Alternative Sites
     

You will still be able to receive free over-the-air HDTV if the Lake
Cedar Group Supertower is not built on Lookout Mountain!

 

Lookout Mountain is only one of many television broadcast sites that serve Denver and the
surrounding Metro Area. Throughout the rezoning process, Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Staff
has recommended denial of the Lake Cedar Group proposal, due to the availability of adequate
alternative sites. (Hearing record numbers 11640-41, 14473, 15731)

HDTV is currently broadcast from the following sites. Click on the links below for a profile of each site's

 
current Metro Area coverage.
       Mountain Sites  
     
                       
Why does Lake Cedar Group say you will lose free over-the-air HDTV if a new
Supertower is not built on Lookout Mountain?

In choosing the Republic Plaza for its temporary transmitters, Lake Cedar Group has chosen a
transmission site lower than any of the other listed sites. The transmitter power the Lake Cedar Group
members have chosen is also among the lowest. The combination of low antenna height and low
transmitter power generally results in poorer reception. If many viewers have problems receiving Lake
Cedar Group members’ digital stations, it is due to the choices the Lake Cedar Group member stations
have made. Had Lake Cedar Group’s members chosen an available high altitude site such as Squaw
Mountain or Jarre Creek, widespread reception would be obtained even with Lake Cedar Group’s low
power transmitters.
 
 

Shadowing will WILL NOT cause many households to be unable to receive HDTV if
a new tower is not built on Lookout Mountain!

When terrain is not flat, signals from a transmitter site may be blocked, or shadowed, at some receiving sites due to intervening terrain. Depending on the severity of the blockage, the signal may be weakened a little or a lot. All sites serving the Denver area have shadowing in some areas, and the site selection will determine which areas will experience shadowing. Some stations have repeaters or translators (low power transmitters) to “fill in” the shadowed areas. For example, some stations on Lookout Mountain and Mount Morrison have repeaters in Boulder due to the shadowing there. In 2005, the FCC issued a Clarification Order allowing the use of repeaters to fill in shadowed areas of digital television transmitters. To read the entire FCC Notice, click here...

Squaw Mountain Communications Site Reception Test
In order to determine the severity of shadowing from the Squaw Mountain Communications site, digital television reception tests were made with a low power transmitter on Squaw Mountain. Severe shadowing was expected in Golden, but reception was much better than expected, with reception of the low power (2.4% of allotted power) transmitter achieved at more than one-half of the test sites in Golden. During the testing of DTV reception from Squaw Mountain, a low power (48 watt effective radiated power) DTV repeater was successfully built and tested to cover the city of Boulder. The repeater antenna was mounted on a 10 foot pole . To read the results of the Squaw Mountain DTV test results, click here...