On Aug 22, 2017, at 3:50 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
So, here's another example of internally-inconsistent, contradictory ideas
from the debating camps, much like in that previous article on station
ownership (in which the author was supporting Chairman Pai's view on
repealing ownership caps, an yet he titled the article that repeal of caps
"made no sense").
1. Part of this is factually untrue: "The discount dates from the analog days
when UHF stations were weaker than VHF-the reverse is true in digital-and
means that the FCC only counts half of a UHF statoin's audience reach towards
the national ownership cap."
This is one of those simplistic notions perpetrated by the clueless. The
truths are that while UHF stations were usually reduced in power, analog to
digital, by around 7 dB, for some reason, that reduction for VHF stations was
around 12 to 14 dB. And too, some may have optimized their DTV reception for
UHF, although that's a secondary issue, especially in high VHF.
The truth is, when VHF power was finally increased, to the point where VHF
station power levels were increased to around 8 dB lower than their previous
analog VHF power, reception problems compared with UHF either vanished, or
reversed. In reality, both UHF and VHF work just fine for DTV, assuming
people don't try absurd things when reducing digital power output. I remember
that Channel 6, in Phila., had actually bragged about transmitting just 1200
W. Like a hair drier. Surprise. Didn't work too well. Here, Channels 7 and 9
had attempted something like 14 KW, after using 316 KW in analog. Now, at 52
KW, they work fine.
2. The other contradiction is this: In spite of the political formula
spouting going on from BOTH camps here, any sensible person should understand
that the "UHF discount" **is** an example of regulation, and that abolishing
it **is* deregulation. Given that the power transmitted at any frequency has
to be set according to reception contours, using normalized equations, and
propagation models that take frequency into account, there's simply no excuse
left for a "UHF discount." It's a legacy rule, from the days when UHF
receivers were lacking in selectivity and sensitivity.