[HoustonHam] Digital TV - too technical for public??

[n5fnh at muckleroy.com]

I also have DirecTV.  I guess we've had it for wow 12 years now.  If a heavy
rain cloud gets between the dish and the satellite we lose the signal.
Clouds?  No.  Rain?  No.

So I'd say we have full access about 99.9% of the time.  I HATE cable
companies and I vowed NEVER to give them ANY of my money years ago.

I do POTS and DSL from AT&T, Sat from DirecTV, Cell with tmobile.  Really
happy with all of them.


-----Original Message-----
From: houstonham-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:houstonham-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of chas
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 12:21 PM
To: vaclav_sal at yahoo.com; Amateur Radio in Houston TX area
Subject: Re: [HoustonHam] Digital TV - too technical for public??

vaclav sal wrote:
> I have read the article and my deduction is - digital TV won't work in 
> Texas!
> The technician mentioned in the article states that in his experience 
> it won't work when "...especially when it's windy or hot and sunny..."
> He describes "normal" everyday weather in TX!
> But I was under the impression that they not only going digital but 
> are changing "channels" to UHF! And since UHF has not been the "network"
> channels the antenna issue would be valid but for wrong reason! I 
> guess it would be too technical for the general public!
> Also I do not buy the "all or nothing" signal theory explanation 
> either.  Digital supposed to be relatively immune to signal strength 
> as long as it meets some minimal level.
> But if you are on the edge of this minimal strength - then you are out 
> of luck.
>  
> 
> Back to ham radio - anybody experimenting with digital TV ?? Or is it 
> too early??
> 
> 73 Vaclav AA7EJ


FYI and fwiw, there has been discussion on Channel 2 going away (being
abandoned to our 160m? and lower...??  with the point being that it (in
Houston... KPRC)  has been on UHF Channel 35 for quite a long time and will
continue to be there.  UHF really sucks with an external antenna with
analog.. it is going to be incredible to get a decent signal with the same
antenna with digital under normal Texas weather... I certainly agree with
your statement.

during the 30 days that Comcast was unable to provide me service for TV
during and following IKE, I was enjoying both Ham, MARS and streaming
download (dsl, I am NOT stupid enough to have cable
internet!!!)  live from several of the major local stations as very few of
them were knocked out by the storm.
I hate Satellite TV because it does not work whenever there are clouds in
the sky.  I hate Comcast because their service sucks... of the 4 boxes in my
house, only two are working at this time... problem is the lines outside the
house.  When they are working.. all of them are pixilating at any one time
on virtually all but the local channels.

Has anyone every tried to end run thru the telephone lines for TV?

Not sure how we would get the Encore and other channels but we would
certainly be able to get the local channels I should think?  I mean, there
are I don't know how many companies selling telephone service via the
internet... why not TV service???  it is only a question of bandwidth and
download speed.

well this is off topic to ham radio but it still makes me wonder WHY we have
to tolerate the poor service of Satellite and Cable. I really cannot believe
that Internet TV does not exist to some degree now.


back to waiting for the Comcast repair guy...
chas, houston
k5dam
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