FCC Extends Time for Comments in Third DTV Periodic NPRM

The FCC granted a request from the Association of Federal Communication Consulting Engineers filed last week, requesting a 21-day extension of the time for comments in the FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in its Third Periodic DTV review. Comments on the Notice were initially due Wednesday, Aug. 8, with reply comments due Aug. 23, 2007. AFCCE argued additional time was needed to fully review the technical details raised in the NPRM. The request also pointed out that the new DTV Table of Allotments was expected to be released soon (see article in this week’s RF Report).

While the FCC believed that there was merit to the request, the full 21-day extension was declined, but the commission did offer seven additional days for comments to be submitted.

Reasoning by the commission was that while an extension was needed, it was felt that the full 21 days was unnecessarily long and couldn’t be justified as it might impact on the overall schedule for the Feb. 17, 2009 transition.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.