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A mildly surprising HDTV catch...

The technical side of broadcasting. Think IBOC is a sham? Talk about it here! How about HDTV? Post DX reports here as well.
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MWmetalhead
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A mildly surprising HDTV catch...

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:24 am

From my location near the Royal Oak / Birmingham border, I hooked up a cheap $10 indoor RCA antenna to my bedroom TV to see what I could pull in.

The TV is a 40" Insignia manufactured maybe three years ago, possibly four.

To my surprise, a channel was found that I normally don't receive! CICO 32.1, which is Ontario's answer to PBS. It registered only 1 bar out of 4 on the signal strength meter, and the antenna had to be positioned just right to decode the signal, but I was able to do it!

This station looks to be a good 28 or 29 miles from my location, and supposedly, is only broadcasting a 19 kW signal. Not bad!

I've never been able to pick up this station on any other TV in my house. I also was never able to pick up this station (at least in digital form) on any TV at my old house.

For those wondering, there was no sign of CBET 9.1.



innate-in-you
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Re: A mildly surprising HDTV catch...

Post by innate-in-you » Sat Jan 12, 2019 12:17 pm

CBET is actually on real (RF) Channel 9, so a UHF antenna would only catch them where they would be so strong that they could overcome both the capture area and the impedance mismatch -about ten miles on CBET's power.

A VHF-high capable antenna on a chimney or in the attic could do it.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: A mildly surprising HDTV catch...

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Jan 12, 2019 12:39 pm

My indoor antenna has dipoles for VHF, but they are made of cheap aluminum material (certainly not the copper material I remember working terrifically on TVs manufactured in the 80's) and only extend out maybe 15 inches.

I completely agree that I'd be able to pick them up easily if I were using an outdoor-grade antenna that included elements for VHF reception.



jimh
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Re: A mildly surprising HDTV catch...

Post by jimh » Wed Jan 16, 2019 4:27 pm

I am in the vicinity of Woodward and 14-Mile. CICO on Channel 32 has an excellent signal. My older SONY Bravia TV generally reports the SNR is greater than 25-dB.

CBET on Channel 9 is located on the same tower. I have a rather elaborate Channel 9 mono-band Yagi on a pole on the roof of a one-story garage, a front-end filter to attenuate Channel 7 which is is only slightly off bore sight for my location, and a combiner network to add Channel 9 back to my UHF antenna feed into my receiver. On the best day, CBET is almost the same SNR as CICO, but there are many days when CICO is rock-solid and CBET is unwatchable. There seems to be some diurnal effects, and CBET will tend to fade out in the early evening as the air temperature cools down. Worst conditions are with rain, wet foliage, and wind.

But CICO comes in solid day after day no matter what.

For HDTV sent over the air with VSB modulation you need a minimum of about 14.9-dB SNR to get to the receiver to lock to the signal--and that is under laboratory conditions. For real over-the-air solid reception, my set seems to need about 18 to 19 dB to lock up.

Cf.: https://www.atsc.org/wp-content/uploads ... corr_1.pdf
See page 72.

Also re CICO, in addition to a good signal, they often have excellent programming.



Deleted User 14888

Re: A mildly surprising HDTV catch...

Post by Deleted User 14888 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 4:31 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:24 am
From my location near the Royal Oak / Birmingham border, I hooked up a cheap $10 indoor RCA antenna to my bedroom TV to see what I could pull in.

The TV is a 40" Insignia manufactured maybe three years ago, possibly four.

To my surprise, a channel was found that I normally don't receive! CICO 32.1, which is Ontario's answer to PBS. It registered only 1 bar out of 4 on the signal strength meter, and the antenna had to be positioned just right to decode the signal, but I was able to do it!

This station looks to be a good 28 or 29 miles from my location, and supposedly, is only broadcasting a 19 kW signal. Not bad!

I've never been able to pick up this station on any other TV in my house. I also was never able to pick up this station (at least in digital form) on any TV at my old house.

For those wondering, there was no sign of CBET 9.1.
I never have received 9 or 32 in Utica, but I get Anolog 42 from Sarnia, go figure.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: A mildly surprising HDTV catch...

Post by MWmetalhead » Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:54 pm

Thanks, JimH, for the post. Welcome to the Buzzboard!

Oldies 84 - I'm jealous! Does channel 42 give you a halfway decent picture in your location, or is it super snowy? It's so cool that an analog station, with high quality programming no less, is still in existence. :)



Deleted User 14888

Re: A mildly surprising HDTV catch...

Post by Deleted User 14888 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:59 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:54 pm
Thanks, JimH, for the post. Welcome to the Buzzboard!

Oldies 84 - I'm jealous! Does channel 42 give you a halfway decent picture in your location, or is it super snowy? It's so cool that an analog station, with high quality programming no less, is still in existence. :)
Canadian Snowstorm, was channel surfing the other night, They had aired The Conners it was like they were in a snowstorm 😆. But every time I do a scan it catches 42 but not 29 from Sarnia.



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