Not necessarily. AFAIK, there is only one antenna on WKBWs' tower at present. That should change next year from what I have read.

if they're going to be a subchannel on 38, then why bother running their own transmitter in the first place???

One reason would be to be able to broadcast in HD yet still have the coverage area (in all direction, not just to the north) of a full power staion.

Although not serving Toronto, an example of this is after the shutdown in Wattertown/Carthage WWNY will be broadcast on 7.1 in HD and WNYF will be broadcast on 7.2 in SD (to increase their coverage area). WNYF also plans to broadcast at 15kW (the maximum for a LPTV station) on 35.1 (WWNY's transitional digital allocation) in HD.

The FCC approves digital coverage on the basis of replicating existing analog coverage. WNGS doesn't have the coverage on channel 67 that WKBW has on channel 7 analog, so there is no reason to assume that WNGS in digital on channel 7 will be authorized with sufficient power to reach the Toronto area. In addition, CKCO Kitchener has a transitional allocation on channel 7 that must be protected.

Does anyone know if the following 4 DTV channels have plans or are required to increase their transmitting power (e.g., when the August 31, 2011 DTV switchover takes place)?

City (53)
Omni-1 (64)
Global (65)
Sun-TV (66)

I'm asking because these are my "problem stations" - I have difficulty getting good reception of these channels CM4221+preamp pointed between Toronto and Buffalo (I'm in Oakville).

No one really knows at this time as plans for these stations change all the time. What you may care more about is the Feb/09 US NTSC cutoff, which is going to eliminate a lot of background noise and may help some people with reception.

Does anyone know if the following 4 DTV channels have plans or are required to increase their transmitting power (e.g., when the August 31, 2011 DTV switchover takes place)?

City (53)
Omni-1 (64)
Global (65)
Sun-TV (66)


Possibly. In any case, they'll all be moving (probably but not necessarily to their current analog channels) since they're above channel 51.

AFAIK, Industry canada has yet to publicly release the post-2011 DTV plan.

Does anyone know if the following 4 DTV channels have plans or are required to increase their transmitting power (e.g., when the August 31, 2011 DTV switchover takes place)?

City (53)
Omni-1 (64)
Global (65)
Sun-TV (66)
Although industry Canada hasn't officially announced a post-2011 plan, I expect them to follow the US lockstep, and allocate the 700 mhz identically to the FCC's post-2009 plan (but 2 and 1/2 years later). This would better allow cellphone roaming between the US and Canada, and would allow economies of scale, because Canadians could purchase the same model phones manufactured for the USA.

With that in mind, nobody is going to sink serious money into transmitter gear for channels that will stop broadcasting soon. As of Feb 17, 2009, almost half of American channels currently in use will be vacated with the analogue shutdown; ditto for Canada on Aug 31, 2011. Then Industry Canada can talk with the FCC about border issues, and try to slot CITY and SUN in somewhere. Once these stations are allocated permanent channels, they can invest in half-decent transmitters. Global will PROBABLY switch its analogue channel 41 transmitter to digital, and ditto for Rogers with OMNI1 going to 47. New channels will have to be allocated for CITY and SUN.

The frequency range will be cut down somewhat as well. Kiss channels 52..69 goodbye, and almost nobody wants channels 2..6 for digital. One advantage of digital is that you CAN have adjacent channels in the same market. Note your example of channels 64, 65, and 66 BROADCASTING OFF THE SAME ANTENNA. A similar stunt with analogue NTSC TV would result in 3 unwatchable channels.

I'm asking because these are my "problem stations" -
I have difficulty getting good reception of these channels CM4221+preamp pointed between Toronto and Buffalo
For the time being, you need either a rotator, or a second antenna plus an A-B switch.

Then Industry Canada can talk with the FCC about border issues,

IC already has a post-transition plan, but they won't publicize it until after they've finished negociating with the FCC.

In any case, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a spot for CITY and SUNTV, since CH and CFTO will probably revert to their VHF-Hi posotions 11 and 9, and SRC will only need one UHF position.
That's all local reallocations, before needing to be creative with transborder changes in allocation like 8 (ex-Rochester) or 17.

I've heard some talk that VHF-Lo stations 5 and 6 are not as bad as people had feared, so there could be activity there, too.

TVl

the easiest solution is to buy a second antenna exactly the same, combine them together and you can widen your coverage. Probably pick up the hamilton stations as well as the TO stations you have problems with.

The short answer on power increase is NO.

Feb. 17, 09 reception WILL get better when we lose the US analogs, how much is anybodys guess.

Aug. 31, 11, reception will get better again when we lose the canadian analogs. Like everybody else said, stay tuned for channel re-assignments.
(personal opinion on who uses what channel, who cares!! It doesn't matter!! Press a button on the remote to rescan.)

Thanks for the informative replies. :) So things should get a little better at each stage (U.S. switchover, Cdn switchover, 700mhz auction and channel reassignments).

Did Omni/Global/SunTV request these high channel assignments, or did the CRTC unilaterally assign them? They must have known that the 700mhz spectrum will likely be auctioned off and they would be forced to move their channel (which presumably will result in additional costs). Were there no other channels open to them at the time they started DTV transmission? Is the antenna equipment/transmission costs cheaper for chs 64-66?

Back to my situation, it sounds like I need to tweak my antenna setup so I can get the low power Toronto channels.

I have read the posts re: antenna combiner vs. rotor vs. A-B switch and none seems to be the perfect solution. I'll probably buy another CM4221 and try both the combiner and A-B switch setups.

Thanks again!!

Todd

^
I believe those numbers were chosen because 1) they're close together - as someone said, they're combined on one antenna (I don't know if this is true or not, I'm not the antenna tech guy :p) - so that would save costs. Also, they are only temporary stations - after the digital cutoff, they will use their existing analogue transmitters which are within the "to keep" range. (Sun will probably be relocated if 52 is cut)

Did Omni/Global/SunTV request these high channel assignments, or did the CRTC unilaterally assign them? They must have known that the 700mhz spectrum will likely be auctioned off and they would be forced to move their channel (which presumably will result in additional costs). Were there no other channels open to them at the time they started DTV transmission?
Most likely your last guess. Canada was late to the DTV party, and most of the channels in the 7..51 range were already taken. It's especially crowded during the transition, when most stations have 2 duplicate channels. Let's see what's spoken for in the GTA...

Channel 7 WKBW (analogue)
Channel 8 WROC (analogue Rochester)
Channel 9 CFTO (analogue)
Channel 10 WHEC (analogue Rochester)
Channel 11 CHCH (analogue)
Channel 13 WHAM (analogue Rochester)
Channel 14 WUTV (digital)
Channel 15 CKXT (analogue)
Channel 16 WXXI (digital Rochester)
Channel 17 WNED (analogue)
Channel 18 CHCH (digital)
Channel 19 TVO (analogue)
Channel 20 CBLT (digital)
Channel 21 WXXI (analogue Rochester)
Channel 23 WNLO (analogue)
Channel 24 CBLFT (digital)
Channel 25 CBLFT (analogue)
Channel 26 WNYB (analogue)
Channel 27 WNYB (digital)
Channel 28 WUHF (digital Rochester)
Channel 29 WUTV (analogue)
Channel 31 WUHF (digital Rochester)
Channel 32 WNLO (digital)
Channel 33 WGRZ (digital)
Channel 34 WNYO (digital)
Channel 35 CITS (digital)
Channel 36 CITS (analogue)
Channel 37 reserved for radioastronomy
Channel 38 WKBW (digital)
Channel 39 WIVB (digital)
Channel 40 CFTO (digital)
Channel 41 CIII (analogue)
Channel 43 WNED (digital)
Channel 44 CJMT (digital)
Channel 45 WROC (digital Rochester)
Channel 47 CFMT (analogue)
Channel 49 WNYO (analogue)
Channel 51 WPXJ (analogue)

What am I missing? 12, 22, 30, 42, 46, 48, and 50. There may be other stations I'm not aware of on those channels.

Wow, thanks, I had never sat back and looked at the GTA's digital and analogue channel assignments as a whole. It's a little crowded, eh? ;)

The open channels that you identified (12, 22, 30, etc.) all seem to be next to at least one analogue channel (e.g., open channel 30 is next to WUTV analogue 29), so I'm guessing that these open channels weren't an option for Global/Omni/SunTV since they would likely be subject to some adjacent-channel interference????

Thanks recneps77 and Walter.

I've relocated a discussion here, so for some of you who haven't read through this thread already, I highly recommend it. :)

The open channels that you identified (12, 22, 30, etc.)

None of these are open. 22 is Oshawa, 12 is Peterborough, and I think that 30 is digital in Rochester. 46 and 48 are adjacent to high power 47, and could only be used if the digital station is using at least one tenth the power of 47.

Channel assignment planning is more complicated than this discussion suggests. The basic rule in NTSC analog is 150 miles separation for a co-channel station and 75 miles separation for an adjacent channel station. If you want to see what channels can be used in Toronto you have to look about 150 miles in all directions. Digital transmission generally eliminates the need to protect (avoid harmful interference) for adjacent channels. If you want to know what channels affect Toronto, you need to look at Fort Erie, Hamilton, Paris, London, Kitchener, Barrie, Orillia, Peterborough, Deseronto, Kingston, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Erie, and a few smaller markets inside the 150 mile circle. Directional antennas, Effective Radiated Power (ERP) and antenna height above mean sea level may allow use of channels at closer spacings. Coverage requirements are also a consideration, interference may be tolerated in a geographic area if the same programming is available from a different transmitter in the area where interference would occur. For example, TVO and SRC have identical programming on multiple transmitters in Ontario so interference in an area might be tolerated if an alternate transmitter was receivable without interference.

Industry Canada and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission work together on all frequency assignments within 150 miles of the border (coordination zone) to avoid interference problems. The DTV transition plans for both countries would have been coordinated to prevent problems. The coordination exercise applies to existing and unused channel assignments so in some cases U.S. stations are required to use directional antenna patterns even if no Canadian channel is actually operating on the same channel within the coordination zone.

The use of channels 64, 65 and 66 came about as a result of severe spectrum congestion in the Toronto area due to the high number of television stations in the local and adjacent Canadian and U.S. markets. Each existing station and unused allocation required a DTV transition channel. The channel 64, 65 and 66 transition stations are low power to avoid interference with U.S. land mobile in the 700 MHz band, among other reasons.

The FCC has determined the final U.S. channel plan for full power DTV stations and is accepting applications for coverage maximization (higher power) and other changes. The next step will be channel allocations for low power stations. IC will develop its final DTV plan for Canada and horse trade with the FCC to get specific channels and parameters in exchange for giving the FCC things it wants for maximization, low power stations and other frequency considerations completely unrelated to DTV broadcasting. Frequency coordination goes on along the whole length of the border so Vancouver might get a desired channel assignment while Alberta gives up something it doesn't really need.

If you have the time, you could add a couple of extra columns to W. Dnes list for the cochannel stations. Just to give you an idea of the amended list, on analog, channel 7 is used in Watertown and Midland, 8 is CKNX Wingham, 9 is in Syracuse, 10 is London, 11 is Kingston, 12 is Peterborough and Erie, 13 is CKCO Kitchener, etc. On DTV, 7 is a transitional assignment for CKCO and 10 is transitional for CKVR Barrie. Remember to look for TVO and SRC rebroadcast transmitters, and CFTO has a UHF repeater in Orillia.

If there was any haze or fog in the air that would adversely affect signal reception.

Snow and rain don't cause the attenuation issues that fog/mist/haze do.

That will change come next February when some of the current US DTV channels migrate back to their respective analog channels. That is if a station broadcasts analog on, say, channel 4 (VHF) and digital on channel 25 (UHF), come February 2009 their digital signal will migrate back to channel 4 and replace the analog signal.

The downside is current OTA watchers using a UHF-only antenna (like a CM 4221) will have to get something that'll work for VHF as well.

The upside is VHF is not affected by atmospheric conditions to the extent that UHF is.

I'd like to know more about this Mr Weather. Are you saying that owners of the 4221 will lose some of their current US HDTV channels? If so, what is the solution?

I thought that channels were staying where they were, and part of the whole DTV move was to repurpose the VHF band for something else. I don't believe that channels will be moving back down to their VHF equivalent.

However, more UHF analog will be shutting down which would reduce the interference in that band.

I'm no expert, but your comment threw me. Can anyone confirm or deny my assumption?

Pete

While this true in some cities (like Rochester for example), this is not happening in Buffalo.

Next February, the analog signals on 2,4,7,17,23,26,29,49,51, and 67 will cease. The existing digital signals will stay as, while 2 new ones will be added - WPXJ (analog 51) will move to digital 23 and RTN (analog 67 and also digital 7.2) will move to digital 7.

So RTN will revert to VHF, but I've notice my 4221 picks up analog 7 pretty well.