I recieved the following e-mail earlier today from the general manager over at CHEX in regards to their time frame of launching their digital station on 34 and 48. Here is the response I recieved...

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Hello :

Your message to our viewermail account was forwarded to me for response.

High definition "over the air broadcasting" is still in its' infancy in Canada, although all the main networks have HD signals available on satellite and cable services and there are some over the air signals available in major markets like Toronto. We expect it will be 3 - 4 years before CHEX Television is providing an over the air signal in high definition. Our technical gurus tell me the PTH HDTV channel is 34 for Peterborough and 48 for our Oshawa based station.

Thanks for contacting CHEX Television.

Yours truly,
Ron Johnston
General Manager
CHEX Television
743 Monaghan Road
Peterborough, Ontario
K9J 5K2
705-742-0451 x292
fax: 705-748-0092
[email protected]

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As one can see, it appears as if they will be ready between 08/09. I have sent the general manager a followup message asking about the potential conflict CHEX-DT will have with WNYO (even though WNYO will have a directional antenna facing the South West), as I would like to potentially be able to recieve both WNYO 49 and CHEX.

...and thus why it makes no sense for WNYO in Buffalo to be forced onto 34 when 49 is free and clear.

Which is basically what I inquired about in my followup e-mail... details to follow upon response...

Now, I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination...but is there something in Operation on 48 or 50 perhaps on Digital?

I know that ideally they like to have space between the channels (at least in the analogue world) because of co-channel interference and other sorts of little quirks and quarks ...

In the digital world..would this cause a break-up/pixelization of the signal and lead to more problems?

That would be my only guess as to why they couldn't stay on 49. Once again, just a guess....it may have nothing to do with CHEX-DT at all. But perhaps a station in the US close to them broadcasting on either 48 or 50 in digital?

EDIT:
I did some digging around...and on Channel 50, WYDC has applied for a DT license, currently (WYDC-TV on Analogue is on Ch48 @ 12kW, with a construction permit to bring that up to 163kW).

But their DT license power makes their analogue signal power look like a picnic - (Ch50 - WYDC-DT @ currently 0.45kW, moving to 600kW as they have an application for a construction permit on their DT signal).

Looking at the service maps, it could be possible that there would be interference from 49 into 50. Hence maybe why the FCC denied their stay on 49. FWIW, WYDC is a Fox/UPN Affiliate serving Corning, NY, the 171st DMA in the US. I'm more than likely to believe that this is the cause of them having to stay on 49. While it doesn't bode well for us Canadians, its probably going to be a fact of life unfortunately, unless there's something we can do about it? :)

This message was edited by nitzguy on 08/24/05 03:20 ET.

Spacing isn't really a problem with 8VSB - around here UPN comes in on 32 while NBC is on 33; ABC is on 38 while CBS is on 39 and CTV is on 40.

Even mixing stations doesn't seem to be a problem... there's a 24 digital and 25 analog, plus 40 digital and 41 analog, all being broadcast from the CN Tower.

I like how in the WNYO application that got denied for them to air on 49 and as result, their reapplication to air on the same station as CHEX-DT says specifically that there is a conflict with an Industry Canada DTV station...