If you own or work for an FM that’s co-located on a TV tower involved in the repack, it’s vital to be informed about upcoming tower work, according to experts Inside Towers spoke with at last week’s IEEE Broadcast Technology Symposium. You don’t want to be in a situation where a TV tower crew shows up at your door unexpectedly, they advised.
“If you’re sharing a tower with other stations that are repacking you need to be in communication with that station to find out what their schedules are,” Wallace said in an interview. You don’t want unqualified tower guys that may be working for somebody else, on your tower,” because what they’re doing may “affect your equipment.”
That’s what happened to one NPR affiliate, Inside Towers recently reported. Dennis Wallace, managing partner at engineering consulting firm Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace, predicted that will not be an isolated incident. “That’s going to be a problem,” he said. It’s already an issue, unrelated to the repack, he said, “with cell phone guys changing out equipment, [like] radio heads on towers that they share with broadcasters. For some reason that’s always been a problem and it seems to be getting worse.”
A vendor who wished to remain unnamed, who works with crews, said he’s finding “many stations don’t have a plan,” as for what equipment they’ll need and how to proceed with the repack work. The repack, he said “is a forced march.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
October 16, 2018
