OTA television repack has begun

[valvashon]

If you get your TV signal over the air through an antenna, the first move in the TV repack (all channels must move off of channels 37 and above) happened today.
The low power repeater station for KBTC Tacoma (the Bates Public TV station) moved their frequency from RF 16 to RF 28. They transmit from a tower on Capitol Hill with 1000 watts. If you were receiving this station before this afternoon it has probably disappeared from your channel lineup. Go into your TV’s menu and re-scan the channels or add it manually. It will still show up as “28-1” with three additional sub channels. If you re-scan you may also notice that channel “6-1” shows up. They are currently transmitting color bars from a tower on Queen Anne hill. I do not know what the programming will be on channel 6.

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[Forest]

It took re-scanning my TV set probably a dozen times, but I’m now getting the broadcast channel 6-1. It is the COZI-TV network (www.cozitv.com), which reruns old family drama series and such sitcoms as “Frasier” and “Roseanne.”

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[Ponderosa]

Hmm. COZI on a main instead of a diginet, and the FCC licensee is DENVER DIGITAL TELEVISION, LLC. Interesting. Looks like the came into the market only 4 or so years ago?
Valvashon, did KZJO already repack? I’m sans antenna at the moment.

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[valvashon]

KYMU-LD was sold to Seattle 6 Broadcasting LLC and moved up to Seattle on the KIRO tower. It broadcasts COZI on 6-1 in 1080i and Light TV on 6-2 in 480i.

All Seattle stations, save for KWDK 56-1 (Daystar) have moved in the TV repack. KWDK is still broadcasting on RF 42 although they have a construction permit for RF 34. T-Mobile made significant cash offers to the Seattle stations to move in October ahead of the deadline to clear out the 600 MHz spectrum for their 5G service. You would think that the religious beg-a-thon that is Daystar TV would have jumped at that chance but maybe they couldn’t pull it off technically or maybe T-Mobile didn’t make them an offer. Legally, KWDK has until January to move so I’m not sure if T-Mobile can fire up their 5G service on the 600 MHz band if KWDK is still on the air. Perhaps they can block their service from using the 6 MHz of spectrum that KWDK is using, but I’m not sure. The KWDK situation is a bit of a mystery. They are on the Tiger Mt. tower and the conditions are only going to get worse up there for tower work. At some point they may simply shut down and wait for spring..

KUSE 46.1 (was RF 46) has simply shut down. They were a 500 watt station (!) that you probably didn’t receive here in West Seattle. They have a construction permit for RF channel 12 (you read that right) from their Tiger Mt. location with 3 KW of power, which should make them much easier to receive. Last seen with TV Azteca in HD on thier .1 channel and several shopping channels on their subchannels.

KZJO (22.1) has moved from RF 25 to RF 36, although with significantly reduced power at the moment. We are using a small auxiliary transmitter feeding a side-mounted antenna on our Capitol Hill tower. The main transmitter, feed line to the top mounted antenna and the top mounted antenna itself still need to be installed. At some point the main transmitter will be switched into the side-mounted antenna and the power will be increased significantly, although the side mounted antenna can’t handle the full licensed power. Eventually, the main antenna will be switched into the top mounted antenna and then we will be back up to full power, and we will have a backup transmitter and antenna to use if necessary.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by valvashon. Reason: typo

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[justadumbguy]

Thanks valvashon for the interesting and useful info

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[miws]

Valvashon, Thank you for the info on KZJO, Q13 is my morning TV news source throughout the week, and as you likely know their weekend morning broadcasts are on sibling-station KZJO.

Ever since I did the rescan last Saturday the 19th, as KZJO and KOMO were encouraging, I seem to be getting a much more consistently good signal on KOMO, when there would be occasional instances of a day where I struggled to get a consistent signal, even after relocating my flat HDTV digital antenna to the most common spots for getting a decent signal.

But, on KZJO, I have struggled with getting a good signal, no matter where I move the antenna to (I’m somewhat limited in *where* I can locate it). Previously, I rarely had anything but the most minor and occasional pixelation. This morning, as well as last Sunday, the issue became worse at the start of the 8:00 am hour when I speculated this morning, that they likely change their signal strength, so I ended up switching to music on Pandora.

I don’t watch all that much over-the-air TV anymore, but was mentioned, watch KCPQ/KZJO for morning news, KOMO for late afternoon/evening news, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy! I also watch KIRO a couple times a week for a couple of primetime shows.

I have the alternative of watching KCPQ and KIRO on Hulu, but not KZJO or KOMO, should I have signal issues with them at any given time.

Knowing that this issue is (hopefully very) temporary, is encouraging.

Mike

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[valvashon]

The power is not changed during the day for any regular reason in the TV world. After signing on the new transmitter last Saturday morning the power output was set to about 80% of the rated power of the transmitter; after a factory representative walked our transmitter engineer through a re-calibration procedure on Monday the transmitter power was raised to 100% of it’s level. Still lower than our licensed power and I’ll let you know when the main transmitter goes on line.

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[miws]

Thanks.

Yesterday I was able to watch KZJO from 7:00 to just before 9:30 when I typically tune out on weekends. Very little pixelation episodes. Sounds like Saturday’s issues happing to start around the top of the new hour were just coincidental and part of the typical signal issues that occur due to weather, or some other interference. I’m on the east/west flight path of Boeing Field, so am always listening for planes/choppers when the picture starts pixelating.

Mike

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[Forest]

Circle TV, a national music and lifestyle network affiliated with Opry Entertainment Group, has started airing on KSTW channel 11-5. The network’s website address is http://www.circleallaccess.com

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[valvashon]

…And it will soon finish. For the rest of the month KZJO 22.x and the KCPQ-LP 13.x signals from the Capitol Hill transmitter will be intermittent as we shut them off at times to accommodate the tower climbers. This will not affect the KCPQ 13.x signal from our Bremerton tower.

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[miws]

Thanks for the update, valvashon!

Mike

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[Neha5784]

oh yeah thanks for informing and your humble words. i also find some more info about OTA television read more to get more.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Neha5784.

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[Michael Waldo]

Thanks for the spam Neha

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[Forest]

As of October 1, 2020, COZI-TV has replaced GET-TV on Seattle broadcast channel 7-2.

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[nhui897]

I have a full OTA guide and stations. My Premiere has never had any contact with a radio wire. The possibility that call letters are required isn’t

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[gardenofriches]

I just watched the NHK Japan TV news, FNX and PBS–no commercials and very informative and love the Sumo wresting.
The rest of the channels are propaganda and too much commercials-time waster.
No idea how people can spent so much time and money on Streaming services ……go out to play and smell the air!!

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