Remember When What Is Now Comcast Cable, Cost $5.00 A Month?

[thatonedude]

And that's like a 3rd or 4th generation of the Weather Channel's version of "weatherscan"!! I installed a lot of the first, second and third generations. I don't have any examples of the 1st gen, but it was basically a crawl across the bottom of the screen and four or five graphic pages that would cycle though. One would be current radar, one current weather observations, one weather forecast and I think one was "cities near you". You also needed to connect (and maintain) local weather instruments to those early generations. Now they just use local NOAA weather data stations. Even before The Weather Channel units were installed, we had a weather radar feed from DTW and had that on a channel by itself, or shared with some other content.

Are you referring to the original WeatherSTARs (first gen to the 4000)? Those had the option to connect weather instruments to them in order to have "hyper-local" observations; otherwise, they took NWS data from the satellite. Most operators didn't utilize this feature, unfortunately; I think it was a pretty cool idea. However, the need for it isn't as great now, especially with the technology they use to generate observations for every zip code -- I forget the name of it, but it's pretty interesting how it's generated.

Allow me to get a bit geeky if you will: TWC's Weatherscan has had only two equipment-related iterations; the WeatherSTAR XL and the Intellistar, which is the version that's on-air to this day. The XL had no option to connect a weather station to it, and the same goes for the Intellistar. All data comes from TWC over satellite or the Internet. Originally it was all NWS data, but in the early 2000s (like '01 or '02), it switched to being exclusively TWC generated data. Also, they don't use NWS sites for observations anymore -- they now use that proprietary system that comes up with observations. Same with forecasts; those come from TWC as well. Now as far as graphics go, it actually is the fourth iteration.

It's a lot of fascinating equipment they use for it all. In fact, some people I know have managed to get these units functioning again! It's really neat to see them alive again.

Sorry for going off-topic, it's nice to see someone who dealt with this equipment!

[CK-722]

In the old days of cable, once you got past the 12 VHF channels, to expand to more channels beyond 22 channels became problematic. The infrastructure and equipment was generally not designed for frequencies much above 2l6 MHz, in particular the losses of RG-59 transmission line. The mid band cable channels 14-22, particularly A to C or 14-16, interfered with Aircraft communications with the leaky cables, like the ones on that apartment building rooftop in Ann Arbor. There was once a H*** lawsuit brought against Comcast related to Aircraft Band interference. They stopped using cable 14-16 (A to C) for a while until the transmission line was replaced and the sloppy drop lines from former subscribers were removed.

[km1125]

Are you referring to the original WeatherSTARs (first gen to the 4000)..... WeatherSTAR XL and the Intellistar....

Yes, all those are various version of what I'd call the Weather Channel's version of "weatherscan"!!

There were the Weatherstar I/II/III (which were basically the same), the Weatherstar 4000/XL, the Intellistar and Intellistar 2/xD. Where you draw the lines between different 'generations' could be different for most folks. I got out of it when the Intellistars started showing up.

In the old days of cable, once you got past the 12 VHF channels, to expand to more channels beyond 22 channels became problematic. The infrastructure and equipment was generally not designed for frequencies much above 2l6 MHz, in particular the losses of RG-59 transmission line. The mid band cable channels 14-22, particularly A to C or 14-16, interfered with Aircraft communications with the leaky cables, like the ones on that apartment building rooftop in Ann Arbor. There was once a H*** lawsuit brought against Comcast related to Aircraft Band interference. They stopped using cable 14-16 (A to C) for a while until the transmission line was replaced and the sloppy drop lines from former subscribers were removed.

I don't recall lawsuits, but I don't doubt there were a few. The real problem was the FCC attention and enforcement. Flint had to shut off some channels in the mid-band for a bit while they had to fix the leakage problems, and if I recall they were some premium services so there was a lot of attention to get them fixed fast. That was one of the earliest escalations around the country regarding interference in the FAA band and raised a lot of visibility in the industry (rightly so!!)

What about the Local Origination channels?? Seems like every system back in the early 80's had to have at least one local origination channel which included government access or public access. Anyone recall some of those gems??

[CK-722]

I talked to the late great Bill Endahl, who worked as an engineer for the Genesee County Cable system which was still owned by Lamb Communications, around 1968-1969 about these issues. I went to school with his son and nephew, and he was at a production in our HS auditorium. At the time, I had an Allied Colorset 60 with an Alliance T-45 rotator, and all the VHF stations except CKLW-TV 9 came in better with the antenna than other people's cable. I could get CKLW-TV 9, but the cable was better on that. The antenna at the head end was a 4 Bay 10 element Channel 9 Yagi on a 250 foot tower near Hemphill Rd. and Dort Highway. It soon became apparent that tropospheric interference from WWTV 9 was so common and intense, that they eventually moved the Channel 9 head end to the tower next to I-75 near Exit 98, one of about three Holly Roads, as I recall. I believe that this tower picked up not only Channel 9, but also WKBD-TV 50, and WWJ-TV/WDIV 4 as the first link for off air reception for then NBC Affiliate WNEM-TV 5. Those three, and from the microwave link at WJRT-TV 12, and WNEM-TV 5, to deliver to most of the cable systems in Northern Lower Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula, until the ABC and independent affiliates like WGTU/WGTQ 29&8, and what is now WFQX and WFUP, 33/32 and 45 came on the air.