Gah!!

[cd637299]

Hi

What a morning-after-Christmas gift.....check these out! Remember, I live 22 miles from Miami....the last one is a doozy!

This new antenna (Channel Master CM 3020) is the cat's pajamas! (OK so I'm old)

cd

[Mike-CT]

Nice! WXGA has to be a few hundred miles! 400?

(I thought the expression was the "cats meow". That's before my time, though.)

[cd637299]

About 380, Mike. But, get this---it is twice, or more than twice, the distance of my previous DTV records, WFTS 28 & WTOG 44.

Like, razzmatazz....

cd

[ai4i]

Please help me understand your display.
I would assume that 2 is really on 11, 28 is on 28, 18 and 65 are somewhere, and 8 is really on 8.

[cd637299]

Yuppers....the file mentions the DTV channel....where I was not sure, I left it out. If I get filled in, I will rename my files @ home.

I'd have no problem if the TV stations would refer to their actual channel instead of the mapped one. (OTOH, WFOR & WSVN would have no meaning to their call letters then.)

cd

[cd637299]

And I made a mistake then...WFTS' real ch is 29. Will fix 'er @ home.

cd

[Danny]

Great DTV DX, Chris! I knew the antenna would make a big difference.

That DX is a nice Christmas present.

[swampman]

Good catches there bud...might have to send you some Popeyes with extra red beans and rice for those! :D

[cd637299]

Funny u say...was trying for Nawlins, but it's a FL West Coast & Keys path mainly tonight. Was checking FM....no Cuba.

Must say here.....Danny showed me the tricks of this Insignia converter box a few weeks ago & I'm learning the ropes.

I'll check the analog TV for Cuba, but if nothing on FM, I'm up the Mississippi.

cd

[Danny]

Must say here.....Danny showed me the tricks of this Insignia converter box a few weeks ago & I'm learning the ropes.


Christopher is giving me too much credit here. We talked on the phone and chat, but I mostly reiterated what Chris already knew.

I'm glad to see another serious TV DXer taking an interest in DTV DXing.

[NN2E]

Good deal on the new antenna / DX Chris.
Now I know where the propagation has gone.
Conditions are so bad here I'm having trouble seeing Nashville. :-(
73, Ed NN2E
Owner / Operator - Murphy's Law Test Site & Thunderstorm Proving Grounds

[ai4i]

"You Might Be a Redneck If...Your TV gets 512 channels...That would be a digital redneck, 512 being the 9'th power of two.

[swampman]

[QUOTE]Now I know where the propagation has gone.
Conditions are so bad here I'm having trouble seeing Nashville. :-(


Thats OK Ed...your antenna needed time to cool off anyway. ;)

[antennanut]

Chris/Danny,

Can you elaborate on any hints on the Insignia box? For example, I know most people will leave their box on a particular channel overnight to see if anything decodes. However, when I am actually watching a channel live, I have to be receiving a decoded signal long enough to push the "display" button. If the signal drops below the decode threshold before I push "display", I have no station ID. So I am perplexed at how the box can be left on overnight and the decoding/channel ID still be saved the next day.

Thanks for any info...

Tommy

[cd637299]

Danny has been in the game much longer than I, but what I could tell you is to only do a manual scan, or manual entry.

Also, look at the signal bar on an empty channel. If you see yellow on the progress bar increasing/decreasing, think of it just like analog reception. You can move the antenna to where the progress is greatest, and hope/pray for the best.

IIRC, I saw the progress bar on the ch 8....knowing Tampa's virtual 8 is actually RF 7, I was thinking "what could this be??"....and voila, WXGA popped up!

Danny said that the progress bar has to be 50% to land a picture.

You see that WESH didn't decode well, but that's all I have from them.

cd

[w9wi]

Chris/Danny,

Can you elaborate on any hints on the Insignia box? For example, I know most people will leave their box on a particular channel overnight to see if anything decodes. However, when I am actually watching a channel live, I have to be receiving a decoded signal long enough to push the "display" button. If the signal drops below the decode threshold before I push "display", I have no station ID. So I am perplexed at how the box can be left on overnight and the decoding/channel ID still be saved the next day.

Thanks for any info...

Tommy

Go into manual channel add mode --

- MENU. (on the remote)
- arrow to SETUP (probably selected by default) & press the button in the middle of the arrows.
- arrow to Manual Tuning and press the middle button.
- Select the desired channel with the up/down arrow buttons.

Then just leave it there.

Come back later -- hit a button on the remote (MUTE is probably a safe choice) to wake up the box. If any station on that channel faded up strong enough to decode PSIP, its station name will appear on the right side of the screen.

During the Es season I left my box on channel 2 when not otherwise using it. One day I got home from work & found "KNOP-DT" in there. Unfortunately it never happened again, nor did it happen with any other station...

[Danny]

Doug and Chris are correct, but NEVER change the channel or turn the box off before checking the manual tuning screen to see if a DTV was actually received on your selected channel. Otherwise, the ID will be lost before you have a chance to see it.

I've never used the mute button, though. I always go back into the manual tuning mode to see if there is a DTV ID in dim writing. Then I press the center button to make the writing bold.

[cd637299]

I'm gonna try what Doug said next time out. Before that, I was tempted to just let the VCR run until a picture showed...but that sure woulda been a waste of time.

Thanx Doug

cd

[antennanut]

Doug/Danny/Chris,

Thanks for the info! This has been something I have been thinking about for some time but haven't actually put the question into words.

Tommy

[w9wi]

Doug and Chris are correct, but NEVER change the channel or turn the box off before checking the manual tuning screen to see if a DTV was actually received on your selected channel. Otherwise, the ID will be lost before you have a chance to see it.

I've never used the mute button, though. I always go back into the manual tuning mode to see if there is a DTV ID in dim writing. Then I press the center button to make the writing bold.

-- ABSOLUTELY, NEVER change the channel or turn the box off before checking the manual tuning screen.

-- Danny's memory is better than mine! -- the manual tuning screen goes away on its own after timing out, you have to go back into the manual tuning mode (again, WITHOUT CHANGING THE CHANNEL!) to see if it caught something.