The great channel shuffle

I've been reading over the FCC's "final" DTV assignments, for use in the brave new post-analog world of television beginning in February 2009, which were issued earlier this month, and in Oklahoma, at least, there are few surprises. The following channels are assigned to Oklahoma City: 7, 9, 13, 15, 24, 27, 33, 40, 50 and 51. Shawnee gets channel 29, Norman channel 46. (The Norman station, KOCM, has no digital signal presently; it will begin digital broadcasts on the day of the Big Switch.)

One thing that strikes me as odd is the assignment of both channels 8 and 10 to Tulsa. KTUL, analog channel 8, currently broadcasts in digital on channel 10; I suppose they're keeping 8 open in case there is an issue with KOED, the Tulsa OETA station, which is going back to channel 11. OETA had apparently requested an increase in antenna height for KOED, which the FCC said would increase potential interference to KTUL on channel 10.

There will be no low-band VHF stations (channels 2 through 6) in Oklahoma after the transition, and very few nationwide. One reason, perhaps, is the possibility of interference caused by household electrical equipment, making reception on those channels more problematic. What's more, contemporary antennas (remember those?) tend to work better on high-band VHF (7 through 13) and UHF (14-up) channels.

The effect this will have on cable channel assignments is unclear, at least to me, but then digital reception over cable baffles me anyway. OETA runs four digital channels in the city, at 14.1, 14.2, 14.3 and 14.4; on Cox Digital Cable they're on 111, 112, 113 and 114. If you don't have digital cable, as I don't, but you do have a QAM tuner, as I do, you'll find them at 110-111, 102-112, 105-113 and 105-114. (OETA HD, which apparently is available on cable more often than it is over the air, shows up here at 106-713.) Life would be simpler, I suppose, with an actual set-top box, but I resist that sort of thing.

Posted at 8:52 AM to Overmodulation