The Official SatelliteGuys TV Repack Topic

[comfortably_numb]

What the article doesn't say is what they are increasing their power to?

 

[harshness]

read the article

Like a Homer Simpson fool, I read the article. It mentioned, as an aside, that the equipment that is being used to serve up DTV is Next-Gen compliant. It isn't being used for ATSC 3.0.

 

[harshness]

What the article doesn't say is what they are increasing their power to?

It also doesn't explain why a more powerful signal requires a "larger antenna".

A preponderance of blog posts are clickbait and this one is no exception.

 

[Trip]

As noted in the other thread, I moved a collection of non-ATSC 3.0 posts to this thread.

What the article doesn't say is what they are increasing their power to?

300 kW. From 142 kW (on a higher channel).

It also doesn't explain why a more powerful signal requires a "larger antenna".

It's not a technical blog post, as far as I can tell, and so is vague since the presumed audience wouldn't understand it anyway. But their old antenna was a mid-power model running at 142 kW ERP. The new one is a high-power model at 300 kW ERP.

- Trip

 

[comfortably_numb]

As noted in the other thread, I moved a collection of non-ATSC 3.0 posts to this thread.



300 kW. From 142 kW (on a higher channel).



It's not a technical blog post, as far as I can tell, and so is vague since the presumed audience wouldn't understand it anyway. But their old antenna was a mid-power model running at 142 kW ERP. The new one is a high-power model at 300 kW ERP.

- Trip

Not sure why the OP thinks 300 kW is such a big deal. Sure, it's double the power they had before, but almost all the other major networks in St. Louis are 1000 kW, or close to it, so KETC is behind the curve in that regard.

KMOV- 1000 kW
KTVI- 1000 kW
KSDK- 838 kW
KPLR- 1000 kW
KNLC- 900 kW
KDNL- 1000 kW

 

[harshness]

But their old antenna was a mid-power model running at 142 kW ERP. The new one is a high-power model at 300 kW ERP.

It also features a vertical component -- how common is that?

 

[Jim5506]

In order to double the signal; at your location the station would have to quadruple their wattage, you may see an increase of about 1.4X in signal strength assuming all other factors stay the same.

 

[comfortably_numb]

In order to double the signal; at your location the station would have to quadruple their wattage, you may see an increase of about 1.4X in signal strength assuming all other factors stay the same.

I said “doubled their power.” Which they did, no?

 

[harshness]

I said “doubled their power.” Which they did, no?

If they also dropped down in RF frequency, the ability to cover more ground comes with that.

I'm having considerable difficulty with the LMS as it seems to be feeding me zero-length PDFs when I try to review the license application files.

 

[Peter Parker]

FWIW WDCA in Washington DC will shutdown at noon on July 19. This is 4 days ahead of the deadline. Remember to rescan if you live in the area and use OTA.

No word on what happens to all the subchannels.

 

[navychop]

So Fox 5 “Plus” shares with WTTG going forward.

I wonder if that relationship will continue for many years. Maybe ATSC 3 will offer other options, if it continues that long.


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Trip]

All the subchannels will almost certainly move to WTTG, as happened in Chicago and Charlotte.

- Trip

 

[navychop]

PQ will suffer some. So they’ll be five channels instead of four?

On edit: Wikipedia seems to say one subchannel must go.

 

[harshness]

On edit: Wikipedia seems to say one subchannel must go.

Actually, the article uses the phrase "one or more".

Two 720p feeds coupled with five SD feeds doesn't strike me as practical. I'd be surprised if they didn't off at least two SD channels.

Another undesirable option would be to convert MyN to SD.

 

[Trip]

Wikipedia can be edited by anyone. In Charlotte and Chicago, no subchannels were dropped--and they have more in Charlotte than they do in DC.

- Trip

 

[Peter Parker]

WDCA used the argument that a subchannel might have to go as partial justification for the last extension. Having said that I am not sure I believe it so we will see what happens at the witching hour.

 

[harshness]

All the subchannels will almost certainly move to WTTG, as happened in Chicago and Charlotte.

Woof!

Two 720 and six SD. Must be some pretty awesome multiplexing hardware (or a really awful viewing experience).

 

[cpalmer2k]

Woof!

Two 720 and six SD. Must be some pretty awesome multiplexing hardware (or a really awful viewing experience).

I get Charlotte OTA and trust me it is the latter. It is dreadful. I can’t understand how you as a company elect to participate in the auction knowing what the outcome is going to be and then complain about the problems it brings you. This just proves some care zero about OTA viewers and quality.

 

[harshness]

This just proves some care zero about OTA viewers and quality.

I suspect that it is a combination of things:

A. They want to push hard for ATSC 3.0; expect advertising campaigns "educating" the public that Next-Gen will restore the picture quality.
B. They cut a fat hog selling their sister channel and they're going to swim in the proceeds for a while
C. Because the lion's share of the population is willing to suffer it

 

[mwdxer1]

The Portland market is probably a poor example as it covers a lot of territory with a significant number of translators. The market is perhaps 250 miles across at its widest point and covers southwest Washington and a small oddly-placed part of Idaho.

Due to two mountain ranges (Cascade Range and Coast Range), more power out of the Portland-area towers gets you mostly just a higher electricity bill.

I'm thinking of the more common situation where stations are packed in much tighter or where one market has most of the frequencies tied up (like NYC or the SoCal situation).

The move towards directional arrays surely isn't going to be appreciated by those who prefer OOM TV stations to their own.

Good point, other than the PDX signals going N/S where there is less altitude. I live South of Astoria, along the coast and the days of getting PDX or SEA OTA directly are gone. Even it I detect a signal from SEA, like (14), never strong enough to lock. All I get now are the 5 live translators and sub channels from 2-6-8-10-12 PDX. 3.0 may make a difference. I used to get both PDX and SEA in analog, but not strong. Of course those were the VHF days.