What happens to the old broadcast towers when a station upgrades? Refurbished for other markets, trashed, sold over seas.
Old broadcast towers
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That is a good question. The former location of MHz networks was on a tower right next to the Washington Beltway, as well as a second tower a bit further south. They shut off broadcast TV at both towers on April 1 of last year. The tower next to the Washington Beltway is still there and (I presume) supporting other broadcasters. I do not believe any TV station broadcasts from there.
Most towers have multiple stations...as in radio and tv
Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!
Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!
Im sorry. I should have said the old TV broadcast "antennas" not towers. There are some videos on you tube showing the old coming down and the new ones going up.
I recall reading somewhere that some antennas are able to be re-tuned to the new frequency. I came across this video of a helicopter being used to install a new antenna while looking for that article.
Our new broadcast antenna is online!
Our new broadcast antenna is online!
The range of channels that an antenna can be tuned to generally isn't that large and with the frequencies taking big hops in wavelength, there's not much use for a lot of the old higher frequency ones.
Sorry harshness, I thought this thread was talking about the repack and NextGen ATSC 3.0. But while I got your attention, do you know if ATSC 3.0 will require an updated OTA antenna?
That depends uniquely on what the frequencies will be for the new stations. I'm told that they will be the same post-repack DTV frequencies that we're looking at now and they'll create new stations to lighthouse the DTV channels (packed very, very tightly). If your antenna works post-repack, it should work if and when Next Gen TV becomes the US broadcast TV standard.
The technology required to capture TV signals hasn't changed the advent of color TV (UHF was enabled in conjunction with color TV in 1952) and it won't change with Next Gen TV unless Single Frequency Network (SFN; a sophisticated cell-like technology using TV frequencies) becomes a thing. What has changed over the years is that the TV bands used to go from 44MHz to 88MHz (VHF low), 174MHz to 216MHz (VHF high) and 470MHz to 900MHz (UHF) and after the repack it gets capped at 608MHz.
This may bring some changes to basic design of future antennas (since the high frequencies are useless for TV reception) but it won't change what your existing antenna can (or cannot) receive.
I guess it bears repeating: NTSC, DTV and Next Gen TV don't use different reception antenna technologies. The signals will continue to be linearly polarized. HD and "digital" antennas were a marketing ploy to sell new antennas (whereas "color" antennas added a new band).
Huh? I was under the impression that antennas were tuned by physically changing their length (because loading isn't efficient).
Since some of the new setups are requiring arrays (especially in densely populated areas) where the coverage area needs to be "shaped".
WFFT and WISE in Fort Wayne Indiana are adding new towers and transmitter. Wfft is going to 550,000 watts from a million watts. From channel 36 to 20. Trip both stations above have 2 transmitters do you know why this is?
Enjoyed the video of the Flying Crane. Used to see them in Nam bringing in artillery pieces to our firebase. Very loud and they really kicked up the dust. It took some skilled flying to do what that pilot did and good coordination between the guys on the tower and the chopper crew to get that job done.
Old TV towers are almost never moved. The strength standards have changed so that refurbished towers must be re-engineered before they can be rebuilt. The cost of the dismantling, engineering and erection is not that much cheaper than a new tower.
One interesting story in Honolulu is that the land that the old tower was on was so valuable that it was smart to remove the giant self supporting tower.
One interesting story in Honolulu is that the land that the old tower was on was so valuable that it was smart to remove the giant self supporting tower.
In almost all cases old TV transmit antennas are scrapped.
Occasionally an old antenna may be left on the ground as a spare.
I have salvaged Broadband panels from an omnidirectional high power antenna for a directional low power on a different channel, but that was unusual. It required slug tuning the panel for better VSWR.
Occasionally an old antenna may be left on the ground as a spare.
I have salvaged Broadband panels from an omnidirectional high power antenna for a directional low power on a different channel, but that was unusual. It required slug tuning the panel for better VSWR.
Here is how to slug tune; the long version.
A method of slug tuning ERI FM broadcast antennas - Chris Scott Associates
A method of slug tuning ERI FM broadcast antennas - Chris Scott Associates
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