Technical FAQ

If you have any questions that are not listed, please send them to member@kvie.org. We'll answer your question and determine if it should also be included here.

The sound does not match picture when I watch KVIE. What is happening?

• Modern televisions have a capability called "second audio program" or SAP. KVIE broadcasts a reading service for the visually impaired at certain times of the day on that second audio program. To fix the problem you need to access the on screen menu through your remote. Find your way to the menu item for SAP and make sure you've selected the primary audio program.

The background music is too loud, so much that I cannot hear the narrator. What can I do?

• In many cases, you can make simple adjustments with your surround sound or stereo settings. First, try turning off your surround sound feature. In some cases, surround sound will have the propensity to over modulate music/sfx. You might also try changing your audio setting from "stereo" to "mono."
  

I am receiving KVIE through an antenna and am getting interference. What should I do?

• The most common reason for interference, not bad reception, is a new FM radio station or the increased power of an area radio station. Since KVIE occupies the television channel adjacent to the FM band, this is a common occurrence. The FM radio stations that occupy the lower end of the FM Band (next to Channel 6) are responsible for remedying any interference they cause to our broadcast. The following requirements must be met for them to act:
  1) You must be within Channel 6's grade B coverage area.
  2) You must have a reasonable quality outdoor antenna with coax lead in cable (this means no rabbit ears, no twin lead).
  If you meet both of these requirements, identify the offending FM station and notify them of your problem. After getting the notification, the FM station should install a trap that should solve your interference problem. If you are not already using a quality outdoor antenna, you should start there.

There have been times in the past where I receive poor reception quality in the early morning or evenings but not always. What was happening?

• We believe KVIE's signal from our station to the transmitter was being affected by unusally high sunspot activity and atmospheric inversion. We have a 20-year-old 2 Ghz microwave system that transports our pictures and sound from the Garden Highway relay point down to Walnut Grove, where our transmitter is located. Between those two points is a lot of water. When temperature inversions occur (think what causes fog) and other weather anomalies, we can get a bending of the microwave beam causing it to miss the receive antenna at which it is pointed. When this happens, the microwave fades (beam is striking the edge of the receive antenna) or cuts out completely (beam is missing the receive antenna completely). These problems often happen in the spring and fall when the climate is changing and can be made worse by sunspot activity (view a sunspot chart).
  
  To help eliminate as much interference as possible, we installed a filter to eliminate a new potential source of interference, while swapping other elements of the system to make sure all were working properly. We also replaced the entire station-to-transmitter system with a new digital one.