goodbye to analog TV modulators

Not likely.

But why are you worrying about something that ins't going to be an issue for many years? Your modulators aren't going to stop working on June 12th. :) There will still be plenty of need for analog RF video.

-- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

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Why ? just about any digital TV still recieves analong signals. It is channel XX.0 in the tuner's lineup whereas the digital channels are XX.1 .2 .3 .4 ect.

So where's the problem?

Gnack AEH4BW

I wanted to make it a straight tuning sequence for the family, dumping analog forever. Using the present analog modulator has been problematic with adjacent band bleedover, even intermitent skip propagation from nearby cities and perhaps poor design of the modulator itself (I tried 3 different models). All have performed marginally under the circumstances. I think given the nature of digital, interference at least would be eliminated. We live in the Chicago area with 25 off air channels available, and channels 3-4 are as usual tough to negotiate via a cheap modulator feeding 150 feet cumulative RG-6 and active quad splitter.Several permutations of booster vs. splitter combinations have yeilded no significant improvement. I contemplated a deep notch filter, but never got into it. That's why I thought a robust ATSC modulator could fix the issues.

Les KA9GLW

I see it looks like you really need a bunch of now obsolete MATV parts like tunable mixers to keep sidebands suppressed and an antenna trap for the channel 3 signal. Toobad you don't know someone who is replacing a bunch of hotel systems that you could get the head end parts from

Without a fairly large investment it's hard to actually combine signals through a simple splitter.

Though you can homebrew your own sideband traps fairly easily if you have a well stocked junk box. tunable channel 3 traps are very simple just a few turns of wire and a trimmer capacitor.

Likely somewhere they do make digital modulators but I would not want to even think of buying one since I would guess they are currently in the domain of broadcast equipment and we all know how inflated those prices are.

Gnack

Gnack.. I know you can appreciate the problems. In addition, all my off-the-shelf modulators seem to "lose their signal into the noise" and need periodic rebooting (off/on) to refresh their output......strange...?? (overload? impedance mismatch?..??? bad design?) So my quest will continue for that elusive modulator.

I know one day they'll appear at some hamfests, and for reasonable prices..........................(but I'm hoping someone in China is making a home version at this moment)

Les

Gnack Nol wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mailinator.com:

My digital converter does NOT pass analogue signals nor does it receive xx.0 channels. When I try xx.0, it shows xx.1.

How will you get channel 3 / 4 interference after all those pesky analog transmitters are turned off ? Here we have a PC equipped with an ATI HDTV Wonder tuner and DVD drive dedicated to the 50" DLP set. 2 more computers also have DTV tuners and sometimes all 3 are in record. The shows end up as .MPG files on the various machines. It takes about

G=B2

The feature is called "analog pass-through" and it is only present on some DTV converter boxes (possibly a minority). You might get some analog reception even on those without it, but that's just leaking through or being picked up by the cables. They won't tune to the analog channels.

For most people this won't matter after the switchover.

-- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

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snipped-for-privacy@repairfaq.org (Samuel M. Goldwasser) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@repairfaq.org:

...

My vcr 'passes through' when turned off. I don't know why the DTV converters were not designed to pass through when off. It couldn't cost very much.

It is 'annoying' because there WILL be some analogue stations, even after the drop dead date.

Some DTV converters _do_ pass thru when off. The Zenith DTT901 does -- and it's "coupon qualified". However, the pass thru appears best in the VHF HI/LO range -- with "ok" signal on UHF Ch 21 -- "poor" signal on UHF 32 -- and "un-useable" signal on UHF 57. THAT is going to be an irritation for some folks that will expect to watch UHF LPTV stations.

Jonesy