As part of its plan to shift 120 MHz of spectrum from TV broadcasting to wireless broadband, the FCC wants to pack TV stations more tightly together in the remaining 180 MHz of spectrum to free up
some for auction. To do that most efficiently, it must make the VHF portion of the remaining spectrum (chs. 2-13) more hospitable to broadcasting.
That process got underway this week, when,
as part of a larger rulemaking on TV spectrum reallocation, the FCC proposed increasing the power of VHF stations and imposing minimum performance standards on VHF receive antennas. It also called for
other ideas for making VHF work better. After the final transition from analog to digital in June 2009, the VHF band, particularly the lower end (chs. 2-6), was exposed as a digital weakling.
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