To tighten the bands between adjacent channels (and free up bandwidth), operators in the US will change their frequencies for "over-the-air" transmission effective August 1.
Our local PBS station has 3 subs which carry some interesting stuff -- like an Estonian detective series, and ethnic cooking shows!
Our local PBS station has 3 subs which carry some interesting stuff -- like an Estonian detective series, and ethnic cooking shows!
I’ve already lost a couple stations to this, I need to figure out what freq they switched to hopefully I just have the wrong antenna and it’s not that I’m now out of range.
This has something to do with freeing up bandwidth for 5G is my understanding?
As long as I can still get Hockey Night in Canada from CBC Calgary on my patch antenna... 🙂
Curious question: Does this tightening require new tuners or just that you turn the dial to a different channel?
Tom
Curious question: Does this tightening require new tuners or just that you turn the dial to a different channel?
Tom
I’m not sure if affects the great white Norte?
Running the search for new signal on the tv doesn’t reveal anything.......so either the new freq doesn’t have the range of the other (30mi) or I need a different antenna?
Generally changes in transmission frequency and directivity have to be co-ordinated between adjacent countries.
Assume it’s not going to affect those of us relying on copper / fibre optic “cable” boxes? Over the past several years we’ve had to upgrade our terminals from older technology that didn’t support MPEG4 video, and I’ve heard from the service provider (Shaw in our case), that the near future holds yet more interesting technology “advances”.
My local stations were off the air for a few days as they made the change. (New antennas and transmitter.) They are still in the range of the TV tuner, just packed in tighter to the bandwidth left.
The real question is why are you watching off air television?
Repeat after me, "The internet is all I need. It has everything. It is always right..."
The real question is why are you watching off air television?
Repeat after me, "The internet is all I need. It has everything. It is always right..."
FCC Auction Prompts 1K TV Stations to Change Channels | Fortune
The most annoying thing for me is every time I rescan I have to go back in and delete about two thirds of the channels because I don't want them.
The most annoying thing for me is every time I rescan I have to go back in and delete about two thirds of the channels because I don't want them.
And to function properly at the ambient temperature inside our igloos during midwinter.
Props for the spelling of bobsleigh. 🙂
Tom
(bold mine)
OH, so THAT's it, the cellphone service companies are again buying up more spectrum.
They might as well give/sell them all the bandwidth, because eventually we'll all be watching TV over wireless internet, and be charged by the amount of data we download, rather than getting free broadcasts. Don't worry, there will still be as many commercials as ever.
</snark>
It looks like there will just be be fewer channels, and stations will only go to other channels if they're in the part of the band that got sold.
In LA that change over happened in 2 phases in March and April. KTLA-5 had been operating on channel 31 for many years. Whatever was on ch 35 had gone dark the year before. KTLA changed to ch 35 which freed up ch 31. The next month KCBS which had been ch 60 from 1998 to 2009, then ch 43 from June 2009 until this year switched to ch 31. Ch 56 had been ch 32 and is now ch 12. LA has all VHF hi channels, KABC 7, KCAL 9, KTTV 11, KDOC 12 (PSIP 56) and KCOP 13. Even ch 2 and ch 4 are now running DTV. IMO low band VHF is the worst possible place to do DTV due to antenna size and mother nature and man made impulse noise. Folks I work with think the low ban Vs are just to force their way onto cable via 'must carry' rules.
In all I think around 10 channels changed frequencies but everything still works.
What will be interesting is if/when ATSC 3.0 goes on line. It is not backward compatible with current ATSC. With streaming TV ATSC 3 might not happen at all.
G²
Channel 37 exists on paper only. It is reserved for radio astronomy use and no TV stations ever operated on this RF channel (608 - 614 MHz).
Back in the early 70's the UHF T band was created where TV channels 14 through 20 (470 - 512 MHz) would be shared with two way radio on a limited non interference basis. One of the restrictions was that these frequencies would NOT be used for public safety service. Despite this I could routinely pick up the police radios from two local police departments on my test boards inside the Motorola plant in between those cities.
In the late 70's TV channels 70 through 83 (806 - 890 MHz) were repurposed for two way radio and cellular service.
When DTV came in 2009 channels 52 through 69 (698 - 806 MHz) were reassigned to other services. Yes, most of these went to cellular. Some were used for a nationwide mobile TV service (Qualcomm's Media Flo) which failed and the frequencies were sold to AT&T, and some were used for public service radio, and a chunk was reserved for a nation wide police data service, now under AT&T's control and used for cellular on a secondary basis in some markets.
AT&T complained to the FCC about interference to their cellular service from TV stations pumping out up to 1 Megawatt of ERP on channel 51, so no new licenses were issued for channel 51, and existing stations were eventually moved to other frequencies.
AT&T and Verizon own much of the spectrum in the USA, leaving T-Mobile and Sprint falling behind. It looks like T-Mobile is going to eat Sprint, but even combined, be behind in "prime spectrum" (below 1 GHz for building penetration).
Enter the Digital Dividend, where a chunk of OCCUPIED TV spectrum, channel 38 through 51 (614 - 698 MHz) gets auctioned off and the current users are given new TV channels and exit dates. Due to TV band planning to avoid interference with other services, some TV stations not affected by the auction must also move to a new frequency.
It's no surprise that much of this spectrum went to cellular, and T-Mobile was the big winner. Cellular band 71 (617 - 652 and 663 - 698 MHz) was created. T-Mobile has begun deploying 4G and 5G systems in this spectrum in areas where no existing TV service exists.
Most cellular systems require paired spectrum, one chunk for inbound data, and one for outbound data. This is known as FDD (frequency division duplexing). The 11 MHz in the middle of band 71 is unpaired and useless to most US carriers.....except Sprint. They are already using TDD (time division duplexing) in the US, so guess where this spectrum will go.
Back in the early 70's the UHF T band was created where TV channels 14 through 20 (470 - 512 MHz) would be shared with two way radio on a limited non interference basis. One of the restrictions was that these frequencies would NOT be used for public safety service. Despite this I could routinely pick up the police radios from two local police departments on my test boards inside the Motorola plant in between those cities.
In the late 70's TV channels 70 through 83 (806 - 890 MHz) were repurposed for two way radio and cellular service.
When DTV came in 2009 channels 52 through 69 (698 - 806 MHz) were reassigned to other services. Yes, most of these went to cellular. Some were used for a nationwide mobile TV service (Qualcomm's Media Flo) which failed and the frequencies were sold to AT&T, and some were used for public service radio, and a chunk was reserved for a nation wide police data service, now under AT&T's control and used for cellular on a secondary basis in some markets.
AT&T complained to the FCC about interference to their cellular service from TV stations pumping out up to 1 Megawatt of ERP on channel 51, so no new licenses were issued for channel 51, and existing stations were eventually moved to other frequencies.
AT&T and Verizon own much of the spectrum in the USA, leaving T-Mobile and Sprint falling behind. It looks like T-Mobile is going to eat Sprint, but even combined, be behind in "prime spectrum" (below 1 GHz for building penetration).
Enter the Digital Dividend, where a chunk of OCCUPIED TV spectrum, channel 38 through 51 (614 - 698 MHz) gets auctioned off and the current users are given new TV channels and exit dates. Due to TV band planning to avoid interference with other services, some TV stations not affected by the auction must also move to a new frequency.
It's no surprise that much of this spectrum went to cellular, and T-Mobile was the big winner. Cellular band 71 (617 - 652 and 663 - 698 MHz) was created. T-Mobile has begun deploying 4G and 5G systems in this spectrum in areas where no existing TV service exists.
Most cellular systems require paired spectrum, one chunk for inbound data, and one for outbound data. This is known as FDD (frequency division duplexing). The 11 MHz in the middle of band 71 is unpaired and useless to most US carriers.....except Sprint. They are already using TDD (time division duplexing) in the US, so guess where this spectrum will go.
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