Thin-Air ATSC (And NTSC): Correlating Compass, Distance And Frequency

Continued from ‘Thin-Air ATSC (And NTSC): Encouraging (Albeit Erratic) Early Results‘…

When I did an auto channel search on the Syntax Olevia 237T, here’s what I came up with:

Excellent: pristine audio and video quality, absolutely no artifacts
Very good: minor audio and/or video distortion
Good: somewhat fuzzy picture and/or sound, but still discernable
Poor: highly distorted picture and/or sound; unwatchable

The Syntax Olevia’s 237T auto-tuning algorithm seemed to be pretty accurate, since my subsequent manual entry of every other possible broadcast channel resulted in a ‘no signal’ indication from the television. Some thoughts on my results:

• Whenever I’m able to tune in both the analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC) broadcast of a particular station, the ATSC presentation is a few seconds’ delayed as compared to the NTSC version.
• It was initially curious to me that I was able to solidly tune in the KRNV (NBC) ATSC broadcasts on VHF channel 7 (Summer Olympics in HD, here I come!), but not tune in the corresponding original NTSC broadcast on VHF channel 4. However, note that the ATSC broadcast antenna is at an 87° compass heading, 20.1 miles away on top of Slide Mountain, whereas the NTSC broadcast antenna is at 44°, 28.1 miles away (on Red Peak, in Sun Valley just a few miles north of Reno). Note, too, that I am able to (barely) tune into an unknown-location KRNV NTSC translator on channel 51.
• The ATSC-vs-NTSC reception situation is reversed with respect to KOLO (ABC). In this case, I’m able to (barely) tune in the NTSC broadcast on VHF channel 8, but I can’t get the ATSC broadcast on channel 9…even though both the NTSC and ATSC broadcast antennas are in the same location…which is the same location as KRNV’s ATSC antenna…whose signal (as mentioned above) I can receive with no problems whatsoever! Very strange. Perhaps broadcast signal strength differences explain the KRVN-vs-KOLO disparity, or maybe there’s some local interference that degrades one VHF channel’s signal but not another’s. Or mebbe KOLO’s broadcast towers are highly directional (towards Reno to the east)…or the towers are on the eastern side of the ridge line, thereby attenuating their to-west signal strength. Anyone know?
• What about CBS affiliate KTVN? I can’t tune in either the NTSC broadcast on VHF channel 2 or the ATSC broadcast on VHF channel 13 (not listed at AntennaWeb, but information is here). Like its KOLO (ABC) and KRNV (NBC) peers, KTVN’s ATSC tower is supposedly located on Slide Mountain just to the southeast of Mt. Rose, which is 20 miles away and visible to the naked eye from my front porch, so again I’m not sure why I’m able to get KRNV’s ATSC signal but not KTVN’s. With respect to KTVN’s primary NTSC signal, it originates 10 miles further away (i.e. due south of Reno), on top of McClellan Peak and at roughly the same compass heading, so the intervening Mt. Rose Range probably explains my non-reception of it. Note that I am able to tune into a NTSC translator at UHF channel 33 located on Peavine Peak, northwest of Reno. Also, as a note to researchers…according to chief engineer Jack Antonio, KTVN’s NTSC tower used to be on Red Peak, and you’ll still find references to it there if you do a Google search, but it’s now in the location I reference above.
• How about Fox affiliate KRXI? The news is uniformly good here. The NTSC broadcast on VHF channel 11 is very good, as is the ATSC broadcast on UHF channel 44. The common broadcast location is at a 34° compass location, roughly 23 miles away (again, Peavine Peak).
• KAME (UPN), not listed by AntennaWeb, shares some infrastructure resources with KRXI, but clearly not the same antennas. I can barely tune in the primary NTSC broadcast on UHF channel 21, and I can’t receive the ATSC broadcast on UHF channel 20. Both originate at the same Red Peak location as KRNV’s primary NTSC signal (which as mentioned above I also can’t tune in). Again, the mountain ranges between here and there likely explain the scant-to-no reception. However, I can also receive in a location-unknown NTSC reflector on UHF channel 30, with better quality than the channel 21 primary signal.
• And PBS affiliate KNPB? Its VHF channel 5 NTSC and UHF channel 15 ATSC signals also both originate from Red Peak, so predictably I can’t get ‘em. But I can tune into a Verdi-Mogul-area NTSC translator on VHF channel 42. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect, that it’s located somewhere on top of the Verdi Range.
• Finally, we turn to CW affiliate KREN, at UHF channels 26 (ATSC) and 27 (NTSC), and NTSC LPTV channel 46 (UHF) KAZR. Once again, neither is reported by AntennaWeb, but Wikipedia’s listing of television stations in the Reno, NV area includes them. KREN’s broadcast signals come from Slide Mountain, but I can’t get ‘em. Nor can I tune in KAZR, which originates on Red Peak.

As I mentioned during NAB (as well as two weeks beforehand), the NTSC translators (along with, for that matter, Reno’s LPTV station) aren’t required to ’sunset’ next February even if full-power broadcasters’ primary NTSC signals gets shut off. I’ll be curious to see what each affiliate decides to do here. I hope the translators don’t go away, because in several cases they are the only way I can get the broadcasters’ signals!

See anything else intriguing in the data I’ve presented, folks? I’ll continue experimenting over the coming weeks and will report back interesting data points (and analyses, and conclusions) I uncover. For example, I’d like to:

• Try a standalone ATSC set-top box (or few), versus the tuner integrated in my LCD TV.
• Fire up an USB-interface ATSC adapter for use with my new Windows Vista Media Center Edition-equipped PC, and
• Hook up the additional coax cabling-plus-splitter that’ll let me tune in OTA signals in the bedroom, too, and see what sort of reception transformation results.