DTV report
So I dusted the cobwebs out from behind (and the front) of the television, and hooked up the "Apex" digital converter box. Since the antenna rotator lies, I ran in and out several times to check before I got the antenna pointed at Chicago. Then I let the box scan for digital signals. As I had expected, nothing usable was found.
Next I tried pointing the antenna at Rockford. An errant tree branch gets in the way of fully pointing the antenna west, and I had to settle for south west, more or less. I guess we'll have to climb up on the roof and prune that branch.
Anyway, let the box scan and this time it found two stations from Rockford. WQRF (formerly ch. 39) is a FOX affiliate (ewwww, not gonna watch their news much) but their signal is pretty clear when the antenna points in the right direction. WTVO (formerly ch. 17, ABC affiliate) also has a readable signal, and has a subchannel so that's a total of three stations (or two, if you're honest) with admittedly good signals but worthless content. We used to get about 10, including a PBS affiliate and Chicago's award-winning WGN independent, with some snow but mostly watchable if you really wanted to.
According to the FCC engineers, we are supposed to be able to receive 9 stations at this location, taking power levels, antenna patterns, and even landforms and elevation into account. I guess they used the same data measurement equipment that they used to prove that BPL worked and caused no interference to other services. Of course, there's no way to manually tell the box to add any given station to its menu. It has to scan and find them itself. Consequently, even if we could receive all 9 stations, we couldn't get them all on the menu at once, because 5 are from Chicago (ESE) and 4 are from Rockford (W). Switching from a Chicago station to a Rockford station would require reorienting the antenna, then rescanning the channels, then selecting the desired channel. Poorly designed equipment for a poorly planned protocol, I'd say.
In any case, we can now receive news and weather from two mediocre stations, so we're not totally cut off. On the other paw, the chances of either of us wasting time watching "The Bachelorette" or "The Newlyweds" is nil. (This is prime time on ABC? I knew that things had deteriorated into so-called reality shows and NASCAR but this is utter, brain-killing mush.) The second subchannel of 17 was running Dr. Phil, which is even worse than reality TV in my opinion.
Next I tried pointing the antenna at Rockford. An errant tree branch gets in the way of fully pointing the antenna west, and I had to settle for south west, more or less. I guess we'll have to climb up on the roof and prune that branch.
Anyway, let the box scan and this time it found two stations from Rockford. WQRF (formerly ch. 39) is a FOX affiliate (ewwww, not gonna watch their news much) but their signal is pretty clear when the antenna points in the right direction. WTVO (formerly ch. 17, ABC affiliate) also has a readable signal, and has a subchannel so that's a total of three stations (or two, if you're honest) with admittedly good signals but worthless content. We used to get about 10, including a PBS affiliate and Chicago's award-winning WGN independent, with some snow but mostly watchable if you really wanted to.
According to the FCC engineers, we are supposed to be able to receive 9 stations at this location, taking power levels, antenna patterns, and even landforms and elevation into account. I guess they used the same data measurement equipment that they used to prove that BPL worked and caused no interference to other services. Of course, there's no way to manually tell the box to add any given station to its menu. It has to scan and find them itself. Consequently, even if we could receive all 9 stations, we couldn't get them all on the menu at once, because 5 are from Chicago (ESE) and 4 are from Rockford (W). Switching from a Chicago station to a Rockford station would require reorienting the antenna, then rescanning the channels, then selecting the desired channel. Poorly designed equipment for a poorly planned protocol, I'd say.
In any case, we can now receive news and weather from two mediocre stations, so we're not totally cut off. On the other paw, the chances of either of us wasting time watching "The Bachelorette" or "The Newlyweds" is nil. (This is prime time on ABC? I knew that things had deteriorated into so-called reality shows and NASCAR but this is utter, brain-killing mush.) The second subchannel of 17 was running Dr. Phil, which is even worse than reality TV in my opinion.