One of the great pleasures of writing this column is getting positive feedback from readers. A few of these people have become solid contributors.
One such reader is Dave Goodling. He experiments with antennas, boosters, rotators and all manner of vintage consumer electronics. He uses an antenna to receive TV signals.
He e-mailed me last week with five helpful tips for people having trouble pulling in digital channels with an antenna. They are:
1. Re-scan your channels, as if you were setting up your converter box or HDTV for the first time, because some stations are now sending their signals through different channels. WHP-TV and WGAL-TV, for instance, have switched their over-the-air channels (formerly 4 and 58 respectively) back to 21 and 8 respectively to match their branded channels.
2. You may need to manually enter the over-the-air channels.
3. Reposition your indoor antenna close to a window facing west and north. Move it all around because digital signals tend to be in hot spots that can be high or low.
4. Make sure your outdoor antenna has a good coaxial cable with an outdoor matching transformer. The older, flat, twin-lead ribbon cable can cause reception problems.
5. You may need a better antenna. A small rooftop antenna mounted in an attic or crawl space works well. Just make sure it is properly positioned.
Can't get channels: My parents kitchen TV no longer picks up WHTM-TV ABC27 on the digital converter box. The station came in clear when it was an analog signal.
• WPVI-TV ABC6 Philadelphia has experienced significant reception problems since turning off its analog signal and switching its DTV channel from 64 (UHF) to 6 (VHF), according to viewer posts on its Web site.
Viewers said they were previously receiving WPVI's digital UHF signal with no problems, but now they can't find the station's digital broadcast on VHF channel 6, despite having an appropriate UHF/VHF antenna.
No more ABC6 on the radio: The digital switch put a halt to analog TV, but it also knocked a TV station off the radio. When WPVI-TV ABC6 in Philadelphia switched to digital, it dropped the analog audio frequency on 87.7 FM as well.
Radio and TV audio are sent out on frequencies. For radio, the FM dial begins at a frequency of 88 megahertz, and some radios can't pick up anything below that. Other radios can pick up 87.7 because of its proximity to 88. That's why some people (including me) could listen to Channel 6 on the radio, even though it's a TV station. It's just a frequency fluke.
I'll miss listening to Regis on my way to work and Oprah on my way home.
W35BT, UHF channel 35: The Christian station also known as CTVN is still broadcasting in analog.
Because the station is classified as a low-power TV station, it can continue to broadcast in analog, though it is preparing to switch to digital.
The Harrisburg-area television station received its digital transmitter earlier this month and is waiting for a tower crew to become available. W35BT's new digital channel will be VHF channel 7. No word on when the switch will be complete.
The station's signal reaches a radius of about 30 miles around Harrisburg.
Staff writer Eric Stark discusses trends and tidbits in broadcast media each week in the Sunday News. E-mail him at estark@lnpnews.com. 