I agree I have no idea what this has to do with repeaters, but with a good received you can receive a lot more. My parents live in this town called Middle-of-Nowhere, Michigan. Analog TV is horrible, few channels and all snow. DTV, using the digital receiver in the TV they get no less than 12 usable signals.
Using a converter box seems to be an issue here, and since everyone seems to expect a $40 converter box to act like a $300 received, this seems to be the cause of the difference of opinion. On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Nate Duehr <[email protected]> wrote: > Guess you haven't talked to me. Mine's working great here… more > channels on rabbit ears than ever. > > > > No, I'm not kidding. > > > > What this has got to do with REPEATERS I have no idea though… but I can > make a guess or a suggestion that would put it back on-topic: > > > > Perhaps (just like in repeaters) buying the cheapest crappiest $40 hunk of > junk receiver/converter box from god-knows-where-China, in a plastic > non-shielded box, sitting on top of piles of "home entertainment" > electronics, and feeding it with crappy feedline or shoddy connectors or old > internal wiring that just isn't up to snuff, and the million other things > that can affect reception of an RF signal -- isn't the way to go when > attempting to receive DTV signals? > > > > The ironic thing is that my DTV receiver is in my DISH NETWORK box. Heh. > I don't even really NEED it, but it's doing fine and adding a third source > for the DVR from rabbit-ears… yup, plain old rabbit-ears, not amplified, not > a good antenna for anything, let alone UHF. (The UHF portion is a circular > loop. A spectacularly crap-tastic antenna performance-wise, as we all here > know from our hobby.) > > > > I'm sure if I put an outside antenna on it with some gain, proper feedline, > and a rotor to point it, it'd "DX" the Colorado Springs and Cheyenne WY > transmitters, no problem at all. Rotor would just be for F/B ratio – might > not even need it… point the thing at Cheyenne, and pick up COS off the back > side… > > > > Consider the source when you're hearing that "people" are having trouble > with DTV reception, and ask them if their converter box/receiver cost MORE > than the free coupon. Free = you get what you pay for… just like everything > else in RF – including repeaters. > > > > Someone else pointed out a couple of weeks ago that receiver sensitivity > numbers and real-world tests are hard to come by on these things. There's > manufacturer numbers, but who believes a manufacturer when they're talking > about their own receivers? > > > > We're hams… we know how to make a receive antenna system work… but if the > receiver is crud… > > > > Nate WY0X > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Barry > *Sent:* Sunday, February 22, 2009 10:28 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* RE: [Repeater-Builder] Somewhat OT - How to make HDTV *really* > work > > > > Virtually everybody I have talked to has had nothing but problems with > DTV. Invariably they get fewer channels, and stations that are good to > excellent in analog can frequently be unwatchable in digital. > > >
