I could never figure out why New York stations simulcast on UHF. To wit, channel 2 was also broadcast on channel 53, 4 on 57, 5 on 64, etc. We were never able to receive a superior picture on the UHF counterpart. Does anyone's experience contradict mine?
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OTA broadcast trend?
- Thread starter Prescott Joe
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I could never figure out why New York stations simulcast on UHF. To wit, channel 2 was also broadcast on channel 53, 4 on 57, 5 on 64, etc. We were never able to receive a superior picture on the UHF counterpart. Does anyone's experience contradict mine?
IIRC, it had to do with the then-new WTC towers interfering with the VHF signals coming from the Empire State Bldg. I didn't live in NYC, so I don't know all the details, nor do I remember where those translators were located.
There was an article out there that I copied down. Here is the article
A new wave of complaints and inquiries about poor television reception has poured into television repair shops recently as WNEWTV, Channel 5, has joined WCBS-TV and WABC-TV, Channels 2 and 7, on a new transmitter atop the World Trade Center.
In a gradual move that began last June, all 10 local stations are relocating from their old perch on the Empire State Building. The move is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
Aside from the fact that viewers situated between the World Trade Center and the Empire State Building - in Greenwich Village, for example -must often shift antennas as they change channels during the transition period, why has reception from the World Trade Center, 200 feet higher than before, declined for many other parts of the city as well? Height Versus Distance
The answer, according to engineers for the stations, lies partly in the fact that the trade center's height is offset by its distance downtown. For viewers in the 60's through the 90's, the signal is actually coming in at a lower angle than it did from 34th Street. This means that the skyscraper clump in the 30's through the 50's - including the Empire State Building - blocks out more of the signals and bounces them around more, so that they show up as multiple images or ''ghosts.''
''I've had something like 100 calls a week on this,'' Henry Mistarka, manager of Your Radio Shop on Madison Avenue at East 90th Street, said. ''Sometimes you can adjust your building's antenna, or if you have an indoor antenna, try moving your set to another room. But for a five-story brownstone on the Upper East Side, it's a wild goose chase.''
Engineers insist that it was inevitable that they move atop the trade center - because the twin towers are simply too intrusive for signals emanating from anywhere else. Some Problems Solved
''We used to have a bad ghosting problem to the north, in the Bronx and Westchester,'' Otis Freeman, spokesman for the engineers of the local stations, said. ''The signal from the Empire State would bounce off the trade center and then travel north, lagging just behind the original signal. The new antenna clears that up, and despite the fact that the F.C.C. doesn't permit us to increase our power, a new transmitting technology has improved reception in outlying areas.'' Scattered reports from New Jersey and Long Island tended to confirm Mr. Freeman's contention.
WOR-TV and WPIX-TV, Channels 9 and 11, are tentatively scheduled to go up on the trade center's 350-foot antenna next month, and the remaining stations, WNBC-TV, WNET-TV and WNYC-TV, Channels 4, 13 and 31, will make the move toward the end of the year. The two Spanish language UHF stations, Channels 41 and 47, have already shifted.
In the meantime, spokesmen for the stations advise viewers to experiment with their antennas to find a ''middle ground'' between the two skyscrapers. A free brochure, which can obtained by writing to WABC-TV at 7 Lincoln Square, New York 10023, explains what is causing the reception problems and what can be done about it. Ghosts Will Linger On
But even after all the stations have moved, the spokesmen cautioned, problems will remain for Manhattanites in the shadow of the midtown skyscrapers. An alternative for Channel 2 and Channel 5 viewers are their ''translators,'' Channels 53 and 64, respectively, which carry their signals on a UHF frequency.
Though these translators were originally set up on the Empire State, facing north to avoid bouncing signals off the trade center, as a service to the Bronx and Westchester viewers, they may now offer help for Manhattanites whose reception problems began only after the move to the trade center. According to WCBS-TV spokesman, Jeff Erdel, the coat-hanger-size UHF antenna attached to the television set can prove more effective in some areas, such as the upper East Side, than a big VHF roof antenna.
''I think this is very unfair for people who can't afford cable television,'' said Mark Sloan, whose Christopher Street apartment faces the Empire State Building, but who has lost reception of the trade center stations altogether. ''I've talked to some of the cable installers around here and they say they can't keep up with the requests.''
I knew about those NYC UHF translators, but I thought they were in the channels 70 to 83 that were specifically designated for translators. I know Chicago had some UHF translators in that range from the late 1950s to early 1970s. They were shut down when the Sears Tower was built and all the Chicago TV transmitters moved there.
In New York, the translators for channels 9, 11, 13, and 31 ranged from 71 to 79. Channel 25, with its transmitter atop Brooklyn Tech, had no translator.
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