Antennas: Threat or menace?

By adamg on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 6:57pm

A few weeks after antenna problems waylaid WBZ over the air, Emerson's WERS is reporting antenna problems that is knocking it off the air. The Emerson station reports, however, its online livestream is working fine.

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Comments

WBZ

By aldos on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 8:26pm.

I've been experiencing continued weak signals with channels 4, 5, and 44 since the original WBZ problem. Apparently this is related to ongoing repairs at the transmitter(s)... Does anyone know when it will actually be resolved?

TV Antennas?!! — They're From The Stone Age!

By Elmer on Fri, 11/11/2016 - 2:10am.

IMAGE(https://elmercatdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/antenna.jpg)

Not really

By cybah on Fri, 11/11/2016 - 10:16am.

(I know you are joking but..)

Antenna's have greatly improved. As a kid, we didn't have cable, just an antenna so I remember the days of static and 'ghosting' of images. Or watching a channel that only came in at a certian time of day, or if you adjusted the pieces of tin foil just right :-)

Those days are gone. Now if the signal is weak, you just get digital garbage (frozen/blocky image and/or garbled sound). Most of the time, either you get the signal or you don't. It's pretty nifty. I get around ~30 some odd channels with a amplified antenna next to my TV. Most come in issue free.

Of course I'm going to lose NBC come Jan 1, since WBTS's ("NBC Boston") signal is so low, I can't get it. They went live with OTA with a "countdown to NBC" on 8.2 yesterday for NBC and I can't get 8.x anything so I guess I will be losing NBC. ugh.

Antenna or Digital?

By Aeroguy on Fri, 11/11/2016 - 10:48am.

Most of the time, either you get the signal or you don't.

That's usually a characteristic of digital processing. When the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is high enough, most of the bits can be correctly decoded and the few badly decoded bits can be corrected. When the SNR decreases and most bit cannot be decoded correctly, the picture goes away.

Source for Updates

By Irma la Douce on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 9:21pm.

WGBH has been providing daily updates of the repair saga, which you can read here:

http://www.wgbh.org/about/Tower_and_Transmission_Signal_Issues.cfm?ud=DB...

The power was shut off to the antenna last week in order to facilitate permanent repairs,this process has been afflicted by major setbacks. I have been unable to receive channels 4 and 5 and 44 for the past week (meaning that on election night I was pretty much stuck watching NBC coverage). Channel 2 was missing for a few days, but is back.

They are still working on the

By David Plantz on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 11:37pm.

They are still working on the problem. They ran into an issue last night and had to go back to the lower powered temp antennas. This page shows the status of the repair.

Front page broken?

By LadyKatey on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 9:34pm.

Is it just me or is the front page a little busted looking? The stylesheet isn't loading or something. It's a very retro look.

No, not just you

By adamg on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 10:13pm.

You're getting the mobile version, I think, because there's something screwy in the software that checks your browser type and serves you either the mobile or desktop templayes. Can I ask what browser and OS you're using?