[CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HELP)

[CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HELP)
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Forums » US Cable Support » RCN » [CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HELP)

milam @ 29th Sep 10:23PM:
[CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HELP)

On 9/5 I posted about my problems with constant "Temporarily Off Air" signals. Unfortunately, the problem seems to have intensified over the last month. I've been trying to get help with this since January. Are there any RCN Techs out there who can help me?
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ckmscott @ 23rd Oct 04:52PM:
Re: [CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HE

I have the same problem. I'm in Chicago too. I've noticed some patterns:

1. It primarily affects the HD channels.
2. When the HD channel is off the air the same LD channel is not.
2. It seem to happen more in bad weather.

I posted a message like yours at the beginning of the month, but no one responded. I thought it was an issue in my building but apparently it's has to do with RCN's network. I've called RCN about this and all I get is "we send you most powerful signal", which hasn't helped.

Here is my opinion as to what is happening. This problem looks strangely similar to what happens on the Direct TV or other dish networks when the clouds are too thick for the line of site signal to get through from the sateliite. I think that RCN is having satellite reception problems in Chicago. Last night it was so bad, we switched all the recorded series we have to LD channels so that it would be more dependable.

My wife has asked me to consider getting rid of the lhi def box altogether because it has been so undependable. We just killed my wife's recordings from "The Good Wife" on 10/13 and 10/20 because they were too full of pixelation and ended in a recording error.

If anyone from RCN has tuned into this, can you please tell us "unofficially" if your company acknowledges this problem and if they are working on a fix? Is it faulty boxes which can be easily replaced? Not knowing and not having knowledgeable people to call in tech support makes this very frustrating. We watch mostly ABC, so another idea I have is to just go over the air and drop cable completely.
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lilhurricane @ 23rd Oct 05:28PM:
Re: [CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HE

Let's link for ref: »[CATV] Anyone having their RCN HD picture locking up in Chicago?
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rcnman @ 23rd Oct 06:01PM:
Re: [CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HE

Hi All, Sorry I've been traveling, Please PM your address / location and what / if all channels are doing this.

Jason
--
Jason Nealis,
Sr. Director, Video Product and Video Operations
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ckmscott @ 25th Oct 09:03PM:
Re: [CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HE

Thanks Jason. I IM'ed you with the info. If it helps it is 8:00 pm in Chicago right now and most HD channels are suffering problems, but particularly 602, 605, and 607. It clouded up here in Chicago and the problem is back.

Thanks for your help!

Chris
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nickcatal @ 25th Oct 09:16PM:
Re: [CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HE

I've had problems with "Temporarily Off Air" for a few stations every so often, mostly the HDs but not always. Has screwed up my DVR recordings a few times and I usually have to hard reset it for everything to go back to normal.
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ckmscott @ 30th Oct 07:06PM:
Re: [CATV] Chicago -Temporarily Off Air (BEGGING FOR RCN TECH HE

I resolved the issue I was having. RCN for years had maintained that I had a "high signal" in my cable riser. They told me there was nothing they would do about it. Several years ago a tech installed a -9db tap on my input line to attenuate the signal a bit. Apparently, RCN recently resolved the high signal issue and the tap was killing my signal. I found the problem myself, but an RCN tech, who happened to be in my building, confirmed that the signal problem had been fixed and removing the tap was the right thing to do.
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