My experience was exactly the opposite, Mark.... I'm about 25 miles due west of the Sears Tower, and although I have DirecTV on the main TV, I have a tuner card in the PC that I often use to record OTA shows while the satellite DVR is busy with other programs. With analog, channel 2 was very snowy, 5 was acceptable, 7, 9, 11 and all the UHF stations were fine. With the converter box on the same roof-mounted antenna, everything is beautiful, plus I picked up about 7 or 8 stations I didn't get at all with analog. I just have one of the Apex units from Best Buy...
George, KA3HSW / WQGJ413 ________________________________ From: Mark <n9...@ameritech.net> To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2009 8:45:16 AM Subject: RE: [Repeater-Builder] OT- Digital TV converter box issues I have the same problem here outside of the Chicago area... for reference, I'm about 60 mi SW of Chicago. I have three converters installed in my home to prepare for the transition - they are on TVs in "non-critical" areas, i.e., bedrooms, kids rooms, etc. I have DirecTV for the primary TV sets (basement and family room). Anyway, the picture I receive via antenna is acceptable - there is some snow, but the picture is perfectly viewable. However, the converter boxes seem to have less RX sensitivity, or something. I can only get a fraction of channels "available", and sometimes more channels than other times - for example, the local NBC affiliate worked fine Tuesday night (we watched Leno) but last night there was a LOT of digital artifacts and the audio was terrible... Picture had artifacts also. For what it's worth, there is an overlay available that works with Google Earth that will graphically show you the available coverage of any TV station. For the Chicago market, I find I'm on the fringe (unfortunately, I live in a river valley, which also affects my reception) so I need to do something with my antenna. For years, I've had it in the attic with no problem, but now it looks like it's going to have to go out - either on the roof, or on the tower. I have not checked to see if the newer digital TV transmitters are operating at lower power levels than their analog counterparts, but I wonder if this could be one reason for my experiences. And of course, we're going to transition in February - not the best time of the year to be climbing towers. (Hey FCC - why not transition in June when the weather is much more conducive to tower activities? Ah-h-h, government at work... Gotta love it.) Good luck! Mark - N9WYS
