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TIA News
22-Jan-2012: Storm Damage
Once again bad weather is taking its toll on the TIA equipment (which is located high on the mountains to the east of Ukiah). This means that stations may be off for a period of time, or may go on and off, depending on conditions.
What happens is that antennas get loaded with snow causing them to malfunction or break. Also, wind, water, ice, and animals often cause damage. From time to time, power surges wil blow fuses or ruin equipment.
Please keep in mind that TIA is run by volunteers. We have no paid employees nor do we receive enough donations to make that possible. So, we try to keep the channels running as best as possible, but it's always a battle against mother nature. In addition, there are greater levels of interference from other services that can cause channels to come and go. We do our best to keep the signals reliable, but this is a local community project, and we do our best.
Jan-2012: Testing Digital Transmission
TIA is now testing new DTV transmitters. Our first station on the air is KQED (PBS 9), and it provides three separate "content streams" on a single channel, and many of those are also in HD (high definition). We've had good reports, even from Redwood Valley that people get reception.
Viewers will need a fairly new TV to see these signals or a converter box. We also have a second station on the air, but we still working on its reliability.
Jan-2011: Testing NBC
We are testing the NBC signal from KCRA again. You will find it on channel 17 right now. There will be times of the day when the signal might come and go, but after sunset it seems to be more stable. If this proves out, we could build an antenna array to make it more reliable.
June-2010: Digital Conversion
TIA has begun working on digital conversion of our stations. The result will be a better quality picture, even high definition for many programs. More to come.
8-Feb-2010: NBC via KCRA
On channel 41 we are testing the signal from KCRA to determine if it will be reliable enough to provide NBC programs, including Winter Olympic coverage. (As you know, the Bay Area NBC channel 11 is too far away to reach Ukiah. In the past KCRA provided us with NBC.)
We plan to move the KRON news station to another TIA channel, once we have expanded our receiver capability.
20-Jan-2010: Storm Damage
A powerful winter storm has damaged TIA's primary and backup antennas, knocking several stations off the air. We have no estimate of how long it will take to get the stations back on the air, but volunteers will assess the damage and make repairs as soon as it is practical to do so.
12-June-2009: DTV Changes
All major TV stations will be switching off their analog signals and broadcasting in digital only. However, this FCC rule does not apply to lower power stations like TIA, and we will continue to broadcast in analog. This means that you do not need to use a converter box, and in fact, we suggest that you do not install a converter, or you may not get our analog signals either.
To summarize: keep your TV exactly as it is. It should work just fine.
10-Mar-2009: TIA Repairs:
Winter storms pulled down several antennas and caused problems with our equipment, taking several signals off the air and making others weak. TIA technical volunteers repaired problems today and restored all channels.
9-Feb-2009: TIA Bulletin:
Making a bad situation worse: FCC Delays DTV Transition, Sort-of. We went from a clearly defined date to a "between now and summer, maybe" date.
22-Jan-2009: Ukiah Daily Journal:
Going digital: Ukiah's Television Improvement Association readies for transition by Carole Brodsky, photos by Sarah Baldik
20-Jan-2009: TIA DTV press release
TIA has issued this Press Release for Jan 20, 2009.
15-Jan-2009: Preparing for digital
As we prepare for digital reception, many TIA channels will be disrupted. Please read our TIA digital TV page.
Unfortunately, it is a complex situation due to not only digital, but also due to frequency changes in the source channels. We will do our best to keep as many signals on the air, but there will be outages as we reconfigure and reconstruct our equipment.
8-Jan-2009: New website goes live
TIA has published this new website for keeping Ukiah viewers informed.
Our site moved servers to greatly improve the quality of the site and reduce costs. We look forward to being able to provide more timely news and information with this new website.
7-Jan-2009: DTV conversion equipment arrives
New equipment arrived that will allow TIA to convert DTV signals to analog on the correct frequencies. This included four new digital-to-analog converters for installing on the mountaintop translators.
This equipment will be installed during the month. It was made possible by a grant from the federal government to help rural communities like Ukiah.
Dec-2008: Channel 45 Translator failure
The translator (transmitter) for channel 45 has failed. The problem is serious and it may take a while to fix. We have moved our ABC programming to Ch 17 for now.
12-Feb-2008: TIA in the news
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat ran an interesting story about TIA, Embracing low-tech TV. It's worth reading to get a better idea about the efforts of our volunteers toward keeping TIA on the air.
"On a windy ridge high on Cow Mountain, five men work on antiquated electronic equipment and antennas, toiling to keep television access free for residents between Ukiah and Redwood Valley..."
The story was researched and written by Glenda Anderson of the Press Democrat.
20-Jan-2008: Winter storm caused serious damage
A severe winter storm broke a power pole, causing an extended outage for nearly a week at TIA. When PG&E restored power, the power surge into the frozen equipment destroyed most of our older transmitters, putting all but two of our signals off the air.
TIA was able to purchase several used transmitters, and our insurance covered some of the costs. TIA engineers and consultants repaired transmitters, antennas, and restored the main broadcast channels within a few weeks. We thank all of the volunteers who helped make this possible.
Other links
Millview County Water District (rate change notice)