ABSTRACT
Shared tower sites offer broadcasters significant cost savings by sharing a facility and a reduction in personnel, location expenses and shared equipment expenses. The location chosen provides the best broadcast coverage to meet the Federal Communications Commission-licensed television market area while minimizing interference from adjacent markets. Close collaboration between the tower owner and the broadcast TV stations are necessary for proper design, retrofit, operation and maintenance of combining systems. Channel combiners or multiplexers combine multiple radio frequency frequencies for transmission into a multiple-array antenna system. The allocation of resources to operate and maintain common broadcast systems such as the combiner, combiner room, transmission lines and power dividers can be managed by a third party such as the tower owner, engineering firm or contract maintenance vendor. Broadcast engineers for each TV station in concert with the tower facility management team select a broadcasting engineering company to design the TV and antenna system.
