Channel 5 reception expected to improve

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Cooperative Television (CTV) Association of Southern Minnesota viewers that have noticed poor reception of ABC affiliate KSTP Channel 5 should see improvement soon.

The station comes in to UHF viewers as Channel 30 from the Godahl tower. Local cable companies also rebroadcast the channel.

Dave Sunderman, CTV General Manager, said the cause of KSTP's poor reception is not CTV's equipment. The problems come from the KSTP tower, located next to the Godahl tower, which receives the signal from KSTP in the Twin Cities. The station is rebroadcast by CTV to towers at Frost and Jackson.

Because CTV doesn't own the KSTP equipment, it can't maintain it, Sunderman said.

The 20-year-old KSTP tower at Godahl operates 24 hours a day. Its components are wearing out, but the television station is taking steps to correct the situation according to Larry Wefring, KSTP Research Director.

It was learned that some of the line carrying the station signal was bad when 500 feet of the tower's transmission cable was recently replaced.

Wefring described how the television signal is handled in the tower.

"The signal comes in, goes to a translator where a translator amplifies it, then the transmission cable carries the signal up to the antenna for broadcasting. This new line should get a higher-quality signal up to the antenna," Wefring said.

The next step is rebuilding the power tube. The tower gets its power from the main tube, which is currently bad. It is operating at 100 watts, about 10 percent of what it should be.

A new tube is being rebuilt and tested. It should be installed shortly.

Finally, work will be done on the antenna itself. Some antennas are made for a specific channel. Others are broad-banded, able to broadcast several channels.

The KSTP antenna at Godahl was cut for channel 32. It is broadcasting on channel 30 because another Twin Cities station used channel 32 for digital broadcasting.

"We will make adjustments. If that doesn't work, we may install a more channel-compatible antenna on the tower," Wefring said.

Four rural electric cooperatives own CTV -- BENCO Electric of Mankato; Brown County Rural Electrical Association, Sleepy Eye; Federated Rural Electric, Jackson; and South Central Electric, St. James.

The Godahl tower serves a 45-mile coverage area with nine channels. The Jackson tower serves a 30-mile coverage area with eight channels and the Frost tower serves a 30-mile radius with eight channels.

The financially-troubled Watonwan Television Improvement Association was purchased by CTV in 1992. It continued to broadcast eight channels from the Godahl tower. Towers were built in Jackson and Frost in 1995.