Variable Polarization Technology

The North American model for broadcasting had traditionally been one in which individual stations own their own tower, transmitter and antenna. A recent trend has been the use of shared sites and shared antennas, allowing broadcasters to reduce infrastructure and operational costs. Another recent trend has been the move away from horizontally polarized antennas to elliptically polarized antennas, to improve both coverage and in-building penetration. Additional benefits arise when elliptically polarized antennas are used with ATSC3.0. When replacing an antenna due to the current FCC re-pack, many stations are adopting “future proof” elliptically polarized replacement antennas in preparation for ATSC3.0.