Cable & satellite

[lrb111]

DIY project
http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jimlongley]

DIY project
http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well, I was about to post about my DIY UHF antenna project when I was a teenager, and there it is provided for us.

Bowties have been around for a long time, the only thing the author forgot was his good luck in getting the distance from the elements to each other and the reflector right. Usually those antennas are a little finicky about getting the element distances right, so I have to assume he got his placements from the ARRL Antenna Book or something similar, being just a little off could change things considerably.

And I don't know what that other antenna he had was, but Yagi Uda would have been ashamed to call it one of his.

Also, that ductwork in his attic is going to play hob with his signal, and may have been the main reason the other antenna didn't perform as well as his DIY job.

I built a single frequency corner reflector dipole from junk box parts about 30 years ago, and it allowed me to talk to a repeater in Duanesburg NY from downtown Utica NY with a 2.5 watt handie talkie. That's a distance of about 58 miles and a pretty good accomplishment, but I measured and cut my antenna specifically for that frequency.

[lrb111]

We have been working with the digital receivers for nearly a year now in the field. I've found they are much simpler and easier than analog, for the purposes of the CATV company I work for.
We purchased some freq specific antennas, but they aren't performing any better than a typical good Radio Shack UHF antenna.
We have ten digital signals currently, and 3 head ends. So, I've set up 30 separate feeds. 90% of the problems have been on the broadcast side, not on the receiver side. Maintaining a happy optimistic attitude with the broadcast stations has been the key.

I was under the impression that all the broadcast tv was going to switch, but in reading on the DTV site it appears that smaller local origin may not have to.

https://www.dtv2009.gov/AboutProgram.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What is the digital television transition?
At midnight on February 17, 2009, all full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to 100% digital broadcasting

We have several local low power stations. So, it's not going to be a 100% switch, if I understand it right. I have phone calls to make about this today.

[jimlongley]

Yes, all "full power" stations must switch on 02/17/09.

If you happen to be the owner of a little "mom and pop" 500 Watt station on a hilltop in Kentucky or the Catskills in NY, you don't have to switch. Then again, what happens to you when your customer base has all switched to digital receivers?

A long time ago I did maintenance and support for a couple of small UHF stations in out of the way areas in upstate NY, little stations with a limited geographic coverage, on the air at 6am and off at 11pm. I don't even know if they still exist, One was in Cobleskill NY, the other in Phoenecia NY, both in areas where the mountains prohibited reception from the big three network stations and the revenue base was too small to justify placing transmitters.

Those locales and others were where I had my first experience with CCTV, which means Community Cable TV, where the community got together and put an antenna and receiver on a mountaintop and carried the signal on cable down into the valleys. Big Indian and Oliverea NY were just a couple of those places.

And the phone company provided (not without charge) and maintained the cable.

Ah. for the good old days.

[KBCraig]

As I understand it, once the switch happens, stations no longer have to stay UHF. They can switch their digital broadcast back to their VHF allocation.

So, you might need a V/U antenna, depending on your station.

[Oldgringo]

Way TMI for me. I thought the OP was about cable or satellite choice/s?

[jimlongley]

Way TMI for me. I thought the OP was about cable or satellite choice/s?

Sorry, been a ham since I was nine years old, and retired from the phone company as a national level technical trainer in digital communications, and still get all hopped up about techie stuff. I guess I've just been around it too long, 0s and 1s are more signals than we used to have, we had to make do with just 1s.

There are only 10 kinds of people in this world; those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Another fascinating thing to me is that the stations, and they are already doing this, can put content in the digital tv signal that couldn't have been there in analog. Being a little obsessive about this kind of stuff, I have done some exploring of my cable tv "channels" and have found numerous digital ones on my supposedly analog cable (that's what we're paying for) and some of those digital ones have a bunch of sub-channels, like music, still pictures, and alternate programming.

Look forward to being able to download movies for rent, like Blockbuster just announced and as I predicted in a class on ISDN in 1994. Want to watch "Wall-E" with the kids tonight, just select it from a menu and download it. What's the difference between this and pay-per-view? You get the recording and the use of it for a specified period of time and you can pause and replay it to your heart's content.

What a fascinating world we live in, no if only bambam doesn't mess it up.

[WildBill]

So, Wildbill, in February, when your antenna becomes worthless, you're going to use one of the converter boxes?

It is February and my attic antenna is still working great with my digital HDTV. In fact, I have more digital channels than before the switch and still have no cable or satellite TV bill.

[NuBer92]

I do enjoy th national geographic channel, right now i am watching a doc about new orleans and the filth that came this way after katrina. VERY INFORMATIVE.

[Venus Pax]

We still haven't gotten the turbo antenna that WildBill has, but we did put our circular one in the attic and we get a much better signal now.

His system certainly beats paying cable if you only want a few free channels anyway.

[jorge]

Analog channels still coming in here. Much ado about nothing?

[Xander]

Analog channels still coming in here. Much ado about nothing?

Nope...The full transition has just been delayed till June 12. You won't be getting analog channels after that.
http://www.wmicentral.com/site/news.cfm ... 5965&rfi=6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Abraham]

We have Dish Satellite. Love it.

Our subscription includes things we prefer like the Science Channel, Military Channel, Discovery channel in all it's permutations, the Learning Channel, the Documentary channel and on and on... These channels provide some very high quality, extraordinarily interesting subjects.

I'm particularly interested in astrophysics and now see quite a bit of the latest in this arena on the Science channel.

Our signal is quite strong and in the rare event of signal loss due to bad weather, the departure generally lasts no longer than five minutes or so.

Those who state "They don't watch television..." ought to take a gander at what they're missing. There's a cornucopia of high quality programming available now.

Certainly, I understand not watching t.v. if the only programs available were the ones on "free t.v." which remains, with the occasional exception of say a "Nova" on channel 8, low brow dreck.

[WildBill]

Analog channels still coming in here. Much ado about nothing?

Do have a digital converter box or a digital TV? There are at least 32 digital channels currently broadcasting in the Houston area. The picture and sound quality is much better than their analog broadcast.

Most people don't understand that when the cable TV industry was started the initial premise of "Pay TV" was so that you could watch shows without having to view commercials. In many cities this proposal was rejected by the voters. People voted that they would rather have free TV broadcasts sponsored by company's commercials rather than pay to view commercial-free TV programs. Now you are paying monthly fees to watch commercials.

[Abraham]

WildBill,

Not, if you have a Digital Recording Device. And, I do.

With a DVR you can fast forward right on by...plus, anytime you're watching you can pause, grab a sandwich or ...? and then at your leisure resume your watching. Or rewind and look again, whatever suits you. It's great.

I love livin in the iron age!