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Old 17-Nov-2014, 10:23 PM   #11
timgr
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Medford MA USA
Posts: 371
4.1 and 4.2 are the same real channel 38, multiplexed into 38's allocated bandwidth. These decimal numbers are "virtual channels" which is what appear on your TV. The real channel is 38, 614 to 620 MHz. Each channel is 6 Mhz wide, and can contain multiple viewable channels (each a virtual channel), which are arbitrarily assigned numbers like 4.1, 4.2 etc.

Same for all the channels like 20.1, 20.2, etc.

The virtual channels tend to have the station number of the legacy analog TV channels, before the switch to digital.

This site may help you. Enter the callsign, like KOMO, and it will tell a lot about the station. http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=komo

So why KOMO and not KING? Because they are both on the edge of reception, and you were lucky with KOMO? They are both 2-edge stations, which means the signal has to be diffracted twice over the horizon in order to be received. Something between you and KOMO is more favorable than between you and KING. You could try moving the antenna around and see if that changes.

Last edited by timgr; 17-Nov-2014 at 10:30 PM.
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