Was reading a article about ME-TV 87.7FM in Chicago.. it appears the fcc has now grandfathered them and they don’t have to renew every 6 months anymore .
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87.7 now permanent ?
- Thread starter radioislife2020
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WRME-LD in Chicago just filed an application for another STA extension to transmit analog audio on 87.7 FM in addition to an ATSC 3.0 digital TV signal. Their current STA expires on January 27th.
So will this be an every-six-months rubber stamp from the FCC, or will they be told to cease operations immediately at some point?
From what i read this is permanent. Has anyone else filed for a extension?
WRME-LD is arguing that it should be permanently allowed under the provision for DTV stations to provide "ancillary services" as long as they don't cause interference, but is still filing the STA applications "out of an abundance of caution".
It would take a waiver of the rules to pull it out of STAs...who knows if the FCC will allow it
3.0 is backed by the FCC, and will slowly start integrating into lower-priced TVs without the consumer noticing. I would hope/presume it doesn't fail, because it is the more robust standard that we deserve!
Please be right!
I would love to tune in WRME sometime.Here's an article that updates the situation:
There are several other stations that utilize this technology.
There are several other stations that utilize this technology.
WNYZ-LD in the NYC area is also transmitting ATSC 3.0 + 87.7 FM audio. But the audio signal coverage is much less than when they were an analog LPTV station.
Sounds to me that they are here to stay
No it won't. ATSC version 3 allows in channel interference to be a -1DBc where is ATSC V1 is 15DB worse. To make an FM signal work with 8VSB would require the FMs to drop their FM Carrier 15DB at minimum..maybe 20db. Too much power loss to be worth it
Chicago,New York, Boston are making it work just fine not a single issue
The thing that never made sense to me is that while the FCC is restricting the use of 87.7 as a radio frequency, there is an 87.7 in Tijuana that blasts into San Diego and they don’t have to follow these FCC restrictions. Does that interfere in any way with ATSC 3.0’s rollout in San Diego?
Is the Tijuana station at 87.70, or at 87.75 like the U.S. Franken FM stations are? The problem with 87.75 is that it distorts on most of my digital FM tuners due to it being off frequency. One of my tuners which has 0.1 MHz stepped tuning actually sounds better locking into WNYZ-LD on 87.8 than on 87.7.
Good call on that one, I just checked on my CCradio 2e which tunes in increments of .05 and the Tijuana station is in fact at 87.75 and not 87.7. I always wondered why the station sounded a little off on my car radio at 87.7. Now I know why! The Tijuana station is broadcasting at 87.75.
Does broadcasting at 87.75 side-step any Mexican / US government regulations of 87.7 Frankenstein FM stations?
Now that analog TV is gone there is no reason for these Franken-FMs to transmit at 87.75 instead of 87.7.
87.75 was the official audio carrier frequency for analog TV on channel 6, but that analog TV system no longer exists, so there is no need to conform to that standard anymore. (And not that they bothered conforming to the 25 kHz deviation and MTS stereo TV standards even when they were still transmitting an analog TV signal -- AFAIK all Franken-FMs used 75 kHz deviation, and the FM MPX system if they transmitted in stereo. Tuning them in on an actual analog TV set produced very loud and distorted audio.)
The analog audio signal is now an "ancillary service" of ATSC 3.0 for FM radio listeners, so there's nothing against them putting it at 87.70 or maybe even 87.9 MHz.
87.75 was the official audio carrier frequency for analog TV on channel 6, but that analog TV system no longer exists, so there is no need to conform to that standard anymore. (And not that they bothered conforming to the 25 kHz deviation and MTS stereo TV standards even when they were still transmitting an analog TV signal -- AFAIK all Franken-FMs used 75 kHz deviation, and the FM MPX system if they transmitted in stereo. Tuning them in on an actual analog TV set produced very loud and distorted audio.)
The analog audio signal is now an "ancillary service" of ATSC 3.0 for FM radio listeners, so there's nothing against them putting it at 87.70 or maybe even 87.9 MHz.
You cant move it to 87.9 that would bump what is channel 200.. which only has one signal left on it in the US.. but its still a valid channel. I say move channel 6 audio to 87.7
Agree. My more selective radios (such as my trusty C Crane Pocket) don't do well picking up 87.7 MeTV FM from Chicago from my distant suburban location. Yet, the less selective radios pull it in better than many other Chicago signals. It's that .05 MHz offset that throws them off. Get rid of that and it will improve reception for many people (most of whom simply think they have a poor signal).
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