FCC To Repack Channels

[jr_tech]

Looks as if we should have info on station moves in April.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/1...nners-in-april

Blog on Rabbit Ears has some early info.

http://www.rabbitears.info/blog/

Stay tuned!
jr

[jr_tech]

More on repacking:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/resource...-abound/280362

jr

[centralradio]

Thanks Jr_Tech .Nice read. If I was one of those struggling stations with ratings in the toilet and wondering if I can pay next months electric bill and other bills.I will take the buyout option and close up shop for good.

[Jeffhs]

Since I don't bother with OTA television signals anymore (I watch all my TV via streaming video, DVDs and VHS, having cable on my account only so my Roku's TWC TV app will bring in local channels), the repack does not now and will not, ever, concern me in the least.

BTW, I've been wondering about channel 37. If this channel was never intended to (and in fact is forbidden to) be used as a TV broadcast frequency in this country, why do TVs still tune it? There should have been a way to block that channel somehow, whether by mechanically blocking the tuner at 37 (meaning the tuner would go from 14-36 and then 38-83, with a blank spot on the tuning dial on the front of the set where channel 37 would have been) or any other method so that the tuner would skip that channel. I guess the only reason those continuous UHF tuners even tuned channel 37 at all is due to the nature of continuous tuning; now that I think of it, it would be almost impossible to design any continuous TV tuner such that it would skip any channel. Even the old Zenith varactor tuning systems in their early 1980s TVs could tune to channel 37, and in fact there was a tab for that channel which could be inserted in one of the blank UHF channel positions (U1-U6).

The only other thing I can come up with is that broadcast use of channel 37 in Canada was in fact permitted, with stations on the air on that channel in some cities. I never saw one when I was still watching TV using an antenna, but of course that doesn't mean there might have been at least one channel 37 station north of the border.

I am only guessing at this, of course, since I don't know how Canada's TV broadcasting rules are set up. It could be, however, that use of channel 37 for TV in Canada in some areas near the US border would in fact be forbidden, if the authorities (Canada's "FCC") thought a Canadian station on that channel might interfere with U. S. radio astronomy operations.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

BTW, I've been wondering about channel 37.
...
It could be, however, that use of channel 37 for TV in Canada in some areas near the US border would in fact be forbidden, if the authorities (Canada's "FCC") thought a Canadian station on that channel might interfere with U. S. radio astronomy operations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_37

Besides the somewhat spotty ban, receiver makers probably found it easier to include the capability rather than explain to buyers that they didn't need it.

[jr_tech]

Incomplete information now, but a searchable database from National association of Broadcasters:

http://www.nab.org/repacking/clearinghouse.asp

Check out your area, if listed.

jr

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Incomplete information now, but a searchable database from National association of Broadcasters:

http://www.nab.org/repacking/clearinghouse.asp

Check out your area, if listed.

jr

I checked my area, I live in the Steubenville/Wheeling area so no changes there, I jut get VHF channels 7 and 9, "that's it, Fort Pitt." If I was on a hill, I might get some of the stations from ym old home, the Pittsburgh area but I live on a valley so I only get two channels, but at least one GOOD thing about the digital transition is we get Fox, ABC and MeTV on the subchannels along with CBS and NBC on the main. However, I did look at the Pittsburgh area changes as well as Youngstown and Johnstown area nearby and noticed some of the channels are on the same channel or adjacent to each other. I know Youngstown stations come into Pittsburgh quite a bit, us kids used to watch the "Money Movie" on WKBN 27 Youngstown when we were kids and teenagers during the summer when we were not outside. Given that, I had a thought at what "weisenheimer" thought of that idea to reband channels where you can have co-channel interference or adjacent channel problems. That's about s wise as the FRC (then Federal Radio Commission) putting all commercial stations on 360 meters and farm station on 485 meters in 1921.