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How many really care about the numbers of OTA viewers? Don't many stations view OTA as an undesirable, but required, expense?
 
Trip said:
Many stations were maxed out on power due to interference before the repack and now have more room to expand.
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In what way does the repack give stations "more room"? It seems like any extra spectrum would be set aside for ATSC 3.0 testing and possibly this silly white space broadband experiment.
Others had their power reduced due to a downward change in frequency and will seek to boost it back up.
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The physics of broadcast doesn't seem to support giving lower frequencies the same power as higher frequencies. The engineers have to know better than to expect something like that to fly.

I guess I don't see how anyone other than the broadcast hardware people win in this other than possible benefits of another across-the-board shuffle only a few years after the last one.
 
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harshness said:
In what way does the repack give stations "more room"?
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One of the goals of the repacking optimization was to minimize aggregate new interference. That had the side effect of moving stations apart wherever possible. So, for example, during the DTV transition, WUNC in Chapel Hill, NC went directional in order to fit on channel 25, co-channel with WTVR in Richmond. The repacking optimization was able to break up that relationship; WUNC is no longer co-channel with Richmond. While further study would be required, initial evaluation suggests that it should be able to, at the very least, let out its directional pattern, if not go completely omni once again.

Many stations, though certainly not all, have more breathing room now than they used to.

harshness said:
The physics of broadcast doesn't seem to support giving lower frequencies the same power as higher frequencies. The engineers have to know better than to expect something like that to fly.
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The rules say any UHF signal can go to 365m 1000 kW (or 1000 kW at a higher height, if there's a larger station already licensed). Therefore, while replication might have dropped KATU from 1000 kW to 678 kW when moved from channel 43 to 24, there's nothing in the rules stopping KATU from applying to go right back up to 1000 kW as long as it can cite another station in the market that's larger and it passes interference muster. (KOPB, for example, is larger.)

- Trip
 
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Trip said:
The rules say any UHF signal can go to 365m 1000 kW (or 1000 kW at a higher height, if there's a larger station already licensed). Therefore, while replication might have dropped KATU from 1000 kW to 678 kW when moved from channel 43 to 24, there's nothing in the rules stopping KATU from applying to go right back up to 1000 kW as long as it can cite another station in the market that's larger and it passes interference muster. (KOPB, for example, is larger.)
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The Portland market is probably a poor example as it covers a lot of territory with a significant number of translators. The market is perhaps 250 miles across at its widest point and covers southwest Washington and a small oddly-placed part of Idaho.

Due to two mountain ranges (Cascade Range and Coast Range), more power out of the Portland-area towers gets you mostly just a higher electricity bill.

I'm thinking of the more common situation where stations are packed in much tighter or where one market has most of the frequencies tied up (like NYC or the SoCal situation).

The move towards directional arrays surely isn't going to be appreciated by those who prefer OOM TV stations to their own.
 
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I know this has been discussed before but I cannot find it. Where can I find a list of stations and/or markets and when they will change frequencies, shutdown etc.?
 
Geronimo said:
I know this has been discussed before but I cannot find it. Where can I find a list of stations and/or markets and when they will change frequencies, shutdown etc.?
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I'm pretty sure you didn't miss it. We have the early time line at this point:

Transition Schedule

Suffice it to say that most of the moves will likely happen in 2019 through the fall of 2020 if everything goes ideally.

As Trip noted in post #78, they're currently working on the first filing where stations try to negotiate for something different than what they were assigned (or an assignment for stations that didn't participate). As noted in post #80, there will be a second round of these before everything settles out and the playing field is set.
 
It has been about five months since the last word. Have they settled the rounds of petitioned changes to the frequency assignments so that they can get down to reviewing the engineering plans?

Testing is supposed to commence on Repack Phase 1 in less than a year and is scheduled to be completed by Thanksgiving 2018.

Most of the news on the FCC website seems to be hurricane related.
 
I discovered a somewhat hidden resource that answers part of my question:

Incentive Auction Resources

The "Notices and Guidance" tab has lots of interesting stuff including a link to a page that notices the second round of move petitions will commence on October 3rd. If I recall earlier advice, this will be the last round before everything is cast in stone.
 
localclassictvfan said:
Lafayette Louisiana OTA changes.......KLWB 50.1 went from 50 to 14. KAJN 40.1 went from 40 to 24 everything else stayed the same for now....
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Went as in past tense?

The repack isn't supposed to commence for another year in the first of ten phases. Further, the assignments aren't yet cast in stone as the Second Window for appeals doesn't close until November 2nd.

Is there anyone else here from the Lafayette market?
 
FWIW some activity in the DC market. Both WDCA (aka Ch.20) and WZDC (aka Ch. 25) have applied for 90 day extensions of the shutdown early next year (they both took the cash) . WZDC is apparently working out a larger transaction with another broadcaster (NBC Universal?) an WDCA seems to just want to continue with all of its subchannels a bit longer).

The WNVC/WNVT combo has not filed for channel sharing but iit now says it will but with the public stations in Richmond, VA. They too have filed for an extension. Given the large number of subchannels on each (6 apiece for a total of 12) I suspect may of those subchannels will not make the transition to the Richmond stations.

For confirmation check filings in the FCC LMS database

Application Search « Licensing and Management System « FCC
 
I saw it. I do not receive it now (and should) but perhaps I will. who knows. this could have something to do with the fact that I live in a hollow.
 

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