FCC Report on gain/loss of TV coverage post-Feb 17, 2009

[RadioDze]

This report has been talked about in the news as of late. According to the report, relatively few stations will see a loss of coverage. Check out the link below to see how your market's stations fare post-transition.

http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/

 

[mjlarochelle]

One thing I don't understand about the maps is why coverage is expected to be lost after the DTV transition in areas close to the transmitter. For example WPTZ/5 in the Burlington-Plattsburgh market is moving its transmitter from the New York side to the Vermont side, but there are red triangles in Vermont near the new transmitter site. In the same market, the map for WVNY/22 seems illogical, as the new coverage area is larger, but there's tons of red triangles between the transmitter and the Canadian border.

 

[w9wi]

One thing I don't understand about the maps is why coverage is expected to be lost after the DTV transition in areas close to the transmitter. For example WPTZ/5 in the Burlington-Plattsburgh market is moving its transmitter from the New York side to the Vermont side, but there are red triangles in Vermont near the new transmitter site. In the same market, the map for WVNY/22 seems illogical, as the new coverage area is larger, but there's tons of red triangles between the transmitter and the Canadian border.

Terrain, most likely. The red, green, and orange marks illustrate sites where terrain results in changes in coverage. If there's a large mountain between the Vermont transmitter site and the border, that would account for the loss areas.

(coverage might come back once you cross the border, if the path then clears the obstruction. I haven't looked at any of the maps of stations with cross-border coverage, I don't know if they're mapping gain/loss areas in Canada.)

 

[tripinva]

One thing I don't understand about the maps is why coverage is expected to be lost after the DTV transition in areas close to the transmitter. For example WPTZ/5 in the Burlington-Plattsburgh market is moving its transmitter from the New York side to the Vermont side, but there are red triangles in Vermont near the new transmitter site. In the same market, the map for WVNY/22 seems illogical, as the new coverage area is larger, but there's tons of red triangles between the transmitter and the Canadian border.

As far as WVNY-DT 13 goes, they have a directional pattern that limits radiation toward a channel 12 analog in Canada, thus why the triangles appear there.

- Trip

 

[mjlarochelle]

(coverage might come back once you cross the border, if the path then clears the obstruction. I haven't looked at any of the maps of stations with cross-border coverage, I don't know if they're mapping gain/loss areas in Canada.)

They're showing the contours beyond the border, albeit with no map so it's not clear how close to Montreal it will reach, for instance. And there's no gain/loss symbols being shown outside the United States.