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Houston UHF TV Repack

M

Mediafrog+

KXLN (Univision) has become the first full power Houston station to make its RF channel move for the UHF repack, going from RF45 to RF30. Of course still branded as 45, its virtual channel. Haven't checked to see if KCVH (Aleluya TV) which had occupied RF30 has reappeared on RF6.

The other Houston UHF signals above RF36 are still there for now. April 12 is the deadline to complete the repack moves here.

Tip of the hat to Gridlock Joe's HoustonDTV blog, which had a heads up about this move.
 
KIAH is now advising OTA viewers to rescan their sets on April 1. The station will be going from RF38 to RF34.

https://cw39.com/rescan-your-tv/

Haven't seen anything else about the dates other repack affected stations are moving, although the repack in Houston is supposed to be complete by April 12.
 
Thanks for the update, Medifrog. This FCC "re-pack" underscores how today's Smart TVs are really Stupid TVs because of the worthless signal scan function. Old School TVs would receive every signal on any channel, so scanning was unnecessary. I want to see every signal that's out there without having to scan - that way every channel can change frequencies every other day and we'd still see the station. Also, it's very possible to lose low power or distant signals when re-scanning because of atmospheric conditions. In Spring, I get KBTX channel 3-CBS in Bryan/College Station (mainly coz the tower is well to the east of B/CS, but not on every scan, so I have to do repeated scans at different times and days to re-capture it. Spring is well within the 41 db contour, so why it sometimes doesn't get captured by the scan function is a mystery. KBTX is a great CBS alternative to KHOU and the audio/stereo-separation is superior, especially for folks who went to Texas A&M or have interests out that way. -- https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/map...1&city=BRYAN&state=TX&fileno=-0000034192&.map

I used to receive low-power KUVM where virtual channel 34.3 Revolution TV had great car shows and 34.4 HOT-TV had interesting shows not available anywhere else - now with re-scanning, I no longer receive KUVM. Based on the FCC contour, it should be easy to receive in Spring, so maybe there's another reason -- https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/map...ISSOURI+CITY&state=TX&fileno=-0000037667&.map

Just think if your car radio had to scan in order to have a list of receivable stations - right, you'd have to re-scan every 30 miles so - how Smart would that be?
 
ThatVoice22 said:
In Spring, I get KBTX channel 3-CBS in Bryan/College Station (mainly coz the tower is well to the east of B/CS, but not on every scan, so I have to do repeated scans at different times and days to re-capture it. Spring is well within the 41 db contour, so why it sometimes doesn't get captured by the scan function is a mystery.
Click to expand...

I'm in Cy-Fair, and have the same issue with getting KBTX on a scan. I have found that scanning on a warm, humid late evening when tropo conditions are kicking up will give be the best results. I did notice that KBTX recently added Telemundo on 3.3.

KBTX will be making a big change when they repack in the Spring of 2020, going from RF50 to RF16, a 200 MHz drop. That might help reception a little bit.

KBTX sometimes shows different NFL games on CBS than KHOU, which is nice for football fans that are able to receive both stations.
 
I sometimes get KBTX here in Houston I used to get it when I lived by 610 and 59. Well actually I used to get it more often there than here where I live now on 45 north by Rankin Rd.

Matter of fact I used to get more channels on 610 than now.
 
Right frog, KBTX has a construction permit to move to channel 16 from 50, but unfortunately, the CP specifies a reduction in output power from 1000 KW to 685 KW (with the same antenna height and location.) That's a 31% power drop, wondering why that would be necessary -- Maybe they are required to stay within the previous signal pattern area. (Link wouldn't paste properly, see FCC.gov for KBTX.)

Also, good comment on scan results: "... scanning on a warm, humid late evening when tropo conditions are kicking up will give the best results." (Scanning is unnecessarily limiting - if I ever get a DX/tropo channel, it will likely disappear on the next "FCC Un-pack" scan event -- what happened to tuning in whatever signals are available on any particular day?)
 
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I haven’t been able to watch THE CW 39 here in houston. And Fox 26 is not as strong as it once one. Also Univision and unimas repeats the same Channel lots of times.
 
Weakest for me since the hurricane is 11 they running with like 40% less power. Few more weak ones are 13 some days it really strong and other days like 30% less power 49 a little weak from time to time and 57
 
Tuned across KYAZ and the station was running a crawl promoting the rescan on April 12.

I have noticed that the full power stations making a channel change have been at reduced strength the past few days...guessing they are on temporary antennas or backup facilities while the technical changes for the RF channel move are finalized. I would think they would want to be on full power when the channel change is made so there are minimal issues with viewers rescanning their sets.
 
"Re-pack" is a Moronic Concept to Cram UHF TV signals into even more Crammed Spectrum. Congratulations on driving away even more antenna viewers!
 
ThatVoice22 said:
"Re-pack" is a Moronic Concept to Cram UHF TV signals into even more Crammed Spectrum. Congratulations on driving away even more antenna viewers!
Click to expand...

I don't understand your complaint. Each station has its own channel, and your digital receiver can separately tune them all. Yes, in Houston the UHF band will be full between 500 and 608 MHz after the repack, but is entirely usable and accessible. How would that "drive away viewers" ?

The old channel allocation plan wasted spectrum. The new plan uses it very efficiently. And with changes in technology the old system of "transmitting a signal from one tall tower" is eventually going by the wayside, replaced by multi-transmitter networks and Internet delivery.
 
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KZJL is running a promo advising viewers to rescan "after April 11" and indicates the changeover (from RF44 to RF21) will take place at "00.00 April 11." Now a strict interpretation of that would mean the switch takes place early April 11, but there are those that consider "midnight" to be the end of a particular day...so we shall see.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
How would that (the FCC re-pack) "drive away viewers"?
Click to expand...

Fair question - The FCC re-pack will drive away antenna viewers for several reasons, mostly relating to the backward practice of modern TVs that require channel scanning in order to see anything. Multiple stations changing channels means multiple re-scans at varying times – many folks will not know when to re-scan and few will notice that they may have lost other channels previously in the TV memory bank. Scanning can be a quirky process, as multiple scans performed minutes apart can yield different results with more or fewer channels each time.

Scanning for available channels often prevents the full measure of available channels from being received. Why not allow viewers to receive any channel that happens to come in that day? Scanning virtually ceases the temporary reception of long distant stations during meteorological or tropospheric events. So, your statement that a “digital receiver can separately tune them all” isn’t accurate.

Many times when re-scanning, the TV can fail to register low-power or fringe stations like KBTX-3 in Bryan/College Station due to differing weather conditions. Again, the scan function is an unnecessary barrier to receiving all stations that might be receivable on a given day or night. Imagine how nutty it would be if re-scanning radios was required.

Bottom Line: Thousands of folks aren't aware of the FCC re-pack, so they won't re-scan (or don’t know how) and will lose access to multiple channels without realizing it. Readers, please advise if you come across a TV that does not have a scan function and lets viewers see all available signals at all times.
 
tripinva said:
https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/api/download/attachment/25076ff36a044719016a087a4cbb0df7

- Trip
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, although there is no indication of the date the request was filed, which would give us a clearer timeline. However it does let us know that KYAZ, KZJL and KTBU will be transmitting from the same antenna after the repack.

Meanwhile, the KIAH rescan webpage I linked earlier in this thread is now active again, and it shows their channel change happening Friday, April 12 at 10am. So it would appear there were no weather issues affecting the KIAH switchover from RF38 to RF34. Perhaps with a move of only four channels (24 MHz) they did not need a new antenna and are simply retuning their transmitter.
 
It was filed this week, along with the other requests. KTMD and KUBE will also be missing the April 12 date. Just KIAH is today.

- Trip
 
KIAH made its move today, signal back to full strength. Other repack stations stayed put, delayed by weather.

Noticed after my rescan that KUGB/28 appears to be down to only three channel streams. Had been as many as 12 in the past.

Has anyone seen any of the other LPTVs other than KVVV/15 or KUGB/28 recently? Those are the only two I’m currently receiving. Had been able to pick up KVQT/21 and KZHO/38 in the past. Also have not seen KCVH/30 which was supposed to be moving to RF6 after being displaced from RF30 by KXLN.
 
My understanding is that KVQT-LD has moved to their new channel already. Have you rescanned for it?

- Trip
 
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