Would you believe, I still have a pulse-tone phone line. When I moved here, the telco was charging 3X what my previous telco had, which I thought was a rip. Even small expenses like that can really add up over time.
Have you tried switching your phone to tone to see if it will dial ? Years ago my phone company was charging extra for a tone phone line. After a few years I found out it did not make any differance what you used in your house. Either kind would work. Switched all of my phones to tone. Several years later the phone company quit the surcharge for the tones (or they may just have raided the rates, I forgot what).
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I'm sure the revenue/cost has to have been figured in--how, of course, is anybody's guess unless inside the main station's business/ engineering/marketing office. It appears to me from the maps that some of it is terrain-related on some of them--while flat by standards in many parts of the country, NW KS up there around Colby and west isn't dead flat like SW KS down here is where the maps are essentially perfect geometric circles. And, of course, that the entire population of, say, Wallace County is probably less than 1500 means they simply just "don't get no respect".
Of course, but the maps also don't have any indication of what they _DO_ purport to represent nor how they were generated.
That's certainly not clear to me (that they don't also have to convert) -- I thought it was based on analog transmission power levels and by that measure these are, iirc, about the same if not stronger than the base stations in Wichita area. The few words the stations have broadcast certainly indicate they're making the switch, just no information at all on how/when/what they expect, etc., ... As for openness; the one time I did get the opportunity to talk to one of their engineers (different subject; was getting interference from an undetermined source) he was quite helpful (to limits of his knowledge from 250 miles away, that is) but the stations appear to have clamped down on access for the duration now; my contacts have been limited to being told to look at the web site FAQ which, as noted above, ignores the translators entirely w/ the exception of a signal note that implies they will switch at a point to follow (unspecified, but wording implies not long). All in all, it's just not well handled for the rural areas (but what else is new?).
Perhaps, but the DTV signal still has to be strong enough in amplitude for an antenna to pick it up -- while S:N ratios are undoubtedly much better than w/ analog, absolute signal levels are going to be lower, too. Will it work??? AFAICT it's anybody's guess until the witching day arrives for fringe areas.
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That's what I said... :)
Unfortunately, it appears that's the only choice (as usual in rural areas) -- be satisfied what scraps the city folks running the show see fit to leave...
In your case, I have to assume that your tv stations are in other cities, not the one you live in. If thats the case, I can see where tall buildings and such would block the signal. But if the stations are in your own city, there is no reason you cant get a signal, unless you only got rabbit ears.
Jim
Unfortunately, they're as stubborn as I am. About a month ago, I was hooking up a dialup modem and the software was set to dial tone by default ... didn't work until I changed settings to ATDP. .
Maybe 10 years ago they attempted to get the last of us hold-outs by offering a free telephone answering service - which they claimed required a touch-tone line. I don't know if it was a case of them not knowing that phones then came with a button to switch to touch tone for negotiating automated answering systems ... or if they thought we customers didn't know.
I'm going to guess "no" as radio has already gone digital (aka "HD Radio") but on the existing frequencies. Of course, that doesn't mean that it never will. It'd be sad though as I've got far more old radios laying around than TVs (and it would suck if I couldn't listen to my old Blaupunkt AM/FM/SW in the living room)
nate
They seem to be more popular for cars for some reason. I bought a new head unit for my old pickup truck last year and decided to get one with HD because it didn't cost much more than the regular ones and I was curious. (the real reason I bought one was because I wanted something other than "just a radio" so I got one with a CD player and auxiliary jack. The HD was just a nice little bonus.) I still pretty much only listen to NPR, but now I have three different channels to listen to :) The sound quality is very nice, too. Since analog radio isn't going away, the issues with digital reception are not as much of a problem with radio - when the digital signal drops out, the radio just drops back to analog and the only way you can tell is that the sound quality gets worse. Unless you're listening to one of the sub- channels, of course.
nate
nate
After looking at the various maps one might conclude that the new DTV signal will generally give greater coverage. That couldn't be farther from the truth. The present analog tuner can create a watch able signal from a distance that is greater than these maps digital boundaries.
Problems were blocking and ghosting from taller buildings and electrical interference.
That's what's good about the U.S., satellite TV is a bargain compared to cable, and it doesn't cost more in different markets. What country are you located in? In the U.S., it's cable that can be outrageously expensive. In the U.S. you can get DISH network for as little as $19.95 per month (one TV, 40 basic channels).
When channels moved from Analog VHF to Digital UHF thats the problem:(
UHF stations were typically 3 or more times the power of VHF, because UHF does not propgate as well.
doesnt penetrate buildings as well. there goes the bunny ear watchers, plus the stations decided in many cases to decrease digital power.
apparently they dont care, perhaps OTA viewers are second class citizens? not as many bucks for spending to attract advertisers?
whatever the cause, people are losing channels they watched their entire life. Congress is scared of mad voters, and congresss uses the stations to get re elected.
bob casey PA is my senator
I think it's $5/month extra for the local channels. Direct TV is about 30, local channels included. TV or radio could be a life saver in the tornado areas.
Dean
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What is very interesting to me is that the maps (at least for the Dallas-Fort Worth area) shows the coverage areas increasing for the most part and the station power decreasing by 5 to 10 x. -- Doug
I'm not an RF engineer, but I do recall reading that there isn't a 1 to 1 correspondence between power levels between VHF and UHF. It's possible that your stations are going from VHF to UHF (or vice versa), or that the new towers are higher than the old ones. Also possible that the stations themselves decided that their official coverage area didn't require as strong a signal.
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if the broadcasters of free over the air digital TV signals really wanted to make this work well and ensure an exacting coverage of a specific area with standardized signal strength they'd take a lesson from the cell phone signal providers with their tower placements.
with a few more well placed towers and by making use of repeater technology the people living 25 miles from the central station could receive the same level of service as the people living 10 miles from said location.
but, that's not going to happen as a result of realistic cost considerations.
On Jan 9, 5:12 pm, Dean Hoffman wrote: ...
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_IF_ the "local" channels on dish are really local. Here, only the Wichita/Amarillo city feed is uplink feed; the translators that are the local weather feeds aren't available except OTA.
So, since Wichita doesn't go to severe weather coverage except for events in their local area, it's of no use whatsoever for that purpose. :(
Which is my biggest complaint with the whole folderol of replacing something that works just fine w/ what may (or then again, may not)...
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Yeah, my satellite "local" channels come from 80 miles away, but if I could get them OTA, they would still come from 80 miles away. However, there is a NOAA station line of sight from my house. Get a weather radio with a weather alert signal, and you will never miss a tornado warning again. I picked mine up at Radio Shack about 30 years ago.
That type blames The President, anyone who is President for everything because they believe The President has powers he doesn't have. The law was passed by the *Legislature*, the body that can override a veto by The President. I wish more people understood how government works and how laws are made. The President doesn't make the laws. If The President refused to sign the bill he would be lambasted for ignoring the will of the people.
TDD
That's interesting because according to The FCC, a VHF station here is going to be transmitting DT on their present VHF channel.
TDD
Oh my God, you actually thought your elected representative cares about *you*? Why, you're not and endangered species like some rare snail or rodent are you? Perhaps if you became a news story,......hummm, call the press and pitch a story about a poor rural family who can't get TV reception and how *the children* are suffering because of what President Bush did and you could get all kinds of attention.
TDD
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