WFAA and VHF

[sathman01]

When is WFAA going to join the rest of the DFW area and request a UHF freq.?

Day after day it seems like I have to fight to get WFAA on my antenna in east Mesquite. All the other locals are on the UHF band and I have no problem picking them up.

Does Belo just not want to spend the money or has the FCC not approved the change?

Thanks

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

When is WFAA going to join the rest of the DFW area and request a UHF freq.?

Day after day it seems like I have to fight to get WFAA on my antenna in east Mesquite. All the other locals are on the UHF band and I have no problem picking them up.

Does Belo just not want to spend the money or has the FCC not approved the change?

It's not just WFAA. KFWD/52 is also on VHF using RF-9. Both stations are (essentially) Belo operations.

Neither facility has filed for a UHF channel so it's not an FCC matter at this point. I think that there are open UHF channels available in the market but, as of this writing, there has been no petition submitted for those two remaining VHF facilities to relocate. (KTVT's move off channel 11 is, for all intents and purposes, close to a done deal modulo the unexpected).

 

[eskipper411]

Yes, but when is VHF going to be out of DFW? I mean VHF is good but not good for lightning strikes. I get WFAA at 80-86 here in Decatur and at night I get it at 90-92 using just a cheapo depot antenna.

 

[w9wi]

When is WFAA going to join the rest of the DFW area and request a UHF freq.?

Day after day it seems like I have to fight to get WFAA on my antenna in east Mesquite. All the other locals are on the UHF band and I have no problem picking them up.

Does Belo just not want to spend the money or has the FCC not approved the change?

WFAA's interim DTV channel was also VHF.

That means WFAA doesn't already have a UHF DTV facility available they can simply reactivate. Assuming they already had an FCC permit for a UHF channel (they don't) they would have to buy and install a new transmitter and antenna. Assuming they didn't have to worry about paying for it (not a reasonable assumption, it's well into six figures if not seven) it would still take time to specify, order, and install the gear.

I'm sure Trip will know of an exception but offhand I can't think of *any* station that has already moved back from a VHF channel to a UHF channel *other than its pre-transition interim channel* or that of a co-owned station in the same market. Offhand the only one I can think of that's even *applied* is Chicago's WLS. (the FCC hasn't acted on their application yet)

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion many DTV stations have been screwed by the big-box stores. The number of viewers who've been sold "all-channel" antennas that are way too puny to be effective at VHF is frustrating.

_________________________________________________

An interesting dilemma with these rules has arisen in the Evansville market. Some LPTV stations have been applied for on channels 14, 25, and 44. What's special about those? They're the channels recently vacated by full-power analog signals.

The particular case I'm interested in is the proposed channel 25. WEHT was analog 25 and uses 25 as its virtual channel. But they broadcast on VHF 7. Ok, so the new LPTV 25 would identify as 7, right? Wrong (I hope!). RF 28 is WTVW, which was analog 7 and continues to broadcast on that virtual channel.

Would that force the proposed LPTV broadcasting on UHF 25 to identify as virtual channel 28?

That *is* an interesting problem! I think you have the right idea: the new station should use virtual channel 28.

_________________________________________________

Until this past Friday, WGBO-DT was using their RF channel 38 as their virtual channel of 38.1. WCPX-TV used to be on analog 38, but is now on digital 43, but also uses 38.1 as their virtual channel. Because of that, my Magnavox digital box had both of them listed as 38.1.

(and this is why these virtual-channel assignment rules are important & you can't just let stations pick whatever they want...)

_________________________________________________

One situation that's confusing is in San Francisco KTVU FOX 2 is using digital RF 44, virtual channel 2.1, KBCW CW 44 , is using digital RF 45 and Virtual channel 44.1, I have heard these stations are confusing on some boxes. KTVU should either swap digital channels or the FCC should let let KBCW use 45.1 for there virtual channel.

This is exactly what the standard requires -- the two stations are compliant with the rules. Nothing is broken here.

My guess is the viewers with problems haven't re-scanned. KTVU moved from RF56 to RF44 on transition day.

On my Digital Stream box in Fresno KGPE 47 , Digital Rf 32, virtual 47.1 is only displayed as 32.3, when punching in 47 it comes up no signal, so to get 47.1 I have to punch in the Digital RF channel 32.

There's a problem with the PSIP. Many boxes display the wrong field (the "program number" instead of the "minor virtual channel") if there is no "minor virtual channel" being transmitted. The "minor virtual channel" is the .3 part of 32.3. Stations have been advised to use 3 as the program number of their first program, 4 for their second program, etc...*

RF 32 or RF 34? There's supposed to be a LPTV operating in digital on RF 32 in Fresno. KGPE is supposed to be on RF 34.

* I don't know why we don't start with 1.

KNSO channel 51.1 is using Digital rf channel 5, but has app for channel 11 and is trying to get the FCC to allow them to map there virtual channel to 11 to match there Comcast cable channel,

There's no technical reason this wouldn't work; the only point of the rules is to ensure major virtual channels are unique in a given reception area. I'm not sure the FCC really wants to take on the task of keeping track of this stuff or arbitrating conflicts. (who gets to be channel 1?)

_________________________________________________

Normally if I want WYIN Gary, Indiana, I can hit in either 56 or 17. If I hit 56 it shows up as 56.1, if I enter 17.1 it shows up as 56.1

On most digital receivers, if you punch in a channel that hasn't been scanned in as a virtual channel, the receiver will look for a station on that *RF* channel.

When you punch in 02, your receiver checks its memory. It finds you've scanned in WBBM on virtual channel 2, tunes to RF 12, and finds WBBM there.

If you punch in 17, your receiver checks its memory. It finds nothing there -- you haven't scanned in any stations whose *virtual* channel is 17. So it tunes to *RF 17* -- where it finds WYIN. It then picks up WYIN's remapping data and shows 56.1.

Now, let's imagine that next time you rescanned, there was a "tropo" opening and you were receiving signals from Rockford. When you scanned, on RF 16 it would find WTVO, Rockford's ABC station. WTVO's major virtual channel is 17 -- your TV would scan WTVO into channel 17. Next time you punched in 17, your TV would find WTVO in memory and would tune to RF *16* (not RF 17). You would no longer get WYIN on 17 -- you'd get WTVO if the "tropo" was still up, and you'd get "NO SIGNAL" otherwise.

This behavior is not required by the ATSC standard. It does seem to make quite a bit of sense though, and most boxes and DTVs I've seen will do it this way.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

Belo's operations (WFAA/8 on RF-8 and KFWD/52 on RF-9) will become the last of the ATSC full-power VHF facilities in the D/FW market.

The FCC has issued the Report and Order that ``...amended and changed station KTVT(TV) channel from 11 to 19 and station KTXA(TV) channel from 19 to 29..'':

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-2037A1.pdf

KTVT and KTXA now have 30 days to file the ``minor change'' application to make this a reality.