VHF-DT poor range vs their previous UHF assignment

[JohnnyElectron]

Two of my locals had analog on VHF-HI and DTV on UHF-low. They made the switch, now their DTV on their legacy VHF channels doen't have nearly the reach as their temporary UHF homes. They would have been better-off to stay where they were where you could use rabbit ears instead of an outdoor antenna. Big mistake, or the FCC 'guess' for ERP for the VHF stations is way the hell off kilter.

 

[FreddyE1977]

the only stations affected in my area are WTOV and WTRF out of the Wheeling, WV area. Both are far superior on VHF than their temp UHF assignments (albeit I think those were running at very limited power). WTOV comes in great, while WTRF is subject to frequent breakup and pixilation.

 

[Markxxx]

Also remember the FCC said that stations that chose to stay on their digital channel are protected. Those who returned to their analog channel or chose another channel had to conform their signals to other protected channels

So like WLS-TV channel 7 in Chicago, was on channel 52 and since 52 is being taken away from TV had no choice but to go back to channel 7. So WLS-TV has to make sure it's signal doesn't interfere with those stations who had a digital assignment of channel 7 or any stations who had a digital channel next to channel 7.

 

[Neel]

Yeah, this was my reasoning as well. I could receive KTTV and KCOP fine when their DTV was on UHF. Now that both channels have moved to 11 and 13, respectively, I can no longer watch those channels in my breakroom TV. I don't know why they were eager to move back to VHF when it doesn't even matter really anymore what RF channel you are on. Heck, I get channels like KXLA and KVMD much better that air Vietnamese, Korean and other brokered programming than Fox and My13.

 

[kenrayc]

Yeah, this was my reasoning as well. I could receive KTTV and KCOP fine when their DTV was on UHF. Now that both channels have moved to 11 and 13, respectively, I can no longer watch those channels in my breakroom TV. I don't know why they were eager to move back to VHF when it doesn't even matter really anymore what RF channel you are on. Heck, I get channels like KXLA and KVMD much better that air Vietnamese, Korean and other brokered programming than Fox and My13.

I know this is a problem with ch. 2-6, In Fresno a all UHF market KAIL My 7 works good on a UHF antenna ,KNSO 51.1 using ch.5 was to move to ch.11 6/12 and hasn't done it yet ,their signal is bad.I would say the FCC does need to allow VHF more power.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Two of my locals had analog on VHF-HI and DTV on UHF-low. They made the switch, now their DTV on their legacy VHF channels doen't have nearly the reach as their temporary UHF homes. They would have been better-off to stay where they were where you could use rabbit ears instead of an outdoor antenna. Big mistake, or the FCC 'guess' for ERP for the VHF stations is way the hell off kilter.

The claim was made that the signal range for the one VHF station in my area hadn't changed. I guess that's not true! :

The newspaper article failed to mention the station's warning that they weren't at full power yet, which they said on the air. But they get to go back to their old UHF channel for now.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I think all things being equal, the FCC would have preferred to keep at least some of the band above UHF 51 and reassign all television broadcasting to UHF. But those VHF frequencies were far less desirable to the people who were bidding in the spectrum auction, and as we all know, money and the thirst for more Federal revenue has driven this entire process.

 

[markwooldridge]

I guess an all-UHF system would have been nice... but VHF can be desirable. Station owners commissioned report after report to figure out what channel would be the best for them. O&O stations have some centralised facilities that do just this.

It would appear that the FCC was wrong on the power levels required for VHF in some cases. The situation was made worse in areas such as ours where the pre-switch digital channels were all UHF but only one channel switched back to Band III VHF - and all those households who had UHF-only antennas stopped getting that one channel.. WGHP and WTVD in NC are having issues: WGHP was lucky in that it was able to switch back on Channel 35, but WTVD can't go back to Channel 52 since the band stops at 51 now - it has to struggle on with VHF 11.

 

[Kent]

While UHF seems to do a little better than VHF for digital, keep in mind that going all UHF would definitely be no panacea. I had plenty of trouble getting a 1,000,000 watt UHF DT just 20 miles away, and I know plenty of others who couldn't get the same channel within about 35 miles of the tower. I haven't had any better luck since it moved back to VHF-8 from 36, but you get the idea. Around here anyway, digital TV just doesn't work, period.

Both WPVI and KTVT have interviewed FCC staff members, and they've essentially said, "We blew it!"