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Arizona TV Station Update - September 2017

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

Programming Changes

  • KPPX-TV 51.x (31) Tolleson (America 51, LP) will be dropping its Airbox programming on October 31.
  • KHMP-LD 18.x Las Vegas NV (DNV Spectrum Holdings LLC) has debuted Streetz TV on channel 18.5. Streetz TV features hip hop music and videos.
  • KEGS-LD 30.x (24) Las Vegas NV (Mako Communications LLC) is missing Majestad TV programming on channel 30.1.
  • KNBX-CD 31.x (14) Las Vegas NV (Mako Communications LLC) has seen the return of HOT TV on channel 31.4 after a long hiatus due to equipment failure.

Transactions

  • KMOH 6.x (19) Kingman and KEJR-LD 40.x Phoenix (Hero Licenseco LLC) have been granted a pro forma transfer of control due to an upstream change in ownership structure, with the holding company switching from a corporation to a limited liability company.
  • Mako Communications LLC has agreed to sell all of its television stations to HC2 LPTV Holdings Inc. The agreement includes the following stations:
    • KTVP-LD 22.x Phoenix
    • K18JL-D 25.x Phoenix
    • KVPX-LD 28.x Las Vegas NV
    • KEGS-LD 30.x (24) Las Vegas NV
    • KNBX-CD 31.x (14) Las Vegas NV
  • K21CX-D Tucson (Ventana Television Inc.) has received FCC approval to be sold to Liberty Interactive Corporation, along with other HSN properties.
  • K16DS-D and K27MQ-D 8.x St. George UT (West American Finance Corporation) have been given permission by the FCC to be sold to TV-49, Inc., a subsidiary of Weigel Broadcasting, with their parent station, KCSG Cedar City UT.

Construction Permits and Special Temporary Authorizations Granted

  • K42IQ-D Flagstaff (The Edge Spectrum, Inc.) was granted Special Temporary Authorization to operate on channel 33 until it could request a permanent displacement channel in the LPTV filing window, due to displacement by T-Mobile's intent to begin 600 MHz service in the frequencies occupied by K42IQ-D, starting October 31. The station has been assigned new call sign K33NU-D. Technical specifications: Ch 33; TL 35° 14' 28" N, 111° 36' 38" W (Mt. Elden); ERP 0.1 kW directional; HAAT 103 m.
  • KMCC Laughlin NV (Cranston Acquisition LLC) applied for and has been granted permission by the FCC to move its Henderson transmission site from the current location to a nearby tower. Site 2 (Henderson) technical specifications: Ch 32; TL 35° 56' 46" N, 115° 2' 37" W (Black Mtn. Arden Site); ERP 4.4 kW directional; HAAT 557 m.
  • K40JM-D Kanab UT (Western Kane County Special Service District #1) has been granted Special Temporary Authorization to operate on channel 33 until it can request a permanent displacement channel in the LPTV filing window. The station is displaced by T-Mobile's intent to begin 600 MHz service in the frequencies occupied by K40JM-D, starting November 30. Its new call sign will be K33NT-D. Technical specifications: Ch 33; TL 37° 3' 35" N, 112° 31' 12" W (Kanab Peak); ERP 0.063 kW directional; HAAT 94 m.

Construction Permits and Special Temporary Authorizations Requested

  • K42IQ-D Flagstaff (The Edge Spectrum, Inc.) has amended its Special Temporary Authorization request to specify channel 21 instead of channel 33, after being contacted by a group coordinating frequencies among Arizona translators and LPTV stations. Based upon maximizing the available channels and causing the least amount of interference to translator inputs, the group requested that K42IQ change from channel 33 to channel 21. The station's owners, believing it in the public interest to cooperate, request the channel change with a power increase. Technical specifications: Ch 21; TL 35° 14' 28" N, 111° 36' 38" W (Mt. Elden); ERP 1 kW directional; HAAT 103 m.
  • KJPO-LD 49.x Parker (Iglesia Manmin Toda la Creación USA, Inc.) has requested Special Temporary Authorization to operate on channel 25 until it can request a permanent displacement channel in the LPTV filing window. The station is displaced by T-Mobile's intent to begin 600 MHz service in the frequencies occupied by KJPO-LD, starting soon. In the spirit of never letting a good crisis go to waste, the licensee is attempting to move 24.2 miles closer to Phoenix, to a site that actually has a registered tower, and is requesting to change its community of license from Parker to Tonopah. If approved, the station would be within 30 miles of the White Tank Mtn. antenna cluster. Technical specifications: Ch 25; TL 33° 31' 55" N, 113° 6' 32" W (Burnt Mtn.); ERP 15 kW non-directional; HAAT 118 m.
  • K43FO-D Las Vegas NV (Three Angels Broadcasting Network Inc.) has requested a Silent STA. A repaired amplifier was damaged in shipment and the station is awaiting disbursement of repack funds so that they can rebuild it.
  • K36NE-D Las Vegas NV (Three Angels Broadcasting Network Inc.), the post-repack station for K43FO-D, has applied to maximize facilities and move from tower 4 to tower 11 in the same complex, adding 2.3 kW to the signal and about 155' in elevation to the center of radiation. Technical specifications: Ch 36; TL 36° 0' 24" N, 115° 0' 27" W (Black Mtn. main site); ERP 15 kW directional; HAAT 334 m.

Spectrum Repack

  • KPPX-TV 51.x (31) Tolleson (America 51, LP) has filed a major change request to continue operations on channel 31 instead of moving to channel 14, which was its spectrum repack channel assignment. The station cited numerous examples of problems with full-power channel 14 stations interfering with protected Land Mobile operations in the adjacent 460-470 MHz band.
  • KWBA-TV 58.x (44) Sierra Vista (Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC) has reported completing its radio frequency and structural tower studies prior to commencing building post-repack facilities.
  • K43FO-D Las Vegas NV (Three Angels Broadcasting Network Inc.) has reported that it does not require radio frequency studies prior to building post-repack facilities, but will need to do structural tower studies.

Comments

1. On Wednesday, October 11 2017, 00:33 by dhett

Mexico's IFT-6 Auction has come and gone, and of the 148 allocations, only 32 received qualified bids. The other 116 allocations will be abandoned. Up here on the border, only one allocation is getting a station: Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, across the border from El Paso TX. Neither of the two allocations on the Arizona border - Mexicali/San Luis Rio Colorado or Agua Prieta/Cananea - received bids, so RF channel 16 in Mexicali and RF channel 15 in Agua Prieta are no longer planned for use at this time.

2. On Wednesday, October 18 2017, 02:41 by dhett

T-Mobile has given 600 MHz LPTV stations in Partial Economic Area 180 (PEA-180, consisting of Coconino and Yavapai Counties) a brief reprieve. The wireless carrier has notified stations that it will commence testing in its 600 MHz (Band 71) spectrum on December 1, not October 31, as originally planned. So far, LPTV stations on channels 38, 40, 42, 49 and 50 have posted interference notices from T-Mobile, requiring them to find new channels.

Funny thing is, T-Mobile didn't buy channel 38 spectrum (614 MHz - 620 MHz) anywhere in Arizona, and the downlink side of Block B spectrum that T-Mobile did buy begins at 622 MHz, leaving a 2-MHz buffer. No channel 38 station should interfere with T-Mobile's operations in Arizona.

Another oddity: the channel 49 station's stated transmitter location is in Bouse, Arizona, over 60 miles outside of Yavapai County, yet the station was told that it would interfere with the wireless carrier's operations in PEA-180. For the record, Bouse (on the way from Phoenix to Lake Havasu) is located in La Paz County, which, along with Yuma County and Imperial County, California, make up PEA-157. OK, this could be just a typo, as the channel 49 spectrum (680 MHz - 686 MHz) falls in the uplink side of both the Block D and Block E spectrum, which T-Mobile did buy in Arizona.

Still, T-Mobile is looking quite cavalier in issuing early turnoff notices to LPTV stations, putting unnecessary pressure on both the LPTV stations, who are scrambling to find new spectrum on four months' notice, and the FCC, who has to accommodate these requests before they have had a chance to roll out the LPTV spectrum filing period.

3. On Wednesday, October 18 2017, 09:41 by dhett

My previous comment got a response worth sharing:

"...the 2 MHz buffer is not enough. The protections for interference between TV and LTE call for a gap of at least 5 MHz before TV and LTE are no longer considered to be "adjacent". So if they hold B block, then channel 38 could be a cause of interference into T-Mobile operations.

"To the second, don't forget that you're talking about a TV transmitter (at the top of a tower) into the receiver of a cell site (also at the top of a tower). Because both the transmit and receive are at a decent height, and not just one or the other, the signal is likely to cause interference at a much greater distance. With the KJPO-LD site theoretically being on top of a mountain (notwithstanding that it may not be operating at all), that just makes the signal travel even further.

"The last overall point I would make is that a signal does not have to be receivable on a receiver to cause interference, and that interference is calculated at F(50,10), which is a statistical measure meaning 50% of locations, 10% of the time. So if you were to go out in the field and measure, at any given time, there may not be a signal level high enough to cause interference, but theoretically, if you stood there measuring over a long period of time, at least 10% of that time would record a signal high enough to cause interference due to atmospheric variation."