This was touched on at the RF Super session at AES last month is NY. Seems like there are a lot of STAs (special temporary authority) out there to keep everyone on their toes.
Here's just one quote from this article: “We’ve had to go with side-mount antennas and low-power transmitters—five kW—at some sites. I’m sure that we, and other broadcasters, never envisioned temporary antenna systems going on for very long, but here we are.”
I think this reinforces a point that I've made elsewhere: That we won't
really know what the post re-pack RF landscape is going to look like until at least a year after the July 2020 deadline.
Another point: The article repeatedly mentions the shortage of skilled workers, like tower crews, helicopter crews etc. as well as backlog at the relevant equipment manufacturers (Towers, antennas, transmission lines etc). What it DOESN'T mention is that the demand for all of those resources is not just being driven by TV stations meeting their re-pack obligations, it is ALSO being driven by the cellular suppliers who need to have towers built, installed and connected to their networks, all over North America.
