[QuadList] OT--Digital over the air TV--"VHF: Now Everything You Know is Wrong..."

[Ted Langdell]

TV Newsday editor Harry Jessell says "Now Everything You Know is  
Wrong" about DTV on VHF in this followup two weeks after the "Big  
Switch."

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2009/06/26/daily.4/?print
Registration may be needed.

For some VHF stations its become the big boo-boo, causing them to  
apply to the FCC for more power, or for a UHF channel.

Since the June 12 analog cut off, the FCC has granted extra power to  
three VHF stations (ABC's WPVI Philadelphia; Schurz's KWCH Hutchison- 
Wichita, Kan.; and Sunbeam's WSVN Miami) and has received requests  
from 11 others.
Post-Newsweek, for instance, asked the FCC two days ago if it could  
kick up the power of WPLG, ch. 10 in Miami, from 22 kW to 60 kW,  
assuring the FCC that it would not interfere with any other station.

The FCC also says that it has granted several requests from stations  
to retreat to their pre-transition UHF channels.

I heard the tale of one broadcaster with a major market duopoly who  
intends to ask the FCC if it can switch the stations' channels so that  
its Big Four affiliate would be on a UHF channel and its netlet  
affiliate would be on the VHF assignment.

Jessell writes: "Now, it seems UHF is the place to be -- and not only  
for regular broadcast service.

 From what I'm hearing from RF engineers who are obsessed with this  
issue right now, VHF is going to have big trouble in mobile DTV, which  
is being hyped as the second coming of TV broadcasting.
"There is not an engineer -- a sane engineer -- who would disagree  
with that," says Sinclair's Mark Aitken, a member of the technical  
advisory committee of the Open Mobile Video Coalition. "VHF is not  
king in the mobile world."

According to Aitken and others, the problem is a function not just of  
power, but of wavelength. The tiny antennas being squeezed into cell  
phone and other mobile devices will have a tough time capturing VHF  
signals with their long wavelengths. The shorter waves of UHF are far  
more compatible.

"VHF mobile is going to be a real stretch," says William Meintel, a  
consulting engineer at Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace."

How to calculate a company's station ownership cap is affected by  
coverage, and the number of homes covered affects ad rates.

Watch the scramble to fix the problems before the debut of the new  
television season in September, when sweeps resume and stations and  
networks pray the number of viewers doesn't cause more problems with  
ad revenue.

Ted

Ted Langdell
Ted Langdell Creative Broadcast Services
209 East 12th Street
Marysville, CA 95901
Main: 	(530) 741-1212
Cell: 	(530) 301-2931
Skype: 	TedLangdell

tedlangdell.com. Storytelling through Broadcast Coverage and Creative  
Services since 1974



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