It had been a year since I last contacted both CHCH (aka E! ontario) and CKVR (A-Channel Barrie) about their ATSC signal, and I decided last night that I would fire off some e-mails and see what information I could find.
First the good news...
CHCH-DT is expected to be on air on time, of the 'must be live' date of April 21st. Currently, CHCH is awaiting for the "delivery of the transmitter". Additionally, the contour is expected to be the same as the NTSC signal is now, so if you can get channel 11 on analog you should get the digital transmission on 18-1. Now some bad news on CHCH-DT. The reported power of 30kW is incorrect and it will only be broadcasting at 2.5kW. I have sent a follow up e-mail tol verify that wasn't a misprint, especially since CITS-DT (CTS) is broadcasting at 5kW and they will be using the same tower sight.
Now the real bad news...
CKVR-DT is currently required to be on-air by August 31, 2011 and at this time "CTVglobemedia are now working on a DTV transition plan for this facility." One piece of good news out of this is in my last conversation with those at CKVR, they had expected to revert to VHF-Lo channel 3 after the cut-off, but it now appears as if they will launch and remain on VHF-10 (those with CM 4228 may now have a shot).
I also inquired about the possiiblity of CKVR being broadcast as a sub-channel on CFTO-DT, similar to how WNGS is a sub-channel of WKBW, but was informed that the CRTC is requiring terrestial broadcasters to respect their local OTA area, and since it would be out of the Barrie countour, it would require a change in CRTC rules for such a multicast to occur.
Now, I am wondering what is left over still in the GTA for -DT transmission aside from TVO, who are supposivly exempt for the time being. There is CIII-DT/Global but I don't have any contact with anyone there (although I am working on that). Both OMNI stations are 'testing', CBC-CityTV-CTV-CTS-SunTV are all live. WNGS and WPXJ don't look like anything has happened. So does that mean all I can forsee that is left is CHEX from Peterborough (CBC) and CKCO Kitchener/London (CTV).
