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Author Topic: Chicago is now post-repack  (Read 5078 times)

Scott Helmke

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Chicago is now post-repack
« on: October 21, 2019, 10:45:31 AM »

A while back I posted asking for "post repack" experiences, and now I myself have been through it.  Friday, Oct 18 was the official last day of our first phase (6), and pretty much everybody changed overnight between 17 and 18. 

However, and here's the part *you* should be looking for if your market hasn't hit the repack yet, the FCC had changed the schedule a bit during the summer. The local TV stations that were scheduled for phase 8 (January-March 2020) were rescheduled for phase 6, so it all happened at once. I'm assuming the various stations coordinated with each other to avoid conflicts.  We found out about it just in the past week by looking at rabbitears and noticing the change on those channels.  The FCC had only announced it in a changelog.

Monday morning and T-Mobile is already using one of their new blocks up at 622MHz.
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(Brian) Frost

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2019, 02:59:30 PM »

Saturdays shows were super fun trying to fit what was once easy into the now much smaller space left for us.  ugh


A while back I posted asking for "post repack" experiences, and now I myself have been through it.  Friday, Oct 18 was the official last day of our first phase (6), and pretty much everybody changed overnight between 17 and 18. 

However, and here's the part *you* should be looking for if your market hasn't hit the repack yet, the FCC had changed the schedule a bit during the summer. The local TV stations that were scheduled for phase 8 (January-March 2020) were rescheduled for phase 6, so it all happened at once. I'm assuming the various stations coordinated with each other to avoid conflicts.  We found out about it just in the past week by looking at rabbitears and noticing the change on those channels.  The FCC had only announced it in a changelog.

Monday morning and T-Mobile is already using one of their new blocks up at 622MHz.
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Ike Zimbel

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2019, 03:01:14 PM »

A while back I posted asking for "post repack" experiences, and now I myself have been through it.  Friday, Oct 18 was the official last day of our first phase (6), and pretty much everybody changed overnight between 17 and 18. 

However, and here's the part *you* should be looking for if your market hasn't hit the repack yet, the FCC had changed the schedule a bit during the summer. The local TV stations that were scheduled for phase 8 (January-March 2020) were rescheduled for phase 6, so it all happened at once. I'm assuming the various stations coordinated with each other to avoid conflicts.  We found out about it just in the past week by looking at rabbitears and noticing the change on those channels.  The FCC had only announced it in a changelog.

Monday morning and T-Mobile is already using one of their new blocks up at 622MHz.
Thanks for sharing this, Scott.
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~Ike Zimbel~
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drew gandy

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2019, 08:38:51 PM »

Saturdays shows were super fun trying to fit what was once easy into the now much smaller space left for us.  ugh

This caught a lot of people unaware.  I knew things were coming but I for one wasn't paying attention carefully.  It seems that the entire H5 band (Shure SLX) might be wiped out here in Chicago.  And G50 is now tiny. 

A friend of mine sent me this scan he did on Friday the 18th near O'hare.

Through all the changes and repacks we've had, I think this one is really going to make it sink in for folks.  We can't just show up for a show and expect all of our wireless to work. 

Also, it seems that the database that Shure Wireless Workbench uses is not working correctly.  I'm prepping for a show in the NY area and the chart I see here https://1drv.ms/x/s!AnxSGoN1JhvEnFzSvlqvn3OODyrF [A spreadsheet from RFVenue] doesn't correlate with the channels that WWB shows for the same zip code (10036).  And WWB doesn't even correlate with the pre-repack station locations.  Can someone else check this and tell me if I'm just "doing it wrong"?   

Edit:   It seems that the spreadsheet from RFVenue is old and perhaps incorrect.  It's listing for Chicago is slightly different from the chart that TCFurlong has on their blog https://tcfurlong.com/wp-content/uploads/Chicago-TV-Stations.png
Anyone know of an easy to read chart of what's available and what isn't now?  Most of what I've found is just complicated to read. 
« Last Edit: October 21, 2019, 08:49:25 PM by drew gandy »
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Scott Helmke

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2019, 11:35:35 PM »

Also, it seems that the database that Shure Wireless Workbench uses is not working correctly.  I'm prepping for a show in the NY area and the chart I see here https://1drv.ms/x/s!AnxSGoN1JhvEnFzSvlqvn3OODyrF [A spreadsheet from RFVenue] doesn't correlate with the channels that WWB shows for the same zip code (10036).  And WWB doesn't even correlate with the pre-repack station locations.  Can someone else check this and tell me if I'm just "doing it wrong"?   

No, the WWB database has been stale for a bit now, and it's definitely wrong after the repack at least here in Chicago.  We've been using the scan above to set up WWB for TV station avoidance.
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drew gandy

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2019, 09:15:04 AM »

No, the WWB database has been stale for a bit now, and it's definitely wrong after the repack at least here in Chicago.  We've been using the scan above to set up WWB for TV station avoidance.

Well I'm confused because most of what I'm looking at doesn't seem to agree... 

Compare the top portion of the image from TCFurlong with the top line of the chart from RFVenue. This would represent where we started almost 2 years ago.  So these two pieces of info don't even show the same starting point.  Difference in ZIP code? 

And then compare those to these two images from WWB.  One shows only the high power stations and the other has that check box unchecked so it shows more stations.  I don't know what to make of the data from WWB.  It only partially matches the TCFurlong doc.

BTW:
A)  The WWB images shown are for zip code 60616 just like is shown in the RFVenue document.

B)  I can't seem to get wavetower to work.

C)  When I look at rabbit ears, it appears to match the RFVenue bottom row - in other words, our current layout.  Finally some agreement! 

Scott, can you clarify where your (TCFurlong) chart came from?   
Perhaps some differences in thresholds are also at play? 

« Last Edit: October 22, 2019, 09:18:36 AM by drew gandy »
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Benjamin Krumholz

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2019, 11:31:35 AM »

Well I'm confused because most of what I'm looking at doesn't seem to agree... 
Scott, can you clarify where your (TCFurlong) chart came from?   
Perhaps some differences in thresholds are also at play?

I have been at McKormick this week on a show.. Here is a pic of a scan from a G57 Axient Unit. Scan was done on 10-19 one day after the repack.. It mostly Jives with the Wavetower scan the RF Venue put out..
« Last Edit: October 22, 2019, 01:32:18 PM by Benjamin Krumholz »
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Scott Helmke

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2019, 12:27:08 PM »

Compare the top portion of the image from TCFurlong with the top line of the chart from RFVenue. This would represent where we started almost 2 years ago.  So these two pieces of info don't even show the same starting point.  Difference in ZIP code? 

And then compare those to these two images from WWB.  One shows only the high power stations and the other has that check box unchecked so it shows more stations.  I don't know what to make of the data from WWB.  It only partially matches the TCFurlong doc.

Probably the differences are based on showing listings vs. scans, and whether or not the really low power stations can be seen. One of the other guys here put together our chart, and it shows the official listings.  But not all of those stations carry very far, and some don't even broadcast all the time.

The Wavetower software is cool but kind of flaky and still under development. No big surprise if you couldn't access our tower, though you might try again.  Friday night the website was completely down for a while.
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John Sulek

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2019, 01:09:39 PM »

Probably the differences are based on showing listings vs. scans, and whether or not the really low power stations can be seen. One of the other guys here put together our chart, and it shows the official listings.  But not all of those stations carry very far, and some don't even broadcast all the time.

The Wavetower software is cool but kind of flaky and still under development. No big surprise if you couldn't access our tower, though you might try again.  Friday night the website was completely down for a while.

Thanks for the updates everyone. Northerly Island will be even more fun then it already was rf wise.
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Bryan Jozwiak

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2019, 09:06:29 AM »

A while back I posted asking for "post repack" experiences, and now I myself have been through it.  Friday, Oct 18 was the official last day of our first phase (6), and pretty much everybody changed overnight between 17 and 18. 

However, and here's the part *you* should be looking for if your market hasn't hit the repack yet, the FCC had changed the schedule a bit during the summer. The local TV stations that were scheduled for phase 8 (January-March 2020) were rescheduled for phase 6, so it all happened at once. I'm assuming the various stations coordinated with each other to avoid conflicts.  We found out about it just in the past week by looking at rabbitears and noticing the change on those channels.  The FCC had only announced it in a changelog.

Monday morning and T-Mobile is already using one of their new blocks up at 622MHz.

Thanks for the re-schedule info. I had not realized they combined Phase and 6 and 8 for Chicago. I had expected to re-coordinate again in January.

We saw a lot of interference on Friday morning also. A quick scan with the Spectrum Manager helped overcome the WWB database inaccuracies.

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Re: Chicago is now post-repack
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2019, 09:06:29 AM »


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