O/T: Folded Dipole

What time of the year and time of day are you experiencing problems and for how long at a time?

If it occurs during the spring and fall then you could be experiencing receiver overload caused by the SUN. The SUN is the most powerful transmitter in the solar system. When the DirecTV satellite pass in front of the sun the sun overloads the receiver for a few minutes.

If the problem is ocuring at other times then I don't have any help for you. HI HI...

Dave N

Reply to
David G. Nagel
Loading thread data ...

Actually, it is not the tuner in the TV that is the problem unless it is raining hard. The HD satellite receiver DVR gets the weak signal and records it that way. Typically when I am using the tuner in the TV I am using an off air antennas, the rabbit ears.

Typically when the weather is fine the only time this happens is when getting the satellite digital signal passed through to the HDTV and only when viewing local stations. Switching inputs to rabbit ears and watching the same local HD channel solves the problem. Obviously if there is severe rain this can happen at any time with either source.

Doing mushrooms. LOL OK let me describe this a bit better. I will give you two examples of how this looks. As the signal weakens the sound starts distorting to indicate that the picture is about to degrade. Slowly the picture begins to have different color blocks appear off and on. As this progresses the picture appears to blur and it strongly resembles a 'Picasso" painting but there is still motion. "If" it worsens it may freeze and or become totally unrecognizable.

In its worse state and for my second example you have to think about looking at a jpg file and zooming in. As you greatly zoom in the pixels become larger and you see less details of the picture. this is what the screen looks like as it freezes and or just before the screen goes blank. This can go on for an entire episode of a show. then suddenly every thing is fine for several seconds and it goes through this cycle over and over. If it is exceptionally bad I will get a black screen for a few seconds during the cycle.

Reply to
Leon

Year round any time of day however we mostly watch night time TV so we notice this mostly at night.

Several years ago when I as with Dish Network the sun spot situation would happen but it was never any thing like I am experiencing with HD Satelite.

DirecTV has finally started blaming the Air Force Base some 30 miles away. Basically they have given up on trying to cure a week signal problem.

I can't wait for Uverse.

Reply to
Leon

Some clown cut through a fibre-optic cable, one of those "Dig Before You Call" incidents. My shop was was fine, uninterrupted services. My house? No phone. No Intertubes No TV No 911 My Crackberry went looking for my WiFi and took the expensive data- route for my e-mails as it like to go roaming across the river to a US supplier. (I usually get refunded for those)

All in all, it made me aware just how much I am depending on that farking little coax coming into my house, and subsequently my office as well.

I'm not suggesting we're going back to smoke signals and pigeons, but holy cow.. that was a wake-up call. Too vulnerable for my tastes... not to mention my daughter couldn't get at her home-work, or do her after-school job as a barista at a local coffee shop.

Reply to
Robatoy

"Robatoy" wrote

Some clown cut through a fibre-optic cable, one of those "Dig Before You Call" incidents. My shop was was fine, uninterrupted services. My house? No phone. No Intertubes No TV No 911 My Crackberry went looking for my WiFi and took the expensive data- route for my e-mails as it like to go roaming across the river to a US supplier. (I usually get refunded for those)

All in all, it made me aware just how much I am depending on that farking little coax coming into my house, and subsequently my office as well.

I'm not suggesting we're going back to smoke signals and pigeons, but holy cow.. that was a wake-up call. Too vulnerable for my tastes... not to mention my daughter couldn't get at her home-work, or do her after-school job as a barista at a local coffee shop. ===============================

What, your daughter couldn't make coffee drinks without a computer? Here in the states, baristas actually memorize how to make the drinks.

Seriously though, being so dependent on so many large, complicated systems can really screw you up if the service becomes interupted in any way. And anything from an errant cutin a line to an earthquake can create the outage.

I have been involved in planning for such interuptions for some offices. There really isn't much you can do. And any redundencies gets quite expensive.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

ATT finally has U-verse working in our area. They are pushing it pretty hard here but I haven't taken the plunge yet since I'm still doing my homework. Their prices are competitive with the local cable company but not much better The programming packages do seem a little better with more HD channels. The service is TV over Internet and you start to see better savings if you let them do VOIP with your phone. When they arrive in your area you'll start seeing the installer trucks. Those guys know more about the actual service than the sales people do. Beware of hardware charges. The first box (with a large DVR) is free but there is a charge for other boxes. Also they do charge $10 a month for HD service unless you buy their largest programming package. My biggest question is (which I'm having a hard time finding the answer to) since the Internet service seems to be ATT/Yahoo what do they do for newsgroups.

Mike O.

Reply to
Mike O.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Ohh, she knows how to make the coffees, smartass, but opening the till without Net access is the problem. She got a big pat on the back from the owner when she made her own till and took cash transactions. Not too shabby for a 15-year old who can add and subtract without a calculator.

On another level, I used to be able to start any car, no matter what. Jan 19 1993, I was the only car that ran on my street. 1986 Olds 88. Can of ether, screwdriver in the carb... the rest of the street, fuel injection, dead in their drive-ways. Nowadays, all that stuff is waaaaay to goofy for me to even consider trying to learn anything about it. I am very fortunate to have a very good mechanic as a solid friend.

A case of single malt, a box of batteries, small generator, satellite dish, smoked salmon, freezer full of sausages, defibrillator, good to go for a few days. Propane. Weatherby D'ITALIA (III) O/U and a box or two of treats for the criminally inclined... because NOBODY messes with my Ren & Stimpy collection.

Reply to
Robatoy

Some clown cut through a fibre-optic cable, one of those "Dig Before You Call" incidents. My shop was was fine, uninterrupted services. My house? No phone. No Intertubes No TV No 911 My Crackberry went looking for my WiFi and took the expensive data- route for my e-mails as it like to go roaming across the river to a US supplier. (I usually get refunded for those)

All in all, it made me aware just how much I am depending on that farking little coax coming into my house, and subsequently my office as well.

I'm not suggesting we're going back to smoke signals and pigeons, but holy cow.. that was a wake-up call. Too vulnerable for my tastes... not to mention my daughter couldn't get at her home-work, or do her after-school job as a barista at a local coffee shop.

Good point but I get tired of calling ATT for DSL problems and DirecTV for TV problems. I want one call to do it all.

Reply to
Leon

Swingman has had it for about 1 year IIRC and he seems pretty pleased with it. Apparently the internet service clows DSL away, IIRC about 4-5 times faster down load than DSL.

I have been noticing the trucks working the general area since mid September. Word is it shoud be available very very soon, March/April.

This is nothing new, I pay $5 for extra boxes now and a $10 charge for HD service and $6 for DVR service. IIRC Uverse does not charge extra for the DVR service. I do know that many more permium movie channels are availavle for about the same price I am pay ringht now with much less programing content.

I use ATT/Yahoo now with DSL, I imagine the news groups would be exactly the same. That said you cannot get most of the groups similar to a.b.p.w. to get that group but I pay Giganews $2.99 per month for 25 times more content than I use. Last month I used 2% of what was available to me. Unfortunately there is no roll over. :~(

Reply to
Leon

He may not been a clown only a poor guy trying to do a job when the cable was poorly marked and installed. I know of one occasion when the cable was cut because the cable made an unneeded loop between two known location of the cable.

Reply to
Keith Nuttle

Using a Four bay El-cheapo UHF, my shop is getting a FAR better signal than my Direct TV setup in the house.

The local channels are VERY close to my neighbors HD tv setup that he pays pretty big bucks for.

Le>> I'm guessing it's more of a bandwidth issue. 1080i requires (guessing)

Reply to
Pat Barber

"Leon" wrote in news:headnXjiIt2aHm3UnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Try Verizon

Reply to
Han

"Leon" wrote in news:t_adne4K68-WG23UnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I pay $124/mo for Verizon FiOS: phone, TV (2 STBs), 20/5 internet.

I paid $10 to astraweb for non-Verizon usenet since last June: Your Account: Pay-by-Download Account Status: Active Bytes Downloaded: 239,565,280 bytes (0.24 GB) Downloads Left: 24,760,434,720 bytes (24.76 GB)

Admittedly, I use Verizon's internet for most of my newsgroups

Reply to
Han

I currently have broadband cable Internet so to equal about the same speed I need to bump up to the third tier Internet service with U-verse. Here, I think Uverse has 5 tiers now at about $5 more per tier.

For the same money I'm paying now I can get a little more content and quite a bit more HD content. If I add their phone, in total it saves me about $20 a month.

I'm leaning more and more.

Mike O.

Reply to
Mike O.

Two weeks ago my neighbor was replacing some old fencing. He called and had the area flagged and the guy who flagged the ATT stuff told him "that cable can be 5' on either side of the flags".

What the hell is the point...???

Mike O.

Reply to
Mike O.

Exactly, I chopped the cable line and the hole was not where the markings were.

Reply to
Leon

Actually ATT had been doing my phones for a long time, DSL about 10 years. Cell just over 1 year. TV is all they are not gestating now.

We have had the capability to record 2 programs at one time for 6 or 7 years IIRC, Uverse allows 4 programs and oddly that would be better for us. U'd think 2 would be plenty. LOL

Reply to
Leon

Just what the hell is worth recording as presented in what Newton Minnow defined as "A Vast Wasteland" more than 40 years ago?

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

"Leon" wrote in news:3Yydnch0Zcf8qGzUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Ever notice how there's nothing worth watching on several hours of the day, but some hours there's 3-4 decent shows? The nothing worth watching seems to coincide with the time I'm ready for supper, too.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

"Leon" wrote in news:tJ6dnVKd9OCjqWzUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Got sewerline replaced. Luckily water and gas were not in the way, they were near where they were supposed to be. But, the contractor was also very careful digging ...

I feel sorry for the old oak tree who was depending on us flushing nutrients his&her way. It's an ugly thing, but it does give some shade.

Reply to
Han

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.