LOCAL uplinks and DOWNLINKS?

[T4Runner]

I live in the Central California area and receive plenty of OTA broadcasts in HD from the area stations, and numerous satellite channels on KU and C band. But I'm wondering what the local TV stations use for their links from the remote in the field reporter to the station for further broadcast uplinking to the satellite? Are they all mostly microwave direct line of sight? Or do some use certain satellites consistently based upon affiliate like ABC, CBS, NBC?

 

[Claude Greiner]

I have always seen them use Microwave.

The only ones who use satellite are the big boys like CNN where they are providing a national feed.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yup microwave.

Picking up their signals with the correct equipment is hard as you have to be the "Man in the middle" to catch the beam as it is so direct. Needless to say with the correct equipment you might never see anything.

 

[Titanium]

The San Francisco and Sacramento stations use satellite uplinks quite frequently. Usually the Sacramento stations use satellite links when they have stories in the Sierras or outside the local area without a line of sight for "microwave" links back to the station. Any snow day or ski openings at Tahoe will have several satellite feeds during the evening news hours. San Francisco stations usually use their satellite trunks for distant stories as they have the Bay area quite well covered for terrestrial back-hauls. Quite a few satellite feeds came out of Seattle around the big game this week. Expect to see many human interest live feeds of the friends and families in Tahoe during the Winter Olympics.

Unless you are near the receive towers, there is little chance of intercepting these line of sight, point-to-point terrestrial links. Basically, they use the same type of encoders and decoders as the satellite broadcasts, but on a different band. Understand that most are in the clear and not encrypted. There are some guys that are really into chasing and receiving these terrestrial transmissions, but I have never lived in an area where reception would be likely.

 

[T4Runner]

Thank you for the information and insight. I've had unwired broad band internet for a couple years and going to change to direct fiber optic this year when my contract expires, but my broadband roof antenna got the wheels turning. I'm going to "glean" a lot of the KU antenna's since I'm hooked on C band.

 

[RT-Cat]

I have always seen them use Microwave.

The only ones who use satellite are the big boys like CNN where they are providing a national feed.

Not really. A small CBS station about 60 miles from me uses satellite from their remote truck all the time. I had a look inside about 5 years ago. Nice truck full of electronics. Nice dish on it that points to the satellites when in use.

 

[Cham]

Local stations use UHF/Microwave when within range of their antenna, but have satellite remote truck(s) when too far away for LOS. The CBC truck is always on the prowl and you'll often see their signal on Anik F1 Ku once parked and set up. Outriggers keep the truck stable even in the wind, and the dish mount is computer controlled with GPS input. Some stations in populated cities use a cellular phone interface somehow, but that won't likely work here, not enough cell phone service in most of the rural areas.

 

[FaT Air]

A local station time shares a satellite truck for use when they need live coverage out of microwave range. Been said that's about 25 miles out on the prairie. Another just outfitted three SUV's with microwave gear. Local "Storm Trackers" so to say.

 

[markbone100]

ktvi in st louis has been seen on 87ku before

 

[Martyn]

When I use to live in Tokyo, C-band reception in the city was all-but impossible due to NTT (telco) microwave links all across the city. They used to come in on satellite receivers and overload the much weaker satellite signals.

In the US, sez Wikipedia:

In the U.S. there are ten ENG video channels set aside in each area for terrestrial microwave communications.[citation needed] Use of these channels is restricted by Federal regulations to those holding broadcast licenses in the given market. Channels 1 to 7 are in the 2 GHz band and channels 8,9 and 10 are in the 2½ GHz band. In Atlanta for example, there are two channels each for the four news TV stations (WSB-TV, WAGA, WXIA-TV, WGCL-TV), one for CNN, and another open for other users on request, such as GPB.

Traditionally, the FCC has assigned microwave spectrum based on historic patterns of need and through the application/request process. With the other uses of radio spectrum growing in the 1990s, the FCC made available some bands of spectrum as unlicensed channels. This included spectrum for cordless phones and wi-fi. As a result, some of these channels have been used for news gathering by websites and more informal news outlets. One major disadvantage of unlicensed use is that there is no frequency coordination, which can result in interference or blocking of signals.

If you can't receive the video, you might like to try for the radio links to the trucks.

Here in the SF Bay Area, many of the broadcasters have fixed radio networks in the 160MHz band for talking to the trucks.

One radio station, KCBS, has a couple of channels. One is the live program audio without the 10-second delay they use on-air, so correspondents in the field can do their bit live and the other is used for links to the three or four traffic aircraft they have in the air during morning and evening rush hour.

Try the Radio Reference website for exact frequencies.