[John Henderson]

I have been corresponding with the LP NBC affiliate WVNC channel 45, RF24. Talking to the station manager, they are in consultation to become a full power station. In his words, they need to fill in the gaps in their DMA. The station is not receivable in much of the Adirondacks and their smaller cities to the North along the St. Lawrence Seaway, notably Ogdensburg and Massena. There is no time line as yet, but if I get more information, I'll pass it on.

 

[Trip]

Talking to the station manager, they are in consultation to become a full power station.

This is not a thing a station can do. There is no path for an LPTV station to "upgrade" into a full-power station. They would have to go through the normal FCC rule-making process, get an allotment added to the table, then wait for an FCC auction, and win the new license, unrelated to the current LPTV license, at auction. I eyeballed the high-VHF and UHF TV bands and did not immediately see a channel they could petition the FCC to add to the table. Additionally, the FCC lacks auction authority at the moment, so it could not hold such an auction.

What they have done is buy other LPTV licenses, which they may be seeking to use to expand service in the area.

- Trip

 

[FunkyTown]

CTV and CTV2 both offline to OTA Ottawa/Gatineau customers for the past few days. They are both still down this morning - August 17, 2024.

 

[congo]

CTV and CTV2 both offline to OTA Ottawa/Gatineau customers for the past few days. They are both still down this morning - August 17, 2024.

Likely related to the water main break in Montreal. Also affecting a lot of live newscasts across the CTV channels.

 

[FunkyTown]

Good to know. Thanks. It’s strange a water main break in Montreal would affect us here in Ottawa. They must be routing signals through Montreal I’m guessing.

 

[charettepa]

has anything changed for you
i have ctv back
but not ctv2

also city is now out

 

[FunkyTown]

I just checked now. I’m receiving CTV2 and CityTV just fine. Those 2 channels have weaker frequencies. In order to pick them up reliably, a few years ago I installed an amplifier on my antenna. If you do not have an amplifier you may want to consider one.

 

[charettepa]

i have a pre amp
i have been receiving all channels fine
its only ever since you reported the issue

my snr is in the 70-80% range
my signal is 100%
but nothing is coming through

this is usually indicative of issues upstream and not the transmission itsself

i rescanned in case they changes anything in their transmission

i know when ctv experiences issues they fall back to a different transmission on the same frequency and this causes an issue, requiring a rescan to be on the correct PID etc..

but im getting nothing differeent on ctv2

im getting the following
frequency 599.028MHz
networkID 65536
streamID 17205
and 2 services but im only getting 1
perhaps the missing one is the one thats working

what do you have for the channel at the moment

 

[FunkyTown]

I’m using HDHomeRun to pick up my channels. It refers to frequency: Tuner: tunerl tuning 43.1 CHRO (8vsb:599MHz-1). I don’t have those other details that you provided. It is coming in clearly though. Corner Gas is on right now.

These are the channels I have selected in Plex. i do not watch the Omni stations so I don’t have them selected. All of these selected channels are working fine at this moment.

 

[charettepa]

thanks, ill check the rest of the setup
could just be a weird coincidence

maybe preamp gone bad or cable gone bad

about a year ago i had to redo the end
the end and tip was fine, but a 1/2" back there was corrosion for ~1/2"
ill double check to see if it happened again

i have had this setup since 2011
replaced my cm4228HD with a db4e in 2020
replaced the preamp in 2021
but im still on original cable from 2012

 

[FunkyTown]

I have a channel master pre-amp but I don’t know what model. It’s in the attic connected to the antenna. It gets its power from a device in the room under the attic that plugs into the wall and then sends electricity through the coax to the attic amplifier. I installed it in 2017 and haven’t touched it. If your amplifier is broken then yes it could create this issue. Maybe you could try a different antenna hooked directly to the tv to see if you can get signal. I’ve done that by holding the antenna out the window and changing its position until the signal was strong. I did that before putting the antenna in the attic.

I do believe this is an issue on your end. I have a TiVo machine as well and the channels are all working on that device too.

 

[charettepa]

i now also believe the issue is here
i do have a spare antena but sticking it out the window never gets ctv2
i need it on the roof with preamp

also im not connected directly to tv
like you i have hdhr (a quatro and a dual)
i use tvheadend as my server so all tvs can use it

i will need to check cable and preamp
i dont currently have extra cable so ill start with trying the older preamp
it still worked when i replaced it, just got a better one
both channel master
old was the original 7777 and the
new is the 7778hd (not to be confused with 7778 they are different)
if this does not help i will order new cable
its too bad they cant make a hdhr thats PoE then i would not need a preamp
just a weatherproof box

now i just need to wait for someone to assist with the ladder so i dont accidently knock it over and get stuck

 

[FunkyTown]

That model number 7778 is familiar to me. I believe that’s what I have. There is a button to either boost or reduce the power. Yeah I went up into my attic on a ladder by myself. It’s dangerous so you must be very careful. It’s good to get someone to help you. Maybe a next door neighbor.

 

[charettepa]

sorry for taking so long to get back

The antenna is good
The pre-amp is good
All cable runs were good (ant>preamp - pre-amp>injector - injector>HDHomerun)
I still replaced all just to be sure as the cabling is almost 12 years old
I used only Solid Copper Core (NOT CCS)

It resulted in a roughly 1% gain
mostly unwatchable for CTV2 and City during the day
functions better at night
this used to be an issue 5-6 years ago when they cut back the channels and there were no 600MHZ filters yet
but was fine after that

It appears there is environmental changes
1- new/addition cell towers in very close proximity
2- the new O-train and its extreemly high voltage is only a few 100 feet away
electrical interference perhaps

 

[JohnyH]

Is CHRO 43.1 transmitting in the Ottawa area? I get nothing!!!

 

[FunkyTown]

You’re right Johnny it appears to be down. I’m unable to pick it up but all of the other channels are working.

 

[JohnyH]

Thanks for the reply!

 

[McMillan77]

Is something funny going on with WVNC ? (NBC Watertown, virtual 45, actual 24 ??)

For the past few days the signal on channel/frequency 24 has been going in and out (maybe just due to bad weather)

But now I am seeing a version of the station on channel/frequency 19
The signal on 19 is not WSTM (NBC Syracuse) or the Christian station WTKJ
I can see all of the sub-channels of WVNC

Have they changed frequency or started a repeater?

For now I can watch on channel 19, but it is a bit puzzling.