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Saturday, October 5 2024

Arizona TV Station Update - September 2024

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

Programming Changes

  • KTVW-DT 33.x Phoenix (KTVW License Partnership GP) has added Confess by Nosey to its programming lineup on channel 33.4.
  • K12XP-D 22.x Phoenix (HC2 Station Group Inc.) has replaced infomercials on channel 22.4 with NTD (New Tang Dynasty) Television.

Continue reading...

Saturday, September 14 2024

Arizona TV Station Update - March-August 2024

It's baaaaaack! Other commitments have prevented the Arizona TV Station Update from posting in over six months, but we're back with a lot of updates. As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • KASW 61.x (27) Phoenix (Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC) has been granted a license to cover its NextGen (ATSC 3.0) operations. Technical specifications: Site 1 - Ch 27; 33° 20' 1" N, 112° 3' 47" W (South Mtn.); ERP 445 kW H / 111.25 kW V DA 0.95° EBT; HAAT 551 m / 1,807 ft. Site 2 - Ch 27; 33° 35' 47" N, 112° 5' 34" W (Shaw Butte); ERP 18.5 kW H / 5.55 kW V DA 1.5° EBT; HAAT 268 m / 879 ft.
  • KPDF-CD 41.x (22) Phoenix (HC2 Station Group Inc.) requested and has been granted a license to cover its power increase. Technical specifications: Ch 22; TL 33° 20' 0" N, 112° 3' 47" W (South Mtn.); ERP 15 kW H / 3.75 kW V DA 1.75° EBT; HAAT 472 m / 1,548 ft.

Continue reading...

Saturday, September 7 2024

Back Home At Last!

After much anxiety and frustration, RabbitEars is finally back on its server at Silica Broadband and better than ever. While there may still be some issues around and I may take things down here and there as I fix configuration issues I may have overlooked, we should be good. If you spot anything that doesn't work or is misbehaving, please let me know!

I need to express my thanks to Dave at Silica Broadband who has generously hosted RabbitEars for more than three years now, and has been a massive help in this process. Fantastic to work with, too. I cannot say enough nice things.

We swapped the power supply to no avail, tested for RAM issues which came up negative, and ultimately bit the bullet and swapped the two 2TB SSDs for two new 4TB SSDs. As the disk replacement necessitated reloading the entire system, I had him change the configuration from the on-board RAID-1 to software RAID-1 within Linux, so now hopefully I can better handle issues like this in the future.

As for what happened, I wish I could say. I'm not clear why a RAID-1 array would fail in the way that this one did. I'm hoping that by switching to software RAID, I can prevent it from happening again. But basically what would happen is the site would either go away entirely, or the disks would go read-only such that I could see it and back it up but not write to it (that's when database errors would appear). I'd run a disk check and reboot, sometimes a few times in sequence, and then it would come back to life. My guess is that this odd behavior is tied to the on-board RAID-1 somehow.

I was still dragging my feet as I was leery of trying to reload the whole system remotely. But Scott at Satellite Guys, ever a fount of good ideas, suggested setting up a temporary server with the company he uses for Satellite Guys, which is called Contabo. I went ahead and did so--it was less expensive than I'd have thought to set myself up for a month. It took some trial and error to get up and running, but I took notes to help support the reload of the permanent server, so it was all beneficial. The next time the system failed hard, Dave wasn't immediately available to bring it back up, so I rolled everyone over to it. It held up surprisingly well, to the point that I had Russ set up the Live Bandscan on it. It was definitely close to capacity, but everything held up okay. And having the site up and running meant we weren't scrambling to get it back up and running, and kept my stress level down. So, many thanks to Scott for the excellent idea and great recommendation. I'll keep this in mind for the future, and despite telling him privately I wasn't planning to keep the temporary server, I have to admit, I'm considering keeping it alive just in case.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for their patience. Hopefully we're in a good spot now!

Friday, August 2 2024

Scheduled Maintenance By August 6

So given that the site's been down a few more times since my last blog post, it's become clear that the disk(s) will not last until I can get to the server in late September. Silica Broadband and I have made plans to back up the server, then replace both disks and reload the operating system and all the configurations from scratch. I can't speak to specific timings yet because it will depend on when parts arrive and are installed, etc., but the intent is for the work to be mostly done by August 6.

To make this happen as smoothly as possible, I've already stopped making new coverage maps, and will shortly be disabling the ability to run new Signal Search Map studies to make sure I get a clean backup. The Live Bandscan is continuing to run for now, but I'm not adding or updating any tuners that haven't heard from me yet until we're on the new disks. On Sunday, most likely, I'll take down the web server to make sure I get a clean backup of the Live Bandscan, so there will be extended downtime there. Then there will likely be several hours when the site is down due to reloading the operating system and redoing all the configurations.

Note that as the disks are clearly unhappy, don't be shocked if the site experiences more unscheduled down time before we manage to get this resolved.

As soon as I post this, I'm going to back up the blog, and no further updates will appear here. Please check the thread on Satellite Guys for further updates.

Sunday, July 28 2024

Today's Lengthy Outage

Shortly after 11AM ET, RabbitEars came back up from an outage that lasted nearly 12 hours. I wanted to talk a little bit about what happened and what I'm planning to do about it.

You may recall a series of outages several months ago. I was convinced there was a disk issue, but couldn't get an error message. When I awoke this morning, the server was in read-only mode, but did have an error message! And it was disk-related, and it wasn't so catastrophic that the system wouldn't work at all, so I was able to do some tinkering. (Before doing that, I was able to do a full backup of everything that wasn't the database, since the database had done its scheduled automatic backup on Friday morning.) It was giving me a file system error, so I ran a disk check and fixed some problems. I also checked to see if it could tell me if one of the disks was failing, and it's telling me it's fine. I rebooted and it came back up read-only again, so I did another disk check which fixed some problems. I repeated this a few times before asking Silica Broadband to boot off a USB and run a disk check from there. After doing that, it came back up.

I have decided that I'm going to go back out to the server and replace both disks and do a fresh install of Linux on them. I might also replace the power supply in case that's part of the problem. What I'm not sure of is exactly when I'll be doing this. It's at least a full day of driving each way to get to the server, so it has to be over a free weekend, and I'm not free until September at the earliest. Until then, I can't rule out something like this happening again.

Thanks for your patience.

EDIT TO ADD: One other thing, with many thanks to Scott at Satellite Guys, he's set up a status page for RabbitEars. Basically, if you're wondering whether or not it's "just you," you can go to the status page and find out.

https://status.rabbitears.info/

For the specific type of outage last night, where it was up but the database wasn't responding, it wouldn't work, but then you'd be able to tell it's on the server's end anyway. If the server's completely down, that page will tell you.

Saturday, April 20 2024

Third Unscheduled Outage in a Month

I wanted to take a moment to talk a little about the sudden, recent unreliability of the RabbitEars server.

Continue reading...

Thursday, April 11 2024

Site Performance Issues

EDIT: I've had two offers of help, and one of them pointed out a possible issue already. I'm hopeful that it's already at least partially resolved, and may be fully resolved later today.

I'm aware of the site performance issues. It appears to be some kind of issue with TLS, probably a configuration problem in my Apache setup, but I've yet to be able to track down the problem because the server log files don't seem to want to tell me anything about it.

Is there anyone reading who knows how to manage configurations like this? The setup is Ubuntu 22.04 with Apache. I'd appreciate any help you might be able to provide; I expect someone who knows better what they're doing to be able to solve this pretty quick, but I'm flying blind. Please feel free to e-mail me via the contact info on the Contact page.

Wednesday, April 3 2024

Scheduled Downtime Tuesday, April 9

Just an FYI that I am planning scheduled downtime for the afternoon/evening of Tuesday, April 9. I'm going to be physically visiting the server for the first time, and hope to do an operating system upgrade and also check out the hardware to make sure everything looks okay on that front. In preparation for that, I'm going to do a full out-of-pattern backup on Friday, April 5, as a follow-up to the full backup I did right after the site had unscheduled downtime a few weeks aback. If something goes completely amiss, the goal will be to not lose anything from before that date.

Tuesday, March 5 2024

Arizona TV Station Update - February 2024

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • K24KS-D 15.x Flagstaff (Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC) has been granted a license to cover its move to a different tower. Technical specifications: Ch 24; TL 35° 14' 25" N, 111° 35' 52" W (Mt. Elden); ERP 0.824 kW HP; HAAT 621 m / 2037 ft.

Continue reading...

Thursday, February 8 2024

Arizona TV Station Update - January 2024

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • K24KS-D 15.x Flagstaff (Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC) has requested a license to cover its move to a different tower in the same antenna farm. Technical specifications: Ch 24; TL 35° 14' 25" N, 111° 35' 52" W (Mt. Elden); ERP 0.824 kW HP; HAAT 621 m / 2037 ft.

Continue reading...

Sunday, January 14 2024

Arizona TV Station Update - December 2023

Here's wishing everyone a blessed and prosperous 2024!

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

Programming Changes

  • KTVK 3.x (24) Phoenix (Gray Television Licensee LLC) has replaced Circle with Outlaw on channel 3.3. The creators of Circle have ended the broadcast diginet, while Jonathan Katz, Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate and Gray Television have entered into a joint venture called Free TV Networks, which has created Outlaw, a western-themed diginet, and The 365, a black-themed diginet.
  • KPHO 5.x (17) Phoenix (Gray Television Licensee LLC) has added a new subchannel, airing AZ Family Sports Network and identifying as KPHE-LD channel 44.2.

Continue reading...

Friday, December 8 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - November 2023

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

Programming Changes

  • KNXV-LD 15.2 Phoenix (Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC) has picked up The CW affiliation.
  • KASW 61.1 Phoenix (Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC) has begun to air Arizona Coyotes games.
  • KDVD-LD 50.3 Globe (Globe LPTV LLC) has replaced the rescan graphic with programming from The Family Channel.

Continue reading...

Tuesday, November 7 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - October 2023

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • KVCW 33.x (29) Las Vegas NV (KUPN Licensee LLC) requested and has been granted a license to cover its construction permit to reduce the power of its auxiliary broadcast facility at its primary distributed transmission site, DTS-1, from 164 kW to 57.14 kW.

Continue reading...

Thursday, October 12 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - September 2023

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • KAZS 27.x Yuma (Gray Television Licensee LLC) requested and has been granted a license to cover its original construction permit, as amended. Technical specifications: Ch 27; TL 33° 3' 2" N, 114° 49' 41" W (Black Mtn.); ERP 100 kW H / 30 kW V DA 0.75° EBT; HAAT 434 m / 1423 ft.
  • KAZF 32.x Flagstaff (Gray Television Licensee LLC) requested and has been granted a license to cover its original construction permit, as amended. Technical specifications: Ch 32; TL 34° 58' 8" N; 111° 30' 31" W (Mormon Mtn.); ERP 100 kW H / 30 kW V DA 1° EBT; HAAT 433 m / 1421 ft.

Continue reading...

Monday, September 11 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - August 2023

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • KPNX 12.X (18) Mesa (Multimedia Holdings Corporation) requested and has been granted a license to cover construction of a new auxiliary broadcast facility on the same tower as its main facility. Technical specifications: Ch 18; TL 33° 20' 0" N, 112° 3' 51" W (South Mtn.); ERP 715 kW HP DA 0.55° EBT; HAAT 520 m / 1704 ft.
  • K04SE-D Parker (Lowcountry 34 Media LLC) requested and has been granted a license to cover its modified construction permit to relocate following irreparable damage to the tower at its previous broadcast location. Technical specifications: Ch 4; TL 33° 35' 45" N, 113° 21' 5" W (Snowbird West RV Park); ERP 0.9 kW DA HP; HAAT -12 m / -39 ft (6 m / 20 ft AGL).

Continue reading...

Saturday, August 19 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - July 2023

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • KOLD-TV 13.x (32/13) Tucson (Gray Television Licensee LLC) requested and has been granted a license to cover a power increase at its digital replacement translator. Technical specifications: Ch 13; TL 32° 14' 52" N, 111° 7' 1" W (Tucson Mtns.); ERP 1 kW HP (0.75° EBT); HAAT 618 m / 2027 ft.

Continue reading...

Tuesday, July 11 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - June 2023

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

Programming Changes

  • KVPA-LD 42.x (34) Phoenix (KCRA License LLC) has lost its JTV feed on channel 42.3. The station displays color bars in its place.
  • K25MK-D 2.x Camp Verde (The Camp Verde TV Club) is on the air with a digital signal and has changed its primary station from KPNX Mesa to KNAZ-TV Flagstaff.

Continue reading...

Wednesday, June 14 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - May 2023

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • KMCC 34.x (32) Laughlin NV (Ion Television Licensee LLC) requested and was granted a license to cover its construction permit to change the broadcast antenna, increase the power, lower the antenna height, and change polarization to 50% elliptical at its DTS2 location. Technical specifications: Ch 32; TL 36° 7' 45" N, 115° 11' 28" W (KTNV studios); ERP 200 kW H / 100 kW V DA 1° EBT; HAAT 60 m / 197 ft.

Continue reading...

Friday, May 19 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - April 2023

Better late than never. As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

Arizona TV Station Update wishes to thank AVS Forum members KyL416 and theMysticSeer for contributing to this month's update.

New Licenses

  • K25MK-D 12.x Camp Verde (The Camp Verde TV Club Inc.) requested and has been granted a license to cover its antenna change. Technical specifications: Ch 25; TL 34° 28' 12" N, 111° 52' 25" W (Porcupine Mtn.); ERP 0.287 kW HP DA; HAAT 694 m / 2276 ft.

Continue reading...

Friday, April 7 2023

Arizona TV Station Update - March 2023

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New Licenses

  • K10RW-D Lake Havasu (Lowcountry 34 Media LLC) requested and has been granted a license to cover its power increase and antenna reorientation. Technical specifications: Ch 10; TL 34° 28' 41" N; 114° 24' 31" W (Cor. Havasu Lake Rd. & Siwavaats Way, Havasu Lake CA); ERP 1 kW DA HP; HAAT -113 m / -371 ft (6 m / 20 ft AGL).

Continue reading...

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