[SBE] We should all say something...

[Gary]

Carl hits the nail on the head and?I appreciate his thoughtful note. BTW, ditto for analog radio. What we have here with this television technology evolution is different than when we went?from BW to color. The systems were compatible back then. Yes, visual artifacts in resolution and?color fidelity to name a few but it was compatible.?

Think about?the circumstances if Katrina had hit after?analog sunset. Or 911 with most of the TV transmitting infrastructure for NYC on the north tower...

It would have been nice if the mandate for digital TV (and analog sunset) also ?included? ubiquitous availability of?portable TV receivers with exceptional tuners.. I think that?is important because these receivers will be operated in a disadvantaged situation (i.e. no antenna gain or height).... From the test evaluations I have read, many of the DTV tuner designs are built on the cheap with poor performance; single conversion types. One can't demodulate the bit stream if the front end is lousy. So someone in the tent or camper ?better be able to climb a tree to point the UHF Yagi!? For us HAMS ?it's another Field Day but for Joe Average and Family it's a nightmare.

I believe?the next disaster, be it national or local, that someone?is going to be out of luck if all we have is digital as we know it. It might just cost them their lives. I think it needs to be brought into the discussion before we find analog gone forever.

Gary Brefini
SBE Member

-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Sundberg <carlesundberg at yahoo.com>
To: sbe member discussion mail list <sbe at sbe.org>
Sent: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 12:05 am
Subject: [SBE] We should all say something...



As all of us engineers know, many of our viewers have been mired in deep snow on 
many channels for years. Included with the snow storms viewers put up with, they 
also are visited by ghosts and other viewable electronic goblins. Yahoo for 
analog. This window to the electronic world has at least brought millions the 
pleasure of drama, entertainment and news for decades. When the monsters from 
our electronic past become the fodder every scrap dealer dreams about... There 
will be many, many people wondering where we went. I have viewers calling from 
all over that put up with the snow and ghosts for years who now have the new 
coupon converter boxes and call up and ask, "When are you going digital?" We're 
on the air. We're there, but their poorly aimed and corroded  antenna lead ins 
can't win the multipath battle that is going to finally be the best thing that 
ever happened for Satellite, Cable and IP TV in the future. 

Being a kid from Florida who watched hurricane coverage again and again by a 
battery powered TV, I don't want to believe we are going to be turning off the 
most important storm warning mass communication system ever made. In the 
process, we're asking people to throw away millions of battery powered TV's that 
a converter box can't rescue. No. None of us are happy keeping double the gear 
going with no more money to keep it working, but all of this seems like a train 
wreck. I can't wait for the day when we cover the Senate Hearing in HD after the 
storm where Congress investigates how we made such a giant mistake. This change 
is going to cost some lives and make a ton of people mad as heck in the process. 
As engineers, we all should stand up and say something regarding this being too 
big of a change and too soon.  

Is our government going to have a digital portable exchange for the analog 
portables in time for the next power robbing storm? I think not. We should all 
say something...
  
Carl Sundberg
3318 Coraly Ave.
Eugene, OR 97402-6544

Cell: 541 520-2867
Landline: 541 461-2324

----- Original Message ----
From: Bob Reite <br at telcen.com>
To: sbe member discussion mail list <sbe at sbe.org>
Sent: Monday, April 7, 2008 8:24:56 PM
Subject: Re: [SBE] Ready to turn analog back on?

I just got my converter box coupon so I went to Circuit City and picked 
up a Zenith DTT-900 CECB.  Although in theory I'm line of sight to the 
  TV transmitting antennas, I'm in a notch with hills on either side, so 
there is a fair amount of multipath. Analog signals are watchable, but 
not good.  In our market (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre), all of the analog TV 
stations are on UHF, except for a low power Catholic station on channel 7.

The box worked well, except for the two digital stations (the NBC and 
CBS affiliates) that are on VHF channels 11 and 13 and the ABC affiliate 
on channel 49. I made a VHF dipole cut for channel 12, which worked well 
enough to get the converter to operate on these two stations. This may 
turn out to be a major issue in our market, since most people that are 
receiving their TV over the air only have UHF antennas.

I aimed the UHF antenna for the best results on the ABC affiliate 
(WNEP), and it's usable now, but still with some audio dropout.  Until 
the tower collapsed, WNEP had the best analog signal in the market, 
their digital signal seems to be the worst.


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