https://www.fcc.gov/about-fcc/fcc-initiatives/incentive-auctions/primer-broadcasters
I hope this helps.
A proposal which could be of interest here but let's not get into another protracted debate about the "initiative". That's what the Initiative site is for.
Neil
Man this is awful for the TV Broadcasters. I suspect many of the stations that are forced to relocate to VHF-Lo will suffer.
WDCX: would you mind posting this on The Initiative website too? We need to discuss this. It can be put in the public area.
Radio8z: thanks for the plug. I need to read this more thorough and process this information. I hope we can come up with a solution. Maybe we can also talk about it in the conference line too.
Short end of it is this.
By the time the FCC is done, there will no longer be free over the air television reception.
All stations will end up serving their viewership by Internet feed, direct feed to satellite television services/cable companies and viewers will have to pay for that right to watch those stations to the service providers, who'll then pay the stations for your right to watch them.
Over the air televsion is doomed, what will happen in the next 5 years when the population expands and the nation needs more bandwidth for wireless Internet and cell phone frequencies?
America screwed up years ago, how many homes do you have in your local town that still have a television antenna on the roof? I'll bet you'll have to drive some miles before you find one television antenna still in use or still in any useable condition.
I have several television antennas on my roof that I use for local television reception, although I do have cable television, I use them to receive television stations my cable television company has either removed do to restrictions on out of market dupilcate network stations, or have never added them because of the FCC mandated limit on how many out of market over the air televsion stations they can carry on their systems. Some stations carried, your service provider has to block out that channel when it carries duplicate programing your local station carries.
I also use my television antennas in thee event the cable system loses power or the cable lines are down do to storm damage or car accident takes out a telephone pole.
Imagine having all your stations on one transmitter, where the main channel is in HD, the sub-channels are always in Standard Definition. If after they go with the NSTC 3.0 standard and the sub-channels are still in Standard Definition over the air television will be a lost cause.
VHF LOW is susceptible to lightening static, spark plugs, electric motors etc. Imagine how often your channels will freeze frame with all the electromagnetic noise. If you think the AM broadcast is bad, VHF LOW television will be a real mess and not at all watchable!!!!!!
Conclusion:
They should just get it over with and reallocate the whole VHF low band to FM radio broadcasting.
Bruce.
People are ditching cable for over the air TV and the places selling indoor and outdoor antennas are selling lots of them. So, you can't get all the sports channels but with the outrages cost of the cable packages so what. You get all the regular stations and you can watch all your Hollywood shows like you used to way back when.
There will always be over the air TV and here in Canada there are at least 5 stations you will always get no matter where you are in the country.
Mark
I may have posted the wrong protocol.
I said NSTC 3.0, I believe it is actually called ATSC 3.0 that the FCC will authorize for the television broadcasting standard.
Bruce.
I think you are right on that Bruce, NTSC was for analog.
Reply to post 3: No full power or class A TV broadcasters will be forced into VHF low. Stations that stay in UHF will be repacked; depending on how that goes reception may become more difficult with co and adjacent channel problems and possibly mixing issues in receivers.
Reply to post 5: Some OTA channels are so bad that they rely on must carry to get into cable and satellite distribution systems. As long as it is cheaper for a religious broadcaster or infomercial channel to power up a DTV transmitter than it would be to pay for carriage outright there will be OTA TV. The networks are a different story; for example Fox threatened to go cable only if Aero did not get shutdown.
If you like FM radio but your HOA will not let you put up an FM antenna this may work in your favor. If a new VHF low station pops up near you; you have a reason to put up a VHF-low antenna. Most VHF-low antennas work well for FM too. TV antennas are protected by the OTARD rule, FM antennas are not.
The entire VHF band will, more than likely, be the new home for LPTV and translators. As it is now, that would be a death sentence for low power broadcasting. But as I mentioned elsewhere, tests conducted with ATSC 3.0 on VHF have been very positive. I know of several LPTV stations who are getting ready to file for ch. 6 since the FCC is allowing LPTV stations on that channel to broadcast analog FM along with a DTV signal.
y
Reading about the 126 MHz auction re-pack is like trying to re-arrange the parking lot during a world series game where all the drivers are busy trying to watch the game need I say more?
Let's agree never to have a Part 15 re-pack.
There is nothing here for Low VHF TV channels here. Most of the channels such as channels 2, 3, and 4 have moved to UHF-TV digital. Channel 6 is in Richmond, VA which is over 100 miles away from me, and I think they went digital too.
One point that should be included in this discussion is that not all 126 MHz will be reclaimed in all DMAs. In the FCC's band plan there is an accompanying chart that shows different amounts for the most impacted areas. For example, only 5-10MHz blocks or 50 MHz will be auctioned in Los Angeles, in Baltimore, MD-Washington D.C., 7-10MHz blocks or 70MHz will be in the auction.