The bain of my existance the last few weeks.....DTV.
Several Points of order: DTV Myths, Comments, Q&A:
I hear once a day: DTV doesn't work as good as analog.
My Response (based on experience): Does not work as good is from a point of
view. The fact is DTV is more effiecnt, the stations are typically running a
fraction of the output power and achieving the same footprint of coverage. It
takes far less signal to noise to pull out a clear, high quality picture than
it does with analog. Can you make out an analog station with a ton of snow,
lines, sparkles, etc when you might not pull in a DTV Station? Sure! Do you
enjoy watching a crappy picture? Do you like to listen to the guy on his flea
power portable noisy into the repeater or the guy on a good mobile who is full
quieting?
I hear once a day: The antenna in my attic/ my old antenna system does not get
the DTV stations that I get in analog.
My Response: Well, this is a technical group with a high level of RF knowledge.
How well does your 440 antenna (or any band) work in the attic compared to on
your roof or tower?
There is some implied responsibility on the part of the end user to ensure that
their equipment is optimized for the best performance. That being said, I have
many many clients with antennas in the attic that work just fine.
What I do find to be the typical problem is that most people with antennas in
their attics have an amplifier installed to make up for being in the attic. I'm
sorry to say that the $15-20 amplifier you pick up at the hardware store sucks,
to prove that just bench test it on your specturm analyzer & look at a DTV
signal. They typically distort the waveform badly and that is more common a
problem why you can't tune the DTV station. I have pulled those from an antenna
system that were receiving analog but not digital. Once out of the system,
while the analog was virtually unwatchable now (which the amp had boosted
enough to tolerate), the DTV signal suddenly came thru with flying colors!
Would you put a crappy preamp on your repeater receiver?
I hear once a day: My converter box does not seem as sensitive as my new DTV
set in the other room.
My Response: Let's use some common sense here. The government mandated that the
LOWEST COST possible converter boxes be made available for people to convert
their OLD analog TV's. The bottom line: You get what you pay for.
Was not that long ago a wise jedi master here on RB posted findings on PL
circuits in radios with his test equipment and found that the cheaper radios
did a poorer job. Your $50 converter box is not going to have as good of DTV
tuner in it as your new $5000 Sony HDTV. This difference existed in analog
tuners as well. Nuff said.
*A side note: We have found that there are huge differences in converter boxes.
For what it is worth the Zenith model seems to be one of the best, in case your
shopping. I would stay away from brands you have never heard of at the big box
stores.
I hear every day now: The government screwed up & is running out of money for
the program.
My Response: We knew 3 years ago they only had so much money set aside for
this. What did everyone think would happen? There are a ton of unclaimed cards
out there right now, and as they expire they will put that money back in the
pot. However, it was always first come, first serve, and the government should
not be there forever to make sure you can still use your dads 40 year RCA TV.
And, it's $50-70 for a typical converter box. Holy cow. If the $40 coupon makes
the difference for you of eating or not that week, I think TV should be less of
a priority for you. (Sorry for the social commentary)
I hear every day now (This one is yours Mark;) ): Leave it to the government to
make the change in Feb instead of June.
My response: If I remember correctly the orignal cutoff date was in a June, but
the lawyers fought & fought and got extension after extension. DTV has been
around for 3-4 years now in most markets, and we have known this date was
coming for roughly the same time. It's like high school: we knew for 2 weeks
our paper was due, but still blamed the teacher when we were really tired on
the due date because we stayed up really late the night before doing the paper.
;)
Finally- I cannot speak for all the markets out there, but here in Chicago the
DTV stations for the most part are at their full licensed power now, only
changes left to come are some channel re-assignments when the switch happens.
So go to work on your antenna that has been up for 30 years and get it in shape
again!
Tom
W9SRV
