[opendtv] Re: Martin: 15% of Stations Face Smaller DTV-Coverage Areas
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:09:54 -0400
Dale Kelly wrote:
> See the FCC's feigned statement of surprise below. Does the term
> disingenuous, or worse, come to mind?
-------------------
Martin: 15% of Stations Face Smaller DTV-Coverage Areas
FCC chairman tells House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing agency
working on identifying all of those markets.
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin told a House
Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing audience Tuesday that the FCC
was
working on ways to help out viewers of the approximately 15% of TV
stations
with digital-TV signals that will not reach as many viewers as their
analog
signals did. One of the lessons from the Wilmington, N.C., early analog
shutoff was the number of out-of-market viewers of NBC affiliate WECT-TV
there that lost the signal. While some of those viewers were able to get
a
signal from an NBC affiliate in their market, some would lose access to
an
NBC station altogether, Martin said.
Martin told the committee that since it was the FCC's goal for viewers
not
to lose access to signals they had historically watched, it was working
on
ways to fix the problem, including perhaps an antenna to reach those
areas
where historic out-of-market carriage was lost due to changes in the
contour
of the digital signal. Martin said that perhaps 15% of the nation's TV
stations might have carriage shrink "in a significant way," similar to
the
changes in WECT's coverage area.
He added that the effect of that changed contour was the key lesson
learned
from Wilmington. He said FCC engineers were working on identifying all
of
those markets -- he said it would take a few weeks -- and the FCC would
address remedies on a case-by-case basis, calling it the "highest
priority"
for the commission. Subcommittee chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told
Martin
the issue needed resolving "very soon," at least by communicating the
fact
to viewers who might lose their signals do to coverage-area changes.
-------------------
First I want to say, I'm *very* glad to see that the FCC acknowledges
that OTA users want access to adjacent markets. Seems to me that
Wilmington NC and Gainsesville FL are similar, in that neither has the
"full complement" of OTA networks available to them. But at least,
Wilmington was able to get some channels from Raleigh.
But I'm not seeing what people are objecting to exactly. So I'll spell
it out, from my perspective. Otherwise, what happens is that some people
come away with misconceptions, which eventually find their way to the
surface and muddy up the picture, if you know what I mean.
My take:
WBAL-TV, Baltimore, Ch 11, 316 KW ERP. With my previous outdoor antenna,
somewhat grainy, a little noisy, but viewable where I live (46.6 miles
from transmitter).
VHF
WBAL-DT final allocation, Ch 11, **5 KW ERP**. The way I do the math,
this is an 18 dB reduction in power, right? That's HUGE. Isn't the
difference supposed to be 6 dB lower for digital, for equal coverage to
analog? I'll bet they'll be gone from the Wash DC market.
Less severe, but still bad, WJZ-DT final allocation, Ch 13, 28.8 KW ERP,
is "only" 10 dB down from WJZ-TV. We'll see how that works out. Right
now, they are UHF, 1 MW, and they work great.
UHF
On the other hand, WNUV-TV, Ch 54, 5 MW ERP. Even with an outdoor
antenna, that comes in, but grainy, for whatever reason. Not good enough
to consider in a steady diet.
WNUV-DT, Ch 40, 845 KW ERP, is 7.7 dB down from its analog twin. And it
is quite reliable, even with the antenna in the fireplace. Infinitely
nicer to watch than analog. But hey, can you crank up the power to where
it's just 6 dB down from analog? Please? 1 MW from UHF stations works
very well in my case, from Baltimore.
The local VHF stations are also taking severe power cuts. WUSA-DT, Ch 9,
will get a 14 dB power cut compared with WUSA-TV. And WJLA-DT will be
13.6 dB down from WJLA-TV. They're going to be in the 12-13 KW ERP range
in digital.
The part I find regrettable in this is that there's going to be a lot of
nonsense about how coverage loss is due to use of 8-VSB. This noise can
only delay a real fix. If anything, a single carrier scheme helps in
this power deficit situation.
Bert
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