Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs
I doubt the VHF channels will ever come back. Most of the UHF TV channels (channels 14 to 52) have been auctioned off to other services, so they will never again be used for television broadcasting in this country. The remaining 38 channels may well be auctioned in the future.
The VHF channels are no longer used for telecasting, and may well be auctioned to other services before long as well.
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The highband VHF channels (7 through 13) are
extensively used for digital TV broadcasting in the US, with two of them in your backyard (Channel 19 is actually transmitted on channel 10, and Channel 8 is on, well, channel 8)
The lowband VHF channels (2 through 6) are vastly underused (your Channel 3 is actually 17 and Channel 5 is really 15), as building penetration is poor, RFI from consumer products can be intense, and the FCC placed draconian power limits on the lowband.
There are no plans to reallocate the VHF channels in the foreseeable future. They're no good for smartphones, because a smartphone can't effectively radiate waves nearly two meters long. The government is hoping to pack a bunch of other stations on the VHF channels.
At this point, there have not been any auctions of channels 14-51 for cellular. Channels 70 through 83 were given away decades ago, channels 52 through 69 were auctioned off more recently, and channel 51 is being cleared to serve as a guard band for owners of spectrum on former channel 52. The government is hoping to auction off as many of the channels 51 and below as they can, from the top down.