[SBE] Wilmington test

[Tony Mancari]

Carl, 

 

Thanks for the note. Sounds like you are having a lot of the same
experiences we are as we talk to our viewers. I'd be happy to read the
article and comment back- please send me an email with the attachment.

Thanks,

 

Tony

 

 

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Tony Mancari WVPT DTV 

 

SBE - 78

298 Port Republic Road

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________________________________

From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of Carl
Sundberg
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 6:13 PM
To: sbe member discussion mail list
Subject: [SBE] Wilmington test

 

Hi All,

 

I'm a guy who likes to really check things out before I'm going to be
put on the spot. I knew that I had to forget everything I knew about RF
and try to be more like my viewers long before the analog TV shut off
date. Toward that end, I bought every kind of indoor antenna I could
find, both new and used from places like Goodwill and tried them all. I
bought 5 digital TV's and bought every converter box I could get my hand
on, also both new and old. I soon realized the real challenge my viewers
were going to have with DTV and here is what I learned:

 

There are a lot of indoor antenna's that should be recycled. Antenna's
that pick up well from all directions really give a DTV receiver or
converter box a lot of trouble. While investigating, I found out that
multipath caused by stuff in the home is real and it really bothers DTV.
Investigating with a DTV analyzer, a spectrum analyzer and a directional
antenna, I found out the biggest enemy in the home is the refrigerator,
large silver coated mirrors and large appliances like stoves and the
washer/dryer. These babies make great signal reflectors. If you do the
math, every digital bit transmitted in DTV can be canceled out by an out
of phase signal less than a room away. In my home, no indoor antenna
worked 100% on all stations until I put it near the gabled ceiling to
minimize reflections from those objects. The stations with the strongest
signals had the biggest problem.

 

In addition to that, I have been taking calls at my station daily from
people who are having trouble with indoor antenna's with both receivers
and converter boxes and my experimenting was a good thing. So far, I
have been able to help because I've used what they are trying to use.

 

Because of this, I decided to write an article that I hope our station
will add to our web site. I have attached it and hope all will read it,
edit it, change the graphics if you find betters ones and correct any
misinformation or add anything you see fit. I think its up to us to come
up with something for our viewers to refer to that will make them
smarter, like the computer people did when they wanted us to throw away
our typewriters. I look forward to hearing about anything I missed or
suggestions before I post it. 

 

So far, nothing I have found tells the whole story. As crazy as this may
seem, for a long time, I couldn't figure out where three multipath
signals were coming from until I tracked one down to a mirror. I've
never seen an article mention a mirror as a source of mutipath and that
was the strongest multipath signal I found. When I found it, I went,
"Duh! How could I be so stupid? It's a sliver coated reflector. What
could be more perfect for reflecting RF?"

 

Read on, make changes and send your version back if you think this is a
worthwhile.

 

 

Carl Sundberg
3318 Coraly Ave.
Eugene, OR 97402-6544 

 

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

 

 

 

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