Thursday, April 2, 2009

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

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Inside KLRN: School Services

Welcome to Inside KLRN and School Services! I'm Malinda McCormick, the Director of School Services. I'm excited to be able to share with you the fantastic resources we have here at KLRN and to connect with you in this way. More and more educators are finding the value of using web 2.0 tools such as blogs, nings, wikis, twitters and social networking to connect and collaborate.

In the coming months I will be posting materials here to help you instruct with our services such as KLRN Connect, links to related materials from PBS, and connecting you with some amazing edubloggers from all over the blogosphere. So, to get things started, I'd like to introduce you to some of my favorite educator Web 2.0 resources including: Around the Corner, Classroom 2.0, PBS Teachers and the Discovery Educator Network.

And please feel free share with us your favorite education links, your best practices for using KLRN Connect in the Classroom and other ways you use PBS resources in your teaching.