Only FAQ 0.1. Our intrepid President relocated the website hardware and it took a while to restore our reliable microwave link to the Internet at the website's new location.
The US Congress has sold or is going to sell part of the television spectrum assigned to channels 52 through 69. As was announced in a couple of press releases early last year, TV Booster sold four channel licenses (59, 61, 65, and 67) to decrease and fund the engineering and equipment costs needed for the initial phase of the transition to digital television. Consequently, we chose to shrink the channels we translate to the core seven Los Angeles stations and KCET that we feed "B" Mountain with, and move the stations that occupied those channels to new channels that will be flash-cut to digital. We have completed work on moving KCBS to channel 33, KNBC to channel 35, KTLA to channel 39, KABC to channel 41, KCAL to channel 45, KTTV to channel 47, KCOP to channel 49, and KCET to channel 51. We have already flash-cut channels 33, 35, 39, 45, and 51 on Laurel Mountain to digital, and at "B" Mountain we convert digital channels 33.1, 35.1, 39.1, 45.1, and 51.2 to analog on channels 2, 4, 5, 9, and 14.
At 8pm on September 5, 2006 we completed the installation of our first three digital translators on channels 35, 39 and 41, and began translating KNBC-DT and KTLA-DT at full power on channels 35 and 39. The FCC has granted us eight digital companion channels for the B Mtn. translators. We can add more digital channels on Laurel Mountain as donations allow.
To view digital TV from TV Booster requires an old analog or an "HD-ready" TV, an HDTV set-top tuner, and a UHF antenna pointed at Laurel Mtn. An "HD-integrated" TV needs only the antenna. Follow the instructions for your "HD-integrated" TV or HDTV set-top tuner to scan for digital channels and it should find them easily. As we add new digital channels, it will probably be necessary to perform a re-scan to add the ability to receive them. An excellent HDTV Primer is available on-line.
Your old TV needs only a VHF/UHF combo antenna pointed at B Mtn. to continue receiving analog TV from TV Booster.
The current DTV committee plan is to continue to broadcast analog from B Mtn. for as long as the FCC will allow us to. The B Mtn. operation has been completely gone over and all translator problems have been identified and fixed (re-channeling to accept the new Laurel channels, adding additional lightning protection, fixing wind damaged transmit antennas, etc.). As Laurel Mtn. channels flash-cut to digital, the corresponding B Mtn. channel will then be further modified to convert digital to analog. When the FCC does tell us to turn them off, the plan is to move them to Laurel Mtn. to expand our digital service as donations allow.
Short answer: we need more gain from the receiving antenna.
Long answer: we are receiving these stations' ATSC signals, performing
error correction and re-equalizing the signals, and feeding them into
set-top boxes to convert them to NTSC signals suitable for analog
broadcasting.
However, ATSC signals are subject to what is known as "the cliff
effect": you either get a great picture, or you don't get anything.
A great digital picture is realized when a channel's signal-to-noise
ratio is more than 15.2 dB; less than 15.2 dB and you get nothing.
The higher the channel, the more reception will depend on having
a direct line of sight to the transmitter.
Unfortunately, Laurel Mtn. does not have a direct line of sight to
Mt. Wilson; so, TV signals from Mt. Wilson have to refract around a
couple of mountain ranges to get to Laurel Mtn., and are therefore
subject to multipath interferance and fading.
KCET-DT is broadcast from Mt. Wilson on channel 59, KCBS-DT on
channel 60, KTTV-DT on channel 65, and KCOP-DT on channel 66.
There are times when these channels' signal-to-noise ratio fades
below 15.2 dB.
What you'll see is the picture breaking up as the signal to the
set-top box fades to near 15.2 dB, and a lock-up of the last image
(or black) when the signal fades below 15.2 dB.
The only way to keep the signal-to-noise ratio above 15.2 dB is to
increase the gain of our receiving antenna.
We expect the situation to improve in the long term because these LA
stations will flash-cut to digital on their lower frequency analog
channels and abandon these problematic high-frequency UHF channels at
Midnight on February 17, 2009.
We have a beefy broadband antenna mounted in a 17-foot parabolic dish and fed to a very low-noise broadband pre-amp. This provides us with well over 20 dB signal-to-noise ratio from KTLA-DT on channel 31 and KNBC-DT on channel 36 at the lowest point in their fade. We are currently co-ordinating with the Navy to pour new foundations and move our three additional 17-foot parabolic antennas up on Laurel Mtn. to the south face to create an antenna array to provide the additional gain needed for channels 53, 59, 60, 65, and 66. We have good reason to believe that we can get and keep the low point of the fade margins well above the required 15.2 dB signal-to-noise ratio on all digital channels we plan to translate.
Yes, and we are concerned about them. K16GE has applied for displacement from channel 16 to channel 36 which, if granted, would knock out our ability to receive KNBC-DT. We are in contact with station management at KNBC and a protest may be filed with the FCC. Similarly, Kern Educational Telecommunications Consortium has recently assigned the license for channel 43 to Hispanic Christian Community Network, Inc. The translator site for channel 43 will be moved off the college campus to TV Hill in Randsburg, where it will knock out our ability to receive KCAL-DT.
The authoritative answer can be found here.
KWTD recently went on the air at 91.9 MHz from El Paso Peak at 7000-watts effective radiated power. Unfortunately, in doing so, it completely eliminated any chance of receiving KVCR-FM in Ridgecrest on 91.9 MHz ever again. Living Proof, Inc., the owner of KWTD, was also granted a construction permit for KZLU on 88.7 MHz in Inyokern that expires on April 25, 2008. FCC regulations recently changed to allow us to file for displacement of our K204AE license.
All good things come to an end eventually. The station owners of KMZT have decided to move it to the AM band and revive KKGO in it's place with a Country format. They will be multicasting in HD Radio, with KKGO Country on subchannel HD1, and the classical format on subchannel HD2. Unfortunately, the IBOC signal occupies the adjacent channels, and local station KLOA knocks out the lower adjacent channel at 104.9.
At -88 dBm at the antenna at Laurel Mt., KUSC is just too weak to be a satisfactory replacement. It took considerable time and effort to tweeze a usable KMZT signal at -67 dBm (at the antenna) out of the spectrum right next to KLOA, and we fielded a lot of complaints about signal quality until we figured out exactly how and where to stand holding the antennas. The good news here is that, although Ransburg station KGBM totally wipes out Las Vegas station KCNV at 89.7 MHz, KCNV broadcasts in HD and their IBOC signals on the adjacent channels were perfectly receivable at Laurel Mt. after assembling and tuning a phased antenna array to knock down KGBM's analog signal.
Not anytime soon. Judged purely by the FCC's IBOC implementation, HD Radio is clearly meant to be a "local only" service. The IBOC digital signals occupy the adjacent channels to the analog channel. Consequently, when you're 80 miles away from an FM station, odds are pretty good that there's another strong station located on one of the adjacent channels. That said, there are (as of this writing) a couple of stations that we have verified we can get in HD. But that could easily change at any time. We are working on designing modifications to our FM translators to pass the IBOC signal through. If we can do it, either KLOS or KCRW (KCRY) will be the first FM translator to be modified.