The Official SatelliteGuys TV Repack Topic

[Scott Greczkowski]

I can pick up channel 8 (WTNH) fine from my house, however 69 (WCTX) is very hit or miss.

Here is what I am getting at my house right now.

https://rabbitears.info/tvdx/one_tuner_map/1041B33B/tuner0

 

[raoul5788]

"Kind of" The New Haven CPTV affiliate is hyper-local. Still keeping the affiliates in Hartford, Bridgeport, and New London.

WCTX doesn't shock me - LIN are cheap #$@##$'s
I'm amazed that raoul5788 has trouble from his place - makes me feel better about spotty reception down near me!

What's amazingly annoying is that the FCC didn't fix their stupid mistake of putting adjacent market CBS's (WCBS and WFSB) on the same damn channel. Argh.

Part of not getting WCTX really well is that I'm too lazy to turn my CM4228 to the south, but I get WTNH very well from the back of the antenna so I normally don't move it. I'm directly between the stations to the north and the south. Most are north so I usually leave the antenna pointed that way. I rarely use ota anyways.

 

[cpalmer2k]

I can pick up channel 8 (WTNH) fine from my house, however 69 (WCTX) is very hit or miss.

Here is what I am getting at my house right now.

https://rabbitears.info/tvdx/one_tuner_map/1041B33B/tuner0

How do you set up those tvdx's? That is the second one of those I've seen posted recently

 

[coconut10]

A question for somebody who knows? With 41 KPXM RF40 moving to RF16 in the repack in the MPLS/STP market. Does this mean the low power stations currently on RF16 (K16HY-D ST Paul) and RF17 (WUMN-LD Minneapolis) have to move to new RF channels to satisfy the repack? Also, when does low power 43 KMBD-LD RF 43 need to move their RF channel below 36 for the repack?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

How do you set up those tvdx's? That is the second one of those I've seen posted recently

I have a HDHomeRun hooked up to my Antenna on the roof and got a program from Trip which runs on a PC 24/7 and reports it to the RabbitEars Servers.

Contract Trip if you are interested.

 

[harshness]

Does this mean the low power stations currently on RF16 (K16HY-D ST Paul) and RF17 (WUMN-LD Minneapolis) have to move to new RF channels to satisfy the repack?

Move or shut down. It is obvious that they can't share a frequency (unless they become a subchannel).

LP stations have to apply for new channels if their current channel has been assigned to someone else. Its like starting all over again in a much more crowded band. The battle for available channels starts after all of the full-power stations have submitted their applications for the channels they were assigned. This step in the process is known as the Second Window. I don't recall whether full-power stations that want a different channel get priority over LP channels, the reverse or if there is any priority.

Also, when does low power 43 KMBD-LD RF 43 need to move their RF channel below 36 for the repack?

After the application for a new channel is approved or they strike an agreement to become a subchannel.

It is a shame that so many summaries have to be made to interpret the FCC documents and even then, entire questions like yours seem like hunting for unicorns. Of course knowing (or not knowing) the answers isn't going to change what has been set in motion and it probably isn't of much consequence unless you're a stakeholder or a client of such a station.

 

[jegrant]

I'm disappointed that Media General is keeping the crappy VHF signal of WISH TV and selling off the UHF signal of WNDY TV, but it's not all that surprising. I wonder if we will start to see a shakeout among subchannels, as the available "shelf space" in TV gets more scarce?

 

[harshness]

I wonder if we will start to see a shakeout among subchannels, as the available "shelf space" in TV gets more scarce?

Based on what we're seeing the largest markets, I don't think a subchannel shakeout is imminent. I imagine that will come as the stations have to get chummy to deploy ATSC 3.0.

I expect that this time around, the little guys are going to take a beating and those who are committed to "airing" their product will move to other forms of distribution.

 

[whatchel1]

Here is another list of those channels changing frequencies. Note it appears to me they have the columns labeled incorrectly.

https://newscheckmedia.sharefile.com/share?#/view/se12a981ba8e4372a

There is incorrect info on my locals. They say that they are changing channels, when they have always been the channels listed.

 

[Tampa8]

There is incorrect info on my locals. They say that they are changing channels, when they have always been the channels listed.

Did you see where I said it appears the columns are labeled incorrectly? All the channels I checked were correct if you swap the column headings.

 

[whatchel1]

Can't recall if I did or not.

 

[Trip]

Interesting press release about PBS translator stations:

Public Television Joins Forces With T-Mobile to Preserve Access to Public Television for Millions in Rural America | America's Public Television Stations

- Trip

 

[zippyfrog]

I am looking at the Chicago re-pack listing: RabbitEars.Info and have a couple of questions:

1) Is there a doc on the RabbitEars website that shows what frequencies the grayed out channels will be on?
2) Are neighboring markets no longer an issue? I thought there was an issue with interfering signals from Milwaukee when the digital channels were assigned, but it looks like here every channel between 17-35 are all used. And I look at Milwaukee and I see there are quite a few frequency duplicates.

 

[harshness]

The color coding is explained near the top of this page:

RabbitEars.Info

In this case, the grey channels sold their frequencies and will be going off the air or combining with other stations. Since three of the five "networks" are already represented, it may not be that big of an impact.

Neighboring markets are a big issue and may lead to some pretty fancy antenna setups/power adjustments to protect each market from the other. Other gains may come from better transmission equipment that can safely broadcast on adjacent frequencies and TVs more capable of discriminating the same.

 

[Trip]

1) Is there a doc on the RabbitEars website that shows what frequencies the grayed out channels will be on?

As noted by harshness, those stations are going off the air or channel sharing. Most channel sharing agreements have not yet been publicly announced or filed with the FCC. If you look at the main listings for Chicago: RabbitEars.Info You can see that WSNS has been announced as sharing on WMAQ, while WXFT and WWTO have filed to share on WLS and WLPD-CD respectively. WYCC, WPWR, and WOCH-CD are still not confirmed either in whether they will be sharing nor, if so, with who.

2) Are neighboring markets no longer an issue? I thought there was an issue with interfering signals from Milwaukee when the digital channels were assigned, but it looks like here every channel between 17-35 are all used. And I look at Milwaukee and I see there are quite a few frequency duplicates.

The Milwaukee stations are on channels 5, 8, 17, 27-32, and 36. The Class A stations moving to 27, 28, and 32 in the Chicago market are actually already co-channel with Milwaukee stations and are directional away from Milwaukee accordingly. With regard to channel 17, WYIN is south of Chicago, and there is an LPTV on channel 17 in Milwaukee already that will be replaced by a Class A of similar coverage, so any interference there will not change either.

- Trip

 

[zippyfrog]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Trip]

The payments for winning bidders are going out: Winning Reverse Auction Bidders to Receive Incentive Payments

- Trip

 

[Trip]

The first priority filing window has been announced.

https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-724A1.pdf

This window will allow these groups of stations to file:

- 25 stations that were granted a waiver after they indicated were unable to construct the facilities assigned by the FCC.
- A handful of Class A stations that were unprotected during the repacking process (I'm aware of four).
- 49 stations included in a list of stations which lose more than 1% of their pre-auction population as a result of the repacking process.
- Stations that believe they should have been included on the list of 49. (No guarantee they will be granted, of course.)

It will be open August 9 through September 8.

- Trip

 

[harshness]

So about 12% of the stations aren't happy with their assignments?

I'd like to be a fly on the wall at the stations that are going to demand to be compensated for losing eyeballs. You can bet they're also going to hold this over the head of the cable and satellite companies come negotiation time since the gubmint is "forcing" more people to pay TV.

 

[Trip]

I fully expect about 986 applications to come in in the first and second windows. Many stations were maxed out on power due to interference before the repack and now have more room to expand. Others had their power reduced due to a downward change in frequency and will seek to boost it back up. Still others will look to change tower sites or antenna patterns either to expand coverage or for contractual reasons.

- Trip