On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:28:15 GMT, Owen Duffy wrote:

On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:14:22 GMT, Cecil Moore wrote:

A couple of days ago, my power failed right in the middle of a
football game. I just happen to have a 12v deep discharge battery
and a 12v B&W TV. I plugged it in, extended the two-foot telescoping
antenna and, wonders of wonders, I was receiving a very good vhf
TV signal from about 40 miles away. The game went on and after
awhile the power came back on. That good TV picture simultaneously
disappeared along with the sound. There may be a lesson there somewhere.

I don't think you were telling us that the battery went flat at that
moment, so...

Don't you have digital television? Best thing since sliced bread.

I don't know if you can receive analog television beyond the digital
coverage ranges, but you probably wouldn't want to watch it.

Digital TV makes weak signals most watchable, DVD quality at weak
signals.

I use it and I am only 4km from the transmitter, but that is another
situation where it works a treat, ghost free pictures close to the
tranmitter in the presence of local reflections (hills, water towers
etc).

I suppose you have the Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (COFDM) standard there.

(Editorial mode on)

Our idiot government is forcing 8-VSB (8-level vestigial sideband) on
us and multipath will be the death of my off-the-air TV watching.

Furthermore, my wife and rarely watch anything live (except for local
news), but use two DVRs for time shifting and commercial elimination.
So with my system, if I can get a picture at all, I would need three
STBs (set top boxes) that are programmable or a couple of new digital
recorders and a new TV set. (If I was poor enough, my idiot
government would buy this stuff for me, but instead, I believe I will
be taxed to buy it for someone else.)

And then they are changing the aspect ratio so my 35" screen is
obsolete and any replacement would have a smaller screen if I want to
keep it in my $7,000 piece of furniture.

One of my U.S. Senators (McCain) is actually leading this effort, "In
the interest of public safety" because he says the analog TV frequency
spectrum will be used for emergency communications. Ha ha. The
government wants to auction this spectrum off to the highest bidder(s)
and it won't be the local police department.

Another example of what you get when you have politicans making
technical decisions.

(Editorial mode off)