It’s been more than a month since analog TV stations went dark and depending on how your television is connected, you either didn’t notice any problems or have been living in a complete nightmare. Some viewers are still having reception problems, depending on how far they are from the broadcast towers. When the analog signals went dark last month, some stations moved their digital broadcast channel to their analog channel. Along with the move, reduction of broadcast power was also imposed.
Three stations in Louisiana moved from UHF to VHF and are working to fix the problem. This is a problem that is occurring nationally.
WVUE-DT, New Orleans
WVUE was the first to sign off their analog signal at 7AM on December 12, 2007. Weeks later, they moved from DT 29 UHF to DT 8 VHF. Even though the station reduced it’s broadcast power, the station was still able to maintain coverage because VHF signals can travel further on low power. Some still had reception problems. WVUE-DT petitioned and was granted a waver to temporary broadcast on their old digital channel as well their new digital channel as well.
“Today the FCC approved a request by Fox 8 for an experiment to help solve some of our digital transmission issues,” WVUE-DT chef engineer Louis Poche said in a forum post. “I do know the FCC field office engineers were contacting people last week who could not get the CH. 8 signal.. and they were going to their houses to do field strength measurements. I suppose that they will go recheck those measurements using ch.29 and determine that UHF is better than VHF for DTV.”
This won’t last for long as WVUE-DT is petitioning to the FCC to move their broadcast channel from DT8 to DT29 (PDF file). Hopefully, this will fix the problem as general manager Joe Cook told the Times-Picayune that viewers are “tired of hearing us talk about it.”
WAFB-DT, Baton Rouge
Much like WVUE-DT in New Orleans, WAFB is having the same problem. They too moved from their old digital channel 46 to their old analog channel 9. Along with the move, broadcast power was also reduced. According to a forum post, WAFB-DT will petition to the FCC to move back to their old digital channel 46. A FCC query reveals the station has yet to file the request.
KLFY-FT, Lafayette
Just like WAFB and WVUE, KLFY is having problems as well. Unlike WVUE and WAFB, KLFY is asking the FCC to increase its broadcast power instead of moving to a new channel. This is all according to a forum post and a FCC query reveals the station has yet to file the request.