Thursday, May 28, 2009

KMSP/WFTC Digital Transitions

I just heard back from the engineering staff at KMSP:

KMSP-DT will switch from DT-26 to DT-9 at 11:59PM June 12th. They will run their analog right up until the very end. I would expect the switch to take between 5-30 minutes and around 12:30PM June 13th, I would expect to see the new signal online.

WFTC-DT is going to move back to RF (radio frequency) channel 29 for their digital, but they need parts from another station in Austin, TX to make the channel move. So they will continue running on RF channel 21 until roughly 8/18/09. I would expect that since it is same engineering staff as KMSP, they will run their analog until 11:59PM June 12th as well.

If you currently get WFTC-DT, you will not see any change on the 12th of June. KMSP viewers may notice a bit of change as VHF-HI should have a stronger signal out in the fringe locations at the outer limits of the market.
Make sure to check that your antenna is VHF-HI (or VHF-LO/HI, commonly grouped together as just VHF) and UHF rated. We had a lot of people in Rochester, MN, who were not ready when KTTC moved back and lost signal from their digital.
Most people within 15 miles of the Shoreview transmitter location, should be able to receive the new signals even a UHF only antenna, but beyond that is not likely.

-Garrett Vrieze (KD0GTI)

2 comments:

vicky said...

Hi, we are in the Cambridge, Rush City areas of Mn., I am on a digital converter, my friend on a brand new hdtv wired through her buildings antenna..Neither of us can recieve channels 9 or 11..but in her case, the woman in the next apartment gets it fine on the same antenna! I have performed the hard start, auto search for her twice..same results..our roof top antenna has been repositioned with no avail..any ideas?

gjvrieze said...

That is very odd. Did you get channels: 2,4,5,9,11 in analog before the shutdown? (if so, how well did KMSP and KARE come in analog?)
How many people are feed off this antenna?