KUHA's 91.3 translator is on

[johndavis]

Listened to it at lunch. The signal breaks up a bit around Bissonnet and the loop. Audio is a couple of seconds behind 91.7. Loudness a touch lower than 91.7, but fairly close.

New call sign is K217GB. Looks like it went back on in February, per the FCC filings.

 

[purpledevil]

this is the old Barker translator if I'm not mistaken, isn't it John? Checked for K217GB from the north side and found only KPVU. I was working in Westchase area a couple of years back and the old Barker translator and KPVU gave each other fits all along the West Belt.

 

[jd]

Not to interrupt here, but KUHA's translator has a pattern that doesn't favor the north side. They protect the Barker translator (K217DP) as well as KPVU:

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101457855&qnum=5120&copynum=1&exhcnum=1

 

[johndavis]

Not to interrupt here, but KUHA's translator has a pattern that doesn't favor the north side. They protect the Barker translator (K217DP) as well as KPVU:

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101457855&qnum=5120&copynum=1&exhcnum=1

Correct. The translator basically moved across Main from the Rice stadium to the roof of the A&M Health Sciences Building. The pattern needed to stay within the 91.7 contour and put the area where they're short spaced with KTSU within an area where people don't live (plus protect Barker and KPVU) to make the move happen. People don't live in the Medical Center or the Rice stadium parking lot, so the top of that building works.

 

[purpledevil]

Ah, I was confused. The 91.5 Rice translator has been moved to 91.3. Now I'm on the same page. Why the frequency change, though? Nothing @ 91.5, that I'm aware of, for the translator to interfere with. This seems awfully short spaced to the co channel in Barker, if that translator returns to service.

 

[KTN Corp]

this is the old Barker translator if I'm not mistaken, isn't it John? Checked for K217GB from the north side and found only KPVU. I was working in Westchase area a couple of years back and the old Barker translator and KPVU gave each other fits all along the West Belt.

It's still on. If I go north of Buffalo Bayou in Cinco Ranch West, the selectivity will favor K217GB. My house is barely on the edge of the 60 dBu line. KPVU is muddled with some noise from K217GB at my house.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I listened to 91.3 on a drive from Cy-Fair into downtown to check out the signal clash.

KPVU is by itself on 290 west of Pinemont. Once I passed Pinemont I heard K217GB starting to briefly chop into KPVU. At Mangum (just outside the loop) K217GB would often beat out KPVU. From inside the loop into downtown it was basically a dogfight, although KPVU dominated longer stretches than K217GB.

So as predicted, KPVU slams the northwestern part of the translator's service area, and the translator batters the east end of the KPVU coverage.

Haven't been there to check, but I suspect that the solid coverage for K217GB is limited to the high-dollar areas bounded by 288 on the east, 59 on the north, and the South and West Loops, extending into the outside-the-loop areas of Bellaire and Meyerland, which was probably the intention, anyway.

Is the Barker translator (K217DP) still on the air? No trace of it last time I was driving on I-10 in that area.

 

[foursider]

The Barker translator suffers from a poor antenna installation. In addition, it's now entirely inside the KPVU 60 dbu contour. It starts getting clobbered three blocks down the road.

 

[johndavis]

Haven't been there to check, but I suspect that the solid coverage for K217GB is limited to the high-dollar areas bounded by 288 on the east, 59 on the north, and the South and West Loops, extending into the outside-the-loop areas of Bellaire and Meyerland, which was probably the intention, anyway.

In Bellaire and Meyerland it's getting clobbered by KVLU out of Beaumont. You'll know you're hearing KVLU and not K217GB in the morning when KUHA is playing music and KVLU is carrying Morning Edition.

Other times of day both are playing classical music, so there may be times where you think you're getting the translator and you're really getting Beaumont unless you check to see if the pieces match or you hear an ID.

 

[foursider]

Any 91.3 translaotors in this area are the victim of an antiquated FCC rule dealing with IF interference to receivers that might be tuned to another station 10.3 mHz above their operating frequency. If there is a station on or near the summ frequency, there are some overlap limits. So, their ERP is limited to no more than 99 watts. This limits the amount of interference that they may cause to a listener with an old FM receiver using a 10.3 mHz IF. I suppose there are still a few of those radios out there... in your grandma's attic or garage.

 

[KTN Corp]

Is the Barker translator (K217DP) still on the air? No trace of it last time I was driving on I-10 in that area.

It's still on. You can hear it if you are in the Mason Road Randalls parking lot or anywhere east of 99 (it's on the cell phone tower behind the store, next to some houses along Highland Knolls Drive). K217DP sounds like an iPod has been connected to the line in port, playing songs dictated by someone's taste. It's basically someone's FM in-car modulator but for the whole neighborhood. No DJ or live person (haven't heard an ID but wouldn't want to listen long anyway). And it's been like this for 18 months already.

In Bellaire and Meyerland it's getting clobbered by KVLU out of Beaumont. You'll know you're hearing KVLU and not K217GB in the morning when KUHA is playing music and KVLU is carrying Morning Edition.

Other times of day both are playing classical music, so there may be times where you think you're getting the translator and you're really getting Beaumont unless you check to see if the pieces match or you hear an ID.

I noticed that I lost KPVU after passing Downtown Houston (probably because of the multipath reflected off the skyscrapers and the signal level at that point is so low anyway that the skyscrapers basically absorb it or reflect it back to cancel the signal out). You could hear KVLU at this time last year at UH and any part of Houston east of Downtown somewhat clearly but fought with KPVU once west of Downtown's skyscrapers.

 

[Mediafrog+]

It's still on. You can hear it if you are in the Mason Road Randalls parking lot or anywhere east of 99 (it's on the cell phone tower behind the store, next to some houses along Highland Knolls Drive). K217DP sounds like an iPod has been connected to the line in port, playing songs dictated by someone's taste. It's basically someone's FM in-car modulator but for the whole neighborhood. No DJ or live person (haven't heard an ID but wouldn't want to listen long anyway). And it's been like this for 18 months already.

Supposedly K217DP should be rebroadcasting KAFR 88.3. Sound like someone is running it as a LPFM instead.

Four or five years ago this facility was carrying something called AsianFM USA, a satellite fed service. Also (supposedly) was on the 91.3 translator in Kemah. Some rumbling about KUHA being interested in those transmitters.

 

[KTN Corp]

Supposedly K217DP should be rebroadcasting KAFR 88.3. Sound like someone is running it as a LPFM instead.

KAFR comes in as strong as KUHA at my house and it's definitely not rebroadcasting AFR programming. I have heard what sounds like South Asian music in the past. It seems like someone in a neighboring house has an iPod hooked up to the transmitter next door; like a Part 15 on steroids.

The transmitter site looks like a typical cellular tower, but there are a few rows of thick coax on the side of the tower facing the street terminating in a box enclosed by the fence. Is that even considered a proper FM transmission site?

I would like to complain to the FCC but there's no interference on my side of 99 anymore.