Happy Rescan Day!

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Apparently, there have been some complaints about reduced coverage from UHF channels that have been “repacked” to the VHF band. It seems that the permissible power levels should be adjusted upward for digital VHF channels.

jr

This happened with three TV stations in Cleveland -- channels 8 (FOX), 19 (CBS) and 43. I don't know where channel 8 wound up (it is probably still on RF channel 8), but the ERP transmit power of channel 19 was reduced from 3.720 megawatts to 9.5 kW. This reduces the station's coverage area almost exactly to half of its former size, with little or no reception of the station east of Cleveland in many areas unless an outdoor antenna is used. I live on the first floor of an apartment building in extreme northeastern Ohio, near Lake Erie, and cannot receive channel 19 using an indoor antenna (this is why I have cable).

One of the only parts of my area which does supposedly get channel 19's DTV signal is the region west of the Cleveland suburb of Euclid. The reception here in east-central Lake County of many local stations with an indoor (or in some cases even an outdoor) antenna, however, is either so bad as to be unusable or else the signals do not reach here at all. I often wonder why the media group which now owns channel 19 (the station was recently sold from Raycom) does not do one of two things: either put up a translator for the east lakeshore area (they already have one for the Akron area, sixty miles from here), or else move the station to a UHF DTV channel. They must know that they are losing fully half of their OTA coverage area by staying on VHF DTV channel 10. I wonder if the station's current owners (Gray Media) are just willing to accept this yawning gap in the station's coverage area or if the company has some other reason for ignoring the problem. The other TV stations in northeastern Ohio (3, 5, 25, 55, 61) switched to UHF DTV channels shortly after the transition, and are received very well in most areas, including where I live.

As I said, I wonder why channel 19, under its new ownership, is still stubbornly staying on VHF channel 10 when they know full well they have now lost at least half of their former OTA coverage area. I don't know anything about Gray Media, but I am sure they are a media group which is interested in seeing its TV stations operating at their fullest capabilities. I would think that was one reason they bought the station from Raycom when they did.