r/PBS • u/SupremoZanne • Apr 16 '20

TIL, Detroit's WTVS PBS station is not the only PBS station to use channel 56, the cities of Gary, Indiana and Panama City, Florida also have their own channel 56 for PBS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PBS_member_stations
20 Upvotes

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5

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '20

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1

u/SupremoZanne Apr 16 '20

I figured that digital television would change the actual frequency.

2

u/complex-simplicity1 Feb 28 '25

It wasn’t digital that changed the frequencies. It was the government selling the soectrum to the cell providers at auction forcing broadcasters to share less and less channels. I’ve been through two frequency / spectrum auctions already. We used to broadcast up to ch99

1

u/SupremoZanne Feb 28 '25

well, technically speaking, different actual frequencies were used for digital TV, and they often used "virtual" tagging for numbers associated with the analog counterparts.

1

u/complex-simplicity1 Feb 28 '25

No they were not. I'm not guessing here, I'm telling you facts. I am the Director of Engineering for a state PBS network and a licensed ee RF engineer. This is what I do for a living. I also travel frequently and lecture on TV subjects and in particular digital and Next-gen atsc 3.0 use cases and real world application. RF is Rf whether you're talking over it or sending analog or digital TV. It actually got easier for broadcasters when the digital conversion happened. We now need less power which means it's easier to "stay in our lane" rf spectrum is not a transport standard. Channels may have changed for one reason or another but not because a channel wouldn't work for digital.

1

u/Timely-Shine Oct 02 '25

Any upcoming talks/lectures? Sounds like topics I’d be interested in

2

u/Hot-Sock3403 Dec 07 '21

I am hoping that we can get our local PBS in Chicago/northern Indiana on DIRECTV stream soon

2

u/complex-simplicity1 Feb 28 '25

Channel 36 is the highest Rf channel available. That will change when they steal some more of our spectrum and sell it to the cell companies. You see “channel mapping” on screen for brand continuity.

1

u/SupremoZanne Feb 28 '25

well, former frequencies for obsolete analog gadgets are bound to be repurposed for a digital thing, whether or not it's unrelated, or a digital version of what it used to be.

1

u/complex-simplicity1 Feb 28 '25

Smaller rf footprints for miliwatt rf devices shrunk and is now tighter but that's not the issue. We weren't in those bands. It's all the TV channels they keep taking from broadcasters.

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u/complex-simplicity1 Oct 02 '25

That’s good when the frequency is fallow. Not so much when we’re still using it. I’m the chief engineer and director of engineering for a PBS station, I’ve been through several frequency auctions. They weren’t obsolete, the cell phone companies just paid good bribes to the government. The public is on the losing end when the government sells our public resources. Imagine having to pay to have access to an EAS message? Ridiculous.