We have identified two problems. First is that DirecTV has delisted WOHL (ABC & CBS) from your set top box. This is their choice and not ours. There is nothing we can do for you.
The other issue is that services such as DirecTV depend on web sites such as AntennaWeb.org for their station data. I have found that their databases are woefully inaccurate. Further, they are unreachable, so there is no way to make corrections.
If you are a DirecTV subscriber, here is what I would suggest you do. Contact DirecTV, and as their customer complain. I've heard from numerous people that when they threatened to cancel and go with Dish Network, they received an immediate reduction in their subscription of up to $20.00 p/month.
However, keep in mind that if you have an A/B switch on your TV, you can get FREE over the air TV. Connect a UHF/VHF antenna to your TV. The money you save on the subscription will pay for your antenna in a few months.
Again, this is not the station's fault. This is a choice made by DirecTV, so please direct your displeasure toward them.
Fred Vobbe
WOHL Engineering
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WLIO's engineering department is seeking reception reports from viewers of our new UHF Channel 35 digital transmitter.WOHL-DC UHF Channel 35 is operating with a power of 9,000 watts with an omni-directional antenna. The transmitter is located at 1424 Rice Avenue, on the west side of Lima, OH.
We are seeking the following information.
1) Your address, or nearest cross-street, and city.
2) How well is the signal received. If you have a signal meter, give us a reading such as 80% or 9 on a scale of 10.
3) How does the signal strength compare to other stations, including our own WLIO VHF Channel 8 digital.
4) A brief description of your antenna system. Rabbit ears, or do you have a tower? How high is the tower? What kind of antenna are you using?
5) How are you receiving us? On a converter, dish TV set-top box, or a digital TV set?
E-mail to fred@wlio.com or you can click the Contact Me link at the right to make a report.
Please pass this on to friends and family. I'm especially looking for reports in outside of Allen County.
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( 3 / 181 )On Saturday, December 6, 2008, 11:36, Greg Oen wrote:
Hi Fred, I did another antenna installation Friday (and nearly froze my fingers off)! We were located 3 - 4 miles south of St Marys on SR 66. We installed a 3' tripod and put a Channel Master 4228HD (their new 8 - bay) on a 10' mast pipe in the tripod. I used a Winegard 8275 preamp since Dayton is 55 - 60 miles away and the signals from the Lima stations aren't strong enough to cause overload problems.
The system worked better than I expected, considering the lack of height. We not only received all the Dayton digital stations; we also got a nearly perfect analog signal from WHIO (ch. 7). As I expected, your channel 8 signal came in beautifully after a little fine tuning with the aiming. We even pulled WBGU's digital signal up on channel 56. Mind you this was with the antenna pointed south (away from their, and your location.) Plus, we split the signal between a Sharp HDTV and a bedroom TV which will use a converter box. The only station we couldn't get was WTLW and I found I couldn't get them when I got home eithor. Apparently they're having problems of their own. They're off the air as I type this Saturday morning.
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( 3 / 221 )A viewer sent me this Article on TV Antennas, and said it provided a lot of good information. I have to agree.
Although this is old information, (from the 50s?), it is well worth reading. Ignore the highly technical stuff if you are not into radio and television, or engineering. But the overall scope of the article in the aiming, positioning, and cabling of antennas is very good.
Fred
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( 3 / 300 )It's funny how the more we advance, the more things stay the same. Take for example a viewer trying to get distant stations. Such was the case with one of our viewers in Putnam County who not only wanted to see WLIO's signal, but also the Toledo stations and Fort Wayne.
I had suggested that he look at one single antenna, on a small tower on his farm. However, he did some research and found an article about stacking two or more antennas together for added gain. The result? Read below....
Dear Fred,
I took your suggestion for the antenna on a 30 foot tower. It worked well, and I could get your station, as well as all the other stations in Lima. I also received Bowling Green and some of the Fort Wayne stations in both regular and digital.
Since we had a little down time on the farm, I did some fishing on the Internet and found an article about stacking antennas. I got curious if it would help and I purchased another antenna. After installing it, all I can say is WOW! I could get all the Lima stations, Fort Wayne, and Toledo. I even had channel 9 from Canada on with some snow, but that is 100 miles away.
I'm sending you the article. Thanks again for your help! This antenna works great.
Ted
Here is the article that Ted sent to me. The amazing thing? Look at the date of the article. Some things don't change, do they?
From The June 1975 Issue Of ELECTRONIC TECHNICIAN/DEALER
Stacking TV Antennas
By James E. Kluge
The author is a technical editor in the Engineering & Research Division of the Winegard Company.
The improved directivity achieved by stacking antennas can significantly reduce or eliminate many types of television interference.
Multiple TV-antenna arrays, reminiscent of the ‘50s, are making a reappearance around the country. Today, however, the principal reason for stacking antennas is not only to achieve increased gain out in the fringe areas, but also to solve interference problems through the use of highly directional antenna arrays.
Many urban areas today are plagued with multiple high-rise buildings and heavy users of electrical power, both of which cause television interference (TVI) problems. Typical TVI problems include ghosts, electrical noise and interfering radio signals which usually arrive from a direction slightly off axis from that in which the antenna is pointed. Ground reflections, ignition noise and reflections off moving ground or airborne reflectors, such as trucks and large aircraft, arrive from above or below and cause picture breakup.
Proper stacking of today’s highly sophisticated TV antennas can significantly improve directivity and selectivity, as well as gain.
OPERATION OF A SINGLE YAGI
The Yagi antenna, the most commonly used type for TV, "sees" electromagnetic radio waves in a manner similar to the way we see. Our eyes see in the general direction in which our head is pointed. Similarly, the Yagi antenna "sees" in the general direction in which its boom is pointed. When viewed from above (Fig. 1), the Yagi antenna’s outline more or less resembles an arrowhead because it tapers out from front to rear. The taper is more pronounced in broad-band antennas than in single-channel antennas. The arrowhead formed by the antenna should, generally speaking, point in the direction from which the desired signal is arriving; i.e., toward the TV transmitter.
Ideally, a TV receiving antenna should "look" in a straight-line path toward the transmitting antenna and "see" nothing above, below or to either side. Not being ideal, of course, even the best TV antennas "see" a considerable amount of undesirable signals arriving from an angle off the axis of the antenna, just as our eyes have some side vision. These signals can cause ghosts and other interference patterns on the TV screen.
A Yagi antenna is made up of many parallel elements arranged along a common axis in a horizontal plane and all oriented toward the signal source. The length, spacing and phasing of each element relative to that of the others determines how the.voltages induced in individual elements reinforce (add) at the antenna terminals. The elements are arranged and spaced so that the signal wavefront arrives at each element sequentially and so that the voltage induced in each antenna element combines at the antenna terminals with voltages from the other elements, to yield an optimized voltage which produces maximum gain over the desired bandwidth.
If the signal arrives from a source above or below the horizontal plane of the antenna, it will arrive at all of the Yagi elements simultaneously instead of sequentially. Under these conditions, the combined voltage at the antenna terminals will be something less than the optimum for which the antenna was designed.
VERTICAL STACKING
Stacking two identical antennas on a common vertical mast significantly narrows the vertical beam-width angle. That is, vertically stacked antennas more effectively reject those interfering signals arriving from above or below their horizontal plane than does a single antenna. It’s as though they were looking through a horizontal venetian blind. Because there’s nothing mounted to the side of either antenna, their side-to-side vision is virtually uneffected. In the process, gain increases about 2.5 dB over that of a single antenna.
Vertical stacking improves both gain and vertical directivity. This helps reduce airplane flutter and attendant picture roll, and certain types of ground noise and ground reflections.
The basic principle of stacked antennas involves the difference in the time of arrival, and therefore the phase, of signals intercepted by the antenna combination. If a pair of identical Yagi antennas are mounted one above the other, a wavelength apart, on a common vertical mast and are oriented identically (pointed) toward the signal source, any TV signals traveling horizontally and arriving from any direction will be intercepted simultaneously by both antennas.
Those signals arriving on axis from the direction in which the antenna is pointed will be strongest.
Because the antennas are identical, the generated signal voltages arriving at the output terminals shared by the antennas will be in phase, causing them to add directly. Theoretically, there should be a 3 dB increase (double) in signal power over that of a single antenna, but, because of losses in the coupler and cable, the actual gain increase will be somewhat less than 3 dB.
An important point to remember is that, regardless of the azimuth angle between the antenna orientation and the signal source, the arriving signal will strike any given identical points on the two antennas simultaneously. However, if the signal is arriving from a source above or below the horizontal plane of the antenna, the previous statement is no longer true. For example, if the wavefront is from a source below the plane of the antenna, the signal will arrive first at the lower antenna and the signal voltage from the top antenna will lag the signal from the lower antenna. The signal voltages at the antenna output terminals will no longer be in phase, and partial cancellation will take place. The opposite is true if the signal arrives from above (Fig.2C).
The angle of arrival and the resultant difference in arrival time causes a phase difference which reduces the magnitude of the combined voltages. You should begin to see now why two vertically stacked, identical antennas have a more restricted "vision" to signals arriving from a point above or below the horizontal plane than does a single antenna.
HORIZONTAL STACKING
Stacking two identical antennas side by side in a horizontal plane significantly narrows the horizontal beam-width angle, as shown in Fig. 4. That is, the antenna combination, like a horse wearing blinders, "sees" fewer interfering signals arriving from the sides while its vision up and down (in a vertical plane) is virtually unaffected. In the process, gain increases approximately 1.2 dB over that of a single antenna.
If two identical antennas are arranged side by side in a horizontal / plane and the signal wavefront arrives directly from the front, each antenna "sees" the same wave or field at the same time. If the wavefront arrives from a source above or below, the same is still true, except that the individual antennas are not operating as efficiently. However, if the wavefront arrives from one side or the other , the antenna on the side from which the signal is arriving will "feel" the signal first, causing the voltages induced in each antenna to be out of phase. This, in turn, causes partial cancellation of the antenna voltages when they are combined.
The up and down (vertical) "vision" of a horizontal stack is comparable to that of a single antenna, but its side-to-side "vision" is more restricted.
QUAD_STACKS
Stacking four identical antennas, two vertically and two horizontally in a rectangular or diamond pattern, restricts the vision of this combination in all directions off the axis. Called a quad stack, it "sees" as though it were looking through a tube pointed in the direction of the transmitting antenna. Gain is increased approximately 4 to 5 dB over that of a single antenna.
GENERAL TECHNIQUES
Before you start putting up an array, you should be aware of the following basic considerations which apply to dual and quad stacking of antennas:
1. Stack only identical antennas.
2. Maintain approximately one wavelength spacing (at lowest channel frequency) between antennas.
3. Cut phasing lines or connecting cables to equal lengths.
4. Length and phase of twin-lead interconnecting harnesses is critical.
5. Horizontal supports should be nonmetallic.
6. Avoid running interconnecting cables horizontally.
Vertical stacking is easier than horizontal stacking simply because in vertical stacks the antennas mount on a common vertical mast and spacing is easily adjusted.
However, with the excellent gain and high directivity of most Yagis today, vertical stacking is seldom necessary. If additional gain is needed, two vertically stacked identical antennas spaced more than ‘/2 wavelength apart will increase signal power by 3dB compared to that of one antenna. However, part of the increased gain will be lost in the connecting cables and the coupler.
Horizontally stacked antennas also must be spaced so that their booms are separated by a distance equal to more than ‘/2 wavelength of the lowest channel frequency. This spacing is needed to prevent the tips of the longest reflector elements from touching. Also, the horizontal supports must be nonmetallic; redwood or cedar 2’ x 4’ s are commonly used.
The severe ghosts caused by high-rise buildings, water towers and mountains can be reduced or eliminated by horizontally stacking two Yagis. However, the wavelength of a channel 2 signal exceeds 17 feet, making such an array for channel 2 unwieldy, heavy and subject to damage from ice and/or high wind. Fortunately, ghosting is more of a problem at high-band channels, and high-band antenna dimensions are significantly smaller. For these reasons, usually only high-band Yagis are stacked horizontally.
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( 3 / 292 )If you are looking for more information on DTV, the Federal Communications Commission has several publications that are good reading.
A simple guide to the Digital Television Transition
A one pager on the basics of the Digital Transition
The DTV Transition and Over-the-Air Viewers Along U.S. Borders
Helpful if you live near Lake Erie and watch Canadian TV
Setting Up Your Digital-to-Analog Converter Box
Antennas and Digital Television
DTV Transition, Cable Systems to Switch to Digital
DTV: What Every Consumer Should Know
DTV Fact Sheet
Buying the Right TV: What Every Consumer Should Know
Closed Captioning for Digital Television
Closed Captioning and Digital-to-Analog Converter Boxes
Compatibility of Cable TV and Digital TV Receivers/"Plug-and-Play"
FCC web page
DTV Tip Sheet
DTV Shoppers Guide
The documents below are notices that any television sold after June 1st, that receives analog only must be disclosed to the buyer BEFORE the sale.
Advisory on Mandatory Labeling of Consumer Electronics Products with Only Analog Broadcast TV Tuners.
Advisory on Mandatory Labeling of Analog Tuners
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( 3 / 283 )Since this past Sunday, I have received over 100 telephone calls from worried WLIO watchers that they would miss WLIO this February 2009. Here is the not so short answer, and some additional answers to questions I have been asked.
If I'm on CABLE do I need a converter?
The answer is NO, as Bruce Opperman explained in the May 4th Lima News. (See a transcript of it on this blog page). All cable companies presently carrying WLIO have said that they will pick up our digital signal, and convert it to analog for those with basic cable and cable boxes. What is not known is how long they will do this. I think people will have analog TVs for a while, which will need the conversion.
HOWEVER, keep in mind that you are entitled to 2 set top converter boxes per household. You might as well get the coupons, and you might as well get the converters, and then stick them away. Or, they could make nice Christmas gifts this year.
If I'm on SATELLITE do I need a converter?
I don't know. Here's why. If you have a newer satellite box, chances are good that you may have an 8VSB/ATSC tuner in it for your local stations. This will allow you to receive WLIO-DT, and you should get it now if you want to force scanning to find us.
If you have an older box, they you probably will need a converter. The older satellite boxes do not have the digital tuner in them. So, you will need a converter.
If you don't want to get a converter, and have one more piece of electronic gadgetry on top of your TV, call the guy who sold you the satellite and get a new satellite receiver. You may also want to get a small antenna to pick up our signal.
Note: You are entitled to your local stations. WLIO is the local NBC and CW station for this region. Do not let a satellite provider talk you into getting a waiver. WLIO does not give out waivers. It's the satellite companies responsibility to get you your local NBC & CW. Besides, your missing local news, weather, sports, and information as well as emergency weather information which we provide.
BTW, speaking of satellite, both Dish and DirectTV had planned to carry WLIO, but backed out last year. If your satellite provider tells you that WLIO is not giving them permission to carry us, they are full of ..... signals. WLIO has offered to pay a portion of expenses to carry us on the satellite so the digital conversion would not be a problem to anyone. Both companies turned us down.
If I'm on a MATV system do I need a converter?
If your trailer park or apartment house has a "master antenna TV" system, you will need a converter as most operators of those systems do not have an interest in the equipment to receive a digital signal and convert it to analog. You need a converter box.
What type of antenna do I need?
WLIO-DT (channel 8) is a VHF station. WLIO (channel 35) is an UHF station. The antennas are different. If you have one of the old "bow tie" or "screen" antennas, it might not work.
First of all, keep this in mind when you're buying an antenna. There is NO such thing as a digital antenna. An antenna is an antenna. There are some charlatans out there selling plated gold color antennas for 10X what an antenna costs. Buyer beware! Here is a simple guide.
If you live in Lima, and only watch our station, you might get away with nothing more than a pair of rabbit ears antennas.
These are basic, and will work in most homes within 5 miles of the transmitter on a first floor, and 8 miles on the second floor.
The problem with rabbit ears antennas is that they often pick up reflections. This will cause signal breakup and sometimes loss of signal when someone moves around in the room.
You can find these for less than $25.00 at various stores in the surrounding area.
A small Yagi style antenna often works well in Allen County and some of the surrounding areas.If you're within 15-20 miles, you might be able to get away with mounting it on the soil stack on the roof of the house. The soil stack is the 4" round pipe that sticks up about 1 foot on your roof.
If you don't get a good solid signal, then you might have to extend it up 10-feet with a mast pipe or piece of water pipe.
With pole, brackets, wire, and antenna, you should walk out of the store having paid about $50.00-$60.00.
A large Yagi style antenna works well out in the distant counties. By distant I'm talking the counties to the west in Indiana just on the other side of the state line, south to Shelby and Logan, east to Marion and Wyandot, and north to Wood and Fulton.For viewers in Allen County and north, this should also work well for picking up the Toledo stations.
A large VHF antenna is going to run you about $75.00. With pole, brackets, and wire, you're looking at around $100.00.
Tower?If you get a tower, get something decent. One viewer related a story that his neighbor resurrected a tower that a neighbor gave him that was put up in the mid 70s. The neighbor sanded all the rust off it, (hint of first problem), then dug a hole and put the tower in it and bolted it to the side of his house. The first good wind came, and the tower was laying across the telephone lines in the driveway. It was rusted out from the inside.
Towers can be expensive, but a well kept tower will last for years. First, you don't just dig a hole an put it in. You dig a 24" x 24" hole, 3 feet deep, put gravel in the bottom 8-12", then put the tower in and fill with concrete. Also, make sure the concrete that touches the legs is higher than the edge of the concrete so water doesn't pool by the metal legs.
A ground rod should be driven in at least 4" from the concrete, and a #8 wire run from the tower from 1-foot above the concrete to the rod, in a straight line. Don't run grounds through the concrete as a lighting hit will shatter the concrete.
Any tower needs some supports. If you put the tower next to the house, at least install a bracket from the house to the tower at roughly the halfway point. For high towers, use the rule of thirds. If the tower is 60 feet high, you should have it braced at the 20 and 40-foot levels. Use guy wires or some attachment that is solid.
Also, keep in mind the fall rule. If the tower should fall over, would it contact any power lines? If so, you need to take more precautions.
If you want a professional tower, get a professional to install it. If you want a large tower, get a commercial tower installer. Yes, it is a more money than Bubba down the street, but you'll have the satisfaction and confidence of a job well done.
BTW, I had my tower installed by Great Lakes Tower out of Monroe MI, 734-782-3249. There are also some local Lima companies, but I have not had them do work at my home.
Do I Need a Booster?
Probably not. A booster is like putting a high performance engine in a Ford Fiesta. However, some people get talked into getting one to overcome the design flaws of a poorly installed antenna system. You should only use a booster if; a) you live out in the country, away from local FM and TV stations. b) if you have a high tower and big antenna system and you need a little more help to get Toledo or Fort Wayne. If you live in Allen, Auglaize, Hardin, Putnam, or Van Wert County, and someone sells you a booster to get WLIO-DT, you're being taken!
Again, I would like to urge everyone to get their coupons, and get your converters.
Every household is entitled to 2 converters, so get yours before the federal government runs out of coupons. And don't forget, you have 2-3 months to buy your converter. So if you have coupons, don't let them sit around and expire!
Here is to a safe, and pleasurable conversion to Digital Television.
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( 3 / 297 )The following was a question posed by one of our viewers and my answer.
Comment:
I recently had DirecTV installed and have the HR-20 HD DVR receiver. It has OTA input and when I set it up to list Lima stations, I see that I receive a fairly good signal strength from the CW station (35-2 on the DirecTV guide), however it never displays a picture. Even with other stations that have far less signal strength/quality, we will at least see a picture but we never do with either of the Lima stations. DO you know what could be the problem here? Is it the DirecTV receiver? Are DirecTV's mapping incorrect?
Do you know of anyone that is able to use the DirecTV HR-20 to view and record any of the Lima Digital stations?
Thanks,
Jim
DirectTV has some erroneous info that we have not been able to get them to correct.
WLIO-DT is not on 35-1 or 35-2. We’re on 8-1 for NBC, 8-2 for The CW, 8-3 for WeatherPlus.
Channel 8 is our digital channel.
Fred
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( 3 / 249 )Monday, March 24, 2008, 20:57
Comment:
I live in the country north of Kenton and about 27 miles from Lima. Our signals come through a 40-ft. tower and then into the house to a signal amplifier and then a splitter(there are two analog TV's with attached VCR's in the house). If I buy a converter box ( I have sent for the coupons), I assume the ideal location will be near the VCR to connect to. Do the converter boxes determine the digital channel number and then feed the signal to the TV on a certain channel, like it does with the analog signal (Channel 3 or 4), or is there a special setting like Input 1 or 2 needed on the TV? I am assuming that a converter box with a tuner is required, although I have seen some advertised without a tuner. Thanks for any helpful information on this subject.
You will need a converter for each analog TV.
What the converter will do is tune to a specific digital channel, (in our case channel 8), and then provide you with multiple outputs. If the output is RF on channels 3 or 4, then the analog TV and any devices connected to the converter would follow the converter.
The best way to use the converter is to receive the digital station over the air, but use the S-connector, DVI, or video/audio connectors off the converter to the TV. If you can stay away from converting to an RF signal, it will be a cleaner picture.
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( 2.9 / 346 )Friday, March 21, 2008, 17:18
Comment:
On two different TV sets tuned to WLIO DT 8.1, the image does not fill the screen but is, instead surrounded by a black "frame." In comparison, WLIO DT 8.2 and 8.3 and the other area digital signals fill the screen.
Any ideas of what's happening?
WLIO-DT sends out a signal in 16:9 format, which is standard HD.
When we’re transmitting SD, you should see a black band on either side of the picture, since SD does not fill the picture from side to side.
If you’re seeing black bands on the top and bottom, that usually means that the set needs to have the aspect ratio changed. On some sets we’ve noticed that the button on the TV is called “aspect”, on others it’s “picture”, and on still others it’s called “size”. Once the 16:9 mode is selected for WLIO, then it should stay that way.
We do not “fill” the HD screen with SD programming, stretching the picture to make it look HD. Other stations do it to make it look like HD. That, in my opinion, is not HD or true 16:9 format. Plus it distorts the picture by putting everything out of correct aspect ratio.
Fred
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