NHPTV Channel 18 Broadcast Translator in Pittsburg Undergoing Changes

(DURHAM – September 11, 2009) - New Hampshire Public Television's translator atop Holden Hill, Coleman State Park, Stewartstown (Channel 18, call letters W18BO), which experienced intermittent outages over the past week and failed completely last weekend, has been temporarily repaired. NHPTV is using borrowed equipment while the manufacturer repairs the failed equipment. Many viewers in the Pittsburg area receive NHPTV's signal from White Mountain Cablevision and are also affected.

NHPTV is in the process of acquiring the Channel 26 translator from WMTW and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval is expected by September 17th.  This equipment is authorized to transmit at a higher power level. Therefore, NHPTV plans to activate this newer translator rather than repair the existing Channel 18 equipment. This will allow us to provide better signal coverage in this broadcast area and ultimately allow NHPTV to convert that translator to digital at a higher power level.  This conversion to a digital signal is expected to occur next year and will provide a high-definition signal as well as NHPTV’s new Explore channel (11.3).

"We regret any inconvenience to our viewers and will provide an update on the channel change as soon as information is available," said Brian Shepperd, NHPTV Chief Technology Officer. “Please e-mail us (themailbox@nhptv.org) or call NHPTV’s Viewer Services at (603) 868-1100 should you have any questions about receiving our signal or channels.”