Problems with WZTV and others
- Posted August 5th, 2023 at 4:19pm
Some of you may have noticed a problem with WZTV 17.1-.4 as of late, and there's nothing wrong on your end. It is on Fox 17's end. They have been broadcasting at a lower power since July 31st. I have received a reply back from Fox 17's engineer. He said, "We are currently doing line maintenance on WZTV which means we had to jump to our standby antenna at a reduced power level until complete." He also said, "We lost power at transmitter briefly causing interruptions in service until we restored and fixed some items hit by the surge." He did not mention anything about when this maintenance work will be done but hopefully soon. Also, if you have been following the development of the ATSC 3.0 channels here in the Nashville area. You may have noticed two new subchannels - 30.31 NASH1 and 30.32 NASH2. NASH1 is nothing more than a loop of video clips of what looks like a northeastern town with some countryside nature scenes, while NASH2 is a loop of a video showing the many benefits of what ATSC 3.0 can do. I also asked him about the new subchannels and he said, "We are testing some streams on WUXP 3.0." For people who can receive 3.0 channels, WUXP went off the air for just a few minutes yesterday (08/04) evening while WNAB went off the air yesterday and as I am typing this is still off the air. Until more news breaks, that's all for now.
26 Comments
itgrouch
- Posted on August 5th, 2023 at 4:37pm
Thanks for letting us know what is going on.
Leatherneck97
- Posted on August 5th, 2023 at 4:47pm
I think the channels from WNAB will be put onto WUXP.
xmguy
- Posted on August 5th, 2023 at 6:55pm - Edited
Thanks NashDigie for the info. Usually Fox 17/WZTV is one of my BEST stations. But now it's one of my worst. I wonder what the ERP and location is for their backup is? I can't find info on RabbitEars.
Leatherneck97
- Posted on August 5th, 2023 at 7:05pm
Fox 17 is back up in power for now. I don't know if it will last though.
botts_w
- Posted on August 7th, 2023 at 12:37am
I will be glad when all these channels get things straightened out. Day or night, never know when channels are going to go off or pixel so bad that they can't be seen. I used to get great signals on my 71 channels but anymore they might be good and might not. I watched a few videos that blame the FCC and cell phone companies, said when cell phone companies got the frequencies from 41-69 that now all the tv frequencies being packed so close interfere with each other at times. Maybe 3.0 will make things better.
jgrtn
- Posted on August 14th, 2023 at 6:11pm
When will things get fixed? They are losing advertising base.
xmguy
- Posted on August 14th, 2023 at 8:24pm
I think WUXP 3.0 has lowered their power til WZTV has fixed their site. They are on the SAME tower. I used to be able to get QAM256 on 3.0 from them. Now rarely. Unlike the old days, since stations are sharing, this knocks out the CW as well. Not that much is still there. But also the Diginet Antenna.
Lweee2020
- Posted on August 16th, 2023 at 10:19am
Ah, thanks for this info! I’ve been pulling my hair out over here trying to get my Fox reception better in anticipation of football season in a few weeks. Glad to know that no amount of antenna repointing is likely to fix it. I’m in Franklin, and Fox has always been a “just barely strong enough to be watchable” station for me.
Leatherneck97
- Posted on August 16th, 2023 at 3:21pm - Edited
If you have always had Fox at a barely watchable signal then could you show me what you get on a Rabbitears.info reception report? You should get Fox better than I should since you live in Franklin. If you want to then send it over but don't feel like you have to. I'm just wonderimg how you're supposed to recieve it. https://rabbitears.info/searchmap.php
Lweee2020
- Posted on August 17th, 2023 at 9:53am
Here’s what mine looks like. I think some of my particular issues are related to terrain (hills/valleys in my neighborhood that affect my signal line of sight). And by just barely watchable, I mean clear and consistent, but it tends to degrade if there is rain in the area more so than other stations do https://rabbitears.info/searchmap.php?request=result&study_id=1058628
Leatherneck97
- Posted on August 17th, 2023 at 5:14pm - Edited
I see what you mean. WZTV is only 21 miles away as the crow flies but how low based on ground level could mean it will go out if it's at a really low power. I don't know what power they are at but you should still receive them decently well with what you said as exceptions. Do you get the lower powered channels from Nashville or is that not possible? I seen on your report that you can get some of them but because of the mountains you cannot get some channels because of how low the above ground level is where you are.
xmguy
- Posted on August 18th, 2023 at 10:36am - Edited
If you're 1 or 2 edge, you'll need an outdoor, amplified antenna. Televes makes a good small one for 60 miles, UHF only. You would need another one for VHF. That depends on how good you get WSMV RF 10, and WNPT RF 7. Let me put it this way. I am in McMinnville, I have a CM3020 20' off the ground. I can get WTVF RF 5, and WSMV RF 10 (during the day).
Lweee2020
- Posted on August 18th, 2023 at 12:15pm - Edited
That’s cool you can get those! I actually have no issue picking up VHF 5, 7, and 10 as long as my overhead kitchen light is turned off :) I guess it creates some interference, but my wife jokes about me having to go downstairs and change the lighting to improve the tv reception. I have a couple of large boom antennas in the attic (HOA doesn’t allow outdoor, unfortunately). Both are amplified and generally do pretty well, with the exception of Fox on UHF 20. It’s fine on a clear day when the station is at full power, but I’m getting zilch right now with their low power (and I’m guessing maybe not quite as high off the ground on their backup tower). Hope they get back to normal before Labor Day weekend with all the college football
Lweee2020
- Posted on August 18th, 2023 at 1:44pm
Looks like they’re back at full power as of about noon today!
xmguy
- Posted on August 19th, 2023 at 12:29am
NOW, it looks as if they might be back to full power! I noticed my S/N graph on Rabbit Ears, also WUXP power is back up to higher power too. It COULD be Tropo. So when it's 12 hours from this post, then, only then will we know.
Lweee2020
- Posted on August 21st, 2023 at 10:01am
Looking much better this morning for me. I’ve got a solid signal in Franklin, and it looks like from the Signal Line Graphs page that others are picking up a higher powered signal than before.
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