KNSD Now Digital Ready

DTV Update

KNSD Now Digital Ready

By Gary Stigall, CSTE

Oscar Medina, Director of Engineering at KNSD, posted on the CGC Communicator:

KNSD-DT channel 40 went on the air at 10:58 a.m. on Wednesday, December 8th. ERP is 18.2 kilowatts; transmitter is on Mt. San Miguel. Testing is in progress, but programming will be up most of the time. When we are not broadcasting in HD, we will be upconverting our standard definition channel. (The only High Definition programming available on NBC right now is "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.")

Congratulations to Bob Vaillancourt (Engineering Manager, KNSD TV/DT) and his engineering staff for a job well done.

Here are a few follow-up questions asked of Oscar:

How did it go? Any problems?

The only real issues that arose were the difficulties we ran into with the county on constructing a second tower, and the difficulty in getting the equipment we needed in a timely manner. Being an adjacent 39/40 is also an issue. We have to frequency lock the NTSC 39 transmitter to within +/- 3 Hz of its assigned visual carrier in order to avoid interference. We are using GPS to accomplish that tight requirement.

What problems with the county?

To put up a tower would have required additional environmental studies and public comment periods. We wouldn't have come close to meeting the November 1st deadline. We ended up reinforcing our existing tower to support the side-mounted DTV antenna.

So you use a GPS-derived standard frequency to drive both exciters? They're Comarks, right? Both are Thomcast (Comark). The NTSC is still waiting for a special modification called Anacad. It should arrive soon. The large difference in ERP between KNSD analog (2.5 megawatts) and KNSD digital 18 Kilowatts makes the frequency locks less necessary at this point, but as we ramp up our digital signal to higher levels it will become critical.

When do you plan to go "full-time" (non-test)?

When we aren't running tests, we continue to feed either our standard definition signal (upconverted) or HD when the network is sending down a show.

When does your CP extension expire?

May 2000

Any New Years shows?

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" will be in HD through midnight.

Any viewer reaction?

We've received a few calls from viewers that are now receiving our signal. Good information from all. We receive calls every day from potential viewers that just bought an HDTV set and are looking for information on where to point their antenna so they can receive our programming.

What is the equipment complement you would be willing to share?

We are using a combination of equipment from several manufacturers. Grass Valley, Snell & Wilcox, Adaptive Broadband, and Tiernan. For monitoring purposes we are using products from Shibasoku, Samsung, Panasonic, Harris, and RCA.