Hi,

I understand what you are going through. I have exactly the same situation here in SW Minnesota.

When I lived in the area that you are at we always used a deep fringe antenna with a pre-amp and an amplifier. We were obviously not looking for a digital signal at that time. TV reception for the Seattle stations was always available. The most reliable TV at that time was out of Bellingham and Vancouver, BC. Back then the big problem with TV reception was when they turned on that transmitter at the naval radio station near Arlington. That thing was powerful enough to contact ships at sea almost anywhere in the world. My dad was one of the engineers for the Navy at that base. They closed the base down when they perfected the use of satellites for the same purpose.

Everyone has always experienced better days than others with analog, something to do with signal bounce off of the ionosphere. Ham radio operators call it the band being open. This is that time that you can get the analog signals from a great distance that you normally would not get.

I inquired with the chief engineer of a TV station serving my area. In fact, I talked to more than one of them and I got this same story from all of them. They are with different TV/Radio stations serving this area.

When I first started receiving the digital signal, I would have no digital stations available most mornings and during the time that I am referring to when the band is open. I asked if the output power would be increased in February. They told me that they were already at full power.

One engineer went on to explain the he certainly hopes and thinks that this problem will go away after the February change over. He said the first thing that will improve reception of the digital signal is that the digital signal is not being broadcast for the main taller tower where the analog signal is coming from. He went to point out that digital transmissions are temporarily being transmitted from smaller towers and that it would be switched to the taller towers when the change is made. He said that this was the situation with many TV stations across the country.

He went on to explain the second cause of the weaker digital signal. As he explained it, when the band is open the analog signals that are coming in much stronger than normal, with more of them from greater distances. The analog signal is then drowning out the digital signal. In February when the analog signal is gone for the most part. This problem of receiving the digital signal should be gone since the analog signal will be gone. This of course is the reason that just about every thing is going digital in the first place.

Taking away most of the analog signal should also improve the analog reception from the low power TV stations and repeaters that do not have to change over. It will also improve other present day digital radio reception such at cellular phones and government weather radio.

Since those conversations over one year ago the digital reception has greatly improved in this area. That is supposed to be due to fact that many of the radio stations that have already changed over to digital in this area. The radio stations have no reason to wait until the deadline date. For the radio station to change over the change is done to their equipment only. Our radios both at home and in the car will continue to be the same without any modifications necessary. I do not know why, I had already taken up enough of their time so I did not ask.

I would imagine that the digital reception will improve for you for these same reasons.

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It has occured to me that I should mention this. A TV station to the east of me has already got everything set other than turning off the analog in February. They are a CBS affiliate that I usually did not come in very well with the analog signal. There tower is about 75 miles away and they do not serve the area that I am in. My local CBS is to the SW of where I am at.

There is virtually nothing between me and their tower that will produce an analog signal. A few cellular towers, a few small towns and some UHF repeater towers left over from a off antenna pay TV service that I think is not even operating anymore. My point is no analog interference in that direction. That stations two digital channels are the stongest stations that I get and like I said I am not even in their broadcast area. These stations are always at full strength on the signal meter no matter what the conditions are.

Maybe that is a sample of what it will be like when analog is gone.

Thanks for the informative synopsis. It does make more sense to me than anything else I've contemplated thus far.

On inclement weather days I can see the signal strengh meter fluctuate from 0 to 80 %. It just maddening. Most of the leaves are gone from the trees nearby here, so I can eliminate the signal scatter condition as a result of native foliage.

I did try adding a second "cascaded" (95 inch boom, 39 element UHF) yagi below the original, with some interesting results. I now receive even more analog UHF channels that I've never seen before ! Some from British Columbia too. VHF analog remains, as always, crystal clear. No change on the digital UHF reception however.

I can fully undestand and accept the description of "band opening" - but fail to grasp that if a broadcster is licensed at 1000KW how that would still result is such dismal performance, especially given my insignificant distance of only 35 miles from the transmitter sites. I do also agree with you that many broadcasters are currently using an ancillary antenna (with obvious less performance) until the final cutover date in February.

I can't honestly beleive that this is really as good as it gets. If it were then this is a huge step backward in technology, not to mention the dangerous condition this might create for emergency preparedness and general notification the public during times of need.

Three local Seatle stations (9, 11, 13) will remian at VHF (albeit digital) after the cutover date so there still is hope.

I will do as you suggest here and wait patiently for February - to observe the final results.

Thanks indeed for the feedback.

As I think that I mentioned before, they may be at full power as many of them that I contacted says that they are. In all situations that I am aware of. The stations tallest most powerful tower is still tied up with analog transmissions. Most of them have the digital on a smaller tower somewhere that may not even have the signal aimed in all directions. Then in February when they turn on digital and analog is turned it will be on the main towers.

I have not been in the Northwest for some time now so I can not be certain of what the situation is there. My company contracts with communications companies towers power systems. So I am in contact with the engineers on a regular basis and they all sing the same song about DTV. They say that it is pretty much the same thing every where. In many cases the company that owns the station out there owns some of them where I am at.

All of it that they say seems to make sense. What makes more sense than anything else is that they want to sell commercial time for the largest audience possible. I do hope that all of this is true and it does all get better in February. I live in an area now where TV stations are not very plentiful and the programming is not that good for the most part. My family spends much of the TV viewing time watching the local stations across the country off of FTA (Free To Air) satellite.

If you or anyone is not familiar with free satellite. Let me know and I will put up enough information of where to look and what to look for to research it yourself.

It's so odd that a search on dtv.gov, dtv2009.gov, and dtvtransition.org does not net any results on what levels television stations are broadcasting dtv signals at.

tvfool.com put in the address and gives stations location poewr noise levels and distance.

I live in Buffalo and have satellite dish for my main TV, but got the rabbit ears for the kitchen TV. After I got the converter box hook up to that set, now the picture freezes up and separates what a pain to watch now. Good thing I don't have that problem with my main TV, but I am not looking forward to always watching this. I am not electric minded, so I can't be changing wires or climbing on the roof.

Any suggestions for me?

WFXT in my area is building a new system and they said in august they are going to raise DT signals to full power

not sure about the rest

UPDATE:

We've been experiencing a local snow storm event with low temps for the last week.

My 39 element yagi is completely covered in snow and ice, so much so that I became concerned about the extra weight - three inches thick on most all elements.

Now I'm seeing signal levels in the 80 to 90 percent range,and also receiving some channels I've never seen before. I'm lucky on most days to see a 60 percent signal strength.

HAH ! Now I'm trying to figure out how I can freeze the antenna in the dead of summer so I can achieve this level of much improved signal strength.

Stay tuned.

CSH

CSH
if one of your antennas is a VHF then it must be below the UHF antenna about 4 ft if they are both vhf UHF then they need to be 8 ft apart to keep from interfering with each other.
see my deep fringe prescription in the recption section.

That's good to hear, it's almost impossible to find information on the net about who actually is full power digital, or who won't be by the digital transition.

__________________
Jay

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