In article ,
BCBlazysusan wrote:
What I am curious
about is when the digital conversion is totally complete does that
mean that those freqs are going to be free and abandoned so too speak
on the television freqs? I am seriously wondering if that means when I
swing my Channel Master around that I will be able to do some serious
DXing, I have at times caught (no more than eight minutes- but still
cool) other countries appearing on my tv screen. If anyone knows "for
sure" please let me know.....I have been looking forward to grabbing
some great DX on the tube after the switch.

Browse an archive of alt.video.digital-tv and alt.tv.tech.hdtv
and you'll get a lot of news and links to websites with way more
detail than you'll get here.

There are still going to be some low band VHF ATSC transmitters, but that
band has a lot of interference problems that the digital tuners can't
deal with, so it's not popular. (I think somebody posted a day or two
ago that Chicago will have digital on channel 2 or 3).

Transmitters will be lower in power than analog TV because the
signal to noise ratio is 20 some dB lower for good reception.
So it should be easier to get analog DX.

Except that the UK is already doing a rolling conversion and Canada
will be dropping analog in two or three years. Maybe the Caribbean...

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

"Mark Zenier" wrote in message
...

Except that the UK is already doing a rolling conversion and Canada
will be dropping analog in two or three years. Maybe the Caribbean...


IIRC, the UK hasn't had any VHF television since they dropped the old 320(?)
line system in favor of PAL. I could be wrong about the timeline, but I'm
pretty sure it's been a very long time since they dropped what they call
Band I.

In article ,
Brenda Ann wrote:

"Mark Zenier" wrote in message
...

Except that the UK is already doing a rolling conversion and Canada
will be dropping analog in two or three years. Maybe the Caribbean...


IIRC, the UK hasn't had any VHF television since they dropped the old 320(?)
line system in favor of PAL. I could be wrong about the timeline, but I'm
pretty sure it's been a very long time since they dropped what they call
Band I.

Opps, right. I think they did keep it going until the late 80's,
depending on the viewing population. It might be a legend, but I think
it got to the point at one transmitter site that they bought the last
little old lady a new TV set, rather than keep the transmitter and her
ancient TV going.

dig, dig, dig ... System A 405 lines, 50 Fps, 10125 Hz line rate.
That makes my ears hurt just thinking about it.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)