What goes on behind (or, in this case, above) the scenes before you need to rescan your antenna television? A lot. Around the country, tower technician crews are modifying local TV broadcast towers so viewers can continue to receive free, over-the-air access to news, emergency information and entertainment when stations move frequencies to make room for wireless services.
Tower crews perform dangerous, important work thousands of feet above the ground to make this happen. So, when you hear the phrase “moving frequencies,” it’s not conceptual, it’s literal.
To learn more about what tower technicians do, the TV Answers team spoke with Jeremy Hulse, a broadcast tower technician based in College Station, Texas, to find out how transmission tower antennas are moved, what challenges technicians face and how stations are impacted.
What does it mean when a viewer hears that TV stations are moving to “new frequencies”?
When a TV station moves to a new frequency, we physically change the antennas on top of the broadcast towers. We remove the current antenna from the tower top and install a new one. Sometimes different antennas are needed to be able to handle the new frequencies.
2,000 feet above Rowena, South Dakota, Mike and Ammon provided a new perspective on the hard work that crews like this put in everyday, from broadband to broadcasting. Their work keeps our TVs on & smartphones streaming. #CarrTrip pic.twitter.com/tk6McDU0fq
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) October 17, 2018
What does the process look like to move the tower antennas?
In order to move a tower antenna, we rig the tower with a gin pole, place all of our equipment near the top and remove the old antenna. A new antenna is shipped to our crew from the manufacturer, loaded off a truck with a crane and is placed on top of the tower. The towers themselves are approximately 2,000 feet tall, and some antennas can weigh around 13,000 pounds.
How long does this process take?
Once we have all of the equipment in place, it takes about one day to take the old antenna down and one day to bring the new antenna up. However, we need to bring our towers up to new engineering standards, so each job is different depending on the tower and engineering needs. In some cases, we need to make many different adjustments to the towers and other towers only require minor changes. In the shortest of cases, the entire process can take two to three weeks, and the longest I have experienced is four months.
Unfortunately, weather is the most significant delay to our process, particularly wind, because the towers are so high. During all of these changes, stations may have to operate at a reduced power, which means the signal may not reach as far. This mostly affects rural viewers and those located farther from the tower site.
How many tower crew technicians/crews move the tower cables?
We typically operate on a six-man crew, but it varies greatly depending on the scale of the job and if we need to add additional hands.
What challenges do you foresee for tower crews?
Safety is our number-one priority, and with our increased quality control measures it has unfortunately slowed down our antenna moving process. Also, we definitely see that the need for more and expanded tower crews exists, especially as the number of towers needing adjustments increases.
Though we cannot control the weather, we also see our time management affected in the near future due to weather changes moving into the fall and winter. If you miss one deadline, it becomes a ripple effect that slows everything else down.
How can stations help you through this process?
Most general managers and chief engineers are already very knowledgeable and on point when talking to viewers. Most of the people we work with from the station are doing everything they can, because they want their antennas up and running as soon as possible. If you haven’t already, we encourage station managers and engineers to stay communicative with us and continue to share information with their viewers about the upcoming changes regularly.
To learn more about what’s happening and to access resources, information and more, visit TVAnswers.org.