees I can see almost everything up north in analog I use to see except CTV. I also did not find Channel M Victoria. Guess what? Remember good old K27CI. It has enough power that I can see it with my antenna at about 90 Deg to its transmission point. If it is not one thing it is another.

I also now have a fairly clear idea about why reception is not as good as it was when I was a kid. Aside from the age of the antenna & it's connections it was moved 15 or 20 feet from its historic location to get it farther away from the power line coming into the house. Most of the trees across the street are gone now but it is right behind one of my own favorite trees in the yard where I live as far as looking North goes. There is also a LARGE transformer on a hydro pole right in line +/- 5 Deg of in line with what I want to see up there. I suppose moving left or right to a point where I can see around the trees & transformer will be easier than trying to get up above it all. The trees are short & easy to get over but the transformer on the hydro pole would still be right there. Right?

kevin

[levibluewa]

CHAN 22.2 and CIVT 33.2 have about the same reading here...38-41 no pic on either. 22.2 was hitting 54-56 a week or so ago, but seems to have bottomed out again. 2.1 on the other hand is beautiful and hitting 73 today.

[levibluewa]

CHANHD only on 22.2 here...never remapped to 8.1 (Living room - Sony 34"HD tube). 33.2 did remap to 32.1. CBCHD 58.8 remapped to 2.1. (Don't have the lcd hooked to the antenna)

Sony tuners. Older 34" tube set vs. 46" lcd. The tuners differ in where they remap the basic Comcast signals. The tube set remaps 7HD to 110.2, while the newer lcd remaps it where it should be 7.1.

[blakew]

Bruce, glad to hear you're finally able to pull in CHAN-DT. Did you get a 4228?

[levibluewa]

Blake, re new antenna, no not yet. The CHANHD signal appeared sporadically with the elimination of the PSIP problems. The signal varies from no pic/sound with a reading of 38-41, to a beautiful picture with a reading of 52-58. If everything is steady from the broadcast end, then the fluctuation is from my old antenna and wiring and atmospheric influences.

CBCHD (2.1) on the other hand fluctuates as well from 59-76. Generally it doesn't get low enough to lose picture. Stunning picture!

[Alex1978]

Does anybody here know which DTV channels you would be likely to get in Bellingham WA using an outdoor antenna?

My house has line of sight to Mt. Constitution and I am able to receive KBCB-DT and KVOS-DT using a very cheap indoor dipole antenna and I can get intermittent reception of KCPQ-DT and KTBW-DT.

Would I be likely to get very much of anything else with an outdoor antenna or are those four channels pretty much it for digital OTA in Bellingham?

[shmish]

Ah, okay I get CHAN now. As mentioned above, I switched to 8-1 on frequency 22. Thanks!

[gi32tgilkg]

Alex

If you have a better antenna, you should be able to receive CBUT-DT, and likely CHAN-DT. CIVT-DT if you are VERY lucky.

[levibluewa]

...appears to be the strongest signal. You might have to find it at 58.8 for it to mapdown to 2.1, not sure.

[danbcman]

What I have seen lately are many different numbers for getting each station
I guess different units give various data as to actual frequentcy and remapping number I know Chan is still way off due to PSIP not being sent fully so that one is what ever it takes to get it but for cbc dtv it has been solid at 58.1 remapping to 2 there was a hick up awhile ago maybe last spring but it was a very short hick up returned to the proper 58.1 remapping to 2 here is where I start from for settigs
http://members.shaw.ca/nwbroadcasters/digitaltv.htm
and info from Stampeder too.

[levibluewa]

Atmospheric conditions? Power increase? Whatever the reason 33.2 remapped to 32.1 tonight. Signal is fluctuating from 35-58...with momentary picture lock and sound.

22.2 (CHANHD) is dead here.

2.1 (CBUTHD) is beautiful!