Quote:
Originally Posted by jr_tech
Jeffhs said:
"Channel 19 has 3.720 megawatts of power, so there is (or should be) no excuse for it not reaching my area, even today "
No! The transmitter that you are talking about was SHUTDOWN a few years ago when most analog TV stations were turned off. As indicated in the above post, WOIO now transmitts on channel 10 at much lower power, although it kept its channel 19 "branding" as its virtual channel.
73,
jr
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I don't know what you are talking about. I remember when channel 19 went on the air in Cleveland, in 1985; at that time the station had 3.720 megawatts ERP and came in just fine at my former residence in suburban Cleveland. I do not remember reading or hearing anything to the effect that the signal was being reduced to 9.5 kW ERP, but then again, I wouldn't notice it anyway if it had dropped by such a huge amount since I watch that station, and all other Cleveland TV stations, via streaming video on my Roku player. The only reason I can come up with for channel 19 having such a tremendous drop in ERP output is that the station's transmitter was hit by lightning six months after its initial sign on; the station's signal has not been the same since.
Channel 19's move to DTV channel 10 was a huge mistake, and the station is paying a high price for it since its OTA signal now does not reach anywhere east of the city of Cleveland; in fact, the further east of Cleveland you go, the worse the reception becomes until you get to my area (38 miles from all Cleveland TV transmitters) and beyond, at which point the signal simply disappears or is so weak as to be unwatchable. This means the station is losing fully half of its viewing audience; however, I do not believe the station's licensee or owner even cares. If they did, they would have put their DTV signal on a UHF station, not channel 10. They could have done the same thing channel 23 in Akron did when that station went digital--they simply put their digital signal on channel 23 and did not look back.
Why channel 19 did not do the same thing is beyond me. If they had, there would be no reception problems east of Cleveland. They put up a translator for the Akron area; why on earth didn't they do the same for the area east of the city of Cleveland?
The station is operated by Raycom Media, which I am sure could have afforded to put up a translator for 19 to cover the dead zone east of the city.
Oh well. This just means more business (and money) for the cable and satellite providers, not to mention TV antenna manufacturers. The ones in the area east of Cleveland and the Akron area are probably getting more business these days than they can shake a stick at.
BTW, the PDF files showing channel 3's and 19's technical information are well over my head. Please remember, I am not a television engineer or television expert; in fact, my TV "repair" skills were limited to changing tubes, back when televisions were built using them. The beginning of the solid-state TV era, and later the flat-screen era, brought my limited TV "repairs" to an absolute, screeching halt. What is the use of knowing anything about how a flat screen television works, anyway? These things are designed to be throwaways when they develop the least little bit of trouble after the warranty expires.