FW: [South Florida DX Association] Digital Switch Creating BroadcastCoverage Gaps - Test data suggests many users will fall outof range.

[Ed Callaway]

The answer to the question, "How did the FCC and NTIA spend over $1 billion
dollars and counting on the DTV campaign without actually testing the
converter box and antenna configurations, especially in rural fringe areas?"
is, "They did test it."  Many, many times, beginning in Charlotte, North
Carolina in 1994.

However, the digital system was designed to perform out to the "Grade B"
contour of the analog systems, F(50,50) -- meaning the contour having a
signal level that produces a subjectively-acceptable NTSC picture in 50% of
the places along the contour, 50% of the time -- that being the FCC's
definition of the television station's service area.

The ATSC digital system was designed to work down to these signal levels,
and it does -- in fact, it produces a better picture at the Grade B contour
than analog NTSC.  The problem is that the FCC did and still does not
consider people beyond the Grade B contour as being "served" by the TV
station, despite the fact that they have for generations been receiving NTSC
successfully -- albeit, perhaps, with a lower-quality picture -- by
employing higher gain antennas, taller towers, lower-noise mast-mounted
preamps, etc. than the FCC reception model assumes.  (Numerically, they're a
very small fraction of the metropolitan area served by the TV station.)  So
the tests were done, the ATSC systems were found to work out to the Grade B
contour and fail slightly further out, and the design was declared a
success.

The root of this problem is a political one; people in deep fringe areas
past the Grade B contour have never organized in such a way as to make their
needs felt by the FCC.  One way around the mess would be to establish a
"Grade C" for deep-fringe coverage that assumes a higher-performing
receiving system and -- the difficult part -- modifying the ATSC format in
some way to perform out to that contour, probably with reduced performance.

Ed Callaway, N4II

-----Original Message-----
From: sfdxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:sfdxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Bill Marx
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2008 8:38 PM
To: aSFDXA
Subject: [South Florida DX Association] Digital Switch Creating
BroadcastCoverage Gaps - Test data suggests many users will fall outof
range.


Digital Switch Creating Broadcast Coverage Gaps - Test data suggests many
users will fall out of range.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Digital-Switch-Creating-Broadcast-Coverag
e-Gaps-97967

The FCC made Wilmington, North Carolina their Guinea pig ahead of February's
digital TV transition, with area broadcasters cutting analog transmissions
on September 9. According to the Associated Press, the FCC received 1,828
complaints (see their report), over half of those from people who say they
can no longer view the channels they used to. Given that analog signal
covers a broader area than digital, there's chunks of rural America that are
going to be left in a lurch. Kevin Martin, you'll be happy to hear, says
he's all over it:

It's not certain what - if anything - the FCC or broadcasters can do for
these viewers, short of recommending that they buy a bigger antenna. Martin
told members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee
Tuesday that a possible solution would be for broadcasters to erect special
"repeater" antennas to expand their reach. "Our goal is to ensure that all
viewers in the Wilmington area and the country have access to the same
television signals that they did prior to the transition," he said.
About 13.4 million television households in the U.S. receive their
programming over the air only, roughly twelve percent of all homes with TVs.
Applying the Wilmington complaint rate nationally would result in 1.1
million calls to the FCC in the first five days after the cutover. FCC chief
Kevin Martin says the cut over could reduce broadcast footprint for about 15
percent of television markets in the U.S, though the agency boss isn't
particularly gifted at math or geography.

Consumer group Teletruth thinks the Wilmgington market is far too small to
provide real world statistics on how many customers will be impacted. Their
latest report highlights how many over-the-air viewers in Hunterdon County,
New Jersey (technically part of the NYC viewing market) are losing NY and
Philly broadcasts after installing DTV converter boxes. Asks the group: "How
did the FCC and NTIA spend over $1 billion dollars and counting on the DTV
campaign without actually testing the converter box and antenna
configurations, especially in rural fringe areas?"

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