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Post by Timmy on Jun 4, 2018 15:35:39 GMT -6
I understand things are getting underway on Farnsworth Peak regarding the TV spectrum repack. Stations are on backup towers/transmitters, etc. What are some more details? Who knows the plan or how it will affect Radio in SLC? TV and Radio share facilities and towers (I think?). How long should it all take? Overall benefits to TV/Radio when it's done?
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Jun 4, 2018 16:04:52 GMT -6
The Farnsworth stations were all off the air overnight last night. I attributed it to simple maintenance but what you say makes sense. All of the moves that the Salt Lake stations are making will be in Phase 1 of the repack which means they are the first to move. There could definitely be work that's needed to make sure all of that happens smoothly when everything shifts. Before it happens I'm sure there will be a blitz of announcements on-air warning people that on X date they will have to rescan if they're using an antenna.
Other than changing the RF channels that tuners actually tune to there should be no difference to the viewers of full power stations. The virtual mapping will remain the same. Low power stations don't automatically get reassigned so they might have to go off the air until they can move or make arrangements. For example, KSL-TV is moving from RF38 to RF23. 23 is already occupied by KBTU. Can't have both there and KBTU doesn't have a new channel yet as far as I know. The real upshot is that the frequencies from 38-51 will be cleared for cell phone use.
KULX 10 (RF 14) as far as I can tell has been completely off the air since last night. KEJT 50 is running digital dead air. Both are low power stations, so that could also be related.
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Terry
Silver Level Member
Posts: 488
Usual Listening Area: east Murray
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Post by Terry on Jun 4, 2018 17:05:09 GMT -6
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Jun 4, 2018 17:25:55 GMT -6
If you want to jump to the RabbitEars info specifically on the repack it's at rabbitears.info//repackchannels.php?country=B&mktid=42 THat is a great site for TV stuff and there's lots of seriously geeky stuff there if you look around. And a correction to my earlier post. KBTU is apparently moving to RF 15. Also, K39JS-D (RF 39) is apparently moving to RF 9 which is a VHF frequency, unlike what the good4utah article says. |
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Jun 5, 2018 6:47:11 GMT -6
Aaaand we're back.
KULX 10 and KEJT 50 are both back up. 10.6 is now also running Quest along with 20.6 replacing LATV. 10 and 20 are still full simulcasts. So much for new choices. 50.1 is still a simulcast of 10.1 & 20.1 and 50.2 is Telexitos along with 10.2 & 20.2.
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Post by David on Jun 5, 2018 18:44:47 GMT -6
If you want to jump to the RabbitEars info specifically on the repack it's at rabbitears.info//repackchannels.php?country=B&mktid=42 THat is a great site for TV stuff and there's lots of seriously geeky stuff there if you look around. And a correction to my earlier post. KBTU is apparently moving to RF 15. Also, K39JS-D (RF 39) is apparently moving to RF 9 which is a VHF frequency, unlike what the good4utah article says. Great info, CA . . . many thanks! I'll have to do a re-scan when I get home from work this morning. BTW, I understand the re-pack is supposed to affect some local FM broadcast stations as well . . . any info on that? |
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Post by Timmy on Jun 6, 2018 9:14:45 GMT -6
That's why I originally posted this in the Radio section. Because I understand most the FMs up there had to switch to backup towers/TXs to accommodate the moves/upgrades/etc of the TV stations.
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Jun 7, 2018 0:17:21 GMT -6
Doing a rescan is pointless right now. Nothing has actually happened yet.
The effect on FM is minimal and only temporary. There could possibly be some shutdowns overnight for tower work or things like that, but almost nobody will notice. Even if radio or TV are on aux facilities, the coverage will be virtually indistinguishable from the main signal. The only TV station that even has a different licensed aux is KSL anyway. I would guess what the Ch 4 article is talking about is that the broadcasters are using the backup transmitters which might have a little lower power than the regular one. The antenna is the same and cutting a little bit of power isn't going to make too much of a difference. There's only so far that a station can lower their power legally (and they really wouldn't want to go further anyway) so unless you're in a fringe area you probably won't notice. No FM stations are moving as a result of the TV repack. The only way I can think of that any FM changes could happen is if there was a class D station affected by a TV station moving to Channel 6, but that isn't happening here. The only other thing that I can think of that's going to be a headache is K39JS-D which is moving from UHF to VHF. That's almost certainly going to need a different antenna. The real problems are going to be at sites where there are a lot of tenants plugged into a few actual antennas, such as the Empire State Building or the Needham tower near Boston.
So this is a TV event, not a radio one. Unless somebody can come up with something I've missed, we probably don't need to worry about any of it until all the stations make their move. Then we do a rescan and life goes on.
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Jun 10, 2018 0:44:28 GMT -6
Forgot to mention; 2 and 14 were giving STA's for aux facilities.
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