Guess what? WBNF is back on the air on CH15, coming in strong at my location, but the signal has a complete Null for all of Toronto.

Yes WBNF Buffalo is back on. As you said it appears to be nulled for Toronto. We have an UHF Yagi antenna 80 ft up aimed towards Buffalo with a 30db amp. Star Ray is still interference free on this antenna and has been since WBNF analog went off the air.

This is something you guys might be concerned with. CHCH in Hamilton has just applied to the CRTC and ICC to move back to UHF on CH15 at 132 KW aimed right at Toronto. That kind of signal will blast you guys out of existance if it gets approved.

It's not difficult for us to change frequencies since we also received temporary authority for UHF RF22 the same time we received temporary authority for RF15. The transmitter can easily be tuned up to UHF channel 30. A switchover by CHCH would be a convenient time for us to go digital ATSC with all the viewers rescanning their receivers.

My question is why would CHCH consider such a move? WBNF, Buffalo is now back on RF15 greatly limiting CHCH's potential coverage in southern Ontario and western New York state. CHCH RF15 would also have coverage problems east of Toronto towards Oshawa. There is the possibility of CHCH's application being held up by the FCC in a similiar manner as WBNF's application was held up by Industry Canada. WBNF-CD Grand Island, New York is a Class A station with interference protection rights.

Based on WBNF's present coverage, RF15 is barely workable for a low power station in Toronto much less for a regional so called "Super-station." A much better solution is simply up the power on VHF RF11.

I'm thinking that the powers that be at CHCH are not aware of another CH15 broadcasting from Grand Island. The FCC will never approve this. TCT the owners of WBNF will also oppose this application. They should have used UHF 35 when CITS abandoned it. The antenna is already on CHCH's tower.

UHF channel 35 has already been applied for a CKVR Barrie translator in Hamilton. CHCH applying for UHF channel 15 is laughable when you consider that they are doing this to improve their reception.

CHCH's present coverage map on TVfool ( http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 26type%3dD ) almost completely overlaps the TVfool coverage map for WBNF-CD UHF channel 15 ( http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 26type%3dD ). In addition there is WEWS Cleveland, Ohio operating on RF15 at 1000 kW.

By contrast the nearest channel 11 stations according to the FCC database are WBRE RF11 Wilkes-barre, Pennsylvania at 30 kW and WPCW RF11 Jeannette, PA at 30 kW.

I can't resist the pun, the management of CHCH TV are definitely TVfools!

There are some people that think just because UHF channel 15 is an allocated frequency to Hamilton that WBNF-CD will have to shut down RF15 at Grand Island, New York. This is not true, WBNF as a Class A station absolutely has interference protection rights. The present digital ATSC license WBNF is operating under accorded protection in Canada to the existing RF15 channel in Hamilton at the time of the application. This existing RF15 channel was the now defunct CKXT-DT (SunTV) operating at 8.6 kW. WBNF analog was on the air before CKXT-DT and originally CKXT-DT had to protect WBNF-CA analog from interference in the United States. In practice however both these two stations constantly interfered with each other.

There is no way CHCH can put 132 kW on UHF channel 15 at Stoney Creek, Ontario and not interfere in the United States with WBNF and adjacent channel WUTV RF14 also at Grand Island, NY. Therefore CHCH's channel 15 application will be deemed by the FCC as unacceptable.

For referenced documents on the above please go to:
http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/amfmrule.html
Radio and Television Broadcast Rules 47 CFR Part 73

I did this post on CHCH's website quoting Jan's above post and I received a reply from CHCH:


Jan, what is your response to this and the CRTC's recent approval of CHCH's move to UHF 15?

What do I think of this? UHF channel 15 is a very noisy frequency. We got to use channel 15 because Industry Canada considered it a "junker" frequency. CHCH is actually degrading their signal by going to UHF 15.

As predicted, CHCH's UHF channel 15 application has not been accepted by the FCC. A CHCH channel 15 interferes on US soil with WBNF channel 15 and WUTV channel 14 at Grand Island New York. A search of the FCC database shows no application nor file number for CHCH UHF 15 but does show an award of a Class A license for WBNF channel 15 at 15KW dated January 12, 2012. I repeat, WBNF is NOT moving off channel 15, they now have a full license! TCT the owners of WBNF have stated they object to CHCH's application and that the FCC will never approve it. Both US stations have "protected" status. By comparison, CHCJ-DT channel 35 Hamilton (recently awarded to CTV for a CHVR translator) shows up in the FCC database as "granted."

As far as the FCC approving 493,000 watts on UHF RF 15 at Hamilton, by granting WBNF's and WUTV's applications the FCC has limited RF 15 at Hamilton to Sun TV's former power and height of 9100 watts and 150 meters. There is no new interference on VHF channel 11, I don't buy CHCH's argument that 6100 watts is all that Industry Canada and the FCC will allow.

As I stated before, we also received temporary authority for UHF RF22 the same time we received temporary authority for RF15. At the time we did not use UHF 22 due to objectionable interference from UHF 23 analog, Buffalo. Since then channel 23 has moved to Batavia with much lower power. Now UHF 22 is a much cleaner frequency than 15. We haven't decided when we are going to switch or whether we will come back in analog or digital.

The CRTC has been sitting on our second application since June 2004 and now they're giving away our long time frequency for which we received two broadcasting certificates from Industry Canada. CHCH has how many transmitters for their amateurish channel and we're not even allowed to have one? Three words describe the CRTC: corruption, corruption, corruption.

Hijacking our viewers and interfering with US channels won't help CHCH much. They aptly named their company: Channel Zero. That's because they ARE a zero!

Curious, so what's the true story. CHCH says they are approved for ch-15 by the FCC 2 posts above, and you are saying their application is rejected by the FCC. Which is correct?? I can't find anything.