[opendtv] Re: Charles Rhodes on SFNs

  • From: Cliff Benham <flyback1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:15:32 -0400



Craig Birkmaier wrote:
The big cities got VHF channels - separation has typically been about 200 miles between transmitters on the same channel.

For example, channel 10 is used in Miami, the northwest side of the Tampa. St. Pete market, and Tallahassee. The Tampa/St. Pete Channel 10 was a special drop-in, as the Riverview antenna farm to the S.E. of Tampa was too close to the Miami transmitter (about 187 miles). Someone tried to get ABC onto the air on a UHF channel (38 I think), but the station went dark (the UHF tuner mandate had not yet caused many receivers to exist. So Rahall Communications petitioned for a drop-in on channel 10. They got it on a 500 foot stick in New Port Richy, which is about 219 miles from the Miami antenna farm. The limited height was due to the fact that the transmitter was in or near an approach path to Tampa International airport. Eventually new owners were allowed to raise the tower height.

The distance from New Port Richey to Tallahassee is about 181 miles, but the area of potential interference is over the Gulf of Mexico and the largely uninhabited Big Bend of Florida.

Cliff Benham knows all about this...
Some, but not all...
WSUN-TV signed on the air on channel 38 on May 31, 1953, as the first television station in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. At this time Tampa-St. Petersburg was the largest marked in the United States without a VHF television station.

The station began as an independent, but in later in 1953 it carried programs from all three [four, including DuMont] major networks. Once WFLA-TV [NBC] and WTVT [CBS] signed on in 1955, however, WSUN-TV became an ABC affiliate. http://jeff560.tripod.com/wsun_tv.html
[my additions]
Cliff



As for potential re-use patterns, I don't think any particular pattern could be universally applied. In the real world terrain and serving pockets of population density are going to be far more important factors. Every market is gong to be different, and the use of emission masks to limit radiation of signals into the market may allow for closer spacing.

Regards
Craig




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