VHF-UHF DIGEST - Worldwide TV-FM DX Association

To shoehorn in DTV assignments while simultaneously removing 17 channels, they had tochange that assumption. If a directional antenna makes it possible to make an assignmentwithout interfering, it will be authorized. And coverage is predicted on the actual power of astation, not the maximum for its class.WWPX on channel 12 would run 37.9kw in the direction of WHYY. (and WHYY already usesa directional antenna which radiates only 250kw in the direction of WWPX) WWPX would run41.4kw in the direction of WWBT, and only 2kw in the direction of WBOY. (which runs 263kwnon-directional, roughly 50kw less than the class maximum) The minimum separationbetween VHF stations on the same channel in Zone I (where all four stations are) is 170miles; WHYY is 155 miles from WWPX; WWBT is 138; and WBOY is 122.In Zone II (where Kansas and Missouri are) the minimum separation is 190 miles. KMBC-DT7 is 173 miles from KETV, and 129 miles from KOAM. They null slightly towards KETV(76.7kw compared to an average of 85kw at all azimuths). And there's a deep null - like I'mused to seeing on *AM* stations - towards KOAM. 2.3kw in that direction, compared to 85kwaverage.Another NTSC short-spacing has been applied for in my neck of the woods. WNAB-58 hasbeen operating at just about exactly the minimum distance (175 miles) from WFTE-58 Salem,Indiana. They've now applied to move their NTSC antenna to their *DTV* site - which is only153 miles from WFTE. Again, a directional antenna is involved...The name of the game these days seems to be qualifying for must-carry. If you can establisha theoretical minimum signal strength at the head-end, then you can install a fiber-optic link toactually get the programming there, and you really don't care that the actual reception at thehead-end is noisy & full of interference. Only 20-25% of the audience doesn't have cable -much of that has satellite instead. The ones who have neither either don't watch much TV(and thus aren't worth spending money on) or can't afford cable/satellite. (and thus can'tafford much of anything else, and thus aren't worth advertising to)The additional expenses of running a UHF DTV facility are pretty high. Electricity costs havealways been a major part of the budget of a UHF station, and there's been a LOT of researchover the years into methods of cutting these costs. There's been some success, but UHF stillcosts far more than VHF. (and one of the more successful cost-cutting methods, "anodepulsing", only works for analog. It doesn't work for digital.) With the DTV transmitter bringingno significant revenue for some time to come, it really doesn't make much business sense tospend any more on it than necessary.(Imagine that Ford invented a new type of car. It could be driven safely at 200mph onexisting freeways. But it only gets 5mpg if driven slower than 100mph, can only be drivensafely faster than 75 if every car on the road is of the new type, and costs $50,000. Does thestate pass a law only permitting new-type cars on the freeways? Where does that leave youif you can't afford $50,000 for a new car? If the state *doesn't* pass that law.. who will everbuy a new-type car if it costs $50,000 and gets 5mpg?That's pretty much what we've run into with DTV. Until/unless everyone buys it, the newtechnology is mostly just a drain on the industry.)There *has* been an interesting resurgence in interest in over-the-air reception lately though.It first came up after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the number who complained about not beingable to see the Alpine, NJ temporary site surprised a lot of people. And it was emphasizedwhen NBC switched its affiliation to KNTV-11 in the San Francisco market, and realized justhow many people were unable to see the station in the northern part of the market. (at thesame time, some San Jose print journalists were reminding San Franciscans that the largercity at the other end of the bay had been dealing with this problem for 50 years...) Whetherit'll hold, or the industry will join the FCC in saying "let them get cable", is a good question.(Doug Smith)