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Reception Question

U

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First, thank you for the wealth of knowledge shared here, radio and television. It's a great read. I realize this is primarily a radio forum. My apologies to those of you who would like to keep TV related posts minimal. Hopefully, this thread doesn't spawn a 20 or more thread response count. If it does, I promise to eat way too much tomorrow. I'll probably do that anyway. Traditions and all.

Back in the eighties and nineties, (wayyyy baaackkk) there was a translator station for KTPS TV 28 (KBTC) it was on channel 3. It seemed to be located at a bearing east of Seattle somewhere. I looked into this a few years ago and found an old FCC file that had a station licensed to Fall City. Any of you know much about this old facility? Is this Fall City file related to the retransmission of KTPS/KBTC? What else is there to know about this channel 3 from years past?

Feel free to branch off into an abyss of somewhat related and un-related topics.


Thanks again,

Long time reader.

Happy t-day eve.
 
VHF translators for UHF stations back in the day were practically unheard of (it's usually the other way around.) And I think there was a pretty significant mandated distance separation (150 miles or more) between Ch.4s and 3s, due the RF hookups of VCRs, video games, cable TV and other gadgets that used analog RF Chs. 4 & 3.

Do you know what the power was?
 
Bongwater, It's been a few years since I looked at the file. Not sure what the power level was listed at when I checked. If I recall, it was quite low, for obvious reasons. I don't think it was the case of someone nearby who had their VCR or other device back feeding a remodulated signal into their antenna. I was able to receive the same signal at two seperate locations, several (15) miles apart. Regarding the channel 4 issue, I do remember there being interference from channel 4, especially when text was displayed. You could see it floating across the screen on channel 3. I don't have the call sign available for the file. Googled away for it, no dice. I may try again using a meta search and see if anything turns up.
 
K03FA Issaquah. Went dark on September 26, 2009 when it "lost its program source", a request to renew its silent status was dismissed (I suspect at the licensee's request) and the station is now deleted. Given the timing my guess is the program source was lost when KBTC shut down its analog transmitter & went digital.

There was a K10LA at the same site. I list it as having rebroadcast KIRO. It went dark & was deleted at the same time as K03FA, probably for the same reason.

One of their filings says it "serves the Mirrormont area". The licensee was "King Co. TV Reception District #2".
 
Mirrormont must have multipath of the local Seattle stations. Probably in the shadow of Cougar Mountain.

-crainbebo
 
T-K said:
According to this ordinance (http://your.kingcounty.gov/mkcc/clerk/OldOrdsMotions/Ordinance 08672.pdf), the King County Council created TV Reception District No. 2 in 1976 and dissolved it in 1988 after a few years of being unable to find anyone to sit on the board.
Click to expand...

Most interesting.

The 2009 paperwork (for both channels 3 and 10) was signed by a Barrie Austin who gave an address on Mirrormont Drive, which was the same as the address of the Reception District. Austin's title was given as "Director and FCC Rep".
 
Where in the area could you get K03FA? Couldn't get a thing on analog 3 where I was in Bothell, except for the CCI and rolling bars when E-skip happened.

-crainbebo
 
There used to be a real channel 3 station in Salem OR with a 100KW channel 2 in Portland, 42 miles away. As I recall, they were limited to 18.5KW. The idea was that they couldn't interfere with channel 2, even in Salem. They were eventually moved completely out of the area to Bend.
 
That was KVDO, channel 3, Salem OR.
What did (if anything) did people get on 3 here in the Seattle area? I wonder if the CBUT relayer at Chilliwack was possible.

-crainbebo
 
Back in 1972 -- I was able to pick up KVDO-TV 3 -- in Salem. I was located in the Shorewood - Burien area at the time. I was able to watch TV 3 for about 15 minutes - with a fuzzy picture - but view-able. It was early December - and cold and overcast - cloudy. Still one of my best TV DX.
 
Very nice. I wonder if pre-KONG sign on, that KMTR 16 in Eugene made it up to Seattle on occasion? 9 and 13, as well as 7, were blocked by our locals. Which I wonder, did KIRO, KSTW, KCTS ever make it into Oregon or Eastern WA on tropo condx?

-crainbebo
 
In the late 60's there used to be a translator for a Tacoma PBS station (may have been KTPS) on Channel 4 located on the St. John's bridge in Portland. The translator served Vancouver, WA. We could get it in southeast Portland but it was real fuzzy,
 
In the late 60's? Then it was likely repeating KPEC 56 which was operated by Clover Park School District, if I recall. That went off and KTPS became Tacoma's PBS channel. (on channel 62, and then later 28)

-crainbebo
 
I used to get a fuzzy picture of KBTC on channel 3 in the Renton Highlands. Always wondered where it was broadcasting from. Now I know.
 
I knew I wasn't seeing things then! I remember KTPS (now of course KBTC) coming in very faintly on Ch. 3 as well over here in Bremerton, back when I first stepped foot in Washington Sate (when I was 9 years old). Judging by the location and how far it reached, the translator was probably operating off Tiger Mountain. I should ask for more specifics on that old translator next time I run into Jelson or Darren when I visit the Mohler Campus of Bates (where I used to work Master Control there for KBTC)
 
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I used to receive KATU occasionally on a MGA or Mitsubishi tv when I lived south of Olympia in the 80's. Being on Ch 2 didn't hurt either. Now back to radio, the stations on the west hills do a pretty good job reaching north like KOPB KXL and KINK.
 
Did CBUT make it occasionally via tropo as well down at your house? KATU is only about 100 miles from Olympia so with a bigger antenna, it probably would have been 24/7. There must have been some high hills in the Tacoma and Pierce County area that could get KATU 24/7, ditto KOIN and KGW.
Another really good place for Portland radio is when you are on I-82, heading down the mountains toward Selah - KKRZ, KXL, KLTH etc boom in like locals for a few miles. The analog TV channels probably would have too (KOPB, KPTV, KGW etc)

-crainbebo
 
Olyradio said:
I used to receive KATU occasionally on a MGA or Mitsubishi tv when I lived south of Olympia in the 80's. Being on Ch 2 didn't hurt either. Now back to radio, the stations on the west hills do a pretty good job reaching north like KOPB KXL and KINK.
Click to expand...
All Portland FMs and TVs are in the west hills.
 
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