GatesAir Ships 300th Repack Transmitter

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GatesAir shipped its 300th transmitter for the television spectrum repack. WPCB-TV, a Cornerstone Television station serving the Pittsburgh market, took delivery of its new Maxiva ULXTE-50 liquid-cooled transmitter late last week. WPCB has been repacked from Channel 50 to Channel 28, and will transmit at 31.7 kW from its new frequency beginning August 2.

To date, GatesAir has shipped 11,273 power amplifiers, which represents more than 6.4 Megawatts of transmission power.

 The company says it’s successfully met all shipping deadlines to date, thanks to careful staffing and manufacturing initiatives put into place by Vice President of Operations Bryant Burke. 

WPCB was granted a power increase for its Phase 4 repack assignment. Steve Johnson, VP Operations for Cornerstone Television, points to GatesAir’s customer support and high-efficiency solid-state technology as key deciding factors. The transition from tube to solid-state will eliminate costly tube maintenance, and provide a high-efficiency platform to offset utility costs from the station’s power increase.

Johnson also purchased a Maxiva VAXTE-6L air-cooled transmitter for WKBS-TV in the Altoona/Johnstown, PA market. WKBS, a full satellite of WPCB, will be repacked from UHF Channel 46 to low-band VHF channel 6 in Phase 6.

“GatesAir is one of the few vendors to offer reliable repack transmitters for low-band VHF, and our engineers can leverage a common user interface to remotely monitor and manage both Maxiva transmitters,” said Johnson.

June 6, 2019

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