RF Landscape in the NW

[Laurence Nefzger]

The northwest has just concluded the FCC mandated DTV transition phase. This period was to be from October 2019 to the middle of January 2020.
I have been following this transition phase carefully as it has affected a number of venues where I do live sound.

I have spent far too much time on the FCC website. I have consulted the FCC complete, presumably, list of where the stations were (before transition) and where they will move to.
My problem: I perform actual RF scans in the venues I work. What I am finding is that I am still seeing the signature of DTV stations in bands that are supposed to be now clear. And I am not seeing channel bands being utilized by DTV that are listed by the FCC to have stations dedicated to them.
My question: Does anyone have a definitive idea on what the RF landscape is supposed to look like in the 98033 zip code? The FCC site is not giving me the same picture that my RF scans are painting. Perhaps another question might be is some of the band usage I am seeing in my scans (that is supposed to be clear) a result of analog broadcast entities?

 

[Laurence Nefzger]

For those playing along at home: I was refered to a site "rabbitears.info" that under the "Tools" "Repack Tools" menu listed stations including Canadian broadcast entities. We are close enough to British Columbia that I suspect the activity I see in my scans on channel 22 can be traced to one of those. This means that for the Seattle area channels 21 through 25 (512-542MHz) have various amounts of activity on them. This puts a severe hit on some Shure and Sennheiser bands.

 

[RonHebbard]

For those playing along at home: I was refered to a site "rabbitears.info" that under the "Tools" "Repack Tools" menu listed stations including Canadian broadcast entities. We are close enough to British Columbia that I suspect the activity I see in my scans on channel 22 can be traced to one of those. This means that for the Seattle area channels 21 through 25 (512-542MHz) have various amounts of activity on them. This puts a severe hit on some Shure and Sennheiser bands.

@Laurence Nefzger Perhaps if / when Donnie builds his walls a little higher??
Toodleoo!
Ron (posting from north of Donnie's walls. ) Hebbard

 

[FMEng]

The repack for the Seattle market was completed right at the beginning of the test phase on 10/19/19, and the deadline has passed, so what you see now is what it'll stay. The new owners may have already lit up the vacated channels.

Newer, digital translators carry the same call sign as the parent station, which is why some stations are listed more than once. You are seeing the Capital Hill translator for KCPQ on channel 22. It's in addition to their channel 13 main transmitter on Gold Mt. Out of market signals should be way too weak to harm anything. Bellingham and Canadian channels should be usable.

The consumer friendly FCC pages don't show repack channels yet. A case of the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Typical of the FCC. Rabbitears is a fairly good reference now, but they were late to the party, too.

 

[Laurence Nefzger]

This is great information! I am still wondering if there is a definitive database that lists both stations and translators. Not being in the broadcast industry I have found it quite difficult to find information concerning all the uses (stations and translators) of the various channels. It has been quite the maze!

 

[FMEng]

FCC TV Query, but the search methods are limited to geo coordinates and radius, call sign, or city of license. Geo coordinates with a substantial radius are about the only way to use TVQ for mic interference.
FCC TV Query

Then you'll have to wade through applications and construction permits to find licensed facilities. Only the latter are on the air unless a CP is doing "program test" prior to being licensed.

The city of license is totally misleading and could be a burg nobody ever heard of. For example, several stations with studios and transmitters both in Seattle are licensed to Tacoma, 40 miles away, and there's a translator licensed to Maltby. This is why Rabbitears and Antennaweb are so useful.