RAYMOND, MAINE–DTVPros and GTI America recently partnered to relocate a Tulsa, Ok.-based TV station’s transmission facilities to comply with the current spectrum repack.
KWHB, a Family Broadcasting Corporation station serving Tulsa and Northeast Oklahoma, relocated to the tallest building in the CityPlex Towers office complex upon being repacked from UHF Channel 47 to Channel 16. This 60-foot skyscraper is also the longtime home of Oral Roberts University-owned KGEB-DT, an independent broadcaster repacked from UHF Channel 49 to VHF Channel 12.
Both stations hired DTVPros, a full-service buyer’s agent that specializes in RF system planning and selection processes for local TV stations, to manage the unique relocation project. The complex project required helicopter lifts to remove existing KGEB antennas, and install new Dielectric repack antennas for each broadcaster’s new channel assignment. New antenna mounts were also required to comply with modern building codes.
Working closely with GTI America, the broadcast services company in charge of installation, DTVPros coordinated services and equipment to meet each station’s repack deadline. KGEB, a Phase 0 repack station, cut over to its new VHF Channel 12 assignment on Sept. 4 while KWHB, a Phase 2 repack station, will begin broadcasting on UHF Channel 16 in April 2019. DTVPros also worked closely with Hodge Structural Engineers of Evansville, Indiana, to produce the new specially designed mounts.
“This was a very unusual project as the installation was to take place on a building in a congested metropolitan area as opposed to a remote broadcast tower,” said Jim Heard, owner of DTVPros. “Additionally, the existing mounts were no longer in code, and we were under a tight timeline to find a helicopter service for antenna removal and installation. These were all obstacles that made overall program management among the most challenging of my career, but the professionalism of my partners shined through.”
Dielectric supplied elliptically designed antennas for both stations for enhanced coverage and performance in ATSC 1.0, and in preparation for ATSC 3.0. Once live on Channel 16, KWHB will use a TFU GTH Series UHF broadband slot antenna, which offers an electrically center-fed design for superior frequency response across one or more channels. KGEB is broadcasting from its new VHF assignment with a THV Series high-band directional antenna. The complete systems for each station also included Dielectric tunable waveguide filters and HELIAX flexible transmission line from CommScope.
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