Friday, June 26, 2009

WEUX Back On The Air

On this past Wednesday, WEUX got back on the air at full power digital. If you are not receiving them now, rescan your tuner (wether HDTV or Converter box)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

KMSP At Full Power

KMSP got approval from the FCC to boast to 30kW ERP and did so on or around June 16th. So this is as good as their signal is likely to get. If you do not receive them now, think about VHF-HI antennas. If you need help with antennas, just reply to any post here and Matt and I will gladly help!

WEUX Off The Air

WEUX (Eau Claire, WI) is completely off the air at the moment, I see on their website, that part of the transmitter went bad late Monday morning. The engineer (Mark Burg) said that he hopes to bring it back online today around 5PM. Link To Story

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

WLAX Analog Tower GONE

Jay Matthews at WLAX just got back to me:

"WLAX-TV currently took down its old analog tower. In order to protect the tower climbers, it was necessary to reduce our Digital broadcast power on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 until 12:00 noon on Saturday, June 13th, 2009. If you scanned your TV during this time and did not get our digital signal WLAX-DT (25.1/25.2) please rescan as we are back to full power."

Saturday, June 13, 2009

WLAX Back At Full Power

It appeared that WLAX out of La Crosse, WI (broadcasts 2 miles west of La Cresent, MN) Was down for around 30 hours, from Thurday, just after 7PM to early this morning. I am now locking it with my normal signal strength. People as close as Holmen, WI were not able to lock it during this time...

Good Reports Thus Far Out Of The Twin Cities!

KMSP and KARE, look to have a much larger range with VHF-HI signals. KSTC running one million watts on RF channel 45, is a killer tonight. KSTP, looks much better on RF 35 compared to the weird RF 50 issues... Please reply and let us know what you are seeing!

Friday, June 12, 2009

KAAL-DT-36 On The Air

KAAL-DT-36 came online around 5PM today. It is hitting my antenna with super strong signal, so it is at least equal to KXLT/KSMQ!

Last Rochester Full Power Analog Off The Air

Well, at 12:12PM today, KIMT-TV shutdown, its' analog service. This was the last analog left on in the market, after KAAL-TV shutdown at 8:55AM this morning.


Also: KIMT is now 16x9 aspect ratio. Not as great as HD 16x9, but even still, pretty cool!

KAAL-TV

KAAL's analog will sign off the air forever at 8:55AM today.

KYIN-TV Off Of The Air!

KYIN's analog feed as well as the rest of IPTV's (Iowa Public TV) analogs went off the air at 12:01AM this early morning!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

WXOW-DT-48 On The Air

I have been checking as often as I have time and just noticed that WXOW-DT-48 is online. Rescan your converter boxes/TVs/tuners!

The End of Analog!

Tomorrow (June 12th) is the official end of analog tv broadcasting in the US. By the day's end tomorrow, all full power tv stations must stop analog broadcasting forever. This does NOT include low power stations and translators, they can continue analog operations as normal. As for what will happen in the Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin area:

In the Rochester, Austin, Mason City Market, KIMT, KAAL, and KYIN will turn off their analog broadcasts during the day. KYIN goes first, it will sign off the air at 12:01AM tomorrow morning.
KIMT will be turning off its' analog during the Noon News tomorrow.
And I do not have an exact time for KAAL, since their engineering department has not returned any of my emails.
Only thing changing in the digtial side from Rochester, is KAAL firing up DT-36 from the KXLT/KSMQ tower near Grand Meadow. People in Rochester should tune to it. (I will also post when this comes online, so people know when to run scans.)

In the La Crosse/Eau Claire market:
WXOW digital will move from channel 14 to 48 at 9AM. This is only change will happen for our neighbors in Wisconsin. It should improve their signal range greatly (I will post here tomorrow morning, when the new signal comes online!)

In the Twin Cities market:
Channel 2 (TPT, KTCA) and channel 17 (TPT KTCI) will stop analog broadcasts at 9AM.
Channels 4 and 5 (WCCO and KSTP) analogs will stay on as nightlights (a FCC program to help people with the transition)
Channels 9, 11, and 29 will leave their analogs on until the very last minute.
KSTC-DT will move from channel 44 to channel 45 at midnight, as well as KARE-DT moving from channel 35 to 11, KMSP-DT from channel 26 to 9. (29 will stay on channel 21 for a few months, before switching back to 29) KSTP-DT will move from channel 50 to 35 while it uses KARE's current DT-35 gear, until KSTP's get installed later this summer.
WCCO-DT, KTCA-DT, WFTC-DT, KTCI-DT, and KPXM-DT will not see any changes tomorrow.
KARE-DT, KSMP-DT, KSTC-DT, and KSTP-DT should see HUGE improvements in their signals at 12AM Saturday morning.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Iowa Public Television Stations: Analog Shutdown

All of IPTV's stations will shutdown their analog counterparts at 12:01am, June 12, 2009, according to their senior engineer: Mike Stover. As for the R\MC\A (Rochester\Mason City\ Austin) market, there will be no change to the digital (KYIN-DT on RF channel 18), it is at 533kW ERP, where it is licensed.

KIMT-TV

This just in from the chief engineer at KIMT. KIMT will shutdown its' analog broadcast during the 12PM News on Friday June 12th.

WXOW-DT

As some of you may know, WXOW is getting a new RF (radio frequency) channel number: 48 for post-transition operation. They have been on RF channel 14 with their digital signal up until now (their analog was on RF channel 19) Now they are switching out the 19 antenna for the brand new 48 antenna. I got word from Dan Rasmussen at WXOW, that last week, the tower crew, got the top mounted 19 antenna on the ground and are preparing to get the 48 antenna up top, today (Tuesday) If the weather holds and they get it up, they are on target to start up the DT-48 transmitter at 371kW ERP (effective radaited power) Which should push their signal out about as far as WHLA-DT. Dan is going to be providing me with pictures, which I will be sure to post!


EDIT: On the WXOW homepage, they are reporting that the new antenna is installed! They should be good to go on Friday at 9AM for bringing it online! Congrats to the crew that did the install!


-GV (KD0GTI)

Monday, June 1, 2009

KXLT-DT2=RTN, Not So Fast!

Tim Morgan (an engineer) from KXLT/KTTC said that they would like to add RTN (Retro Television Network) to their KXLT digital signal as a sub channel, but there are no plans with ETA dates for it. So where ever the rumor about RTN coming to KXLT started, it is not correct.

-Garrett