Arizona TV Station Update - January 2016

[VoiceofWayne]

KAZT-CD/7.x uses 36. Since it's a Class A station, I believe it's protected. Channel 29 is still available, IIRC.



I'd guess that the chances of any full-powered local station occupying Channels 3 and 5 are about as good as the Suns winning the NBA Finals this year. Meredith would be idiots to move their stations off of UHF, and if ASU is that desperate for money, they might as well just shut Channel 8 down (and they won't). I still have no idea why 8, 10, and 12 moved back to their VHF channels, rather than remaining on UHF.

I agree that low-VHF is a loser for HDTV, but high-VHF seems to work well. The only Phoenix channels I receive in Fountain Hills are 8, 10, and 12 -- this is with a VHF-UHF antenna. On the other side, I receive all the Tucson stations which are UHF as well as KGUN RF9. My thought was if cable penetration was high enough, the stations wouldn't care where they were, just that they were "on the air" and available for must-carry.

It still doesn't make sense for 8, 10, and 12 to be back on high-vhf. What happened to the facilities they had already built on UHF? Are the transmitters and antennas still there? Depending upon antennas and equipment they would have possibly had to invest in new transmitting facilities -- twice.

As an amateur radio operator, any discussion of HOAs and antenna restrictions makes my blood pressure increase. Fountain Hills seems less onerous about antennas than they used to be. There is a guy here with a tribander on top of a 30 foot tower, which is a lot of steel in the air...There are several smaller antennas scattered around town as well.

 

[KeithE4]

Interesting subject.
According to the FAA, the Protected Zone should, when possible, be owned by the airport (in this case, the city of Mesa).
Beyond that, the Protected Zone is not a good place to live. The reason that it is called "the protected zone" is the potential danger to the public ... not to the aircraft.
It's the area which falls within the danger zone in the event of a mishap during aircraft take-off or landing

The City of Mesa uses the term "Airfield Overlay," which in the case of Falcon Field, is a rectangle turned 45 degrees, with a full length of 5 nautical miles NE/SW and 3 nautical miles NW/SE, centered on the middle of the runway. My neighborhood sits at the NE end of that rectangle. Not only am I within that range, but I'm 100 feet higher in elevation than the airport runway. Falcon Field has been around decades longer than any residential area in this part of town (WW2 vs mid 1990s).

http://www.mesaaz.gov/home/showdocument?id=12464

 

[Prescott Joe]

Many HOA's, like the one I live in, (Prescott Lakes) have CC&R's prohibiting outdoor tv antennas.
Those rules are simply unenforceable. I have three antennas on the corner of my home.
No local entity can simply prohibit an outdoor tv antenna and allow satellite dishes, which are
essentially tv antennas of another type. Perhaps one of you would be good enough to show me
where it says that any local entity can simply prohibit outdoor tv antennas without due course.
The legal burden falls on any entity which attempts to prohibit or restrict the installation of any
outdoor tv antenna. In the interim of such a situation, the homeowner can continue to use the
antenna until they are told otherwise by the F.C.C. Yes, some restrictions may be enforceable
but not an outright ban on tv antennas.
For your perusal:

https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule

Keith, I would suggest you install a small antenna, like a Channel Master
Stealthtenna 50 or Metro 40 on a low corner of your home where you have
line of sight to South Mountain. Take a wait and see approach. The only
thing that can possibly happen is that you may be eventually forced to remove
the antenna. You mentioned that a neighbor has a UHF outside antenna so
you would be the second home in the area with an outdoor antenna. You
might be surprised that you never have any issues but I'm willing to bet that
would be the case. I've installed more antennas than I care to think about
and NO ONE has EVER contacted me requiring the antenna be removed.
The City of Mesa and Falcon Field have many more pressing issues than an
antenna that sits below the rooftop of any home.......

 

[K.M. Richards]

What happened to the facilities they had already built on UHF? Are the transmitters and antennas still there? Depending upon antennas and equipment they would have possibly had to invest in new transmitting facilities -- twice.

In some cases, stations built less-than-optimal UHF facilities for the transition period ... especially those with interim channels above 51, who knew they would not be on those channels post-transition. In other cases, they were able to reuse the amplification sections of their old VHF transmitters with new digital exciters (and many deliberately ordered new transmitters during the transition period that could use the amplification sections regardless of band). It should also be noted that digital power levels are much lower than the previous analog, so new equipment costs would have been far less onerous. And, many co-located UHF stations are using a master transmitting antenna now.

These are all answers I have gotten when questioning various television engineers. If any of it is wrong, blame them.

I do know that here in L.A., CBS made some clever moves in reconfiguring their facilities up on Mt. Wilson: Pre-transition, their KCBS-TV/2 was on DTV 60 and co-owned KCAL-TV/9 was on DTV 43. On the cutover day, KCAL flash-cut channel 9 from analog to digital, then moved KCBS to 43 from 60, shutting down analog 2. That had to have minimized the expense for them.

 

[Prescott Joe]

And..... TV Fool shows a 40db to nearly 60db signal range for all Phoenix
full power stations within 3-5 miles of Falcon Field.

 

[KeithE4]

And..... TV Fool shows a 40db to nearly 60db signal range for all Phoenix
full power stations within 3-5 miles of Falcon Field.

My TV must be deaf as a post, because I get nothing below 50 dB on that chart.