[Amps] OTA TV

[Jim Brown]

On 8/3/2013 10:13 AM, donroden at hiwaay.net wrote:
> The FCC sold the public a bill of goods when they were promoting 
> digital TV.
> They told TV stations that their coverage area would double in area.
> Over the air real world results were just the opposite... We lost all 
> of our fringe viewers and half of our grade B viewers. People who were 
> watching our analog signal with indoor rabbit ears lost coverage when 
> we turned the analog transmitters off.

Yes, that's definitely true.But isn't that, at least in part, a matter 
of licensed ERP?  When I poked around the FCC database around the time 
of the cutover, the DTV licenses were typically 10 dB or more below the 
ATV licenses, taking antenna height and location into account, which 
seems really poor engineering in light of the real world experience 
you're citing.

I've also seen some REALLY dumb frequency and channel allocations. Here 
in the Santa Cruz mountains, my CBS affiliate is first adjacent to a 
Spanish language station, the transmitter sites are pretty close to each 
other, so the same azimuth for everyone, but the CBS affiliate has a 
license that gives them10 dB less signal. As a result, I get lots of 
fades on them.  Two of our locals are high-band Vs, on 8 and 13, roughly 
45 miles, and I do OK on them with a 4x2 UHF bow-tie and a preamp.

> Elderly fixed income viewers couldn't afford the expense of getting an 
> outside antenna or the monthly costs of cable or sat.

Unless you're a ham, or know someone who is. :)

>
> Other than a few digital geeks , no one wanted HDTV. 

I will STRONGLY disagree with you on that one, Don. I'm a genuine old 
fart, and I LOVE DTV, especially HD.

> It cost millions for TV stations to convert , and we lost half the 
> audience. Some Deal !!! 

There are other reasons that the audience for OTA broadcasting has been 
dwindling for years. With both TV and radio, the the programming has 
gotten progressively lousier, and then the audiences got cannibalized by 
the cable networks, now streaming and DVDs.The ONLY reason we own 
broadcast receivers is for the music and news on public radio, 
occasional good stuff on PBS, and occasional major sports things.  I 
find sports a LOT more riveting with an HD signal.

73, Jim K9YC