DTV antennas?

But that's only bureaucrat stuff. Doesn't help at all with the multipath problem. I strongly believe they haven't tested squat out here.

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who've

AM is often the most reliable. Good radios can go for days on a set of cheap AA cells. Really good designs only need two AA cells. Just stay away from any 9V stuff.

Yeah. Like a 2nd Weber barbeque to bake bread, in my case.

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with an Apple logo on it,

it is APPLE.'

Like this perhaps?

I've been using a Verizon XV-6700 for about 2 years.

It has a slide out keyboard, which I never use. I also don't use the touch screen. I use the stylus. The iPhone looks nicer, runs faster, but doesn't offer much that I find compelling.

What it has done is resurrected the PDA-Phone market. Prior to the iPhone, the cell phone services were doing their best to remove Wi-Fi in their phones. Bluetooth features were also being disabled. Data plans were overpriced. PDA-phones were overpriced, crippled, and limited.

Along comes the iPhone. Suddenly, everyone wants a PDA-phone. Manufacturers are scrambling to excavate long dead concept models of iPhone clones to status concious consumers. Few will ever need or use all the PDA-phone features, but they want them regardless.

Ummm... this is the USA, where technology follows politics. Vendors are looking at the iPhone and asking "what can be do better" (also known as product differentiation). Mobile video is an obvious enhancement. Feature bloat is sure to follow, but that can wait.

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Jeff Liebermann

VFDs,

Take a look at some of the micro ATX format. A whole computer can be about the size of a CDROM drive.

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Michael A. Terrell

VFDs,

But it needs to be something off the shelf at reasonable cost. I can't use another science fair project right now, and certainly not for teevee.

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On a sunny day (Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:08:34 -0700) it happened Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

Yes it is the software, Dreambox is Linux based and uses the same frontend routines and kernel driver that my soft uses. So it should be just as fast :-)

I did suggest a chainsaw to somebody, dunno who's trees it are.... I think I am lucky, can see from 45 east to 45 west without obstructions, but the pole is just not high enough and the dish bottom touches the roof if I go more west then pure south. That gives me all important sats here though, if need arises I can make a bigger pole, but already have hundreds of free channels...

Thank you, yes, computer, TV card, VGA or HDMI / DVI interface on TV would be more expensive perhaps but more programmable by the user. I have 2 Hauppauge DVB-T boxes, with USB, I think Hauppauge also makes PC cards for ATSC, although a bit more expensive perhaps:

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Here we are moving to DVB-S2, with H264 encoding, and just last weak a new standard for terrestrial was made, that also supports HDTV (1920x1080). As Europe is still moving to cover everything with the old DVB-T standard nobody knows when broadcasters will go for the new system.

I do not think Dreambox has a DVB-S2 box yet...

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

During, and right after the hurricanes a couple years ago, every local AM station was off the air. Some stations had power at their studios, and others at their transmitter sites, but none had both. Their standby power had been neglected for so long that most wouldn't start, or the fuel had gone bad and quickly fouled the engines. I was very pissed off, but really didn't expect anything better, since no station has a full time engineer these days. Investment groups buy the stations and wring every penny out of them they can, and still stay on the air, during normal conditions. Deregulation has destroyed the entire industry.

A couple FM stations were up, with useless talk radio 24/7. I had to listen at night, to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts to find out what was happening. The power was out, so I didn't have a TV, but the Orlando and Gainesville stations were on air. Their uplinks to Dish & Direct TV were working, along with most of the local cable system. People with a generator were able to watch the news, and see the RADAR images of the storms. A radio won't do that, n matter how hard they try to describe it.

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On a sunny day (Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:37:17 -0700) it happened Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

thing with an Apple logo on it,

it is APPLE.'

Exactly :-)

I have various models, one with internet, but no bluetooth but IR.

Guess what, just did read today that in Germany VOIP will be disabled by the carrier on the iphone (In German)

formatting link

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See:

Supports AX.25, internet, Wi-Fi, APRS, Pactor, etc.

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The parts are all availbie as a kit, and it takes an hour or two to assemle and install the software. I posted a link to one motherboard and kit recently.

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Not micro.... mini-itx. The micro-itx variety are hurting for horsepower. See:

Look at the various package ideas under "Projects" on the right. For example, here's a picture frame PC:

and a PC inside a toaster:

Drivel: I decide to take Monday off. It's now 4 hours after I dragged myself out of bed and the phone has run perhaps 12 times. Normal is about 2 calls. How did all my customers know that I'm taking the day off?

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The Charlotte, NC tests at ATSC on WCNC-6 were with rolling hills. (circa 1992) Though, the format decision came much, much later.

The problem of course is in the rake receivers, which "are" getting better and less expensive. Still, if you happen to be in a bad spot, receiving digital can be a problem, even at comparable analog signal intensity. In most cases, and outdoor antenna should help, if you're getting intermittent signal indoors. But there will always be the exception... Hopefully, yours' in not one of the :(

BTW, someone earlier mentioned that antennas were no good now that the spectrum has shifted. Typical outdoor TV antennas are broadband, and reasonably "flat" response (though far from perfect given the economics, etc..)

In the past UHF OTA ran from channels 14 through 69. (even to 83 in years gone by, though there was a CH-70 still operating in Colorado last time I checked). Anyway, I digress...

Under DTV, the UHF spectrum will be 14 to 51. So in theory at least, you should be able to design a higher Q since the bandwidth is more limited. But I wouldn't expect any real performance improvements because 14 to 51 is still a lot of bandwidth. My point is, the typical TV antenna was never "tuned" to 51 or 69. You might have to re-read the prior post, but I think they just got the facts wrong. The overall intent of the message was pretty clear though...

Reply to
mpm

See, AM came through even though on shortwave. It always does. Since hurricanes aren't everywhere it would be no problem to designate one of the more distant powerful transmitter as an information source. All it takes is some organizing. Which might not happen ...

I am perfectly happy with an aural forecast and aural warnings on things like when to evacuate and why.

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You answered that first call, and they sprad the word. :( I used to get panic calls at 6:00AM from schools when their intercom system wouldn't power up. The only time I took a day off was when I left at

4:00 AM on a weekend, so I was out of town before any customer was awake.
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Well, I've heard about that but one test in the last century doesn't cut it. Before we roll out medical equipment we test the dickens out of it. In dozens of hospitals and several continents. That's how stuff is supposed to be done.

It is outdoors ...

AFAIK they were tuned towards the upper end because that is where total path loss is highest. But in our case it won't matter, signal strength isn't the main issue.

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Sure, but 18 hours after something happens. That is fairly useless when you need real time information. I ran out of water after three weeks of no electricity. By the time word got out about the drop points, the FEMA trucks were empty, and almost back to the state line to reload. I had little or now power for over five weeks.

I'll have a generator this year, but at current gasoline prices, I won't be able to run it for more than a couple hours a day, for a few days. At least water will be available from next door, where they have a propane powered backup system that will power the entire house.

You wouldn't be, if you needed to do something outside, and needed to know what was headed your way.

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Someone mentioned you were in or near Cameron Park, CA. So I did some quick poking around.

There's a clump of stations in downtown Sacramento (~28 mi, probably building tops?, and somewhat lower power in the 50kW ranges), but I did not look at every station. Another clump of stations is further south near Walnut Grove ~41 mi., and these are generally more powerful stations (but again, this is not an exhaustive study).

I ran quick profiles and in BOTH cases, you seem to have siginficant terrain obstructions within two miles of Cameron Park. This is not good. :((

What you're probably seeing is signal degredation due to diffraction (described well in Ken Bullington's paper), not necessarily multipath. Though the end result at the TV set is the same.

The blockage to Walnut Grove was more severe than Sacramento. In fact, Sacramento was so close (on the limited study I did), you might actually improve things dramatically with an elevated outdoor antenna (assuming you would go that route). From the look of it, Walnut Grove would require too much altitude on your end to make it viable.

Good luck, whatever you end up with.

Reply to
mpm

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Wow, baked bread on the BBQ. Now my interest is peaked.... Very interesting.

Reply to
mpm

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6-2558

Sprint has the new Instinct phone. Had my hands on one the other day at BestBuy.

Pretty cool phone. A contender to the iPhone for those who (previously) didn't want to be locked into AT&T's network. And trust me, I'm not one to get excited over any handsets... as a general rule.

Reply to
mpm

I am guilty of running a long cable down to my spectrum analyzer from the DBS dish. Now way am I going to drag my HP140T monster up a ladder and onto the roof. Certainly not for a customer.

I've tried various "satellite finder" type of indicators. As usual, the simplest and cheapest seems to work the best.

I think I paid $8 on eBay. However, there's a problem. I bought 5 of these last year and found that they all tend to oscillate. The result is some hysteresis in the meter indication, which makes positioning rather entertaining. I butchered one unit into acting fairly normally by adding some bypasses and ferrite beads, but haven't confirmed that my butchery will work consistently on the others.

I also have part interest in a more elaborate satellite finder (forgot maker and model number). It's nice because it shows the transponder name, so I don't have to guess if I've found the right bird. Multiple inputs are also nice for simultaneously aiming dishes with dual (or more) LNB's.

Dunno. The local Radio Shock store had a pile of the Zenith ATSC converter boxes in stock. About $75. I may have timed my visit perfectly, but they were certainly available about a week ago. I'm on satellite TV so I don't qualify for the government subsidized coupon.

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