[opendtv] Re: Kennard and Powell to the rescue
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:11:24 -0800
1999, so you knew, or, as a broadcast engineer, should have known, about the
cliff effect. Why are you giving us your whining now? You made your
decision, for the big back yard, and great c-band reception, but now you
chose to "punish" with your Ludditism.
And, you're talking about FORECASTS? This is absurd. Let me clue in on
something; the stations don't create forecasts; they pay for them from
Accuweather or another similar service. You can, if you can see your way
through the whining, get the same data yourself, and when you want it, not
when the tv-schedule-related Pavlovian response kicks in.
Here's something else that you should know: without a spectrum analyzer and
a field-strength meter, you don't have a clue as to whether your
interference issue is caused by analog into digital (with the analog signal
being far away.) In other words, you don't know if your interference is
CAUSED by the transition to digital, and will simply go away when analog
does.
But, all you can give is FEAR.
Please, you are an adult. Act like one and live with your choices.
John Willkie
_____
De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En
nombre de Cliff Benham
Enviado el: Sunday, January 11, 2009 8:19 PM
Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Asunto: [opendtv] Re: Kennard and Powell to the rescue
John Willkie wrote:
So, your "interest" in digital is solely to get 1946 to 1956 studio-quality
video into analog sets?
Go back and read what I wrote. The sets are from 1946 to 1956, NOT THE
VIDEO!!!!!
That's pretty much what I think your interest is, but I wouldn't have used
the word "solely."
I can guarantee you that studio quality video has improved significantly in
the past 60 years, and that not a word in any of the various laws,
regulations and FCC proceedings would favor your interest.
As I said above....
Your situation is a bit different than most; you are a television engineer,
not merely someone who plays one on the Internet. I also suspect that you
moved to your present location with marginal analog reception after DTV was
initiated by an act of Congress.
1999.
And, I know that there was debate back then whether or how well digital
would replicate analog reception. Isn't this a bet that you lost?
I lost 2 Philly DTV stations but picked up up 3 more from Baltimore.
Sometimes.
What you really could and should have said was that your bad bet meant that
you couldn't get the weather tonight on digital, so you had to step down to
analog.
I could get it from Baltimore, 52 miles distant, but thats not where I live.
The weather from Baltimore only has meaning here once in a while.
However, I suspect that there are several ways of getting the weather, even
in bad weather, and several of them are more efficient than waiting for
someone to dispense a bit of weather information to you when they do it, on
a regular schedule.
I have several weather radios, but the NWS station nearest me is very weak.
The only other one is from the Maryland shore.
Not my weather either. I look at radar loops from NOAA in Mt. Holly,N.J. and
Sterling Va. Good but do not provide the
forecast that the computerized TV weather programs have.
It sounds to me like you need to subscribe to cable to get the same type of
television reception that others consider to be baseline useable.
If I subscribe to anything it will be to a satellite service.
You're right about the FCC, of course. The FCC of 1953 is not the FCC we
have today. Of course, the FCC didn't mandate 8-vSB; Congress did, and Bill
"BJ" Clinton signed it into law. Nor does this FCC mandate agricultural
reports for urban areas, or news, or public affairs programming. There are
no limits on commercial content, nor are station proposals evaluated on
whether they propose to pay for an Associated Press newswire. Nor are the
industries regulated by the FCC (save mobile telephones and another here and
there) in an expansion mode. Nor is broadcasting the only way to get
reliable news and information between the various editions of newspapers
that are delivered to homes.
Others, without your knowledge and experience, have bigger violins to play
over the next 40 or so days.
But, me, I'm old-fashioned. I always pay attention to broadcast, satellite,
cable and telephone reception/connectivity issues when I consider moving.
I moved here because the house has a huge backyard with a Southwestern look
and no trees. I get great, FREE C-Band reception.
I even try to anticipate how the situation might change based on weather,
topography, climate, and new construction. I learned this the hard way, by
moving, in 1976, to a location where I soon discovered, there was no
possibility of TV, AM or FM (aside from snowy audio from one station)
reception. Fortunately, Adobe Falls did have cable television hookups, and
it was livable, until/unless the Lake Murray dam broke.
By the way, nothing I say should be construed to assert that 8-VSB works
perfectly or anything more than "almost adequate." But, I can receive HDTV
signals that travel more than 120 miles to my home.
John Willkie
Sometimes I can too. The key word here is 'sometimes'.
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