Hello everyone,
There has been movement in getting everyone off of channel 51. That's next to the new area allocated to wireless providers, and they say that DTV stations on channel 51 interfere with those broadcasts. So, the FCC has been trying to figure out how to boot
them off. Here in Chicago, WPWR-DT rf 51 (50.1), aka MyNetworkTV, needs to be
moved. But where?
"Trip" Erickson of "RabbitEars" fame got a hold of a list the FCC
published Monday. There are 15 stations across the country on channel 51
that will have to move, and the FCC has to give them no degredation of
service. And it's very interesting how they plan to do it:
http://www.rabbitears.info/tvq.php?c...est=list&sort=
They're going to boot WPWR-DT to channel 14. People who know RF know
that's the frequencies used by some of the area police departments. But,
thanks to narrowbanding and digital, they're moving off, clearing the way
for channel 14 to be used. But it looks like WPWR will need a new
directional antenna, with major nulls at 30 degrees and 70 degrees to
protect stations in Michigan (no worries there, fish don't watch them!),
and minor nulls to the west and south:
http://www.rabbitears.info/antimages/30328_0.gif
The black area is coverage; the ring is where 100% of the signal is going. White areas indicate the
nulls with lower power, largely over the lake. That also means that out
here in DeKalb, I'd be getting an effective 350 kw or so instead of the
full 1 million. I should still be fine...at that channel, it should boom
out far.
At some point, it looks like we'll need to rescan our
TV's to get WPWR when they move.
).
