XHTJB-TDT

XHTJB-TDT is a television station in Tijuana, Baja California. Broadcasting on digital channel 46 (mapping to channel 11 using PSIP) from Cerro Colorado within the city limits of Tijuana, XHTJB is a repeater of the Canal Once public network owned and operated by the Instituto Politécnico Nacional.

History

In analog, the channel 3 allocation was initially not awarded to either San Diego or Tijuana—despite a severe need for additional VHF television channels in the area—because any high-powered signal would be short-spaced over water to KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara, California.

However, by the 1990s, Mexican stations using lower power could utilize the frequency. In 1995, Mexico notified the United States that it would be building channel 3, with a proposed 100 kW effective radiated power.^[2] Through American coordination, the power of the station was reduced and an antenna pattern used to minimize the station's interference to the United States. As part of the IPN's program to build repeater stations to extend the reach of its then-Once TV, XHTJB-TV signed on August 2, 1999, analog channel 3, raising its power over several days to 40 kW of effective radiated power. It was the fourth repeater station built by the IPN itself, after stations in Cuernavaca, San Luis Potosí and Valle de Bravo.^[3] When XHTJB signed on in mid-1999, it immediately caused interference to those in San Diego who had their VCRs and other devices set to output to channel 3; international coordination forced the new station to ramp up power levels gradually in order to help users rectify potential interference. Cox Communications and other San Diego stations even mounted an unsuccessful campaign to move XHTJB to another channel;^[4][5] however, no other channel was found that could adequately cover the Tijuana area.

The station transitioned to digital in the late 2000s, with XHTJB-TDT on physical channel 46 remaining after Tijuana's first-in-Mexico digital conversion occurred in July 2013. XHTJB ditched channel 3 for channel 11 as part of Mexican harmonization of virtual channels in 2016; it was able to do so because XHTJB's signal pattern (unlike most Tijuana stations) does not overlap with Los Angeles stations.

References