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UPDATED 11/6/17
"PHASE ZERO"
FIELD REPORT
WINTER IS COMING TO THE MOUNTAIN & HIGH PLATEAU WEST AND T-MO'S PLANS FOR AN EARLY AND
AGGRESSIVE
600 MHZ ROLLOUT MAY BE SLOWED DOWN BY THE UNKNOWN KNOWNS OF UNEXPECTED INTERFERENCE
As we reported on last week, an LPTV station on the border of CO & NM was notified by T-Mo early in the summer that they had to move by Q4 2017 so that T-mo's aggressive rollout of their 600 MHz mobile services could proceed. The LPTV did its' engineering, filed for and received a temporary channel from the FCC (which they will have to reapply for in the special window in 2018), made the out of pocket costly equipment changes, and did their tower work on the 10,902 ft. San Antonio Mountain. But when they turned on their new temp channel - that is when the problems started.
"You decide that you're going to do everything the right way...and then find that everyone else is upset at you because you did what you were supposed to."
IMPACTED LPTV OWNER
from the LPTV licensee...
(a Coalition member)
"When we turned on our channel 27, we began "interfering" with their translator inputs. I did not refer to it as "interference" when I corresponded with the FCC about all of this, because it's not "traditional interference". The full powers don't want to have to find another way to feed programming to their translators. As far as the transmit side goes, our station is 100% legal and not causing any interference to anyone regardless of if we operate on channel 27 or channel 47. We are one of 3 translators/LPTV's on the mountain that are fed via microwave. All of the remaining translators are parts of off-air daisy chains... Welcome to the West!"
from the full power station...
(also, a Coalition member)
"[When the LPTV] turned on their STA channel 27 replacement for K47KC-D in Romeo CO (San Antonio Mountain). They are complying with the attached notice from T-Mobile to vacate spectrum on channel 47. When they lit up channel 27 it wiped out four translators. They are:
- K19IX-D, Romeo, CO can no longer receive full power KASA-TV on channel 27.
- K19IX-D delivers a signal to Taos K12OG-D but can no longer operate without a feed from K19IX.
- K49JW-D, Romeo, CO can no longer receive full power KOB-TV on channel 26.
- K49JW-D delivers a signal to Taos K30KX-D but can no longer operate without a feed from K49GW.
So both parties have let T-Mo know about this problem, and T-Mo has said the LPTV has until the end of the year to get it all worked out. So now the little LPTV station has to pay yet another set of fees, put back the equipment they uninstalled, and try to keep their own service going while trying to work out the problem for the full power, just as the 10,000+ ft. mountain is just starting to do its winter thing...nice.
A final quote from the LPTV station owner, you know, the guy who has to go up to 10,000 feet, and then climb the 80' tower in the cold...
"I've been thinking about all of this this evening... If we are the canary in the coal mine, and T-Mobile was willing to extend time for us, and the FCC goes along with it even though we had already notified them that we had ceased broadcasting on channel 47, doesn't allowing us to go back to channel 47 set a dangerous precedence that could tie up the repack for years? In theory, one could prevent others from repacking into oblivion..."
So readers, you have now seen the future, and it ain't so pretty. But for many of you this is merely a field report and not anything you yourself will have to deal with. Maybe you would love getting out of the office and commuting routine and go up the mountain yourself...but for LPTV operators, this is what they do, make it work, no matter how difficult Congress and the FCC make it to be in business.
LET US KNOW YOUR PHASE ZERO STORY...
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