KDKA’s new transmitter is in action!
April 27, 2021
KDKA-TV’s new state-of-the-art transmitter is in full-power mode after a little over a month of installation work. The 20-year-old tube style transmitter was shut down about two weeks ago. The 650 foot transmission line also underwent repair after some severe damage from passing storms. The transmitter is considered “futuristic” and, although not mentioned, likely has the ASTC 3.0 capability.
Glad to hear they are done with things as during the updating procedure, the over the air signal was marginal even here in the North Hills with an outside rotatable antenna!
I never had an issue with it when I lived in Brookline. If they’re going to possibly be upgrading to ATSC 3.0 I’m guessing they’d partner with WPXI for that since the other major network stations partnered with each other and WQED is kind-of limited on spectrum space. WINP-TV already has like six or seven subchannels and I’m not sure WPCB-TV would be interested in partnering up.
I think Buffalo is the only market I know of that all of the major network affiliates are broadcasting in ATSC 3.0. Here in Columbus you can get WCMH-TV (NBC), WSYX (Fox on 6.3), & lighthouse station WWHO (The CW). No ABC or CBS here, though WSYX has been airing both ABC & Fox since January. Sinclair appears to be doing that in a lot of markets where they have a sidecar in terms of duopolies (like in Pittsburgh before 2000) with regards to swapping out major network channels with netlet affiliations.
And for the record, no I could not get WTOV-TV over-the-air in Brookline. I’m guessing the DTV transition over a decade ago put the kibosh on that.
When I saw KDKA gets a new transmitter in the headline, I thought it was the AM 1020 station, because their sound has been better this week. They’re still cranking up loud, but the distortion they had for several years is gone now.
I wonder if the government will have to send out vouchers for converter boxes again, for the new ASTC 3?