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NAB asks for ATSC 3.0 mandate by 2030

Mediafrog+ said:
Any reallocation of the 470 to 608 MHz spectrum currently used for UHF television is many years away, if it ever happens. We may be well beyond ATSC 3.0 by that point.

VHF is lousy for digital TV, whether ATSC 1.0 or 3.0. Especially so for low band VHF 54-88 MHz.
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They talked about moving the Part 90 users off of T-band awhile back, but it never happened nor will I think it will ever happen. LAPD is a MAJOR user of that spectrum and there just is no other Part 90 spectrum that can hold them out there that already isn't slammed. Here in the Houston area, we have a ton of T-band users as well. 470-520 Part 90 frequencies are hard to come by and that also goes for 700/800 Public safety.

I also have heard talk of being able to license in-market vacant TV channels to Part 90 LMR but it too seems to have gone by the wayside. In any market there seems to be a ton of unused spectrum sitting quiet on channels that are not in use by the broadcasters.
 
kevtronics said:
Because that's when cable TV became available. OTA pay TV was just a stopgap until people in big cities got access to cable.
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I don’t think the operators of those OTA subscription services ever saw them as a “stopgap”. But you are right that the construction of cable TV systems is what killed OTA pay TV.

In DFW the three OTA subscription services (ON-TV, VEU and Preview) each charged around $23/mo. for around nine hours of rather uncompelling daily programming, while for about the same price you could get a couple dozen channels of cable TV. Game over.

OTA subscription TV simply came along too late and was supplanted by cable. Had it been around a decade earlier it might have had a chance to put down some roots.
 
Echo4Thirty said:
Here in the Houston area, we have a ton of T-band users as well. 470-520 Part 90 frequencies are hard to come by and that also goes for 700/800 Public safety.
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I hear very little analog voice activity in the T-band here in Houston these days, but I assume that’s because digital transmissions are now dominant.
Echo4Thirty said:
I also have heard talk of being able to license in-market vacant TV channels to Part 90 LMR but it too seems to have gone by the wayside. In any market there seems to be a ton of unused spectrum sitting quiet on channels that are not in use by the broadcasters.
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Though in big markets there may not be any available UHF TV spectrum. Here in Houston the entire UHF TV band is occupied except for channels 16, 17 and 18 (482-500 MHz) which are used for land mobile. And channel 16 is occupied by KBTX in the NW part of the market.

The 2019 UHF repack really put the crunch on wireless microphones which had used vacant UHF spectrum. I recall having to reprogram many of them to frequencies within channels 17 and 18, or in the 657-663 MHz cellular “gap” which was allowed. However newer wireless mics are now using 1.9 and 2.4 GHz frequencies, which helps solve those spectrum issues.
 
Frequency1 said:
Land Mobile in Houston is on channel 17 and thus is not permitted to be used by wireless microphones at all.
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At the time of the 2019 UHF repack I plowed through FCC regs as well as a number of technical articles about wireless mic frequencies, and they indicated that unlicensed mic operation on land mobile UHF TV channels was allowed as long as clashes with licensed operations were avoided. If anyone has specifics, feel free to chime in.

I had to retire a couple of wireless mic sets whose UHF frequency ranges were no longer authorized for such use. The newest mics were in the 1.9 and 2.4 GHz range, so no issues there. Appears 5 and 6 GHz mics are now a thing.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Any reallocation of the 470 to 608 MHz spectrum currently used for UHF television is many years away, if it ever happens. We may be well beyond ATSC 3.0 by that point.
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And here is what might follow ATSC 3.0:

tvnewscheck.com

A Jackpot Awaits TV In 5G Broadcast

I keep reading that linear broadcasting is in an inevitable decline, but it doesn’t have to be. The jackpot market that can save the industry is the ability to broadcast and datacast directly to wireless mobile devices including 300 million-plus smartphones and over 200 million tablets in the...
tvnewscheck.com tvnewscheck.com
 
The FCC Part 74 Subpart H rules about wireless microphones and other low power auxiliary devices state that you can use an unused TV channel unless there is a station on the channel or it is reserved for Land Mobile in the top 10 cities.
Boston TV 14 & 16
Chicago TV 14 & 15
Cleveland TV 14 & 15
Dallas/Fort Worth TV 16
Detroit TV 15 & 16
Houston TV 17
Los Angeles, Tv 14, 15, 16 & 20
Miami TV 14
New York TV 14, 15 & 16
Philadelphia TV 19 & 20
Pittsburgh Tv 14 & 18
San Francisco/Oakland TV 16 & 17
Washington DC TV 17 & 18


 
Mediafrog+ said:
I hear very little analog voice activity in the T-band here in Houston these days, but I assume that’s because digital transmissions are now dominant.

Though in big markets there may not be any available UHF TV spectrum. Here in Houston the entire UHF TV band is occupied except for channels 16, 17 and 18 (482-500 MHz) which are used for land mobile. And channel 16 is occupied by KBTX in the NW part of the market.

The 2019 UHF repack really put the crunch on wireless microphones which had used vacant UHF spectrum. I recall having to reprogram many of them to frequencies within channels 17 and 18, or in the 657-663 MHz cellular “gap” which was allowed. However newer wireless mics are now using 1.9 and 2.4 GHz frequencies, which helps solve those spectrum issues.
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I would imagine a lot of those have gone to DMR. There are a few on 488 that I used to maintain. I think the city of south houston has a public works channel there. I tried to do an FCC search for 470-520 in the area, but of course the FCC search site bombs out with various errors. (imagine that!)

We also had a license for the IAH telemetry for the SkyWay at 489.15 and 492.15. The licenses still show current, but I dont know if they are actually still in operation on them. Metro's admin building is on 488.4 as well, DMR.

I also forgot all about the wireless mics. When we lit up the City of Houston 700 MHz P25 system, we had all kinds of interreference from wireless mics. One of them we triangulated to a strip club. That one was awkward to handle. We had a few discussions about keeping city logoed vehicles out of the parking lot so we wouldn't end up on KHOU news!
 
Definitely will hit obstacles among other issues. As expected by many, this will be an upcoming crapstorm. Aren't there still patent issues, DRM issues, other regulatory issues and they're still hellbent on shoving this through -- which will create more issues. No chance on 'government discounted converter boxes', and the new flat screen just bought a year or two ago will be 'forced-obsoleted'-- perfectly good tv sets to be replaced yet again at full price. Yeah, that's an issue. Plenty of people especially the elderly will be livid--ya know-- even more issues.
 
It will be interesting to see where ATSC 3.0 will be a viable way for TV broadcasts in some parts of the country. I been to the TV sections of the stores in my area and they emphasize access to TV apps like Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock and Paramount+. I like to see who the core demos for ATSC 3.0 are.
 
MMVRBfan9 said:
Definitely will hit obstacles among other issues. As expected by many, this will be an upcoming crapstorm. Aren't there still patent issues, DRM issues, other regulatory issues and they're still hellbent on shoving this through -- which will create more issues. No chance on 'government discounted converter boxes', and the new flat screen just bought a year or two ago will be 'forced-obsoleted'-- perfectly good tv sets to be replaced yet again at full price. Yeah, that's an issue. Plenty of people especially the elderly will be livid--ya know-- even more issues.
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Why would your new TV be obsolete?
 
Two of the biggest selling points of ATSC3 are that it increases the signal range and makes it easier to transmit it in 4K. Tyler the Antenna Man says not so fast.

 


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