Another analog station bites the dust
 

Detroit has had "ION" TV on channel LP-48 (I think?) for many years now. Rather than the usual spanish language nonsense, or TV preachers, Ion actually had normal programming. (Lots of crappy CBS shows). I never even knew they were a Detroit channel, they seemed vaguely Canadian with all their wholsome sugar-coated goodness. Last month I probably watched it for an hour when they actually had a decent show playing. Sometimes I'd tune in and they just had a "no signal" message transmitting, as if I was watching digital!

Anyways, I was happy they existed because it meant I could at least receive a half-decent picture on the ol' Zenith roundie that lives in my unheated/uncooled breezeway. I've never bothered to connect a converter, but I'd occasionally turn the set on for visitors who seemed interested. I did just that today, and instead of some Jerry Bruckhiemer dreck, was greeted with this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...MjM1LmpwZw.jpg

Which contained a scroll telling me to re-scan my converter box... Which is fairly dumb because I'm evidently not using a convertor box if I can see the message, but I got their point. (A message saying they'd moved to a digital transmission would have made more sense.)

So I "rescanned", as in turned the UHF knob and found this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...MjM5LmpwZw.jpg

An actual Canadian channel (42) which came in well enough for me to see it was Olympic rowing, but not enough to even tune in color worms. The set has only the most marginal UHF loop attached to it. There was also another very weak channel, religious I believe. At some point I plan to put up a good outdoor antenna for some LP DX'ing.

If your curious what the set looks like:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...MjM4LmpwZw.jpg

I got this set perhaps 6-7 years ago in a home where it was still connected to cable in a basement outside Toledo. The picture tube was replaced at some point before I got it. It has the later Zenith-style yellow ring just begining to show. No other service work since I got it beyond simple gray-scale and convergence touch ups. Set was in a heavy smoker house when I got it. Did some cleaning, but the chassis has never been removed. It just works, even though temps in that room go below freezing to above 100.

Loosing these analogue stations is a shame. There are so few left and they are the only true way to enjoy watching these older analogue TV's. Its not the same with a cable box (or digital converter box if you are not a subscriber to cable TV). I do NOT enjoy watching DVD (or the older VHS tapes) on them either as it seems too artificial. Its fun to watch the TV like how it once was where the TV was receiving the raw signal out of the air and "doing all the work on its own". Having to use the cable box (or the other aforementioned devices) is like having the TV on life support. We have lost a lot.

PS, you have posted this topic in the wrong forum. Please consider posting in the appropriate forum in the future my friend.

Uhh, no he didn't. This forum is just fine. But I wholeheartedly agree w/you on the loss of OTA analog transmissions.

Look all, I don't want to tick anybody off. I suppose this could have gone in the digital forum (since that's what it's really about). I guess I just figured since I observed it on one of my Zenith roundies, that I'd post the photos here.

You can feel free to move the posting.

All of the low powered UHF channels are all gone around these parts..

dido

but usely never go there so i would never had seen it.:D

The last analog channel I personally witnessed was KYW, where a test pattern could be seen quite a while past 6-12-09 with a scrolling message.

Oddly it was this area's first channel by far ..WRCV Philadelphia VHF - 3

And I usta be tickled to death if I got a '53-'65 set with fact'ry UHF tuner.

Nice Zenith Carmine, there's never too many beauties like that here.

I bet they left Detroit on extra long because its such an economically impoverished failing city. Residents cant afford flatties or converters.

The last two UHFs were turned off here about a year ago.

San Diego......We just have the Mexican stations left. I think all UHF. We get two "just okay"...and on a REAL good day maybe four. There IS one English language station still coming in from some distance, but no idea where it's from.

I'm doing the home transmitter thing. I have a DVD player, COX cable box....and a media player into a switcher, and then into a little 50mw "HLLY" transmitter. I'm still sort of "utilizing" the whole TV set to get a signal. The set has to see channel 13 to get my "station" anywhere within about 300 feet.

You should get that ch6 station nice and strong in sandeigo. The mexican religious station that also has a full FM MPX carrier in it so it comes in on the FM dial too

Yeah....I think I remember that "XETV" or something WAY back. You could get it also at the very bottom of the FM dial as well. I think that station is now only "barely" visible here. I'm not sure if they had to cut the signal or something. This USE to be one of the easily watchable stations here.

We use to get 6 (XETV), 8 (CBS), 10 (ABC), 12 (PBS), 39 (NBC)...and 51,69 were a couple independents that were good and strong.

I don't even know really what is "out" there still as DTV.....I HATE the DTV signals since you can NOT watch one while mobile. You either GET it, or you don't. There is no "futzing around" for a good signal.....so I don't

No kiddin'...A LOT of thought on the part of officialdom went into this whole DTV thing...Like maybe 15, 20 seconds...You CAN'T "Futz" in a signal, they don't work during thunderstorms, or, so I've heard, blizzards...Just the times when maybe, just POSSIBLY, people might be looking to their local stations for guidance and/or info...Or am I being my usual silly self ?!?

I would have thought that a few pirate analog TV stations would have popped up from time to time since the DTV only era. In inner city areas, where people can't afford converter boxes or cable. Like the FM radio pirates that often show up in cities like NYC, with advertisers like restaurants that serve up goat's head stew...

Nice tv carmine, I got one like it, but with speakers on both sides of the screen.
I got a few vhs tapes with ota content on them, including ghosts, and snow....

I agree, nice looking set. :yes: I still can't get used to digital, I live with it and get a lot of channels but I really miss analog. I get a few analog stations here, like the music station on channel 6 out of Chicago and I think 41 which is a Korean station most of the time. There's one more but it escapes memory at the moment. 23 I think.

All I can say is that those of you who think po' folk don't have the latest and greatest in TV technology; probably don't spend a lot of time in the real world.

:lmao:

Actually....most "po folk" I know.....would give up ciggarretes before TV. Most I know are sitting at HOME all day, and TV is all they have really, so they keep the lights on....and the landlord at bay.

What's weird....is those "po folk" are usually the ones with the FULL cable package, ALL the premium channels and have a nice system cobbled together. I thought that was weird until realizing "I" didn't need all that TV....because I'm not ever spending that much time at home to watch OTA (or cable) stuff.

I think the only analog LP channel we even had left in this area was a religious one from Batesville, which as of today, I can no longer seem to find.

As for OTA, if my sets have a UHF tuner (which most of them do), I use a little micro transmitter on UHF channel 24, hooked to the downstairs satellite box.

Where does one get one of said transmitters?

Blonder Tongue Agile Modulator. Easily purchased from the auction site. They have sufficient output that can be fed to rabbit ears and then transmitted within the whole house. You can feed the output from a DVD, VHS, Cable Set Top Box or Digital Adapter into it and it will faithfully re-broadcast the signal and allow you to pick it up on the analog set.

I WAS trying to use one of those Ramsey kits you build....but after futzing with two of those, decided it was just useful for LEARNING how one works....and only works within a few meters if you spend ALOT of time aligning it.

NOW I use one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HLLY-TVX-50m...item3cc99b47c5

It's signal is completely tuneable...is ROCK solid, and I just run it into a set of cheapy Radio Shack rabbit ears. Good for a couple HUNDRED feet even outside my flat. I did want to stay VERY small, and as little electricity/heat as possible, so I could run it pretty much 24/7 with a little Archos AV700 media player into it. The little player is a 100GB hard drive based thing, and I just let it chew on a directory of old vintage TV and movies...and commercials that I have converted from various formats to AVI files. Yes....they are compressed, and some of them are pretty bad, but I'm mostly watching them on really small screens. I find them plenty good for even the 12" GE set I have in the kitchen.

The files are from YouTube, ripped from my own DVD sets....and some compilations of vintage TV commercials I got off ebay.

No LP stations left here. There was a religious station (TBN) on channel 48 here, but it's been off the air for a few months. I don't have a big antenna, so I don't know if there's good DX'ing in the area or not.

Is this one tunable or fixed on a particular channel?

Looks like it says it's UHF channel 15

The one I have is tuneable allover the place with digital frequency readout

From reading over the years, most of those who bought Ramsey kits are not satisfied. I have experience with the Blonder Tongue Agile Modulators and all that I can say is that they just work. If you get the right one, you can set it to whatever station you want...

Carmine that is a great looking set-glad you put it here where i could see it.We have lost our analog channels that were running out of lakeland,also.Gonna miss em.

Two of our analog LPTVs came back on in June, after being off the air since 2009. We were down to one, Daystar religion on Ch. 50. Now have Univision Spanish on Ch. 16, don't know why - they have a 1 MW DTV station, and something called "My Family TV" on Ch. 29, relaying their LP-DTV Ch. 10.
The LPTVs aren't watchable, though. They all have 1 MW DTV stations on adjacent channels, and I'm 8 miles from the antenna farm where the full power DTV & FMs broadcast from. In order to get anything on the analog LPTVs, I have to set the fine tuning to where the color and sound go away.

I'm near Cleveland. There are no analog stations left here any longer, either. The only way to get any kind of TV reception here nowadays is either with a DTV converter box and an antenna, or cable. Even at that, in this area you may not get channels 8 and 19 unless you have an old all-channel antenna, since these two stations are on VHF DTV assignments (8 and ten, respectively) whereas the other six stations in town are on UHF DTV channels. I found this out, to my disappointment, when I purchased an indoor DTV antenna. I found most stations coming in very well, but was missing the two stations I mentioned; then I found out these were on VHF DTV channels, which my small DTV indoor antenna (trade named Clear Cast) does not receive since it receives only UHF signals. I live in a near-fringe area for Cleveland TV, almost 40 miles from most stations, which was a real problem before DTV (I couldn't get channel 3 in Cleveland worth a plugged nickel with an indoor antenna in my apartment, and the others, except for CBS channel 19 and one other that escapes me, were fair to poor at best). Today, with DTV, if not for the fact that I don't get channels 8 and 19 with my indoor antenna, I probably would have canceled my cable long ago.

For now we still have channel 18, a low power translator for WUPL-54, broadcasting the UPN network. I've been meaning to write a letter to the engineer asking if there is a turn-off date scheduled.

I wonder if what channel 48 (W48AV, transmitting from St Clair Shores) has done is a sign that their digital replacement will be on the air soon.

W48AV's switch to this test pattern/warning message comes from the fact that the primary transmitter that feeds it, WPXD, has changed their digital facility from RF Channel 31 in Lyndon Twp (Washtenaw Co.) to RF channel 50 in Southfield (the same pattern and warning are being sent out on channel 31 now)..

I believe if WPXD still wanted to be in analog on channel 48, they could have switched the input to the new RF 50 Southfield transmitter. However, W48AV itself was recently granted a permit to make changes to go to digital, only on channel 25, and from the same tower as their new channel 50 facility (it will likely have different programming, as having a redundant low-power transmitter from the same tower sending the same program would be pointless).

BTW, the channel 42 analog is CKCO3 in Oil Springs, Ont. It will eventually go digital as well (CTV is switching transmitters to digital on a case-by-case basis).

Great idea using these as transmitters
I have some Pro modulators , these have high output for Cable system drive so, yes,
they would work into a transmit antenna--perhaps a high gain array of dipoles?

I hate DTV.. I have amplified (plug in) rabbit ears hooked up and the reception is never perfect, always studder and "No Signal", and the ABC network can't be reached in most parts of the house.. On rainy and windy days the signal is really bad, and usually every week or two, I'm having to adjust the rabbit ears due to the fact the antenna looses signal in it's fixed place.. At least with the old analog, if the station wasn't perfect it was still watchable and understandable.. One thing I hate is when watching the news and you hear the news person talk and then the signal drops and you hear the last word studder and then totally missed what was said.. Awful Awful Awful...

Here is my eBay search for TV channel modulators:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=....c0.m270.l1313

There are several UHFs listed that are tunable.

I don't suggest transmitting any further than within your house.

Cliff