Hey Mario.
Thanks for taking the time to write up your experiences. I enjoyed reading
it all. Haven't bought our converter box yet, but will soon.
Best of DX.
-Tim, WK4U
On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 7:07 PM, Mario Filippi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dear Folks,
>
> As a result of my attendance at the Winter SWL fest, which by the way was
> a great social and learning experience, I came back with lots more
> knowledge about the switch to digital OTA television reception. Most of the
> info was gotten from the discussions in the hospitality room on Friday
> night. This helped me in my switch to digital OTA TV.
>
> Well, yesterday I bought a Digital Stream DTX9900 converter box from Radio
> Shack and was able to use my $40 government coupon, so it came out to about
> 19 dollars plus tax. I checked out WalMart's box first, ten bucks cheaper
> but the reviews weren't so good. Set up is relatively easy; attach your
> antenna cable to the box, and attach the box output to the TV with the
> supplied cable, plug it in. The box comes with a remote and batteries.
> Programming of the remote to your TV is a snap; just hold the on/off key
> while tapping the volume control, and at some point the TV will turn on, and
> your remote is programmed.
>
> Well, the fun and interesting part was scanning for TV stations. My
> location is Western NJ, maybe equidistant from Philly and NYC. As you all
> know, there are no more fuzzy or snowy pictures as with analog TV, either
> the picture is clear or if the signal is weak then you receive only a
> pixielated or blank screen. Somehow I am going to miss those fadey stations,
> especially during sporadic E.
>
> My antenna setup is a little out of the ordinary, I have a VHF/UHF antenna
> in the attic on a rotor with 2 Archer preamps in line. The attic antenna
> has about 4 extra UHF elements that I added a few years ago for better
> gain. It's one of the bigger TV antennas that just makes it size-wise in the
> attic. Not an inch more clearance from the roof rafters when it turns!
>
> So I started out with the antenna pointed due North, scanned using the DTV
> tuner, and it captured and brought into memory the channels it was able to
> pick up for a clear picture. I repeated this for 8 different beam positions
> to capture New York City, Philadelphia, and Allentown area stations. As it
> captures more channels, it adds them to the list, even though some may be
> redundant. The rotor control was smoking hot by time I was done.
>
> Now, the DTV tuner does have an on-screen bar-type signal strength
> indicator which is needed if you are in a fringe area, just turn the beam
> until the signal is strong enough ("in the green"), then the picture will
> appear. Weak signals will result in pixielated or partial sporadic video,
> much like what satellite TV experiences during thunderstorms. I am just
> wondering how us TV DX'ers will be able to continue the hobby with the new
> digital signals.
>
> Interestingly, most DTV stations now have 2 or more digital channels
> running simultaneously. E.g., Channel 4 might now consist of 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
> etc. 4.1 may be the normal broadcast, while 4.2 might be local weather, or
> a completely different set of programs. Some of these extra channels are in
> different languages, some are 24/7 home shopping, some are weather, hip-hop
> music, religious, and some, like channel 25 are live camera shots of
> different parts of the Big Apple. Kind of reminds me of when UHF was young
> and all kinds of new interesting stuff could be seen.
>
> Another nice feature of the new digital channels, at least in this area,
> is that you now just press a button on the remote to get the television
> program guide. And, you can press an INFO button to get information for
> that program. Close captioning also works fine.
>
> So, if you live in a fringe area like me, you'll have to turn the beam
> more often if you want to get the full complement of channels, but I must
> say the picture quality is improved, especially with weaker stations.
>
> Not all the channels are digital yet, as judged by my converter box. The
> only thing I am trying to figure out is when the switchover is complete,
> will a UHF antenna alone be sufficient? From what I have heard, some VHF
> stations may stay at the VHF portion, some will migrate to UHF. If a
> majority of stations in my viewing area go to UHF, then next thing is to
> replace the attic antenna with a higher gain UHF antenna. Might even put it
> outside if I can find room at the antenna farm
>
> Hope this information helps anyone out there making the switch. Any
> comments and ideas are welcome.
>
> Thanks and 73's
>
> Mario Filippi
>
>
> ------------------------------
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