WHBF Engineering

11/12/2025

What happens when most of the TV engineers in the QC have to be at a tower at noon? We eat.

11/12/2025

KLJB, KGCW, WQAD, IA and IL Public and TBN will be off from 12-3pm Wednesday 11/12 and 12-3am Thursday for antenna and line testing. This is being performed by the tower management company so we all need to shutdown during this.

11/03/2025

This is probably why I'm not allowed to bring my toys to work.

10/30/2025

For Halloween tomorrow, I am dressing as a ghost, you won't see me or hear me, but trust me, I will be there, really, I will. 😉

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10/29/2025

Annual chili cookoff is underway. Conference room smells amazing.

10/22/2025

We are aware of some static in the audio on MeTV. This is being received from the satellite like this and they are looking into it.

Thanks for watching, and as always, feel free to reach out with any questions.

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10/09/2025

A little long winded, but here is your Antenna PSA for the day, this is in no way an endorsement and is not sponsored by anyone.

My top personal antenna options to receive WHBF, and all local stations
For best reception, always mount as high as you can, rooftop or attic is always better than indoor.
There is no such thing as an HD, 4K, NextGen antenna. An antenna receives RF over the air, it doesn’t care if its NextGen or analog or HD.
There is also no such thing as a long range antenna that is going to receive signals from 600+ miles away, the curvature of the earth makes this physically impossible. There is a thing called refraction, when atmospheric conditions are just right, some RF signals can bounce between the surface and stratosphere and temporarily travel longer distances.

I personally have, and use the outdoor/attic antennas listed below at several locations.

Amazon.com: Channel Master Omni+ 50 - Omnidirectional Digital HDTV Antenna with 360 Degree Reception, Includes Mounting Bracket for Roof, Attic & RV Installations, Indoor/Outdoor (50 Mile Range) : Electronics

Amazon.com: 1byone Outdoor TV Antenna 360° Omni-Directional Reception Long 100+ Miles Range Enhance VHF&UHF 4K Ready HDTV Antenna with Added Stability for Outdoor/Attic/RV Use - 39ft RG6 Coax Cable

Amazon.com: Shakespeare 3019 SeaWatch Marine TV Antenna, 19" : Electronics

My best indoor recommendation is:

Amazon.com: Channel Master FLATenna - Indoor Digital HDTV Antenna, 12' Coaxial Cable, Superior Reception Range & Signal Reliability, Supports 4K Smart TVs, OTA Broadcast & NextGen TV, Easy Install : Electronics

I recommend using an amplifier with the Channel Masters for best performance. The 1byone and Shakespeare have built in amplifiers.

Amazon.com: THE CIMPLE CO Antenna Amplifier Kit, Digital TV Signal Booster with Coax, Adjustable Gain, 24 dB Distribution, NTSC, ATSC, FM, UHF, VHF, 1000 MHz, Includes RG6 Coaxial Cable, Indoor Use Only : Electronics

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10/07/2025

Updates are done, took 2 reboots instead of one, but all systems are up and running.

Thank you for your patience.

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10/06/2025

It's me!!! Back to annoy you one more time. We will be applying a security update to our main network switches tomorrow, 10/7/25 at 1pm, which will require a reboot of our network. This will shutdown all signals for 12-15 minutes while it reboots and loads the update. We normally do reboots overnight, but due to the importance of this update and vendor support being available overnight, we will need to perform this during business hours.

Thank you for understanding.

Attention Viewers: On Tuesday, October 7th this station will be making some crucial network updates to our equipment. Once completed, the system will need to be rebooted and this will interrupt our transmission on all the channels of WHBF, KGCW and KLJB will be interrupted from approximately 1:00pm-1:15pm. We apologize in advance for this inconvenience.

08/29/2025

Watch the Rock island Grand Prix without leaving your house and dealing with people. We have a live stream from our rooftop.

ROCK ISLAND TOWER Loading Player… BETTENDORF TOWER Loading Player… MUSCATINE Loading Player… LECLAIRE Loading Player… DOWNTOWN ROCK ISLAND Loading Player…

08/12/2025

Just another day at the office.

07/29/2025

MVF is going, corn dogs are fresh. Stop out and say hi, ask questions, check out a few antennas.