Low Power Threatens DTV Conversion

[Kevin Arnold]

Low Power Threat. http://www.tvinsite.com/broadcastingcable/index.asp?layout=story_stocks&articleid=CA215831&display=sectionStory&verticalid=311&industry=Voices&pubdate=05/06/2002&STT=000&industryid">
Here's a link to an article that discusses the use of low power for DTV transmission that reflects on what is happening here.
 
(Edited to shorten the link)



[Note: This message has been edited by Tom Snyder]

[Tom Snyder]

Maybe I missed this somewhere, but how/why/when did the meatheads at the FCC allow 10 watts at 200 feet as satisfaction of the DTV requirement?

[Kevin Arnold]

That's just the tip of the iceberg. I hadn't thought much about this until seeing the article. If members of this forum have to jump through hoops, calculating antenna strengths, mounting, positions,etc, how is the average viewer supposed to use HDTV? It was supposed to be strong enough to just hook up a simple indoor rabbit ears and get a perfect picture. Now its become damn near impossible to do this anywhere outside of a couple miles of the transmitter. What a great plan to abort the HD revolution before it gets started. As for the business with Fox 6, why not just turn it off. It's a joke and their not serious.

[tenth_t2]

Certainly makes our lives more challenging from the tuning perspective!  We ought to send John McCain a message from the group here-- heck, maybe he'd be interested in a chat.....

I know Tom referenced some relatively pro-HD comments from Mr. McCain on this very forum, as groups like ours start cropping up, the more we can voice our issues the better.

Although I've been quite for a while now, I did a full scan of everyone broadcasting so far in both Milwaukee and Madison last night and couldn't find any signs of life out of WITI-- maybe the hamster was tired......

Greg O.

[Matt Heebner]

I can't find WITI's signal either. I stated in a previous post that as far as I'm concerned, WITI is NOT broadcasting a digital signal. If someone living in the middle of Milwaukee can't get a signal.....

Matt

[Joseph S]

I think the earlier post mentioned they were going all out to add a 9 volt battery.

Apparently, that is all the power they can handle.

 

From the article:
Sinclair has always viewed the success of the DTV transition as dependent on the ability of our signals to reach an over-the-air audience. Long before we discovered that the 8-VSB system was flawed, Sinclair fought the FCC, MSTV and the NAB for the need for increased UHF transmission power to be able to reach indoor antennas. We won that battle, and the Maximization Principle was written into the rules.

It's nice to see the owner of two(WB and UPN) delinquent Milwaukee stations wants to comment on low power. I'm not for low power, but it can be quite better than NO POWER.