Our favorite Phoenix Spanish-language station is in a bit of a pickle. They have been notified by a lower 700MHz licensee that they must cease operations on channel 53 by September 15, 2005.
Aloha Partners, the nation's largest holder of 700MHz spectrum, is planning on launching wireless broadband in Phoenix on chs. 54 and 59 on that date and is claiming that K53GF will interfere with their operations.
K53GF has applied to the FCC for displacement relief, seeking to move to ch. 38 as a LPDTV station. According to their search, no in-core stations in Phoenix were suitable, but apparently, ch. 38 poses the least problems - probably because KDTP will not be operating a digital station until the end of the transition period, when they are supposed to flash-cut to a DTV signal. Even so, adjacent digital stations from the same antenna farm are not supposed to pose an interference problem.
I wonder if either KPHZ-LP (58) or KAZT (55) have also been ordered to abandon their channels?
I also find it strange that Aloha Partners is requiring stations to abandon adjacent channels because they've requested a waiver in Tucson to operate, saying that they won't interfere with an analog station there (I assume KWBA 58).
K53GF is famous, both for their poor-quality signal and their poor-quality programming. Ironic that they would seek to operate an exclusively digital signal. I don't see them carried on either Cox or Qwest cable systems, so I wonder how many of their target households even have digital TV?
K53GF application: http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=324822
Aloha Partners, the nation's largest holder of 700MHz spectrum, is planning on launching wireless broadband in Phoenix on chs. 54 and 59 on that date and is claiming that K53GF will interfere with their operations.
K53GF has applied to the FCC for displacement relief, seeking to move to ch. 38 as a LPDTV station. According to their search, no in-core stations in Phoenix were suitable, but apparently, ch. 38 poses the least problems - probably because KDTP will not be operating a digital station until the end of the transition period, when they are supposed to flash-cut to a DTV signal. Even so, adjacent digital stations from the same antenna farm are not supposed to pose an interference problem.
I wonder if either KPHZ-LP (58) or KAZT (55) have also been ordered to abandon their channels?
I also find it strange that Aloha Partners is requiring stations to abandon adjacent channels because they've requested a waiver in Tucson to operate, saying that they won't interfere with an analog station there (I assume KWBA 58).
K53GF is famous, both for their poor-quality signal and their poor-quality programming. Ironic that they would seek to operate an exclusively digital signal. I don't see them carried on either Cox or Qwest cable systems, so I wonder how many of their target households even have digital TV?
K53GF application: http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=324822