tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
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| DTV is nice when it workls
Be nice to see how things work once the dust settles.
We are in a rural area in hilly terrain. Even with high quality rooftop antenna some DTV signals are marginal at best. In fairness those analog stations were also very snowy.
DTV coverage is often somewhat less then analog. Hopefully once stations get better real world experience with DTV transmission they will submit modification to FCC to increase coverage, by increasing Tx power (expensive) antenna modifications, or installing low power translators. Translators are common here in NH to extend coverage to the north country.
/tom |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| said by tschmidt  :DTV coverage is often somewhat less then analog. Hopefully once stations get better real world experience with DTV transmission they will submit modification to FCC to increase coverage, by increasing Tx power (expensive) antenna modifications I thought I remember seeing somewhere that once the analog stations are shut down, the digital transmitters could power up to full strength. During the transition there were only operating at a percentage of what they were capable of. I don't know if that is true or if that power up has happened for some stations already or not. |
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dsl_sutra
join:2003-12-25
Jersey City, NJ
2 edits | said by cdru :said by tschmidt :DTV coverage is often somewhat less then analog. Hopefully once stations get better real world experience with DTV transmission they will submit modification to FCC to increase coverage, by increasing Tx power (expensive) antenna modifications I thought I remember seeing somewhere that once the analog stations are shut down, the digital transmitters could power up to full strength. During the transition there were only operating at a percentage of what they were capable of. I don't know if that is true or if that power up has happened for some stations already or not. In our area - NYC - there's only one station that I know of not at full DTV power - channel 13.1 WNET (PBS). On the 12th once they shut off the analog tv, the power of the DTV ch 13.1 will be cranked up  |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| said by dsl_sutra :said by cdru :said by tschmidt :DTV coverage is often somewhat less then analog. Hopefully once stations get better real world experience with DTV transmission they will submit modification to FCC to increase coverage, by increasing Tx power (expensive) antenna modifications I thought I remember seeing somewhere that once the analog stations are shut down, the digital transmitters could power up to full strength. During the transition there were only operating at a percentage of what they were capable of. I don't know if that is true or if that power up has happened for some stations already or not. In our area - NYC - there's only one station that I know of not at full DTV power - channel 13.1 WNET (PBS). On the 12th once they shut off the analog tv, the power of the DTV ch 13.1 will be cranked up yeah but once the analog is shut off even those stations at full power can make changes once they have some data on reception. They might find the reception isn't as good as analog and thus raise their transmitters. They could apply to the FCC and be allowed to transmit at more power than they are allowed now. See none of this can happen until AFTER analog is shut off. And if it shut down in Feb like it was supposed to they'd have all that figured out by now.
Also stations can now apply to use digital translators. Once again stations need some data on this and that can't happen until June 12th. And it'll probably take a couple of months to get all the data at least |
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tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
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| reply to cdru
said by cdru : I thought I remember seeing somewhere that once the analog stations are shut down, the digital transmitters could power up to full strength. It is a mixed bag. During the simulcast period TV spectrum is pretty congested since each station is transmitting on two channels, one analog one digital. Some but by no means all stations are transmitting at lower power.
1) Pre transition many stations are already transmitting at full power with final antenna height and design.
2) Due to interference concerns or use of temporary equipment some stations are transmitting at lower then authorized power or using less then optimum temporary antenna. Post transition reception for these stations will get better.
3) Some stations will move DTV from temporary UHF channel to VHF. That should help coverage as VHF is less affected by obstructions like trees.
4) Once the dust settles some stations may submit modification requests to increase coverage area.
/tom
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cornelius785
join:2006-10-26
Worcester, MA
1 edit | reply to tschmidt
In my opinion, comparing the coverage of analog to digital TV is a fairly difficult. You are trying to compare something that drops off abruptly to something that fades away. Drawing the threshold for analog TV is fairly difficult as what defines 'watchability' has as much variation as opinions do.
edit: i ditched my store bought uhf/vhf for a home built hack of a DB4 directional antenna. The quality is improvement huge. a store bought DB4 antenna is ~$50, mine is ~$10. |
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