RePack Phase 8 started

[SolarMax]

AFAIK,
WPXD 31 (RF 24) is on its new antenna on the 11 Mile Rd. candelabra.
WWJ-TV 62 (44) and WTVS 56 (20) are on from atop the 8 Mile Rd. candelabra, having moved off the "community" temp side mount.
WMYD 20 (21 - 8 Mile Rd,) and WKBD 50 (34 - 11 Mile Rd.)switched at Phase 3 last June, and have not changed.
Don't know if everyone is at full power.

[tvbobn]

AFAIK,
WPXD 31 (RF 24) is on its new antenna on the 11 Mile Rd. candelabra.
WWJ-TV 62 (44) and WTVS 56 (20) are on from atop the 8 Mile Rd. candelabra, having moved off the "community" temp side mount.
WMYD 20 (21 - 8 Mile Rd,) and WKBD 50 (34 - 11 Mile Rd.)switched at Phase 3 last June, and have not changed.
Don't know if everyone is at full power.

WTVS is not on their final antenna yet. They are using the side mount antenna until their new top mount antenna is mounted in a few weeks by helicopter. They still need to install completely new hard line up the tower. I don't know about power levels.

[SolidGoldDancers]

Running both transmitters at the same time completely freaked out my HDHomerun. Once I updated to the latest firmware, it settled down but it seemed that it simply would not let go of the old channel regardless of scans.

[audiophile]

AFAIK,
WPXD 31 (RF 24) is on its new antenna on the 11 Mile Rd. candelabra.
WWJ-TV 62 (44) and WTVS 56 (20) are on from atop the 8 Mile Rd. candelabra, having moved off the "community" temp side mount.
WMYD 20 (21 - 8 Mile Rd,) and WKBD 50 (34 - 11 Mile Rd.)switched at Phase 3 last June, and have not changed.
Don't know if everyone is at full power.

WTVS is not on their final antenna yet. They are using the side mount antenna until their new top mount antenna is mounted in a few weeks by helicopter. They still need to install completely new hard line up the tower. I don't know about power levels.

I second this. The 56 tower crew hasn't even arrived.

[SolarMax]

I second this. The 56 tower crew hasn't even arrived.

Sorry, was working from incorrect information from a usually good source!

[jimh]

Re WDIV on new Channel 32:

At the moment WDIV are transmitting at 1-MegaWatt ERP from 840-feet using their auxiliary side mount antenna. That is really quite a lot of power and elevation, so the reception should not be horribly down from their expected signal when they move to their top-mount antenna. The radio horizon for 840-feet is about 41-miles; for 1,000-feet the radio horizon increases to about 45-miles.

The top-mount antenna installation will take a while, because delivery of the new top-mount antenna has been delayed. I would expect that WDIV will not be transmitting from their top-mount antenna until perhaps June or July.

Here is a plot of the relative field strength of the WDIV Ch-32 Auxiliary antenna. The 1.000 field is for 1-MegaWatt effective radiated power (ERP) and occurs at the 230 degree heading.



Note there is a deep null in the pattern to the southeast, to protect stations in Canada. Also, the USA only extends about 17-miles in that direction, as farther than that is Canada. Reducing radiated power in that quadrant makes sense in light of the function of the station to broadcast to the USA, not to Canada.

The antenna is just west of Greenfield Road and just north of 10-1/2-mile or Lincoln. If you are located on a heading from 120 to 180-degrees true from the antenna, the ERP will be down to 414-kW or lower, and to as low as 192-kW (at the 130-degree bearing).

Here is plot as filed with the FCC for the WDIV Ch-32 main antenna, yet to be installed. The 1.000 field is 872-kW, which occurs at the 240-degree heading:



The main antenna has more even coverage, and the power reduction in the southeast quadrant is much less, about 0.600 or 525-kW ERP.

These plots comes from

https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&appid=2507 ... acid=53114

and are based on data filed with the FCC

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/datae ... 8850471a19

You should be able to find similar data for any TV station using the FCCDATA.ORG website or the FCC.GOV website.

For calculation of radio horizon distances, see:

http://continuouswave.com/radio/radioHorizon.html

[WOHO]

Radio World reported today that repacks will be extended due to the virus to kill our social life and economy.

[WOHO]

Radio World reported today that repacks will be extended due to the virus to kill our social life and economy.

[km1125]

I can see them relaxing some due dates because of equipment availability issues, but would not expect them to stop progress.

Does anybody know what the real issue with WHNE is? What type of equipment did they need that it had to come from overseas?

I'm not having any issue picking up WDIV from their temp antenna, but my reception of WWJ has not been as stable as it used to be.

[jimh]

I'm not having any [problem] picking up WDIV from their temp antenna...

A TV station's auxiliary antenna is not a temporary structure. Auxiliary antennas will be there for a long time. Stations often have to switch to their auxiliary antenna in order to allow work to be done on the top of the tower, so use of the auxiliary antenna is on-going.

[Splouge]

I'm getting all Detroit stations except WUDL and WLPC at my house in Melvindale

[windsor]

I'm getting all Detroit stations except WUDL and WLPC at my house in Melvindale

same here in east Windsor no WUDL and WLPC...……

[szmigiel]

Does anybody know what the real issue with WHNE is? What type of equipment did they need that it had to come from overseas?

From WHNE
"Our new broadcast antenna was ordered from a company in Pennsylvania. They needed a custom made part for the antenna. They ordered this part from a specialty company in Italy about 6 weeks ago. Little did anyone know that because of the coronavirus this company has been all but shut down for the last 4 weeks. The custom part is supposed to be ready to ship, but they can't because of a quarantine on shipping in Italy!

Bottom line here in Detroit is WHNE will be off the air for at least another week. We are exploring all avenues to find a way to get this part or another one made somewhere to replace this custom part."

[km1125]

I'm not having any [problem] picking up WDIV from their temp antenna...

A TV station's auxiliary antenna is not a temporary structure. Auxiliary antennas will be there for a long time. Stations often have to switch to their auxiliary antenna in order to allow work to be done on the top of the tower, so use of the auxiliary antenna is on-going.

Yea, that was a bad word to use. I really meant their "temporary situation", knowing they'll eventually be on a main antenna which should provide a better pattern, even if just marginally.

[Splouge]

WHNE is going to be switching to virtual channel 3. On their Facebook, they made a post referring to their movie channel as "soon to be on channel 3.6"