Posted on 06/23/2009 2:02:48 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
Yep, I experimented with the OFF button. Nice black screen, kinda like it :-)
I’ll bet there a ‘green’ element in this new digital plan. Keeping transmitter power down at the expense of coverage is likely to be widespread.
May also be about phasing out over-the-air broadcasts that cannot be charged for, in favor of satellite and cable distribution that is fee based. More interference and more critical antennas needed, people will just give up and pay for a controlled distribution source.
Being able to receive 25 over the air channels isn’t necessarily that good.
There is only so much over the air variety.
ABC from Jax, Orlando, St. Aug, Daytona is pretty much the same and except for local News.
As far as I know History, Spike, Lifetime, Discovery, MTV, etc. do not broadcast over the air.
So your ‘variety’ will be ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and possibly a few independents.
Reception here and out at the mom’s house in the country — mostly nonexistent. The local CBS and ABC stations don’t come in at all at mom’s, FOX is usually fine, NBC is kinda lousy, PBS (line of sight with the broadcast aerial) and the biggest evangelical station come in great. Here in the city, no CBS, no ABC, NBC and FOX are fine, PBS is usually okay.
Yup. It’s a flamethrower!
>> We have a channel master antenna and a 29 dB amp <<
Depending on the quality of the amp, it may be doing more harm than good. Try taking it out of the line and see if reception improves. In fact, very few installations really need an amp, unless the feedline from the antenna to the TV set is more than 100’ long.
Moreover, even if your installation does call for an amp, 29 dB is really A LOT — probably way too much gain. The amp could be causing overload at your tuner. Or it could be amplifying unwanted spurs, images and/or intermod products that confuse the digital decoding circuitry in your converter box. Cheap amps like those from Radio Shack frequently have these problems. If you want a good amp, you should look first for a low noise figure, say below 3 dB. Then, 10 dB of gain should be all you’d ever need.
(And if the manufacturer doesn’t bother to specify the noise figure, you can be almost certain that you have an inferior amp.)
Also, if your feedline is either 300 ohm twinlead or old RG-59 coax, you should change over to quadshield RG-6U coax. And make sure you have a good 300-to-72 ohm balun at the antenna’s feedpoint, sealed against moisture.
Finally, check and recheck and tighten all connections from the antenna down to the set. I’ll bet that 50% of reception problems can be traced to a connection that either has worked loose, has corroded, or wasn’t properly made in the first place.
WHDH is ABC the same group that doing Obama Health Care Propaganda - a free ad for the Administration. Damn right they're gonna get what they want from the FCC.
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