Welcome to TV Garth!

Ever since I was a kid, I loved antennas and TV reception. It was always a thrill to hook up an antenna and see what stations I could get, and see if I could pick up anything from a far distance. With the transition to digital broadcasting happening, my love for OTA (over the air) reception came back and this blog will focus on what channels I'm able to receive via antenna from my home just outside of Toronto, Canada. Plus there may be occasional commentaries on shows that I see while adjusting my reception.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Reception Reports: Clearfield, PA along with Erie & Rochester (June 9 to 11, 2009)

Greetings TV Garth readers! This report covers reception of WPSU (PBS) Clearfield, PA, as well as Erie’s WQLN, and the usual Rochester digital stations.

June 9, 2009

June 9th brought me my first reception of WPSU, which is a PBS station located roughly 200 miles away from me in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. It was an odd night, as there didn’t seem to be much tropospheric enhancement going on. I briefly picked up Erie, PA’s WQLN and also noticed a signal flickering on RF 15. I thought it was going to come in as Cleveland’s WEWS, but to my shock it was WPSU when it decoded.

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Below are pics with the descriptions of what WQLN was running on their digital channels. Look at the first two descriptions and note how wordy they are compared to the ones on WPSU a few pics down.

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I’m really curious about how Katie will pull off a three way with grilled cheese. Sounds like a sticky situation, no matter how you tackle it. (I also love the way that the episode title runs into the description, so it looks like her nickname is “Sports Night Katie.”)

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As you can see in the pic below, WQLN was already starting to break up before I went back to WPSU.

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Here are shots of the same shows as seen on WPSU, but with much more concise descriptions.

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They may have trimmed the fat from the description, but Katie Brown’s still having her grilled cheese three ways!

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3-3 WPSUSD2 was running a different show than 54-3 WQLN-S2.

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Soon the station was airing From The Top At Carnegie Hall!

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The signal kept bouncing in and out, so I couldn’t really follow the show, but it looks like the guy below was mentoring / coaching the child prodigies.

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“You want me to do what with the piano?”

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Play, my dear boy, just play, I say!”

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The young virtuoso still doesn’t look too sure about this whole thing.

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The mentor also looks really familiar, like actor Jay Mohr or something. Maybe the pianist can do a classical cover of the disco song “Mohr, Mohr, Mohr”.

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We finally see the young musician take the stage to tickle the ivories!

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Meanwhile, 3-3 WPSUSD2 was running a P.O.V. special about Japanese high school baseball.

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Over on 3-2 WPSUSD1, the Create subchannel was running Paint, Paper & Crafts.

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Our next performer on the main 3-1 WPSU is a young lady who will play the violin.

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Meanwhile, the host of Paint, Paper & Crafts brings out a young assistant to help the show.

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This young lady is really broken up about performing in front of so many people.

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High school baseball is a very serious matter in Japan!

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“Look, I can play the violin too….hahaha…..who needs those kids anyway!”

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I wouldn’t recommend the following website for people with serious emotional issues.

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Mister Rogers had just finished, but I was just in time to catch a great shot of the WPSU logo as seen in the second pic!

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Then we had The Beauty Of Oil Painting on 3-2 WPSUSD1.

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Between The Lions was up next on the main 3-1 WPSU, and I love the bad pun of the title. Plus who doesn’t love muppety-esque animals?

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This guy definitely loves Muppety-esque animals!

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I’ll pause here to point out that I love how clear and easy to read the WPSU logo is. They even integrate it well into their 3-2 Create and 3-3 World subchannels, seen in the two pictures below.

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It was time for a fun and wacky story on Between The Lions!

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I’m throwing in lots of pics, as repetitive as they may seem, since WPSU is more rare for me to pick up. The following shots are all from Between The Lions.

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Meanwhile, the painting continued on 3-2 WPSUSD1.

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We close the Clearfield chapter in this Reception Report with some more shots from Between The Lions, including Diva cats and electronic mice!

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***

June 10, 2009

The strength of Pennsylvania continued into the next day as Erie’s WQLN was coming in during the afternoon!

I got a look at the PBS Kids' lineup which included Barney & Friends below.

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54-2 WQLN-S1 was running Lidia’s Italy. Watch for the awesome bad pun in the episode title!

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Meanwhile, Sesame Street was on 54-3 WQLN-S2.

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Lidia really got things cooking on her show!

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While Lidia cooked, Elmo conversed with a floating face. He looks almost as puzzled as I do at the prospect of talking with a floating face.

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Barney was singing and dancing as he normally does.

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“Hold it guys, we agreed. I’m going to be the headlining Diva, and you’re my backup! Ok?”

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Here we have a nice shot of the WQLN logo, which identifies as Erie – London. (I write this after they had a major snag with Rogers Cable in which Rogers was planning on dropping them from the London area cable lineup in favour of the Detroit PBS station. Thankfully, after WQLN promised to arrange a more reliable signal source, Rogers is keeping the Erie based station on their London lineup.)

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Then there was a unique commercial for a train ride that goes through Oil Creek and Titusville.

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The following is a montage of mid-afternoon PBS shows on all three of WQLN’s digital channels!

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Lastly, in the evening, I noticed that not much tropo was happening, but there was a flicker on RF 15. It was looking like it might come in, but I gave up and went onto the computer to finish up some work. Then when I went back to the TV, I found that Cleveland’s WEWS had come in briefly and bumped WPSU back out of my Zenith DTT901’s memory. Even though I missed a shot of the decode, I took a pic of the calls that were stored on the DTT901.

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***

June 11, 2009

June 11th was the last full day of analog television in the U.S. so there was an excitement in the air as the DTV transition was about to take place! I picked up all the Rochester digitals, and it was also the last day that WHEC would be on RF 58 and WHAM on RF 59.

WXXI came in during the afternoon with It’s A Big Big World.

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Even TCT was getting in on the DTV transition! Jamestown’s WNYB was showing TCT Today in which they demonstrated how to use a digital converter box (in this case they were using an RCA box.) It was unintentionally funny to see them surfing through shows like Law & Order with content that you’d never see on TCT.

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Buffalo’s WGRZ was making preparations to become the new RTV (Retro TV) affiliate for the area. They started up the channel with a standard definition feed of their main station until the launch of RTV, which would be June 12th.

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Buffalo’s WIVB was also getting in on the act, doing a story about the DTV transition.

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Below is Dennis Majewicz, WIVB / WNLO’s Director Of Engineering.

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The story briefly touched on what converter boxes and antennas to buy, along with information about government coupons.

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WGRZ also did their own story about the transition.

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“What’s the big deal, it’s the same old shows, right?” Larry King wonders aloud about the DTV transition on WXXI’s Tavis Smiley.

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“Coming up next, how to make your DTV transition go smoothly with no wrinkles!”

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The next three shots are a mini “farewell” to analog, as I took them while I was surfing around this day.

First is Rochester’s WXXI on analog 21.

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Next is Buffalo’s WNYO, hearty but multipathing on analog 49. The good news is that they would be flash cutting to digital 49 the next day, and moving from their weaker digital signal on RF 34.

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Last in the analog trilogy is Batavia’s WPXJ on analog 51. They too would be flash cutting to digital 23 the next day, as soon as Buffalo’s WNLO vacated analog 23.

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Then came the full burst of Rochester, which included The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson on 8-1 WROC.

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Late Night With Jimmy Fallon popped up on 10-1 WHEC.

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The weather was really iffy in Rochester that day, as you can see from the dopplar radar below and the drenched traffic cam in the second pic.

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On a rainy day like that, you need to stop off and have a bite at a place like the Peppermill Restaurant!

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Jimmy Kimmel was hamming it up on 13-1 WHAM.

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Meanwhile, Cops were out in full force on 13-2 CW-WHAM.

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Meredith Brooks loves to sing her song Shine in support of Dr. Phil.

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Gwen Stefani loves to sing in support of her reunited group No Doubt.

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This girl will need support because she’s going to Sing Sing if Steve Wilkos has his way.

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Man, Steve Wilkos looks really scary here. The whole plot of the episode was about Steve sending teen girls to “jail” in order to curtail their dangerous behaviour. At least it didn’t involve sketchy guys for once.

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Meanwhile, that late night “morning” show Mike & Juliet was running over on 8-1 WROC.

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One On One was making an appearance over on 31-1 WUHF.

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Lastly, 21-1 WXXI was running an American Masters special about Neil Young.

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That covers the run up to D-Day! (DTV Transition Day, that is!) Stay tuned to TV Garth for a report about that big day, including my analog E-skip from two LOUISIANA stations!

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