The top of the Empire State Building has a RF mast that is already heavily loaded.
Philadelphia's WHYY has given WPIX in New York City permission to operate a temporary DTV transmitter with an ERP of 130 watts on VHF Channel 12. WPIX’s DTV will be located on the Empire State Building, where all the other NYC broadcasters have finally settled after the 9/11 disaster. The transmitter was delivered on February 20th and is currently in the process of being installed. Daytime testing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. will start March 10 with full-time operation starting March 17th.
This multi-station plan includes WNET in NYC as an intermediary between WPIX and WHYY. The goal was to restore at least a representative on-air DTV service from the stations that lost facilities at the World Trade Center. A low-power solution was needed since the Empire State Building cannot support additional full power broadcast antennas. This is an interim plan until a new master antenna site is constructed.
At such a low-power, WHYY said that interference to analog TV12 is extremely unlikely in most of WHYY’s coverage area. The only area that might pose a problem is the New Brunswick area, home of Rutgers University, which is located approximately 25 miles southwest of Manhattan. WHYY has a substantial viewing base in connection with the programming it provides in conjunction with the university. But in a spirit of cooperation the Philadelphia station said it could work out whatever interference problems that might crop up.
For more information visit www.whyy.org and http://wb11.trb.com.
