[Lowfer] WEOH signal plots

[John Davis]

>>Does it go away when you turn off power?
>
>Only if I pull the line plug. Everything has a remote control these days,
>which means that a portion of the circuit is always powered up even though
>it's supposedly "off". The DSS receiver runs fairly warm in standby --
>wonder how many kWH those things waste every year...
>
I can't quantify it, but I can confirm the only thing that actually gets
turned off on these units is the output RF modulator.  The receiver RF and
IF stages remain on, as does the decoder.  The latter is continually
updating the virtual channel table, authorization codes, electronic program
guide, and other software features.  Although the MPEG video and audio
streams are stopped, all the hardware involved in recreating the decoded
analog outputs are still powered up.  The RCA jacks are still outputting
sync with reference black level on mine the whole time.  (Very handy when I
have some video editing to do.)

You'll find much the same to be true on a lot of VCRs.  Any decks that set
their clocks automatically and/or use VCR+ or other program guide services
are continually powering up their receiver stages when you think they're
off, scanning through available channels, and retrieving data transmitted in
the vertical blanking interval from whatever stations are carrying such
data.  On a few models, the composite video output is also active the whole
time, and you can see which channels they're resting on at a given moment.

I often tell people I don't believe in "inanimate" objects.  They're all
alive, and they're all out to get us.  But these days, that's becoming less
tongue-in-cheek paranoia, and something more like reality.

John D