Butte College Television (BCTV)

Transmitter

 

We replaced our original channel A1 and A2 Comwave SBO-1O MRC GaAsFET transmitters and CATEL CTM2O modulators with brand new SB-10A-1 transmitter units and TVM-102 modulators back in 1997. Channels A3 and A4 are 1993 additions to Butte College, and contain the same equipment compliment.

Included in the 1997 re-build was a transmitter antenna polarization change, and the addition of a GPS-referenced precision frequency receiver and control panel. This new equipment allows BCTV to maintain an off-air frequency tolerance of better than 1 Hz from assigned. This level of frequency precision is required because of another co-channel "A" group on the Sutter Butte Mountains near Yuba City, only 36 miles away. Prevailing engineering broadcast theory dictates that when two nearby stations (which operate on the same frequency) phase lock each set of transmitters to a common reference source, the overall effect is to actually reduce any interference that may be produced from any one station into the other. Both Butte College and the Sutter Buttes operation reference to the Global Positioning System satellites that circle the earth.

Butte College Television (BCTV) incorporates both 18GHz and 23GHz frequencies for STL relays. The 18 GHz system uses a Microwave Radio MicroLink III. The 23GHz system uses a much older MA/COM 23CC unit. We’re talking old here!

As you can tell from these preceding pictures, there is absolutely no room in the building for me to focus on a clear wide frontal shot. That's why some of these pictures might look a bit out of place. We all do what we can!

Butte College Television (WHR-796) uses the following frequency spectrum:

• A-1, at 2500 MHz to 2506 MHz
• A-2, at 2512 MHz to 2518 MHz
• A-3, at 2524 MHz to 2530 MHz
• A-4, at 2536 MHz to 2542 MHz

As you might expect, reception of BCTV direct off-air requires special equipment, generally not readily available to the public. However, BCTV operates unscrambled, and reception is NOT limited in any way to only authorized licensed receive sites.

BCTV uses four microwave STL channels, under the common license of WNEN507.