FCC gets 317,450 calls the day analog signals are cut off

[Sadoun]

LOS ANGELES - The Federal Communications Commission received about 317,450 calls to its help line, 888-CALL-FCC, on Friday, the day analog signals were cut off.

In all, almost 700,000 calls came into the federal hotline last week, the FCC said, from people confused about the nationwide move to drop analog TV signals and broadcast only in digital.

FCC gets 317,450 calls the day analog signals are cut off -- Newsday.com

[Sadoun]

Can you imagine the type of questions they are getting???

[Jim-S]

I have had my converter box for months and all channels worked fine. Now after Friday I lost two channels. One of the two channels is completely gone, I haven't found out why yet. The other one I lost, the signal is about half of what it was, it comes and goes.
But the satellite signal (FTA) is just fine.............ah ah ah ah

[BYX]

Originally Posted by Jim-S

I have had my converter box for months and all channels worked fine. Now after Friday I lost two channels. One of the two channels is completely gone, I haven't found out why yet. The other one I lost, the signal is about half of what it was, it comes and goes.
But the satellite signal (FTA) is just fine.............ah ah ah ah

Some of the channels transmitting on digital for the past two years, the night of cutover had to do a minor frequency change to the final allocation.
You have to re-scan your box to get the final frequencies.
Some equipment and TV's do the correction automatically, some others you have to do it manually.
In my case my Magnavox 27" TV, I had to rescan.
On my Samsung projection TV it corrected by itself.

[Jim-S]

Yes I have rescaned and manually scaned. Others around here have the same problem so I'm not alone. I'll have to fine out why. I sent an e-mail to one station about this, I wonder if I will get an answer.

[be236]

Could then be you need to re-orient your antenna or raise it?

That's what I did and I picked up a channel I knew was out there, but could get because my antenna was too low and aimed slightly away from it...

Also, maybe that stationed moved from UHF to VHF so you should have UHF+VHF antenna if possible.

[Jim-S]

Yes I did some testing with my antenna, I do need a better antenna, I was trying to get away with having my antenna in the attic. But it still makes me wonder why that I got the digital stations before the cut over but now I'm missing two of them. I filled out a form on the Winegard website for which antenna would work best for me and they recommended the HD7084P which of course is expensive. I'm not too concerned about OTA I can get some. I live in a site condo and would not want to put up an antenna, my dish is stretching a bit, which I know they can't do anything about.......besides I'm the VP or maybe the Pres. because he moved.
Jim

[Iceberg]

some changed from UHF to VHF

example here in MN.....both Fox & NBC went from the digital slot of 26 & 35 back to their VHF analog spot of 9 & 11

When they were on UHF...full 1 million watts
on VHF....9 is at 25K watts and 11 is at 35K watts

so I use to get both at 100 not they are at 78-80 quality....and I'm about 30 miles from towers

[Jim-S]

Originally Posted by Iceberg

some changed from UHF to VHF

example here in MN.....both Fox & NBC went from the digital slot of 26 & 35 back to their VHF analog spot of 9 & 11

When they were on UHF...full 1 million watts
on VHF....9 is at 25K watts and 11 is at 35K watts

so I use to get both at 100 not they are at 78-80 quality....and I'm about 30 miles from towers

Thank that's probably what happened here..................

[Jim-S]

Updated Maps of All Full-Service Digital Television Stations Authorized by the FCC

Here's a site you can check on your DTV coverage........
Choose your location.

[be236]

Looking at this info, it doesnt look right:

Digital CP (solid): 22.1 kW ERP at 610 m HAAT, Network: Fox
vs. Analog (dashed): 316 kW ERP at 610 m HAAT, Network: Fox

I cant imagine the Digital signal got reduced by 10-fold down from 316kW to 22.1??? Did they put in an extra period by mistake?? You'd think they need to boost the digital/UHF channel higher.

[Jim-S]

Go figure?????????? my stations were the same way....simular to what Iceberg said..............

[Iceberg]

Originally Posted by be236

Looking at this info, it doesnt look right:

Digital CP (solid): 22.1 kW ERP at 610 m HAAT, Network: Fox
vs. Analog (dashed): 316 kW ERP at 610 m HAAT, Network: Fox

I cant imagine the Digital signal got reduced by 10-fold down from 316kW to 22.1??? Did they put in an extra period by mistake?? You'd think they need to boost the digital/UHF channel higher.

nope thats right for the numbers. With digital they can supposedly cover the same area with less power. This is mainly on VHF only. UHF they can go up to 1 million watts and a fair amount of them do. Here in Minneapolis we have 7 stations on UHF Digital (3 that were VHF analog)
out of those 7 3 are at full power (CW, CBS, My)
PBS & ABC are at 3/4 of that (750Kw)
The other 2 (Ind & 2nd PBS) are much lower (250Kw & 50Kw)

on VHF Fox & NBC dropped dramatically. FOx is at 21Kw whereas NBC is at 27.1Kw

I've seen digital outputs that are only 1000 watts...as an example low powered digital is 15000 watts max