Problems with ABC HD in Dallas and dish 811

[hdtv1]

Hello all,

I recently have some problems with ABC Dallas. The picture is jerky and it also make squeaky noise much like when the signal is low or when it's raining outside. The strength signal is normally at 80 to 85%. I have reset the receiver many times without success.

All other local HD channels are perfectly fine. CBS, Fox, NBC, etc.

Any helps would greatly appreciated. I don't want to watch Monday night football like this.

 

[StevenD]

Its WFAA's fault. They put in a low-power transmitter and they dont plan to upgrade it. They claim that they are covering more are than they did with their analog transmitter. Their new tramitter runs at 18.6kW. All the other stations in the metroplex are running 500-1000kW.

Im in Plano (approx 30 miles LOS to the towers) and I have a 27' tall tower with a 120" Radio Shack antenna. I get dropouts all the time, but only on WFAA-DT. All the other channels are rock solid.

Someone posted this a while back:

Well, the simple answer is - Never. We are transmitting at our full licensed power as determined by the FCC. A lot of factors come into play in determining licensed power, but I will attempt to explain.

We transmit DTV on VHF channel 9 and all the other Dallas stations are on UHF channels (14-52). The laws of physics come into play here. VHF signals, because of frequency, travel farther than UHF signals. When we went on the air with the DTV channel back in 1998, we commissioned a study to see how well we replicated the current coverage area of WFAA Channel 8 and we discovered that we no only replicated it, we actually exceeded it a few miles.

The intermittent problems you are experiencing is because of local interference. The laws of physics come into play here, too. Also because of the frequencies involved, VHF signals are more prone to local electrostatic interference (car ignitions, power lines, etc) and inpulse noise (lightning, noisy switches, etc). Every time my dishwasher at home cycles, I get a glitch in WFAA-DT. I get the same thing whenever I turn on my ceiling fan or change it's speed. The only channels that get worse problems with electrostatic interference are VHF channels 2-6. They really get it bad because of the frequencies involved.

There are a few things you can do to improve your signal on Channel 9. First, make sure that the antenna you are using is a multiband antenna and that it is aimed properly. A lot of electronics stores try to sell customers an "HDTV Ready antenna." But because most of the DTV's in the Dallas market transmit on UHF channels, they think we all do and then sell customers a UHF-only antenna and that will not work on channel 9. Second, if you have an amplifier in line driving splitters and such, make sure it is a good one. Some of them pick up that local interference and amplify it, too. That just makes it worse. If you live in an area with lots of industry nearby, that can cause a lot of interference, too.

I hope this helps.

Don Guemmer
Chief Operator
WFAA-TV
dguemmer@wfaa.com

 

[Tom in TX]

Hello all,

I recently have some problems with ABC Dallas. The picture is jerky and it also make squeaky noise much like when the signal is low or when it's raining outside. The strength signal is normally at 80 to 85%. I have reset the receiver many times without success.

All other local HD channels are perfectly fine. CBS, Fox, NBC, etc.

Any helps would greatly appreciated. I don't want to watch Monday night football like this.

Where in Dallas do you live? And what type of antenna do you have?
Tom in TX

 

[Barry Erick]

They are VHF and I will bet your antenna is a UHF one and not a combo. VHF power needs not to be anything near the UHF power. For instance, in this market, the two stations I take care of are analog UHF. Their power is 3.8 megawatts and 2.5 megawatts. The digitals are both VHF. To cover more than our current analog map, the ch 11 and 13 VHF's are 10 kw. The digital UHF's here, full power, are 70 megawatts. So to the untrained, the others look more powerful.

digressing:
Right now we are not full power (currently upgrading, in fact, I turn them off today for the upgrades), only 1kw each and at my location, 15
miles from the towers, My readings are:

 Ch 11 - 67  1kw
 Ch 13 - 63  1 kw
 ch 41 - 82  full power
 ch 45 - 88  full power
 ch 49 - 86 full power

BTW: The first listing was 79 before one module at the transmitter was lost. The signal level is actually a signal quality reading. Since the factory is coming in, I will let them tweak up the transmitter. They have the very expensive equipment to do that. CH 49 is actually the most powerful one and the only one whose antenna is not side mounted. But it has slightly more errors than the others.

 

[glenn z]

I'm in Frisco and I never have problems with ABC. I'm running a pretty cheap RatShack antenna in the attic.

 

[wilme2]

I have NEVER been able to lock WFAA-DT, and I live on the edge of downtown Dallas with a pre-amped UHF/VHF antenna on my 3rd story balcony pointing towards Cedar Hill. I can easily receive everything but WFAA... Yes, multi-path is likely part of the problem - but the 811 tuner needs to take its share of the blame. My brother lives a few blocks away and locks all channels fine with a Samsung HDTV tuner. There have been a number of posts indicating that the 811 does poorly compared to other OTA tuners...

 

[Tom in TX]

I have NEVER been able to lock WFAA-DT, and I live on the edge of downtown Dallas with a pre-amped UHF/VHF antenna on my 3rd story balcony pointing towards Cedar Hill. I can easily receive everything but WFAA... Yes, multi-path is likely part of the problem - but the 811 tuner needs to take its share of the blame. My brother lives a few blocks away and locks all channels fine with a Samsung HDTV tuner. There have been a number of posts indicating that the 811 does poorly compared to other OTA tuners...

Have you tried it without the pre-amp? Sometimes I think they make the signal too strong. My 811 never had problems with Ch. 8, and I have an anteena in my attic, no preamp, and live more than 15 miles further away than you do.
Tom in TX

 

[hdtv1]

I have a radio shack version of the Terk antenna that clip on the dish. I used the terk one before, and it worked perfectly. Reason I changed to the radio shack one is the terk antenna broke.

this is the link to it

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=15-2190

I live in the uptown area. The radio shack one worked well for over a year until about a month or two ago. This problem is new. How do i removed the preamp? I think the signal is too strong too. Do I need to add something to it?


thanks

 

[Barry Erick]

Digital is very toughy if the signal is too strong. Also, I would check with WFAA and see when (and if) they are using PSIP.

As I said in my other post, that is a item the 811 AND ALL NEW RECEIVERS REQUIRE.
I have not seen the newest Samsung, but none built before March 2005 have that, but the 811 had that added and right now, the FCC is fining stations that have not adapted the PSIP, or filed for an extension because of equipment delays.

 

[hdtv1]

when did WFAA switch from UHF to VHF? But I don't think it matter since my antenna is both UHF and VHF. It has to be the damn interference.

This is bad. I'm watching ABC Monday Night football right now, and the sound just got shut off completely by itself after a few minutes viewing the game. However, when that happened, the picture is less jerky.

I also added the 8-00 analog station , and the picture came in very good for an analog station (which means the signal is strong).

Man, the whole season without ABC HD mondy night sucks.

 

[wilme2]

Have you tried it without the pre-amp? Sometimes I think they make the signal too strong. My 811 never had problems with Ch. 8, and I have an anteena in my attic, no preamp, and live more than 15 miles further away than you do.
Tom in TX

The same without the pre-amp - sits at 49% and never locks... I think there is serious multi-path around downtown Dallas that prevents locking of the stronger stations (which happens pre-amp or no)... Some of the UHF stations are 88%+, but channel 8 sits at 49% (which isn't really a signal strength but a confusion indicator IMHO)...

 

[wilme2]

I live in the uptown area. The radio shack one worked well for over a year until about a month or two ago. This problem is new. How do i removed the preamp? I think the signal is too strong too. Do I need to add something to it?
thanks

I don't think you can remove the pre-amp on those clip-on antennas...

And to be honest, but my brother and I DID notice a change to WFAA about a month ago - Previous to then my 811 would not even move off 0% reception for 8.1/9. After the change it started registering, but stopped at 49%. On my brother's Samsung he noticed a significant signal reception increase. We are both using Channel Master Stealthtenna's under awnings, although I wouldn't really recommend them...

 

[DishBacker]

I'm in Flower Mound, and WFAA is the strongest signal I receive on my 921, pegged out at 125 on the scale. 7ft radio shack antenna in my second story attic (10db amp about half way along the appx. 60ft run to my TV). A good 35 miles from cedar hill and in a little bit of a valley here in FM.

I do drop my FOX station from time to time in bad weather... guess I got it peaked at the WFAA tower and not the FOX tower (there is about 2 degrees of separation in the towers accoding to antennaweb.org)

 

[wilme2]

Can someone confirm they have WFAA OTA HD working (well) on an 811?

 

[drsiebling]

My Channel 8 reception isn't too bad, but I do get several quick dropouts whenever I'm watching LOST in HD. This seems to have started occuring more frequently lately. I live on the edge of Plano in North Dallas and have a 10 foot antenna in my attic with no amplifier. All of my other HD locals come in perfectly. My receiver is a 942.

 

[wilme2]

Will NO ONE testify to being able to reliably receive WFAA HD on an 811?

 

[jmc98]

i get between 60%-70% on signal stregenth in fort worth( amplifed indoor antenna) on a dish 811

 

[drsiebling]

MY WFAA reception has always been stable up until about 2 months ago. I've got a 110" VHF/UHF antenna in my first storey attic. Again, no problems until 2 months ago and now I can't sit through any HD broadcast without pixelization, dropouts, picture freezing and intermittent random digital glitches appearing the the picture. I've been in touch with WFAA on several occasions regarding this problem, and they have no answers for these problems. Strangely, WFAA's digital signal seems to be working perfectly fine all day until the prime time hours. Never a problem during the day, but serious problems at night. This all happens with a signal strength of 68 - 80 on my 942.

So, ABC, my favourite channel right now for prime time content, is becoming almost unwatchable and it is getting rapidly worse. Something HAS to be going on with their broadcasts. This week was definitely their worst week ever in my experience... did anyone else notice this? I lost sound and picture about every 10 minutes during LOST and Night Stalker was just plain terrible.

 

[utexex79]

Will NO ONE testify to being able to reliably receive WFAA HD on an 811?

i have no problems with getting the wfaa hd signal in Coppell... rca 10 ft. antenna (home depot special) in attic. the only ota digital channel i have trouble getting is 27, but just thru the 811 -- my integrated sony hd receiver picks that one up ok.

 

[wilme2]

I just gave up and ordered basic local channel Comcast with their HD tuner for approx $16 per month... I am not happy having two HD receivers now, but it was that or give up on WFAA and NBC in HD. @#%$^ multi-path near downtown. Tried about six outdoor antennas - none of them did any better than the one I started with...