DTV Power Increase

As of June 13, KLRN-DT will be moving from DT-8 to DT-9 and as a part of that process, the station has been granted a transmitter power increase. We will be also using the antenna that is mounted at the top of our tower instead of the current DTV antenna that is side-mounted and lower on the tower. Both the additional height and the additional power will improve signal coverage and stability. We believe that the change from Channel 8 to 9 will also eliminate the DTV interference we currently experience from the DT-8 channel in Corpus Christi. All good news for our viewers!

Have you installed your DTV converter box only to find you can't receive KLRN?

If you are using an antenna (not cable or satellite), here are a few tips that might help:

If you have one of those compact indoor antennas – at lot of the antennas that are promoted as “HDTV” antennas – it has very poor performance in receiving VHF television stations, like KLRN-DT. All the rest of the DTV stations (for now) broadcast in the UHF band and those smaller antennas may work just fine on UHF but are not satisfactory for VHF. At the very least, you need an all-band antenna (VHF+UHF).

If you live outside San Antonio, you may need an outdoor antenna to receive our signal. When the FCC calculates DTV coverage, their formula assumes that the receiver has an all-band outdoor antenna mounted on a 30’ mast. Of course many people would have difficulty installing such an antenna.

If you live inside the city, you might try to receive our signal using a basic set of “rabbit ears” – nothing fancy, just the two telescoping rods. You’ll need to experiment with the orientation of the rods to get the maximum signal level – and there should be a signal strength indicator in your DTV converter box. Look in the Menu for that display.

We'll keep posting more information as we move towards the June 12 transition, but you'll find much more on our DTV site at klrn.org/dtv.

DTV... Can you help...?

Here's the one big DTV question we hear most often:
I can receive all the San Antonio DTV stations except KLRN. Why?

Of all the possibile reasons, this is the most common cause of "failure to receive" -- the wrong antenna. KLRN-DT is (for now) the only DTV station in San Antonio broadcasting in the VHF band -- the commercial stations are all using the UHF band for their DTV transmissions -- for now. Many of the so-called "HDTV" antennas are UHF-only, having little or no ability to receive VHF channels.

If you have trouble receiving our signal -- which is operating at the maximum power level assigned by the FCC for our coverage area -- you need an all-band (VHF&UHF) antenna and to meet the FCC's coverage predictions, your antenna should be outside, mounted on a 30' mast. Obviously this is not possible for many people who live in multifamily housing or in places with antenna restrictions, but that is the hand that was dealt us.

If you have DTV reception difficulties or know someone who does, please share this information. We believe that the FCC's coverage prediction methodology is flawed but we also know that with the right antenna, KLRN-DT provides reliable broadcast coverage and a diverse programming service. We can't make house calls, but would love to help you or your friends and family members solve any DTV reception issues.

The link under the title is to our DTV Information pages. There's good stuff there.

Charles