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Old 21-Feb-2011, 12:32 AM   #2
mtownsend
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 632
69.2 is a "virtual channel" carried by KSWB. In digital TV, multiple virtual channels can be carried simultaneously on a single broadcast.

Even though there is physically only one transmission (on real channel 19), your TV maps the multiple video streams to give the appearance of three virtual channels. KSWB carries Fox network programming on 69.1, AntennaTV on 69.2, and ThisTV on 69.3. Any time you are watching any of these virtual channel numbers, your TV is actually tuning to RF channel 19 and decoding the appropriate video stream for that sub-channel.

In TV Fool's signal analysis, we are mainly interested in each physical transmitter to help people find their local signals and aim their antennas. It doesn't matter whether a broadcaster chooses to send 1, 3, or 10 virtual channels on their broadcast. We only care how strong their signal is and how much antenna you need to pick it up. Each transmitter is only listed once in our reports regardless of how many virtual channels they map to.

If we happen to know the virtual channel mapping for a transmitter (e.g., KSWB maps from real channel 19 to virtual channel 69), we display it in our listings for information purposes only. However, only the real broadcast channel matters when it comes to modeling the signal strength and choosing the right antenna for the job.
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