RF Cascade Workbook for Excel
RF & Electronics Symbols for Visio
RF & Electronics Symbols for Office
RF & Electronics Stencils for Visio
RF Workbench
T-Shirts, Mugs, Cups, Ball Caps, Mouse Pads
Espresso Engineering Workbook™
Smith Chart™ for Excel
|
|
Digital TV (DTV) - One Man's Experience - RF Cafe Forums
|
Kirt Blattenberger
|
Post subject: Digital TV (DTV) - One Man's Experience
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:09 am
|
|
|
Site Admin |
|
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003
2:02 pm Posts: 676 Location: Erie, PA
|
Greetings:
Someone recently wrote to me
with the following story regarding his experience
with DTV. Have you had a chance to evaluate analog
vs. digital?
******************
As both a ham and an RF Engineer, I am naturally
curious about other peoples experience with the
transition to Digital TV. I think perhaps a new
Blog site on RF Café would be an appropriate forum
for this topic.
As for my own experiences
with DTV, it took a lot of research and experimentation
to get where I am now. I currently live in Port
Saint Lucie Florida which is about 65 miles from
most of the TV stations. Getting reliable TV coverage
without resorting to cable was quite a challenge
at this distance, but the ham in me just made me
all the more determined. After a few failed attempts
with the usual garden variety outdoor antenna, I
settled on a Winegard HD-9032 Yagi which is providing
very good results at only 20 feet above the ground.
For a second house in Cape May NJ, I used
the same type antenna at 20 foot off the ground
and was able to pull in 31 stations from Philadelphia
which is over 71 miles away using a Zenith DTT901
Digital Converter Box. Once again the results were
amazingly good and rock solid, probably because
much of the path is over water.
I must admit
that, when Digital TV was first proposed, I was
convinced it would be a complete disaster. In the
past, I was always able to pull in less than ideal
stations and put up with a snowy picture. With DTV,
I was convinced it would be all or nothing, with
the emphasis on nothing.
But my experiences
prove otherwise. The Zenith DTT901 tuner is hot
and really does a great job pulling in weak stations
in fringe areas. I have to conclude the FCC did
quite a good job when they set up the technical
specifications for these boxes.
I would
be interested in reading about other peoples experiences
(preferably technical) with the transition to DTV.
It would be useful knowing not only what works,
but what was tried and didn’t work. This could be
of great help to others looking to set up a DTV
setup.
******************
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
|
|
|
|
|
Kirt Blattenberger
|
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:38 pm
|
|
|
Site Admin |
|
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003
2:02 pm Posts: 676 Location: Erie, PA
|
Greetings:
The author of the above note
sent this photo of the antenna setup he used to
get good results.
He adds,
"I wish I had access to this kind of information
before I set up my DTV system because it took almost
2 years and a lot of experimentation before I was
able to pull in reliable HDTV from as far away as
71 miles without resorting to a 200 foot tower and
giant antenna.
Attached is a picture of
my final setup. Notice, no amplifiers. They made
the signal worse due to overloading."
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
|
|
Posted 11/12/2012
|
Copyright: 1996 - 2024
Webmaster:
Kirt
Blattenberger,
BSEE - KB3UON
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while tying up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got
Mail" when a new message arrived...
|
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.
|
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.
My Hobby Website: AirplanesAndRockets.com
My Daughter's Website: EquineKingdom
|
|
|
|