Sorry for the delayed reply, I had came back and read a few more replies in this thread, but didn't have time to respond, then just kinda lost track of it.MWmetalhead wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 6:27 am Interesting. The ION link says RF 21 won't be broadcasting at full power until December 17.
Thanks for posting those links.
Reception of WOTV will not guarantee reception of WZPX even once it's broadcasting at full power. Bear in mind WZPX will be broadcasting with a highly directional signal that will favor areas to the north of Gun Lake (GR, Ionia, Holland) and disfavor areas to the south (Kalamazoo, BC).
Also, WZPX's antenna will be side mounted about 150 feet below the WOTV antenna. Elevation does make a difference.
I should have mentioned in my original post that I live in the Cutlerville area (M-6 & US-131), so I knew the direction of the signal would actually be favorable to me. Since the the re-scan, I have been able to pick up both WZPX 43 and WOTV 41 rock solid, most of the time. There were a couple really windy days where I got some pixelation, but that is because I use one of those omni-directional "Frisbee" like antennas at the top of 15 feet of mast pole. That thing sways pretty good in the wind.
The thing that brought me back here was on Tuesday about 09:30, I was watching ch 43 and it went black, I hit the ch down button which tuned to WOTV 41.4, that was also dark. I actually went outside to make sure my antenna was still upright, it was, and a check of the other channels showed all was well there. A few minutes later, both stations had reappeared on my screen and it was business as usual. It may have just been a coincidence, but I looked at the calendar, and it was Dec. 17, the day for the full power re-scan. Since both stations had been coming in fine before the signal loss, I can't say that I see any improvement (there was no room for any, unless we get another really windy day)
After seeing this, it may have just been a coincidence, or maybe 43 had to go down for some reason when (if) 41 went to full power.statmanmi wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2019 5:36 pm
It seems that WZPX never did operate under their STA for RF21.
On 10/29/2019, they filed their License to Cover for the permanent antenna at 278 meters HAAT, with the document signed that day. So either they were on the interim for a few days, or not at all. I'm guessing the latter, what with the ancedotal insight of postings in this thread and my own findings that the RF21 signal came in strong from its inception.
WOTV does seem to still be on reduced coverage, as their most recent FCC filing is a Transition Plan Progress Report on 10/23/2019, offering explanation: Station will operate on an interim antenna under STA until the final antenna can be installed.
Thus, it seems at this moment that the WZPX signal is coming off the tower higher than the WOTV interim one. I continue to get both great at my eastern Kent County (almost Greenville) location.
Cheers! ~~ Statmanmi
I've also noticed that in the last few days I now can receive WLLA 64 and it has transitioned from RF 45 to RF 22.
And one more thing, maybe this should be in it's own thread, I was surprised that no one here has mentioned it yet, but right after the re-scan, I noticed that WXMI 17 dropped the "THIS Network" from 17.3 and replaced it with Court TV.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the outcome of the re-scan, I now get 36 channels (including sub channels) and the HD ones have better quality than the paid services, and it's free! For the record I receive at my home, reliably:
WWMT
3.1 CBS
3.2 The CW
3.3 Comet
WOOD 8
8.1 NBC
8.2 Bounce
8.3 Laff
WXSP
15.1 MY Network TV
15.2 Cozi TV
15.3 Escape
WXMI
17.1 FOX
17.2 Antenna TV
17.3 Court TV
17.4 Charge
WUHQ
29.1 Daystar
29.2 Daystar (not sure why, same content on both 29.x)
WGVU
35.1 PBS
35.2 PBS Kids
35.3 WGVU Life
35.4 WGVU MHz
35.5 WGVU Program Guide, and audio from "1480 Real Oldies" Radio Station
WOTV
41.1 ABC
41.2 GET TV
41.3 Grit
41.4 Radar (News 8 )
WZPX
43.1 ION
43.2 Qubo
43.3 ION Plus
43.4 SHOP
43.5 QVC
43.6 HSN
WTLJ
54.1 TCT HD
54.2 TCT SD
54.3 Light TV
WLLA
64.1 IND Religious
64.2 ME TV
64.3 Retro TV
The only one I don't get that I should is WZZM 13, it's 35 miles from me and the signal needs to cut across most of the city to get to me, but, I can get ABC from WOTV, so all I miss from them is the local stuff (for what that's worth, I can stream the news online from them) and the sub channels.
Also, since I mentioned it in my original post, within a week of the repack taking place, T-Mobile turned on the towers that they had pre-installed the 600MHz equipment on while waiting for the repack. That equipment was also capable of 5G (at 600MHz), and they flipped the switch for that on Dec. 6. That helped to fill in holes for my cell coverage, no more dropped calls, and a little more than half of the time I can get a 5G signal in the West Michigan area (at least in the places I have been). This is not the Millimeter Wave service with the 1 gbps plus speeds, (and the range of a WIFI router) but with 600 MHz, the signals travel further and have better building penetration. So far the best speed I've gotten is 238 Mbps down/53.7Mbps up. It's a modest improvement, on 4G LTE the highest I got was 168 down/40 up, and it averaged from 80 -120 down and 20-40 up.
Anyway, thanks all for the additional info and Happy Holidays!