Analog antenna removed

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post #1 of 4

7/13/12 at 4:51pm

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103 Posts. Joined 8/2006
Location: Fort Wayne,In.
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Last Sunday channel & WLS-TV had the antenna removed from Willis tower. It was the very top portion of the mast rising over 1700 feet above the streets. Go to WLS-tV and go back to last weeks videos. They have the removal to view. Also the new digital antenna will be hoisted soon to the top. The new digital antenna will cover the South Bend area and will have 1 millions watts of power. Thats quite a TV station. First the Kemper insurance building then the move to the 969 ft antenna on Marina City building and then to a failed antenna on Hancock building . Back to marina City then to Sears tower with a circular polarized antenna. Then to the top of Sears tower with a higher antenna for analog now a new digital antenna going up. Where does all that money come from? the stations here cant even remove the old analog antennas still on their old towers. One day those 1950 masts are going to fail due to age and fall to the ground or worse.

post #2 of 4

7/14/12 at 6:59pm

929 Posts. Joined 10/2009
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1 MW is max power for Digital UHF stations. WLS on RF7 could not cover as well as the old analog did due to lower power on VHF DTV in most cases....so WLS went back to its UHF channel it used prior to June 2009 cutover and simulcast on it and 7 until they turned RF 7 off...WLS will not return to 7 but will stay on the UHF channel...(while retaining the 7.1 moniker...got it? The FCC did this to lessen consumer confusion....RIGHT!)
When the new UHF antenna is stacked and plumbed into the transmitter, that will up their effective radiated power to the 1MW level..Removing an atenna costs as much as putting up one..A local VHF 4 kept its 12 bay antenna sitting on top of its old tower while it built a new tower for the DTV40 signal it has now....removing the old 4 antenna was cost prohibitive...The tower itself also has a FM on it so it is kept in good shape...one 2000 foot that Clear Channel used to own east of Houston has survived 25years though the elevator was broken more often than not....They recently sold that tower to American Tower....WHY ATC keeps buying towers that have few or no customers on them is another question...

post #3 of 4

7/14/12 at 7:26pm