KHET


KHET, virtual and VHF digital channel 11, branded as PBS Hawai'i, is a Public Broadcasting Service member television station licensed to Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. The station is owned by the Hawaii Public Television Foundation, which is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. For almost 50 years, KHET's studios were located on Dole Street on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu. In 2016, the station moved to its current location on Sand Island Access Road, in a renovated and expanded facility and former site of KFVE and KHNL. KHET's main transmitter is located on Palehua Ridge, north of Makakilo.
The station's signal is relayed across the rest of the state outside Oahu and metropolitan Honolulu on full-powered satellite KMEB in Wailuku on Maui and through a network of low-powered translators on the other Hawaiian Islands. It can also be seen statewide on Oceanic Spectrum channel 11 and digital channel 1010 in high definition, and on Hawaiian Telcom channel 11.

Station history

KHET signed on the air for the first time on April 15, 1966; KMEB followed on six months later on September 22 of that year. KHET is the second outlet in Honolulu to occupy the channel 11 dial position, the first being KONA-TV from 1952 to 1955, when it moved to channel 2 because the higher VHFs offered more ERPs at the time; that station is now KHON-TV. Had KONA not moved to channel 2, the channel would have remained a commercial allocation, as the FCC had intended to make channel 7 a non-commercial allocation for Honolulu in the first assignment, but the FCC relocated channel 7 to Wailuku in 1959 and made channel 11 a non-commercial allocation instead. Originally known on-air as "Hawaii Educational Television", it rebranded as "Hawaii Public Television" in 1970 and then became "PBS Hawai'i" in 2003. PBS Hawaii broadcasts 24 hours a day on cable television, but airs only from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily on its over-the-air broadcast signal; this makes it one of the few remaining television stations in the United States that continues to sign off during the overnight hours.
Original materials from PBS Hawaii have also been contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.

Digital television

Digital channels

The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
11.1 / 10.11080iKHET-1Main programming / PBS
11.2 / 10.2480iKHET-2PBS Kids
NHK World
11.3 / 10.3480iKHET-3PBS Kids

Analog-to-digital conversion

Both stations discontinued regular programming on their analog signals, respectively on January 15, 2009, the date in which full-power television stations in Hawai'i transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts :
The station's digital transmitter operates at 9.5 kW.

Translators

PBS Hawai'i operates the following low-powered translator stations:
City of licenseCallsignChannel
Anahola'36
Hakalau'36
Hanalei'29
Hilo'28
Kilauea Military Camp'17
Kilauea'34
Lihue'30
Mauna Loa'19
Naalehu'31
South Point'35
Waimea'28
Waipake'21