Wichita KS DTV/HDTV resource thread (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Coleman]

Hello all, I posted this on AVS Forum also,
May 1 2002 is soon approching so I figured I would start a thread about our locals going digital.
I just got off of the phone with the engineer from the local WB station KWCV Digital CH. 31 and it looks like they WILL be broadcasting in Digital starting May 1. It will just be upconverted from 480I to 480P at first but it should be an improvement from the cable or OTA anaolog signal. It is too bad the WB doesn't have any HDTV programming yet. He did say they would go on full power for the first couple of months.
I think all of the rest of the stations filed for an extension except KPTS the PBS affiliate which doesn't have to be ready until next year anyway.
I think the next station to go digital will be KAKE the ABC affiliate on digital CH. 21 last I heard they were shooting for early spring. I have a call in to their head engineer and will post back when I hear something.
If anybody wants to read all of the extension requests they can be found here on the form just select service as digital TV select CP extension under application type and put KS for Kansas in the state box.
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I also have links to maps of where all of the towers will be located. It looks like they were all smart enough to put them in the same general direction from Wichita- NW. It looks like KWCH will have the furthest tower about 40 miles from Wichita but that still shouldn't be a problem. Here are the links.
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It looks like all of the extensions that were filed by our locals were granted so let's hope they are all online by 11/01/2002.
If anybody wants to call some other stations or has anything to add feel free to post it here. Maybe if there are enough people in Wichita we can get a newsletter going or something.
Thanks
Kevin C.

 

[Mike I]

WB will have 3 or 4 HD Primetime programs this fall..The WB network is doing 720p

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Cool thanks Mike.
It looks like I will be using my Dish 6000 to tune my OTA since my DTC-100 won't output 720P natively.
The engineer I talked to said even if the WB did do some HD they don't have the facilities yet to receive it from the network. Hopefully they will have their stuff in place by this fall.
He did say something funny though he said he was going to ask his management if when WB shows a movie in HD if they would let him get a copy on digital tape and just show it instead without any commercials, now that would rock.
Kevin C.

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Yahoo!!
WB is on the air with a test signal. The first digital signal in Wichita. I am getting a signal strength of 90-94 on my dish network 6000 and about 85-90 with my DTC-100.
Oddly enough on both receivers it comes in on CH. 33 not 31 which is where it is supposed to be. Wierd.
I talked to Marty Heffner the engineer and he wasn't sure why it was coming in on 33-01 either. He said they would probably have some prime time programming on there by the end of the week and maybe as early as tomorrow night. He said they are upconverting everything to 1080I.
I am using a large rooftop radio shack antenna right now. I will try a smaller indoor antenna tonight and get back with you guys.
Hopefully this will push some of the other locals to get off their asses and get theirs done.
Kevin C.

 

[Mike I]

Many channels remap their digital channel number to their analog channel number..Is the analog channel number 33?

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Yes it is Mike.
So my receiver goes to 033 first then to 033-01 for the digital channel.
Kevin C.

 

[Bill Cowmeadow]

Kevin, this is indeed about time, but as for Wichita stations getting off their asses, I'm not holding my breath. Incompetent comes to mind. Now, off to check channel 33.

Bill

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Hey Bill,
I did finally talk to Dale Morell the head engineer at KAKE the ABC affiliate and he said they are shooting for some time in June. He also said they would be passing HDTV from the start. Basically whatever ABC sends him.
I also tried out a cheap radio shack brand indoor powered UHF antenna and I was able to secure a 92% signal indoors.
With the same antenna the analog 33 wasn't even watchable.
Kevin C.

 

[Bill Cowmeadow]

We have a roof top antenna and getting 93 on the signal strength on CH-33. The color bars are kind of handy, I can tweak the picture with them while waiting for someting in HD.

And yes, Channel 33 is mapping thier HD CH-31 to its analog location.

Please post new info as you get it, Thanks. Impatiently waiting for something in HD.

Bill

 

[Mike I]

Kevin

You are actually receiving the WB digital channel on the 31-1 frequency...Many local broadcasters to eliminate confusion remap the digital channel so it appears as the same channel number as the analog signal...What becomes a pain in the ass is when the local broadcaster can not make up it's mind what it wants to do and switches back and forth, like one of our local digital broadcasters in Orlando keeps doing...

 

[Nick Graham]

I will be moving to Salina (about an hour from Wichita).

I will be picking up an HDTV soon...any chance I will be able to pick these up with decent signal strength?

 

[Kevin Coleman]

I think Salina is about 90 miles from Colwich by car.
It should be a little less by air. So I would be willing to bet if you got a fairly tall rooftop antenna and the stations were running at full power you should be able to pull them in.
Especially CBS and PBS as their towers are further north than Colwich, they are in Hutchison.
Kevin C.