Punch cards

[Tim]

Tim:
>> If you're talking rabbit ears, I'm not surprised you see a difference.
>> They're a rotten antenna system.  But I'd be very surprised if you don't
>> see some other nasty problems with your digital reception (freezes,
>> blocky picture breakups, etc.).  A bit of snow, even ghosting, is still
>> bearable on analogue TV, but digital TV that breaks up and loses sound
>> and picture once every 20 seconds (i.e. repeatedly) due to poor
>> reception issues is unbearable.

Aaron Konstam:
> You have been right too often lately. Well here again you are right.

You make it sound like I'm tempting fate, and the grim reaper is lurking
around the corner just waiting to tell me it's his turn now...  ;-)

> On one channel I get this kind of interference. On another channel I
> get no signal at all. 

It's really messy with digital television, as the channel assignments
are all over the place.  We're used to tuning into television stations
by real channel numbers (e.g channel two, seven, nine, and ten are
actually VHF channels 2, 7, 9 & 10), so one antenna generally serves
well enough for all of them.  Later on we got SBS on UHF 28 (usually,
for major cities), etc., and that sometimes works on the same antenna,
more by brute force than good design (more about ch 28 below).

Now, with digital broadcasting, the frequencies are spread about all
over the place; and to watch all the channels, you may need an antenna
that covers much of both the VHF and UHF bands.  Even good antennas
don't always do that well, rabbit ears (an untuned dipole) are really a
poor way to go about it.

> But in further investigation I found out that the problem is that
> nearly a year before the big switch not all stations are operating at
> full power. But since after Feb. 20o9 that is all we will have we will
> have to live with it or get cable (the expensive alternative).

The changeover's been pushed back, yet again, to 2013.  There's
experiments all over the place.  Here, in Adelaide, the VHF stations
have been broadcasting for years beyond their license range, using
masses of power (they can be received across the gulf, but they're not
meant to, they're licensed for Adelaide and suburbs).  All of us have
been taking advantage of that, and getting away with mediocre antenna
systems because there's such a high level of RF in the air to pick up.
SBS on UHF 28 put out the most power of the lot, ostensibly because when
they started many had sets with bad UHF tuners and inadequate antennas,
so they tried to make it easy.

Now, with extra channels in use, they've got to play around, again,
trying to work out a balance between not interfering with each other,
yet giving the public the best signal that they can manage.  They
certainly haven't got that right, yet, as far as I can see.  Even with a
strong signal, it still needs to be stronger than unwanted signals
(reflections, other carriers, interference) to be usable.

And we'll be dealing with a plethora of set top boxes for a long time to
come...  One for the lounge, another for the recorder (if you want to
record something different from what you're watching), another for the
portable set out the back, and others for the portable set in the
bedrooms.  Yes, they're still selling TVs and recorders that ONLY have
analogue tuners, or only have standard definition tuners (which doesn't
help much - the push is to try and move us up onto high-def, and to do
so by broadcasting something different that can only be received on a
high-def tuner).

I ain't buying a $1,000+ set, and another tuner, just to watch a movie
with adverts.  Nor will masses of others.  Considering that those masses
are more than pleased with their low-res set, the approach is just all
wrong.

> By the way the quality of rabbit ears depends on where you are in
> relation to the station. In a Big City they have always been adequate
> for me, 

The quality of the rabbit ears really depends on the bunny...  ;-)


-- 
(This computer runs FC7, my others run FC4, FC5 & FC6, in case that's
 important to the thread.)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.