Hello all. Normally when we see tv channels in a large city market they are spaced at least 2 channels apart. Obviously the bandwidth is large, just like FM. Why is it for many years NY has had channel 4, and 5, one channel apart? I have never seen that anywhere else. Thanks for any responses.
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Question about TV channel spacing
- Thread starter Mike in Destin
- Start date
Analog Channel 4 is 66-72 MHz, while Channel 5 is 76-82 MHz. That 4 MHz gap allowed them to be used in the same city.
Other cities with both analog 4 and 5 included LA, San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, DFW, the Twin Cities, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Seattle, the Rio Grande Valley, and others I can't think of right now.
Other cities with both analog 4 and 5 included LA, San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, DFW, the Twin Cities, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Seattle, the Rio Grande Valley, and others I can't think of right now.
Analog channels 6 and 7 were also often occupied in the same market. Channel 6 topped out at 88 MHz (the bottom of the FM spectrum) while Channel 7 didn't start till 174 MHz.
Thanks for the replies. I used to get analog channel 6 audio at the bottom of the FM band.
KC has had Channel 4 WDAF-TV and Channel 5 KCTV for years
That's one I couldn't think of when I replied earlier. St. Louis (KMOV/4 and KSDK/5) was another.
Before the freeze was lifted, the Quad Cities had WHBF/4 and WOC/5. WOC moved to Channel 6 after the freeze, though. Chicago also had WBKB/4 and WNBQ/5 until 1953, when WBKB became WBBM-TV and moved to Channel 2 (Channel 4 was moved to Milwaukee for WTMJ-TV).
Charleston SC had WCIV (NBC then ABC) on 4 and WCSC (CBS) on 5. The switch to digital made some mysterious change to WCIV which supposedly means it's no longer considered to be on Channel 4 in any sense.
incorrect. The digital switch had nothing to do with it. In 2014 Sinclair bought out Albritton who owned WCIV. This would have given Sinclair 2 big station which was frowned upon (yes I know about the Sinclair run companies that they usually use to get around this). So they moved ABC to a subchannel and sold WCIV to Howard Stirk Holdings which carries subchannels (they are the ATSC 3.0 station right now). Thats how stations get around it now in other markets. They move the programming from the station they cant buy outright to a subchannel of the station they own. Its not that big of a deal about "oh no its not on channel 29 anymore its on 9-2". Thats what Minneapolis did to the 3 different dual stations owned. They merged the digital channel together. So our old 17, 29 and 45 are now part of co-owned 2, 9 and 5 and have been for years.
I remember now. Those were two separate events.
Digital ATSC channels have different channel spacing rules then analog.
Example is KOMO is RF Ch 30 and KONG is RF Ch 31.
Example is KOMO is RF Ch 30 and KONG is RF Ch 31.
Yes, adjacent channels are OK for ATSC if the towers are within only a few miles (not sure exactly how far) of each other, or are in the same tower farm/skyscraper.
But that's based on 2000-ish technology. The analog UHF spacing rules were written in 1952, when UHF tuners were less than absolute garbage, and VHF tuners were little better. Even after better tuners were designed in the 1970s, the old rules still applied.
There was another thread on a similar topic a few months back for more fine reading (and the obligatory thread drift):
In the early years of TV, when all sets had mechanical tuners, there were some on which the VHF channels were not consecutive, but rather grouped into 2-4-5-7-9-11-13 and 3-6-8-10-12.
Had it ever been used, the final allocation for channel 1 also had a gap between it and channel 2, allowing channels 1 and 2 to be used in the same market.
Had it ever been used, the final allocation for channel 1 also had a gap between it and channel 2, allowing channels 1 and 2 to be used in the same market.
Channel 1 was used before and during the war. It was 50-56 MHz between 1940 and 1945. The only commercial station that used it was WNBT New York, although some experimental stations also used it. Channel 2 was at 60-66 MHz, the current RF Channel 3. With a 4 MHz gap for the then-5 meter ham band, both channels could be used in the same city.
After the war, FM was moved from 42-50 MHz to 88-108 MHz, and Channel 1 was returned to its prewar assignment of 44-50 MHz as a low-power community channel. The channel was reassigned to other services in 1948. The only CP ever assigned to it was KARO Riverside CA, which never went on the air. WNBT moved to Channel 4 in 1945.
My family's first TV with UHF had a tuner like radio.
Vernier style tuners were used in UHF converter boxes in the 1950s and early 60s. Same for TV sets that included a second UHF tuner in those days. The ”clickable” UHF dials come in the 1970s, quickly replaced by push buttons before fully electronic tuning became commonplace.
A few early UHF converters were marked by frequency instead of channel, so they would show 470 to 890 MHz in various increments.
Search for “UHF converter collection” online and you will find many examples of those early tuners.
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