I have read that some stations are broadcasting their digital signal at lower power than their analog signal. That might explain why I can get WKYT 27 in Lexington KY with a clear analog picture, but can't get a digital signal at all?

Also, I'll repeat the thread title: will some local stations increase their digital power output in '09? Why don't they go ahead and do it now?

It can be $ummed up in one word - DOLLAR$. It costs money for the broadcasters to be doing both signals, and until analog is shutdown, it is still the big moneymaker for the station. Some stations won't be doing their digital until literally the last minute - doing a flashcut to their digital. If you are in a smaller market - you may not even see HDTV - just digital - when the station DOES convert.

Yes, some stations will increase power, but some will also switch their digital channel. The TV broadcast spectrum is very crowded with some 1800 full power stations, most of which are simulcasting on 2 channels (one analog, one digital channel) and 1000s of low power stations & translators. You also can't directly compare the digital power level to the analog because one of the advantages to ATSC digital is that stations can cover the same area with a lower digital broadcast power than they can in the same band with analog (VHF low 2-6, VHF high 7-13, UHF 14-69 being three distinct bands).

As for WKYT-DT CBS 27, the digital signal is on VHF 13. According to the FCC database (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WKYT), it is operating at 30 kW which is a respectable power level for upper VHF. Do you have a VHF antenna or a UHF antenna with good upper VHF reception?

Thanks for the quick reply, Scooper. I get my OTA HD locals out of Louisville KY, so the Lexington digital stations I'd like to pull in are just a bonus (mainly for the choice of a different NFL game than Louisville gets on a given Sunday). As of now, I can at least pick up the analog signals out of Lexington, but would prefer the digital signals, of course. I guess I'm hoping that they'll increase their digital output strength when they're no longer broadcasting analog. Am I hearing you say that that will likely happen?

EDIT: afiggatt, I was posting that last reply before I realized that you had posted. Give me a minute to follow up...

:)

You also can't directly compare the digital power level to the analog because one of the advantages to ATSC digital is that stations can cover the same area with a lower digital broadcast power than they can in the same band with analog (VHF low 2-6, VHF high 7-13, UHF 14-69 being three distinct bands).

That would seem to mean that it should be easier to pick up their digital signal than their analog, right?

As for WKYT-DT CBS 27, the digital signal is on VHF 13. According to the FCC database (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WKYT), it is operating at 30 kW which is a respectable power level for upper VHF. Do you have a VHF antenna or a UHF antenna with good upper VHF reception?

I am about 85 miles or so from Lexington (not sure where the towers are located). Antenna is the best one Channel Master made in 1994 (not sure of model) and UHF is an 8-bowtie. Preamp is a Blonder Tongue Galaxy III series, also from 1994. Everything is mounted on a 40' tower.

I'm about 75 miles south of Louisville and get all their locals, although there are times when the picture boxes out just a bit. I may just be too far from Lexington?

I am about 85 miles or so from Lexington (not sure where the towers are located). Antenna is the best one Channel Master made in 1994 (not sure of model) and UHF is an 8-bowtie. Preamp is a Blonder Tongue Galaxy III series, also from 1994. Everything is mounted on a 40' tower.

I'm about 75 miles south of Louisville and get all their locals, although there are times when the picture boxes out just a bit. I may just be too far from Lexington?
Does your digital ATSC tuner allow you to directly enter the actual broadcast channel? What do you get on the signal meter with the antenna aimed at Lexington if you enter 13 or 13-1? 85 miles is deep fringe, so you just be in a poor spot for the VHF13 signal propagation. I do see that the digital antenna is 274.3 meters AGL while the analog antenna is 291 meters AGL. 16 meters is not that much of a difference in height, but it may be enough at your extreme range. When Andy.s.lee works his way down to the posting the antenna coverage kmz maps for Lexington here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=821480 (amazing work he is doing there), you should download the file (and Google Earth if you don't have it) and see what the coverage is for your location between the analog and digital transmitter.

Does your digital ATSC tuner allow you to directly enter the actual broadcast channel? What do you get on the signal meter with the antenna aimed at Lexington if you enter 13 or 13-1? 85 miles is deep fringe, so you just be in a poor spot for the VHF13 signal propagation. I do see that the digital antenna is 274.3 meters AGL while the analog antenna is 291 meters AGL. 16 meters is not that much of a difference in height, but it may be enough at your extreme range. When Andy.s.lee works his way down to the posting the antenna coverage kmz maps for Lexington here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=821480 (amazing work he is doing there), you should download the file (and Google Earth if you don't have it) and see what the coverage is for your location between the analog and digital transmitter.

My tv is a Panasonic plasma 60u. When I first got it a month ago, I rotated the antenna to Lexington to let it automatically scan in the channels, and it picked up the digital channels for WKYT 27 (CBS) and WLEX 18 (NBC). I then rotated back to Louisville and manally entered the UHF numbers for the digital channels. WKYT 27-1 is in my channel listing, as is 18-1 for WLEX. I just checked them, and lo and behold, they're coming in tonight! I don't expect this to last, though, because reception has been this good perhaps three or four nights in the month I've had the plasma, my first digital tv.

I wish I could get that extra little push needed to get Louisville flawlessly every day and Lexington, as well. My installer (who is also a trusted neighbor) told me the other day that 40' is a good height, and that I can't buy a better antenna setup today than what was put there in '94. I'm wondering if it would help if I replaced the Blonder Tongue Galaxy III preamp with a Channel Master 7777. I don't know the specs on the Galaxy III, unfortuately, but the 7777 seems to be widely used.

Oh, and thanks for the tip on the thread. I'll keep an eye on it.

EDIT: 27-1 is gone again, with only 20% signal. 18-1 going strong at 75% after no digital reception at all the past four or five nights.

Over 80% of all digital stations are transmitting at full power now. When analog shuts down, some number of stations will be able to increase power or change channels to increase coverage but we will not know which ones will until after the transition because the FCC is only interested in getting stations on in digital and then shutting down the analog transmitters at this time. After the transition, stations wishing to make changes will have to go through the normal process of requesting changings and then awaiting approval, as now in the analog world.

Also with the analog stations turned off, some of the digital stations you are having toruble with may start to come in better because there is less interference for the receiver to deal with.

Thanks for those insights, foxeng. So, at least there is room for optimism.

I do not know if their power levels have increased but two stations in my area that were sometimes problematic are now rock solid. (KABC 7-1 digital channel 53 and KCBS 2-1 digital channel 60). I have assumed that this is because they have increased their power. It they have not increased their power then the propagation gods are at work.

Rick R

Some digital stations were placed on channels that didn't have the full separation from existing analog channels, so a directional antenna pattern is used to limit the signal in the direction of the other station. After 2009, many of those directional patterns will no longer be necessary. That should help in crowded areas, like the northeast, where digital and analog stations can be as close as 100 miles from each other.

Some digital stations were placed on channels that didn't have the full separation from existing analog channels, so a directional antenna pattern is used to limit the signal in the direction of the other station. After 2009, many of those directional patterns will no longer be necessary. That should help in crowded areas, like the northeast, where digital and analog stations can be as close as 100 miles from each other.

I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, but channel ABC 36-1 to my east in Lexington is UHF 40. However, there is also an NBC station 60 miles to my west in Bowling Green that broadcasts on UHF 40 analog. Even though I direct my antenna toward Lex and away from BG, the TV refuses to recognize 40 as 36-1, but rather tries in vain to tune channel 40 out of BG. From what I've experienced and read, my Panasonic TV won't let me press 36-1 on the remote to add this channel to the channel list. Instead, I have to press 40 and let the tuner recognize that as 36-1, and of course, that's not working right now. As you said, hopefully things will be less crowded in the future.

Maybe.

A number of factors will come into play, as noted above:

- Some stations will increase power, but not that many.
- Some stations may change channel assignments, but not that many.
- As analog stations go off the air, some digital stations will have less interference.

In some cases, a larger factor may be the way the signal is radiated. Most stations added digital as an afterthought, and the possibility of optimising the digital radiation patterns after the analog antenna is disabled/removed will be increased.

I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, but channel ABC 36-1 to my east in Lexington is UHF 40. However, there is also an NBC station 60 miles to my west in Bowling Green that broadcasts on UHF 40 analog. ...

Putting aside the concern that this really belongs in one of the "local" KY threads, :) , your main "problem" is that you are 85 miles away from the stations you want to pull in. After many *years* of trying in this region, at 76mi from the Louisville antenna farm (where everyone seems to be running 1MW UHF,) at best, I get the WAVE and WLKY DTs with about 94ish% reliablility. WMYO, WDRB, WHAS and the two 'villian KET transmitters follow with much reduced reliablity. I think you may be tilting at windmills. ;)

Putting aside the concern that this really belongs in one of the "local" KY threads, :)

Yeah, this thread has kinda been all over the place, and I take responsbility for that. :p Believe it or not, when I posted the original question, my mind was on reception (in general) and what I might possibly do to improve it. I guess the question I actually used to title the thread was my subconscious way of asking if I might be able to avoid doing anything except wait two years.

Anyway, since we're in the hardware forum, :) and since February 2009 is still several months away...would replacing my 13-year-old Galaxy III (Blonder Tongue) preamp with a Channel Master 7777 be likely to help any? I'd post the specs on the Galaxy if I had them, but...

Part A: Hardware

I doubt that the 7777 would do any better than the Blonder Tongue unless it (the BT) is either broken or a UHF only model.

Part B: Hopeing for salvation in 2009

I doubt that *any* of the Lexington stations will increase their ERP any further than they already have. I think your best bet is to try for the Louisville stations as they are the better alternatives (except for WAVE/NBC.)

Speaking of some of the Lexington channels. I hope also when 2009 comes around, that WDKY-DT VHF channel 4 will move the channel to the UHF side!

I live 30 miles from the tower and they broadcast 26.5 kw which is good, but I can't get anything. I get the analog signal very, very well. On the analog channel 56, plays like I have the digital channel if the programming isn't HD.

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WDKY#10001

I doubt that the 7777 would do any better than the Blonder Tongue unless it (the BT) is either broken or a UHF only model.


Hmmm, I didn't know. Since the BT is so old, it's hard to find discussion of it. All I could find online were the specs for the current models. Do these things deteriorate with age, by the way?

Hmmm, I didn't know. Since the BT is so old, it's hard to find discussion of it. All I could find online were the specs for the current models. Do these things deteriorate with age, by the way?

IMO, the answer to your question could be yes, or no. I have an old Winegard preamp that I initially bought and used back in the late 70s that still works quite well.

A friend of mine is still using a Winegard preamp that was installed on his tower in 1984, which is attached to a Channel Master 6-ft. parabolic UHF antenna (approximately 48 feet AGL) that was installed in 1975. Last Friday, this setup, north of Indy, was able to receive some full power DTV stations at distances of 66, 72 and 81 miles. YMMV........

Steve

I looked up WKYT-DT and I see its antenna is 1888' AMSL. Unless you live on top of a high hill the curvature of the earth will prevent reliable reception. Here's a formula that gives a close approximation of loss of height with distance.

d^2/(2 x Earth radius)

d = distance in miles
Earth radius = 3958.2 miles at 38 degrees latitude (my latitude)

At 85 miles the loss of height is 0.91 miles or 4,819 feet. So unless you have a LOT of elevation, the WKYT-DT antenna is far below your horizon. Only some sort of ducting will allow you to receive it.

Another consideration is the station's antenna pattern. If I understand the FCC antenna plots correctly, 1.0 represents the station's maximum ERP. Every other number <1.0 you need to square and multiply by the ERP.

Line of sight or close to it is everything. My second strongest station here is digital channel 62 at 80 miles distant but my antenna is at 2650' and their transmitter is at 3800' and nearly line of sight and I'm in the main lobe of their 195 KW.

... Do these things deteriorate with age, by the way?Probably the most common deterioration is at the coax and antenna balun connectors.

Lightning is often to blame for preamp failures.

Earth radius = 7916.4 miles at 38 degrees latitude (my latitude)This is way off topic - but since you brought up the earth radius as a function of latitude - there is a problem with what you are suggesting. There is a continuously changing radius at your spot depending on which direction you want to measure. The extrema (ie min and max radii) are aligned north-south and east-west. You are probably quoting one of those extrema - but I didn't check which one.

Ed

Earth radius = 7916.4 miles at 38 degrees latitude (my latitude)

The figure you cite is the approximate diameter of the earth, not it's radius. The equatorial radius is approximately 3963 miles while the polar radius is approximately 3950 miles.

This is way off topic - but since you brought up the earth radius as a function of latitude - there is a problem with what you are suggesting. There is a continuously changing radius at your spot depending on which direction you want to measure. The extrema (ie min and max radii) are aligned north-south and east-west. You are probably quoting one of those extrema - but I didn't check which one.

Ed

The number I quoted was for 38 degrees latitude which is my latitude. I don't have it off the top of my head but you can find the formula for calculating radius based on latitude.

Yes, it does continuously change but the number is very small over the distances we are concerned with here. Unless you're concerned with a few feet over these distances it doesn't matter. I tried the extremes and the difference was only 15' at 85 miles. The equation is an approximation anyway.

I did make a mistake. It should be 2 x Earth Radius which I will fix in my previous post.

The number I quoted was for 38 degrees latitude which is my latitude. I don't have it off the top of my head but you can find the formula for calculating radius based on latitude.

Yes, it does continuously change but the number is very small over the distances we are concerned with here. Unless you're concerned with a few feet over these distances it doesn't matter. I tried the extremes and the difference was only 15' at 85 miles. The equation is an approximation anyway.

I did make a mistake. It should be 2 x Earth Radius which I will fix in my previous post.I don't think that you understood what I said. There is no UNIQUE radius at a given latitude. You seem to imply that there is one radius for a given latitude. That is only true for a sphere. The very fact that you bring up a changing radius means that you want to go to the next level of approximation which in this case is an oblate spheroid. There are an infinite number of radii at a given latitude depending on which direction you are talking about. It varies from a minimum radius if you are measuring north-south to a maximum radius if you are measuring east-west. I will work it out tommorrow and post.

It seems that you computed one of those extreme radii at *2 different places 85 miles apart*. I'm not talking about different places. I'm talking about one place only.

Ed

When analog is shut off stations will move their digital antenna to the highest point on the broadcast tower, which is currently occupied by the old analog antenna. That should help. In my area, most stations are not broadcasting digital at full power yet. Maybe in the biggest cities they have the digital channels turned up to full volume, but not on my smaller city.

IB

The local PBS (KETS-DT) will move to channel 7 post-transition. Which is better than their current assignment (RF ch 5), but not as good as the channel the FCC orginally gave them and AETN/KETS-DT traded away before going on the air (RF ch 47).

KETS-DT reception, impossible for most right now at only ~2kW on ch 5 (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=2770), may still be difficult after moving to ch 7, for many viewers who opted for UHF antennas, since many of those antennas are picky about reception of HI-VHF channels at the lower end of that band.

And then there's all the interference problems in the VHF bands.....

I will work it out tommorrow and post.
The north-south radius of curvature is 3951.7 miles and the east-west radius of curvature is 3968.2 miles; a difference of 16.5 miles. I now realize that the number Calaveras is quoting is not a radius of curvature, but a "radius" - the distance from the center of the earth. It is the radius of curvature that you want for the calculation. The radius and the radii of curvature have opposite behavior. The radius decreases with increasing latitude while the radii of curvature increase.
There is a nice description in Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_radius
The 3 values that I discuss are plotted as curves N, M and R.

Ed

....I'm wondering if it would help if I replaced the Blonder Tongue Galaxy III preamp with a Channel Master 7777. I don't know the specs on the Galaxy III, unfortuately, but the 7777 seems to be widely used.

Jungle Jim,
I work for an electronics store that sold and installed Blonder Tongue preamps/Dist. amps in the 90's. We are located in deep fringe area (70 + miles to metropolitan area Bal/Wash). The guys that are still left from that era swore by the Blonder Tongue equipment. I have a Galaxy series Surburban III plus at my house, but it glitches (it was replaced for a customer for problems).

From what I gathered from the remaining material here, there were two post-amp power supplies:
1) The Plus had the large aluminum brick style power supply, stock# 5049. VHF gain 31db, UHF 37db @ 5db noise.
2) The other power supply looked like an AC adapter. UHF/VHF 20db @ 4db noise.

Before I replaced the BT preamp with the CM7777, I noticed the BT had higher readings, but the failing BT had to go. Maybe some day I'll fix this preamp since I have the schematics :)

The north-south radius of curvature is 3951.7 miles and the east-west radius of curvature is 3968.2 miles; a difference of 16.5 miles. I now realize that the number Calaveras is quoting is not a radius of curvature, but a "radius" - the distance from the center of the earth. It is the radius of curvature that you want for the calculation. The radius and the radii of curvature have opposite behavior. The radius decreases with increasing latitude while the radii of curvature increase.
There is a nice description in Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_radius
The 3 values that I discuss are plotted as curves N, M and R.

Ed

I'm going to bow to the higher authority here since I guess you wrote that article. To drag this back to practicality it doesn't much matter for our purposes here what number you use in the range. Using the extremes of the radius of curvature over 10 miles the difference in loss of elevtion is only 3" and over 85 miles only 20'. When we're talking about a loss of elevation of some 4820' at 85 miles distance, an error of +/- 10 feet is small. :) My point was only to help the poster understand why no antenna within reason was going to receive his 85 mile distant station 100%.

I'm going to bow to the higher authority here since I guess you wrote that article. To drag this back to practicality it doesn't much matter for our purposes here what number you use in the range. Using the extremes of the radius of curvature over 10 miles the difference in loss of elevtion is only 3" and over 85 miles only 20'. When we're talking about a loss of elevation of some 4820' at 85 miles distance, an error of +/- 10 feet is small. :) My point was only to help the poster understand why no antenna within reason was going to receive his 85 mile distant station 100%.For the record, I did not write that article. You are absolutely correct that the differences are not important for the original intent. It's just that you touched upon a subject that I'm interested in and I thought that you or someone else might be interested in understanding it a little more completely. I hope that maybe you felt it was somewhat useful since you now know that you were using the wrong formula.

Ed

Thanks for that info, MClever. Mine must be the second one you listed - it looks much like a smaller AC adapter. Based on that, I'll most likely just keep it and save the $70. I'm encouraged by some of the comments here that predict that digital signals will be stronger in two years. Of course, by then (hopefully much sooner), I'm hoping D* will finally have Louisville in HD, so if I can't pull in Lexington, I won't have much use for the antenna, except as a hobby to see what I can get with it.

The thing has been up there since 1994 and I have barely paid attention to it, especially since I got locals (SD) on D* in about '02 (?). Now that I've got my first HDTV, enjoyed some beautiful pictures, and started reading this forum, it has developed into something of a hobby. My wife doesn't get the "hobby" part at all. :)

I looked up WKYT-DT and I see its antenna is 1888' AMSL. Unless you live on top of a high hill the curvature of the earth will prevent reliable reception. Here's a formula that gives a close approximation of loss of height with distance.

d^2/(2 x Earth radius)

d = distance in miles
Earth radius = 3958.2 miles at 38 degrees latitude (my latitude)

At 85 miles the loss of height is 0.91 miles or 4,819 feet. So unless you have a LOT of elevation, the WKYT-DT antenna is far below your horizon. Only some sort of ducting will allow you to receive it.

Another consideration is the station's antenna pattern. If I understand the FCC antenna plots correctly, 1.0 represents the station's maximum ERP. Every other number <1.0 you need to square and multiply by the ERP.

Line of sight or close to it is everything. My second strongest station here is digital channel 62 at 80 miles distant but my antenna is at 2650' and their transmitter is at 3800' and nearly line of sight and I'm in the main lobe of their 195 KW.

You have failed to take into considering the elevation above sea level at the tower site and the reception site (and thus the true difference in between).

Even if you are "technically not on a hill" if the area is 1,000 feet higher than Cleveland for example, you have made up your difference.

Your calculations assume both transmitter and receiver are at the same ground elevation above sea level.

I do not know if their power levels have increased but two stations in my area that were sometimes problematic are now rock solid. (KABC 7-1 digital channel 53 and KCBS 2-1 digital channel 60). I have assumed that this is because they have increased their power. It they have not increased their power then the propagation gods are at work.

Rick R


And neither will be on Channel 53 or Channel 60 in 22 months.


Over 80% of all digital stations are transmitting at full power now. When analog shuts down, some number of stations will be able to increase power or change channels to increase coverage but we will not know which ones will until after the transition because the FCC is only interested in getting stations on in digital and then shutting down the analog transmitters at this time. After the transition, stations wishing to make changes will have to go through the normal process of requesting changings and then awaiting approval, as now in the analog world.

Also with the analog stations turned off, some of the digital stations you are having toruble with may start to come in better because there is less interference for the receiver to deal with.

And god knows what will happen that morning come Feb 2009.

In one top 5 market CBS will move from their UHF frequency to their new home at midnight, which will not allow the Fox Station to move to that frequency until that time. And if you think CBS is going to make it easy.......

As the the Fox station cannot really do much until that point with CBS on the air on the channel, its sort of throw the switch at midnight without the testing that you normally would do and pray for the best.

As the the Fox station cannot really do much until that point with CBS on the air on the channel, its sort of throw the switch at midnight without the testing that you normally would do and pray for the best.

There may be a little more cooperation than you might think on that one. Just one check of the antennas after midnight for a few minutes is all it takes and in the majors, from what I have seen, the engineering staffs would find a way to give them that much time during a "routine" maintenance down time period since CBS would be in a similar situation. You can't be an ***hole all of the time. There are lots of ways to legitimately give them that much time and the engineers keep their jobs. Even though they are competitors, engineering staffs among the stations get along much better than the Adminstration and Sales staffs. That is universal.

I'm going to bow to the higher authority here since I guess you wrote that article. To drag this back to practicality it doesn't much matter for our purposes here what number you use in the range. Using the extremes of the radius of curvature over 10 miles the difference in loss of elevtion is only 3" and over 85 miles only 20'. When we're talking about a loss of elevation of some 4820' at 85 miles distance, an error of +/- 10 feet is small. :) My point was only to help the poster understand why no antenna within reason was going to receive his 85 mile distant station 100%.

So, am I hearing you say that the primary purpose of height in the homeowner's antenna tower is to clear obstructions in the immediate area, and that once those are cleared, another 10' or 20' is going to have a minimal effect on signals coming from 70-85 miles away?

As best I can tell from reading and from my layman's experience with what I have, 75 miles is just about the cutoff for consistently good reception with typical residential equipment, and at even that distance there will be "bad" days.

Another question, and I hope it's not a dumb one: Would the station raising it's transmitter 20' on the tower have exactly the same effect as all homeowners raising their antennas 20'? Or is it more complicated than that?

Another question, and I hope it's not a dumb one: Would the station raising it's transmitter 20' on the tower have exactly the same effect as all homeowners raising their antennas 20'? Or is it more complicated than that?

As far as I can tell, the broadcast antenna height seems to make much more of a difference ... especially out on the fringes.

And neither will be on Channel 53 or Channel 60 in 22 months.

And god knows what will happen that morning come Feb 2009.

This brings up an interesting point. Every digital OTA user will have to do a rescan. Will they switch at midnight ar 3 AM. Midnight is right in the middle of Leno and Letterman.

Rick R

Radio and TV licenses expire at 3AM local time.

This brings up an interesting point. Every digital OTA user will have to do a rescan...Exceptions are tuners that periodically "look" for new OTA channels.

I believe the OTA tuner in the DirecTV H20-100 I had (made by RCA) would do this. I would periodically find distant out of market stations added to my channel list. The box had added these on its own during good tropo conditions. No manual scan was done by me...

The US Digital / Hisense OTA receiver does the same thing. After I had mine running for a few months, I had stations ranging from Atlanta GA to Richmond VA in my channel list.

...Now that I've got my first HDTV, enjoyed some beautiful pictures, and started reading this forum, it has developed into something of a hobby. My wife doesn't get the "hobby" part at all. :)

Boy the wife thing sounds so familiar :rolleyes:, but she doesn't mind watching the free channels. She didn't buy it that I needed to know HDTV reception for work since I'm a computer tech (we stopped selling TV reception items 8 yrs ago).

The noise level on the BT is higher than the CM7777, but I probably wouldn't change it since OTA is not your sole reception source.

Enjoy your new hobby!

Radio and TV licenses expire at 3AM local time.

I had not thought of it prior to this but I wonder how many situations exist where transmitters close to the time zone lines have to move frequencies that end up causing some massive interference with each other because of the hour difference.

I would think that time of the day, it will not matter for just one hour. Of couse if you are big TV DXer, that will be a GREAT time to be up watching TV! Plus I am not sure how many stations will still be on past midnight on that day or maybe go a day or two early, depending on their situation. There is still lots to be worked out between now and then and right now no one has the answers.

I would think that time of the day, it will not matter for just one hour. Of couse if you are big TV DXer, that will be a GREAT time to be up watching TV! Plus I am not sure how many stations will still be on past midnight on that day or maybe go a day or two early, depending on their situation. There is still lots to be worked out between now and then and right now no one has the answers.


fwiw, I asked this question to the DC Lawyers who love to answer questions and rack up billable hours.

Their response was that the statue that Congress passed didn't recognize details like these. It only stated that analog had to be off before February 18th. That trumps anything or time on a license.

on Febuary 19, 2010 we all will look back and wonder what the big fuss was about.... :)

fwiw, I asked this question to the DC Lawyers who love to answer questions and rack up billable hours.

Their response was that the statue that Congress passed didn't recognize details like these. It only stated that analog had to be off before February 18th. That trumps anything or time on a license.

Technically the Congressional law states that the last day of analog broadcasting is Feb 17 and it is up the FCC, as the regulating agency to figure out how to make it happen. Will the FCC be sticklers for the time? I doubt it as long as by 11:59:59 PM of Feb 17, 2009 there are not analog signals on the air. I know I will push for my station to be off by 3 AM local on the morning of Feb 17, 2009 to meet the letter of the law. If I am overruled, my conscience will be clear. It will be someone higher than me to answer. ;)

Technically the Congressional law states that the last day of analog broadcasting is Feb 17 and it is up the FCC, as the regulating agency to figure out how to make it happen. Will the FCC be sticklers for the time? I doubt it as long as by 11:59:59 PM of Feb 17, 2009 there are not analog signals on the air. I know I will push for my station to be off by 3 AM local on the morning of Feb 17, 2009 to meet the letter of the law. If I am overruled, my conscience will be clear. It will be someone higher than me to answer. ;)

Like I said, I know the CBS O&O will not vacate the UHF frequency in a Top 5 market 1 minute before they are legally forced to do so (midnight) so that the FOX station can deal with things before analog is cut off.

If that is in the middle of Letterman, that's when it will happen, at least there.