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Satellite Cable Dish or Antenna

My first draft of this week’s column went off into cyber space never to return. While reaching for my coffee, I accidentally hit ctrl and something else and off it went, hurtling at 1.6 million miles per hour through the universe. I tried hitting that little circular blue arrow, but ... no go ... then I tried the search thingie, but my search came up as empty as OJ’s search for the “real killers.” I had already saved it, but that window that says something like “you have made changes to the text, do you want to save the changes before closing?” didn’t appear when I hit ctrl. It was a great article, but now you’ll just have to settle for a semi-ok facsimile. Sorry ‘bout that.

This story is about choices, something like what Shakespeare (or someone else) said when he coined “TB or not TB, that is congestion.” Clear choice of TB or not TB. Another choice is Chevy or Ford, and yet another is paper or plastic. Banana bread with or without chopped walnuts. Snail mail or e-mail. You get the picture. Choices are something we live and die with daily. Seat belt or no seat belt.

One of the choices we have in Valley County is Dish Net, Direct TV or Translator TV. There are over 5100 translator and LPTV stations in the United States (with Utah claiming (800 +) and near the coastal regions east and west. Montana has 330 LPTV (Low Power TV) and translator stations.

The translator system is generally classed as “free TV,” but that’s not always the case. Valley County has an assessment of $30 per “inhabitable house,” which shows up on your property tax statement. Hinsdale homeowners are assessed $20 per house. Every body pays, but not everybody uses the translator’s services. Both Hinsdale and Glasgow have about 20 available channels of TV, which includes the local stations like KRTV, KFBB,(Great Falls) KUMV (Williston) METV (Memorable Entertainment) the CW, FOX as well as WGN, PBJ, the Family channel, Retro TV, PBS, PBS World, PBS CreateTV, Heartland, Rev’n and of course, the legislative channel. Pretty good line-up for 20 bucks a year as opposed to 150 channels on Dish or Direct for 50 bucks or so a month and you only watch maybe eight of those channels!

But herein lies the rub ... there’s always a rub when government is in the mix. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission), watch dog over the United States-owned airways, has capitulated to big business and their deep pockets and are holding auctions to sell off some of the band width licensed to translator systems across the country. See, it seems that companies like Verizon, T-Mobile and other cell phone providers need extra room for their phones.

OK, yeah I see you there in the back row with your hand up. I suppose you want an explanation about band width, spectrum and other stuff. You’re in luck.

I recently traveled to Spokane to attend the yearly convention of members of the National Translator Association, all 150 strong from all over the country. I was the fish-out-of-water-guy but I did pick some brains and found out this: Spectrum, band gard, bandwidth are terms used to describe how your channels get from the sender into your TV without getting interference from another sender. It was ‘splained to me like this. Imagine 10 super highways all going in the same direction (sender) but having a slightly different destination. (Your TV.) There are no exits from which the traveler can escape from the highway onto another highway. (interference). No off ramps, no on ramps, no crossovers.

Each highway is owned by the government and managed by the FCC and licensed to different individuals, municipalities, broadcast interests or investors. The cell phone folks want more of these highways than there are available, so by throwing millions of dollars at the FCC, they have convinced those folks to auction off some of our highways and highway systems. Verizon has tossed over $71 million to the FCC in the last five years. The translator and LPTV systems just do not have the $$$ to buy congressional and bureau favors.

The channels that are going to be “lost” are called displacement channels. They are then tossed into the “repacking” category. I asked one knowledgeable conventioneer what means this “repacking”? Without batting an ear he reached into my shirt pocket, took out two pens and gave them to a man standing next to me. He then said “that’s repacking!”

For those of you using the translator system, I say “good on ya.” For those who don’t, I say, “you should be.” If you need more information, I suggest you contact your Valley County Commissioners, then your state reps and senators, then ask Daines and Tester why they voted in favor of stealing our TV translators. (The vote took place in 2012. Zinke was not involved. Baucus was.) When you get really steamed, contact the FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler.

You most likely won’t get anyone to talk with you, but just the attempt to do something will give you the “warm/fuzzy.”

That’s it for now folks. Thanks for listening.

 

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