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Technical changes in the Islands

S

SML

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The new TV site at Ulupalakua ranch on Maui is nearing completion, and all the Maui TV stations will likely vacate Haleakala by early April. KKUA (90.7 mhz) has already moved to the Pacific Radio Group tower, adjacent to the new site. UH and the Air Force are kicking all broadcasters out (including the National Weather Service) to eliminate RF interference to the telescopes at Haleakala.
Meanwhile, KDLX in Makawao has abandoned it's old tower (wood pole actually) and moved up to the Haleakala ranch (8,000 ft. above sea level) on an STA. The old tower was near collapse, and since the neighbors have moved in around the site, it was no longer a good place for an FM transmitter. Another new station (COL Kihei) will also use the new site at Haleakala Ranch.
On the Big Island, the new station in Kona on 93.1 is up and running, as well as a newly revived FM simulcasting on 92.7 mhz with KHBC-AM 1060 khz in Hilo.

This board has been fairly quiet, but probably because most of us here are just too busy to post. At least that is my excuse.
 
Aloha Don

And thanks for the update on the new TV site at Ulupalakua.

Someone on the AVS Forum asked:
Being on the West side of the Big Island, I'd also be interested in learning what the plans are for digital broadcasting from the new antennae site on Maui's Ulupalakua ranch. Are there towers up there, yet? Will they start broadcasting DT before 2009?

And someone else replied:
I heard that there might be environmental issues involving birds.

Can you shed any light on this?

Thanks,

--Michael (The guy who installed those two satellite reflectors on the PRG site)
 
Aloha Michael,
The new TV site at Ulupalakua is the new digital TV site on Maui. Analog is also being built, but will be turned off at the deadline. The antennas for the digital are already up, and the analog should be going up this month as soon as the environmental review is complete.
The review was called for at the 11th hour last summer when somebody noticed that no migratory bird review was done (it had not been previously asked for). Work on the TV tower was halted at that point and work inside on the transmitters continued. The birders came up and camped out, got real wet and found no birds.
I expect that HDTV will be up and running at the same time the analog transition to Ulupalakua is complete, perhaps in February or March.
I've been taking lot's of pictures, but have not created a web page to show everything quite yet. I hope to find some time this spring to do that, however. In the meantime, I did one for HPR and all of their sites:

http://www.mussell-family.com/HPR/index1.html
 
Mahalo nui for the report, Don...that is good news for many of us HD junkies in Hawaii nei.
I look forward to the new pictures. I know it's a lot of work, so just wanted to say it is much appreciated.

If I was a bird, I wouldn't hang out up there either. It -is- beautiful when the Sun's out and it's not raining, but it sure feels good to get into the xmtr room when the weather changes.<g>

Aloha and I hope to meet up with you one of these days.

--Michael
 
Don Mussell said:
I expect that HDTV will be up and running at the same time the analog transition to Ulupalakua is complete, perhaps in February or March.
I've been taking lot's of pictures, but have not created a web page to show everything quite yet. I hope to find some time this spring to do that, however. In the meantime, ...........
Click to expand...

Aloha Don,

I live in an area of Maui that may be marginal for digital broadcasts from the new site. I have scanned with some digital tuners that I have to see if there has been any digital activity fome the new site. To date I have been unable to receive any indication of any digital transmissions from Ulupalakua.

Do you know if they have started any testing yet? Is there any update on your previous message? Thank you for your time and any information that you may be able to share. Aloha,

Bob
 
Hi Bob,
The EIS for the TV tower has not completed review yet, much to the consternation of the TV stations, UH, and everyone else. Everyone hopes for a resolution soon, but we just don't know when it is coming.
And now the plan is to just light up the digital signals and not bother with analog, as too much time has gone by and the stations would like to trade back the analog boxes for backup digital transmitters. We will see how that idea goes, I suppose. The next thing to do up there is to add the feedline to the HDTV antenna, which is already installed.
I was up at the Ulupalakua site last night, doing some maintenance for KKUA. It;s mighty quiet over in the TV buildings. It is kind of strange to see all that new gear just siting there, ready to go. Each TV station is paying lots of $$ for nothing right now. They are tired of waiting, for sure.

Maybe soon...

I have put up a short video of the Haleakala site that will soon be torn down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPkjq-ntdOw
 
Good Morning Don,

Thank you for the fast response. I appreciate the information and the hard work everyone is putting in to the transition. It is regrettable that the special interest groups can hold up anything that looks like progress.

Enjoyed the video. Thank you again

I too hope it will be resolved sooner than later. Aloha
 
Don, 100000watts.com lists Kona FM as 92.1 and also their website lists it on that frequency too so you must be mistaken here.

Don Mussell said:
The new TV site at Ulupalakua ranch on Maui is nearing completion, and all the Maui TV stations will likely vacate Haleakala by early April. KKUA (90.7 mhz) has already moved to the Pacific Radio Group tower, adjacent to the new site. UH and the Air Force are kicking all broadcasters out (including the National Weather Service) to eliminate RF interference to the telescopes at Haleakala.
Meanwhile, KDLX in Makawao has abandoned it's old tower (wood pole actually) and moved up to the Haleakala ranch (8,000 ft. above sea level) on an STA. The old tower was near collapse, and since the neighbors have moved in around the site, it was no longer a good place for an FM transmitter. Another new station (COL Kihei) will also use the new site at Haleakala Ranch.
On the Big Island, the new station in Kona on 93.1 is up and running, as well as a newly revived FM simulcasting on 92.7 mhz with KHBC-AM 1060 khz in Hilo.

This board has been fairly quiet, but probably because most of us here are just too busy to post. At least that is my excuse.
Click to expand...
 
Don Mussell said:
Hi Bob,
The EIS for the TV tower has not completed review yet, much to the consternation of the TV stations, UH, and everyone else. Everyone hopes for a resolution soon, but we just don't know when it is coming.
And now the plan is to just light up the digital signals and not bother with analog, as too much time has gone by and the stations would like to trade back the analog boxes for backup digital transmitters. We will see how that idea goes, I suppose. The next thing to do up there is to add the feedline to the HDTV antenna, which is already installed.
I was up at the Ulupalakua site last night, doing some maintenance for KKUA. It;s mighty quiet over in the TV buildings. It is kind of strange to see all that new gear just siting there, ready to go. Each TV station is paying lots of $$ for nothing right now. They are tired of waiting, for sure.

Maybe soon...

I have put up a short video of the Haleakala site that will soon be torn down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPkjq-ntdOw
Click to expand...

Aloha Don

The 'transition' now slated for Jan. 15th. has me concerned because of the NFC/AFC Championship games broadcast via FOX/CBS on Jan. 18th. Two and half days doesn't leave much time for testing our converter boxes/re-modulators, etc.
Any information you can provide regarding when the new xmtrs will actually be on-the-air for testing would be much appreciated!

Mahalo,

--Michael
 
I was up at Ulupalakua last Monday. The installation of the new digital transmitters is underway. Antennas are on the tower, power and fiber is hooked up, so it looks promising. As far as UH is concerned, January 15th is the day that power will be cut at Haleakala. A fairly hot e-mail exchange this past week between UH and the TV engineers revealed the impatience of UH in this matter. UH wants the Analog TV shut off on January 15th for good, no if's and's or buts. UH doesn't care if digital isn't ready.
 
Thanks again for the prompt replies, Don.

If UH is so adamant, maybe that's a good thing. (in the sense that there won't be any 'foot dragging' getting the digital stuff on the air.
Cross fingers.
 
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