WFXT-DT power increase?

[Dan.Strassberg]

>From my personal experience, I'd say any concept that moves the source
of the signal with respect to appreciable numbers of OTA viewers ought
to be the subject of a lot of real-world testing before it is embraced
very strongly by stations or the FCC. I've found that positioning of
the antenna for acceptable DTV reception is incredibly problematic and
varies not just with the seasons but for no apparent reason. As you
know, I live in a pretty good location for receiving the major
Boston-area TV signals. I have indoor antennas on both of my TVs (one
is an analog set equipped with a DTV converter). Both of the antennas
are combined loops/rabbit ears. Neither incorporates an amplifier.
Each is also equipped with a rotary control for heaven knows what, but
the selection makes a difference.

Don't tell me that the position and orientation of the rabbit ears is
irrelevent to reception of UHF signals. The loop may theoretically be
the antenna that is used to receive UHF signals, but the rabbit ears
obviously affects the strength of the UHF signal that reaches the
loop. There are so many variables involved in
positioning/orienting/extending/adjusting these antennas that I can
see no see no prospect of developing a systematic adjustment
procedure! I have to believe that a significant part of the problem is
the idiotic selection of 8VSB modulation, which, as I understand it,
is unique to North America, while the rest of the world uses some form
of OFDM. And though Garrett has argued with this point, the lack of
robustness of the audio data stream is a major problem and I don't
believe for a minute that there was no practical way to make it more
robust when the system was being designed, although I absolutely can
believe that it is now too late for improvements in the technology.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
To: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@bimajority.org>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: WFXT-DT power increase?


>
> It seems to me that the population base around Worcester is crying
> out for a test of DTS (distributed transmission system) on-channel
> boosters. They're said to work well on DTV, and there's enough
> in-market population around Worcester to make the prospect
> financially viable, at least for the bigger stations.
> (Manchester/Concord, too.)
>
> Ditto for the New Haven, Waterbury and maybe even New London areas
> in the Hartford market...
>
> s
>