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The archive of these discussions can be found by following the links below:
Digital Television (archive 1)
Digital Television (archive 2)
Digital Television (archive 3)

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Articles . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

46 Responses to “Digital Television Transition, Analog, Over The Air, And FTA Discussion (Part 4)”

1. nighthawk says:

   February 7, 2009 at 9:22 pm

   Sorry about having to splice some posts together in the old DTV thread, but the software was confusing everyone and I had waited too long to archive the old page.

2. nighthawk says:

   February 15, 2009 at 7:57 pm

   If you are having trouble receiving WSAZ Digital then you have one more day before the analog signal goes black. WSAZ has decided to go full blown digital on February 17, 2009 which means many eastern Kentucky antenna viewers will no longer be able to receive the signal. I spoke with somebody in the WSAZ newsroom about this situation and although they confirmed that many were calling in very upset, the folks who makes the decision are still dead set upon turning off analog despite losing a large number of viewers. When I ask him why he didn’t do a news story about all of the viewers who were calling in to ask for more time being ignored by the management, he said “Unfortunately I’d probably lose my job if I done a story like that.” I quickly responded with “What ever happened to freedom of the press??” only to be answered with silence… prompting me to say “Hello?” to verify that he was still on the phone with me. The reporter said that he understands the frustration that this will cause many viewers, and confirmed that many other antenna viewers shared my concerns. I suppose that I may be able to reach an engineer for comment on Monday. Perhaps they will up their wattage some after going total digital. WSAZ has a good strong analog signal in this area, but digital reception seems very patchy and varies by your location.

3. TechKnomen says:

   February 15, 2009 at 10:07 pm

   yep folks that remember WVAH when it was on 23 remember how hard it was to pick up in analog. FM radio is so strong that it can create harmonics in a amplifier or tuner that is right in the 23 6mhz channel and that is where WSAZ is for the digital; What I DONT get is why they are telling everyone to rescan the tuners after the analog shutdown IF you are not getting the digital signal now you will not get it after rescanning either UNLESS they are going back to channel 3 or just want folks to get the old channel 3 off their tuner memory. I get DIGITAL signals on stations that I can not get the analog for right now, like 65 WLJC had never come in on “65? but it comes in pretty reliable in Southern Rowan Co. on DTV7, same with 53 but less reliable. The other Huntington UHF digitals are less easy to pic up than WSAZ like ION (39 same as WLEX and I have yet to get 17DTV which is the 30from Portsmouth 7 on cable) Confused yet?

4. TechKnomen says:

   February 16, 2009 at 12:17 am

   Also any distribution amp can get a local FM signal in it. A cheep spectrum analyzer substitute is to use a hyper scan scanner radio in narrow band FM and step through the channel after hooking up the antenna to the output of the distribution amp to see if you can hear a FM station program on the wrong frequency in the Channel 23 bandwith Or channel 24 for pikeville KETDT Of course alot of cheep amplified rabbit ears do not have FM traps so some folks may have problems with ION DT on 21(67) as it is susceptible too.

5. nighthawk says:

   February 16, 2009 at 2:49 am

   Confused isn’t the word for it… I remember the TV-23 WVAH “Make the turn for the best” slogan and ironically this seems to be the case with Channel 67 (digital 21), I have to turn the antenna around backwards (away from) the transmitter tower to receive ION… Don’t understand why… Not pointed toward anything that would reflect the signal — just pointed into an open field. I would think the reflector beams would reject the signal? ? Maybe the signal is too strong? or ghosting (reflection) when I point to ION causing the converter box to reject the signal? ?

6. TechKnomen says:

   February 18, 2009 at 9:03 pm

   The “cartoon” is funny by the way, I still cant figger out how to hack these DTV boxes to get the movie channel free? The headline on the Hurld Liberal was misleading if interesting? Concerning the shutoff of TVQ 36, Theirs is likely the easiest DTV signal to get as there is no co-channel to deal with (unlike WLEX that has to compete with at least one other DTV on 39 RF channel, out of WVA (ION net. station) Wkyt requires a different type of antenna than the “Lexington” antenna so many call the 4 to 8bay UHF’s that are so common. “Little Pain for the DTV transition” or something like that is the headline. TVQ says they fielded 250calls of folks having problems or complaints. WELL TVQ also was beat out in their own market by WYMT that is in HAZARD in the ratings game so I do think the jury is still out on how much “pain” is really going to be felt from folks giving up on antenna TV and getting a subscription service or just watching what they can get from KET/ION/ or what ever is not going MM Max ax ax Hea Head Roo Room studder digital “cliff effect” as they moved their feet on the footstool.

7. Required Volutary Compliance says:

   March 21, 2009 at 7:49 pm

   watched WKRC 12.1 12.2 12.3 again the other morning as I noticed the analog signals skipping in so I scanned and found 12.1 and 44.1 ANOTHER reason to flip over to analog often to notice the skip interference with the lower 2 to 27 channels, when you see skip way up on 27 that is some serious Ionospheric skip Ususally occurs around the equinoxes

8. nighthawk says:

   March 24, 2009 at 7:39 am

   Well I have been sticking to local (Morehead) broadcasts lately. A list of the digital channels would be useful here for the times when I can find the time to program new channels into the stb. The thing deprograms itself sometimes after hitting what it thinks is a black channel and rescanning causes me to lose those stations that I am not pointed towards. This is probably happening to others too. So if anybody has a copy and paste list ready, please copy & paste.

9. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

   March 26, 2009 at 11:31 am

   AREA Possible, not always probable DTV OTA channels include (but not limited to) “RF” CHANNELS TO SCAN: (some may change by june) NORTH/NW (out of DMA market) Portsmouth 17(weak) 43 stronger OSU PTV Cincinatti 31 (12) (skips in) 33 (64 WSTR) 35 (WLWT 5) 29 (WXIX 19 interfererce from 29analog Charlston) 10 (WCPO local 10 interference in Rowan possible) North East/WVA 23 (wsaz) 19 WVAH (wxix analog cochannel possible til june?) 47 (wowk 13) 41 (wchs skip interference? from 41 WHIO- 7 Dayton West (Lexington DMA Market) 42 (Ket WKLE) 39 WLEX co-channel from ION 29/39 Charleston 40 WTVQ only on DTV now 13 WKYT (on Analog 27 “accident” took out 13 WOWK?) 4 (set to change to 30? 46? WDKY 56analog) East or SE 22 KET Pikeville 12 WYMT/WKYT (57 off) Hazard 21 ION 67 (frenchburg) 15 WKMR-38 7 WLJC Beattyville (did have some possible interference from Local 7 IF receivable in the first place) mapped, aiming directions look like a asterisk almost *in five or six general directions but just a tweek of 1/4inch on the rotation will lose some signals; most of these signals are only gonna come in during unusual skip conditions at dawn or dusk fall and spring. UNLESS you are up on a flat or open ridge with a very deep fringe antenna with low noise booster and some basic filters; FM trap and such, or there is a open gap in the hills in the direction you are aiming. Analog signals still on the air can give hints of when to scan for skip ins or signals in general direction of a analog skip provide aiming clues for the DTV. Nothing in the consumer market I have tried has a fast signal meter built in to use for aiming (YET) Reflected signals, local interferences, good antenna…all major factors, duh.

10. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    March 26, 2009 at 12:29 pm

    took me 3 times to post that (over an hour phew)

11. nighthawk says:

    April 8, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    Thank You for that channel list. It takes the confusion of wondering what channel that channels 3, 13, 18, 27, etc… are on. Now that I’m about to upgrade my antenna, I need to find a low loss a-b switch (or make one) to allow analog pass through. I had stripped the guts out of a splitter and rewired it with minimal signal loss but it still effects the digital signals a little bit. Maybe If I put some diodes inline it will prevent back-feed from the analog tuner disrupting the digital?

12. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    April 8, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    well there are those quick disconnect ends you can get that thread in to regular F connectors, I saw some at a “dollar” store a while back or the usual more expensive places. You could just put one of those on as a temp solution BUT a better solution would be to eliminate high loss of the “balun”/matching transformer with a “booster” at the antenna and then you would have enough signal to split it without loss? To see if a analog tuner is causing some sort of reflected signal switch channels on it if on a seperate TV and see if the signal “tiles” out. My washing machiene is the worst culpret right now it has a spike of EMF that locks up the picture as it goes through cycles. OF course neighbors cars that need better sparkplug wires are not good either; Most of that is momentary stuff.

13. MICHAELforTV10 says:

    May 4, 2009 at 11:30 am

    Has to be moderated?

14. MICHAELforTV10 says:

    May 4, 2009 at 11:30 am

    THANKS for the Calls in to the Cable Co. (I’ve been told there are some Antenna viewers on here dealing with the DTV stuff funny cartoon BTW) We are back on, supposely some glitch from Richmond lock us and TV Guide channel up since aobut 12:47am Sunday/Monday. Should be on Tonight as per ususal 7-8pm with ALL CALLS see tv10morehead dot com THANKS again for all the calls to the Richmond Customer Service number for Time Warner.

15. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    June 3, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    I noticed a little improvement in my reception of DTV channel 7 out of Beattville since analog channel 7 out of Morehead has been off BUT I am south 9+miles towards beattyville AND my yagi all band antenna is pointed towards TV-10 so I am getting channel 7 off the back side. I Seriously doubt anyone that can reliably pick up WCPO channel 10digital has ANY interferance problems from Analog 10 LPTV in Morehead. The yagis look pointed at Owingsville and South in a “>” direction looking at the tower aabove city park. I know a guy with a attic antenna that watches out past Park Hills. So WCPO must not be knocking TV-10 out much either. I Sure will miss analog signals, when my DTV starts that cliff effect on WLEX it is nice to be able to switch over to analog and continue watching.

16. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    June 3, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    Just SO you know WSAZ ANALOG 3 HAS STILL BEEN ON all this time running their news but all other programming is the DTV ANSWERS shows; ALL “Full Power” analog signals left on the air will be shut off as of June 16th with the exception of some signals like WSAZ has been putting out on how to hook up the converter boxes; Radio Shack is the only place advertising a converter with analog pass thru. All tuners in TVs and VCRs that I have tried still scan for analog signals when doing a signal scan so you can use them to pick up LPTV signals (or in some locations further south, Mexico Analogs will still be receivable for some time)

17. [the artist formerly known as pseudonomen] says:

    June 14, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    This is a little off topic, but hoping that TechKnomen or Required Voluntary Compliance can help. I have a couple of different brands of DVD players that play some DVDs fine but others have a darkened snowy pictures during segments of the movie. The older DVDs which contain collections of movies (which I think are public domain) play fine and some later releases play good too. Problem is that some movies will play the sound fine, but the picture will have colorful tracer bullets all through the movie and the picture will darken to unwatchable levels. Any suggestions or ideas? I have heard of a type of external equipment that might correct the video problems but don’t know what it’s called, where to find one, or what it even costs (probably over my budget anyways).

18. [the artist formerly known as pseudonomen] says:

    June 14, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    Is there any truth behind the 700mhz channels being the only (TV) frequencies auctioned and/or reallocated to public safety, etc.?

19. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    June 16, 2009 at 11:32 am

    I tried to post a response but it didn’t go up and the browser lost it so I gave up

20. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    June 16, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    GOOD ! “FCC chairman Michael Copps experienced this problem personally”: DTV reception remains a concern Jun 15, 2009 11:22 AM, By Michael Grotticelli Digital television may be a new technology, but a distinctly unmodern aspect of the transition is the antenna. It dates back 60 years and — in this age of pay television — had been relegated to a cultural artifact by many viewers. Now, with on-air viewers facing bleak reality, the antenna problem has become very real. There’s no getting around it. To receive digital television signals for free, many viewers will need a good antenna capable of receiving channels 2 through 51. Because of the digital cliff effect, it’s no longer good enough to create a makeshift antenna that can suffer through reception artifacts. With DTV, you’ll either get a signal, or nothing. In some cases, rabbit ears will work. However, more often than not, it will take a rooftop, rotor-controlled antenna that can be aimed at stations to get reliable coverage. Because more stations moved to the UHF frequencies — channels 14 through 51 — antennas will need to be equipped to pick up those signals. It could be a bow tie, a loop or some other antenna technology. And, of course, this is in addition to the VHF channels residing on channels 2 through 13. Most American TV viewers now receive signals via cable, so antennas are not necessary. But viewers who do not subscribe to pay television services and have analog television sets will need to have digital-to-analog converter boxes — and a good antenna — attached to their televisions in order to continue receiving over-the-air television programming. If the viewer didn’t know that, they got a reality check over the last weekend. It should also be noted that converter boxes are not simple plug-and-play devices. The box has to scan or auto tune signals first and then every few weeks to pick up every available channel. This is necessary because some stations are moving to a different frequency as part of the transition. Scanning of the converter boxes has been very confusing to many viewers and has resulted in the largest number of calls to various hotlines. The same procedure must be done with digital TV sets. “The emphasis now is on scanning and rescanning converter boxes and telling consumers to adjust antennas,” said Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering Technology at the FCC, during a recent agency meeting about the transition. Knapp said viewers should make sure they are using an antenna that can receive both UHF and VHF signals and check the FCC’s mapping tool at http://www.dtv.gov for signal coverage in their area. “We’re seeing a wide variation in the performance of different antennas,” he noted. Every U.S. household can order up to two $40 coupons to offset the cost of converter boxes, which typically cost $50 to $80 each. The coupons take about 10 days to arrive. If you waited until the last minute, many discounted boxes are available from eBay or Craigslist. Another dirty little secret about the DTV transition is that some viewers will completely lose a few channels — antenna or not. With analog signals, even viewers on the fringe of a station’s coverage area were able to receive an imperfect picture. Interference with the signals — tall trees or bad weather — would cause the screen to get noisier, but the picture would remain. A new generation of indoor antennas might be enough to receive a DTV signal. A new generation of indoor antennas might be enough to receive a DTV signal. Digital signals, however, are different. They only extend about 40 miles from the station’s transmitting antenna and are more susceptible to multipath interference caused by tall trees or buildings. Even a small obstruction of the signal will cause a TV set’s picture to freeze, pixilate or disappear completely. For this reason, expect some familiar stations to disappear completely. FCC acting chairman Michael Copps experienced this problem personally. When Copps upgraded his TV set for digital reception in February, he at first got an excellent picture. But now that the leaves have grown back on the trees surrounding his house, he is getting interference. Of course, a good TV antenna costs money, which the government is not willing to subsidize. Also, professional installations are expensive (about $250), and many viewers are too old or lazy to do a rooftop installation themselves. And the cost couldn’t come at a worse time in this sour economy. Cable and satellite providers know about this cost and are standing by, ready to offer basic TV service in many cases for as little as $10 a year. This lure is considerably cheaper than the antenna for “free” TV. However, a recent survey sponsored by transmitter manufacturer Harris Broadcast states that of more than 1000 consumers queried, more than half said they are somewhat or very likely to switch to antennas to receive free, over-the-air HDTV signals, versus subscribing to cable or satellite subscriptions. In addition, Antennas Direct, a provider of TV antennas for consumers, reported a 224 percent increase in sales for the first quarter of 2009. More than 4.4 million TV antennas were sold in the United States in 2008, up 48 percent from the previous year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The number of viewers who lost TV signals last week is not fully known and probably won’t be for a few more weeks. However, Nielsen predicted about 3.1 million homes — or 2.7 percent of U.S. households — were still not ready for the transition at the time of the analog shutdown. We’ll soon find out.

21. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    June 16, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    As this article from Broadcast Techknowlegy hints at TV will be on channels 2 through 51 at least for now. Some areas might have “White Space” that is opened up for other services but these will be going thru the TV transmitters unused portion of their “bandwidth”, kinda like KET’s Datacasting service if you have heard of that.

22. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    July 15, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    (just got this RFID email and responded: I read a very similar article on this RFID skeme, it is just not plausible since there are no consistent blank channels across the country in the DTV band(s) and RFID already has alloted frequencies: 13.56Mhz 125to148Mhz, 915mhz, &2.45Ghz(802 11b) . In Lexington for instance channel 18 was abandoned along with 27 and 36 and 56 (channel 62 is still on) but the abandoned channels in Huntington are 3, 8, 11 & 13, WKYT took 13 in Lexington for their DTV. SO, to implement some “New” chip tracking scanner channels would be inconsistant from one market to the next. Unless, there is some auction of the upper bands that has not been scheduled 700mhz? Channels 52-62? As in Lexington there are still a few LPTV stations out there not digital yet and the conpiracy against them is in full tilt since most of the set top boxes did not pass the analog signal on to TVs as promised, the CBA/community broadcasters association, has been entertaining legal action. ONE of the excuses/uses for “white space” was to be for “first responders” two way radio signals to be allocated channels in the TV band(s) that would allow the fire, police, rescue, forrest service and others to have a common channel when needed, but this would take up a very small bandwidth in any given market and the Freq./channel would be varied as it is now for these radios; The upper channels folks may remember from the old dial TV’s are already gone and soon channels from 52 to 69 will be or up for auction (70-83 UHF have been gone for a number of years for phones and such.) Wireless or mobile TV is one service that might buy auctioned off channels. There was some talk of eliminating channels 2 thru 6 but FCC and industry types seem to think no one wants to buy those channels and some of the TV stations on them do not want to leave. Channel 6 is just below the FM band and many radios can pick up LPTV station’s audio at 87.75fm, in bigger markets some LPTV essentially just uses it as a radio station and plays slides of pictures of the area for the video. (I have thought of doing that) WDKY Fox 56 was on channel 4 on antenna until the switchover and then went to a UHF channel like 34 or something, I have never picked it up, but others did over here, WDKY claimed there was too much interference from AC electric lines and car ignitions and such so they applied for theUHF channel. Most “Passive” RFID has a very limited range of inches to a few feet, some battery powered “Active Tags” for toll booths and such can be read reliably up to a mile with special equipment that is not commercially available. SO a hugh infrastructure of readers would need to be placed around the country (a billion?) to be able to track people using RFID type devices, CELL phones offer the best possiblility, if new models were to include a reader, then folks that pass close enough to a cell phone and have a RFID tag in there watch or breast implant or shoes could conceivably be scanned and their location transmitted via the cell phone but the tag in purchased merchandise would have to be linked to that person via a credit card or ID card used at the time of purchase and this data included in some data base of all purchases made, possible but highly unlikely, Canada for instance Abandoned its gun registration database after the cost overruns went up TEN TIMES the original allocatoin of 100million bucks and that was just to register all the serial numbers and location of firearms in Canada. I am not worried about RFID as a replacement to the UPC barcode anytime soon. Chips in a mandated ID card and the Passports are not fool proof, have been cloned and scanned as people walk down the street already demonstrated. The can probably be jammed or dug out of the document. Putting Chips in “paper money” seems more likely, when you get cash at a ATM the thing assigns the scrip chip to your ID and then a register could report purchases made with that scrip but It will not know if you gave that cash to someone else that used it. I have found what I think to be a flec of pepper sized “mU chip” in a 50 Fed Reserve Note. I have no way of knowing without a scanner, and they are not in every 50 as I have looked at a lot of them over the last 4yrs since a Atlanta Journal Constition article suggested the Bureau of Ingraving and Printing and Fed might be experimenting with RFID, the Euro scrip has openly admitted to using RFID in the paper “notes”. — On Tue, 7/14/09, l@netzero. wrote: Subject: Analog Bandwidth utilized for “other purposes”.. now we know “WHY”~! To: Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 7:57 PM Ex-IBM Employee reveals TV Abandoned Analog Band to Make Room for RFID Chips Posted by sakerfa on July 12, 2009 According to a former 31-year IBM employee, the highly-publicized, mandatory switch from analog to digital television is mainly being done to free up analog frequencies and make room for scanners used to read implantable RFID microchips and track people and products throughout the world. So while the American people, especially those in Texas and other busy border states, have been inundated lately with news reports advising them to hurry and get their expensive passports, “enhanced driver’s licenses,” passport cards and other “chipped” or otherwise trackable identification devices that they are being forced to own, this digital television/RFID connection has been hidden, according to Patrick Redmond. Redmond, a Canadian, held a variety of jobs at IBM before retiring, including working in the company’s Toronto lab from 1992 to 2007, then in sales support. He has given talks, written a book and produced a DVD on the aggressive, growing use of passive, semi-passive and active RFID chips (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) implanted in new clothing, in items such as Gillette Fusion blades, and in countless other products that become one’s personal belongings. These RFID chips, many of which are as small, or smaller, than the tip of a sharp pencil, also are embedded in all new U.S. passports, some medical cards, a growing number of credit and debit cards and so on. More than two billion of them were sold in 2007. Whether active, semi-passive or passive, these “transponder chips,” as they’re sometimes called, can be accessed or activated with “readers” that can pick up the unique signal given off by each chip and glean information from it on the identity and whereabouts of the product or person, depending on design and circumstances, as Redmond explained in a little-publicized lecture in Canada last year. AFP just obtained a DVD of his talk. Noted “Spychips” expert, author and radio host Katherine Albrecht told AMERICAN FREE PRESS that while she’s not totally sure whether there is a rock-solid RFID-DTV link, “The purpose of the switch [to digital] was to free up bandwidth. It’s a pretty wide band, so freeing that up creates a huge swath of frequencies.” As is generally known, the active chips have an internal power source and antenna; these particular chips emit a constant signal. “This allows the tag to send signals back to the reader, so if I have a RFID chip on me and it has a battery, I can just send a signal to a reader wherever it is,” Redmond stated in the recent lecture, given to the Catholic patriot group known as the Pilgrims of Saint Michael, which also is known for advocating social credit, a dramatic monetary reform plan to end the practice of national governments bringing money into existence by borrowing it, with interest, from private central banks. The group’s publication The Michael Journal advocates having national governments create their own money interest-free. It also covers the RFID issue. “The increased use of RFID chips is going to require the increased use of the UBF [UHF] spectrum,” Redmond said, hitting on his essential point that TV is going digital for a much different reason than the average person assumes, “They are going to stop using the [UHF] and VHF frequencies in 2009. Everything is going to go digital (in the U.S.). Canada is going to do the same thing.” Explaining the unsettling crux of the matter, he continued: “The reason they are doing this is that the [UHF-VHF] analog frequencies are being used for the chips. They do not want to overload the chips with television signals, so the chips’ signals are going to be taking those [analog] frequencies. They plan to sell the frequencies to private companies and other groups who will use them to monitor the chips.” Albrecht responded to that quote only by saying that it sounds plausible, since she knows some chips will indeed operate in the UHF-VHF ranges. “Well over a million pets have been chipped,” Redmond said, adding that all 31,000 police officers in London have in some manner been chipped as well, much to the consternation of some who want that morning donut without being tracked. London also can link a RFID chip in a public transportation pass with the customer’s name. “Where is John Smith? Oh, he is on subway car 32,” Redmond said. He added that chips for following automobile drivers – while the concept is being fought by several states in the U.S. which do not want nationalized, trackable driver’s licenses (Real ID ) – is apparently a slam dunk in Canada, where license plates have quietly been chipped. Such identification tags can contain work history, education, religion, ethnicity, reproductive history and much more. Farm animals are increasingly being chipped; furthermore, “Some 800 hospitals in the U.S. are now chipping their patients; you can turn it down, but it’s available,” he said, adding: “Four hospitals in Puerto Rico have put them in the arms of Alzheimer’s patients, and it only costs about $200 per person.” VeriChip, a major chip maker (the devices sometimes also are called Spychips) describes its product on its website: “About twice the length of a grain of rice, the device is typically implanted above the triceps area of an individual’s right arm. Once scanned at the proper frequency, the VeriChip responds with a unique 16 digit number which could be then linked with information about the user held on a database for identity verification, medical records access and other uses. The insertion procedure is performed under local anesthetic in a physician’s office and once inserted, is invisible to the naked eye. As an implanted device used for identification by a third party, it has generated controversy and debate.” The circles will keep widening, Redmond predicts. Chipping children “to be able to protect them,” Redmond said, “is being promoted in the media.” After that, he believes it will come to: chip the military, chip welfare cheats, chip criminals, chip workers who are goofing off, chip pensioners – and then chip everyone else under whatever rationale is cited by government and highly-protected corporations that stand to make billions of dollars from this technology. Meanwhile, the concept is marketed by a corporate media that, far from being a watchdog of the surveillance state, is part of it, much like the media give free publicity to human vaccination programs without critical analysis on possible dangers and side effects of the vaccines. “That’s the first time I have heard of it,” a Federal Communications Commission official claimed, when AFP asked him about the RFID-DTV issue on June 2. Preferring anonymity, he added: “I am not at all aware of that being a cause (of going to DTV).” “Nigel Gilbert of the Royal Academy of Engineering said that by 2011 you should be able to go on Google and find out where someone is at anytime from chips on clothing, in cars, in cellphones and inside many people themselves,” Redmond also said. To read Redmond’s full lecture, go to this online link: Full Lecture – Click Here http://dprogram.net/2009/07/12/ex-ibm-employee-reveals-tv-abandoned-analog-band-to-make-room-for-rfid-chips/

23. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    August 4, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    You do not have to split the signal, VCRs will pass all the signals for you, plug in the antenna to the VCR s and take the “out to TV” RF jumper into the DTV Tuner. Then you can take the video and audio from the tuner in to the aux jack. You do have to be careful with the VCR/TV button. as that will cut off the signal passed to the tuner. More later maybe ther eare more than several ways to skin a cat LOL

24. pseudonomen says:

    August 6, 2009 at 2:47 am

    Good suggestion there… Using the VCR for analog pass through. I will share that information with some folks out on the ridge who have been having trouble watching “Buy A Hog – Sell A Dog” ever since they hooked the converter up. Still having trouble watching newer DVDs and VHS Videos. They fade in and out. Parts too dark to see. Excessive screen trash (snow) at times. This doesn’t occur on all videos, but does with many of the “Box Office Smashes” or “Anniversary Editions”. Any suggestion for a cure for this problem would be greatly appreciated.

25. Required Voluntary COmpliance says:

    August 6, 2009 at 11:12 am

    If you have a old CRT Tube tv (or even a old flat panel with no digit tuner) that has no inputs but you have a VCR (EVEN if it does not play tapes) you can use this tuner trick as it is sorta a amplified splitter. | | | ****** | | | (antenna ) \ \RF IN Video out — VCR –video–in–\ | | | | | | | RF in DTV Box_ Box Video Jacks (and audio) | | Back into VCR input | RF to 2nd TV? | Video In Jacks on TV (play a tape to see if video is pasing to TV you should see the menu for the DTV box on the TV when selecting “AV in” or “input” or “00? on some models AND the DTV box power is on. You could split the RF out of the VCR send half to the TV and half to the DTV tuner but you will lose some signal level (and maybe reception) of DTV channels that are already at the threshold. (Not KET or ION in most cases it will be long distance) The VCR input jacks can be used to plug in a DVD player as well (using a switch) *((that is where you get the fade in a out problem since there is copy protection in the AGC/vertical interval that affects the VCR record ability)). A higher end VCR with built in TBC (Time Base Corrector) will allow these to be copied too! (EBAY Panasonic model 1960 1970 1980 and other brands) Some “video processors” used to be sold where you could gain up or adust the video between VCRs and copy tapes, this might work for DVDs but Id say the picture will not be Ideal, it just will not fade as bad?

26. Required Voluntary COmpliance says:

    August 6, 2009 at 11:15 am

    well that diagram did not post correctly I thought I had made a diagram like that in the past?

27. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    August 7, 2009 at 11:16 am

    Net and phones Documented ripoff; micro-history of Verizon, SBC, Qwest, and BellSouth’s (the Bell companies) fiber optic broadband promises and the consequence harms to America’s economic growth because they never delivered and kept most of the money, about $200 billion. New York: This is one of the largest scandals in American history. America is 16th in the world in broadband and the US DSL current offerings are 100 times slower than other countries such has Japan and Korea. How did we go from Number 1 in the web to 16th in broadband and falling? * Are customers owed $2000 for a fiber optic service they paid for but never received? Did towns and cities, libraries and schools, government agencies, and every residential and business customer subsidize new networks that never showed up? * Did America lose $5 trillion in economic growth,$500 billion annually, because of these missing networks? Broadband Scandals is a well-documented expose, 406 pages and 528 footnotes. Using the phone companies’ own words (and well as other sources), the book outlines a massive nationwide scandal that affects every aspect of state of the Internet. Not only the web but broadband, municipalities laying fiber or building wifi networks, not to mention related issues such as such as VOIP, cable services, the cost of local phone service, net neutrality, the new digital divide, and even America’s economic growth. The fiber optic infrastructure you paid for was never delivered. http://www.tispa.org/node/14 Congress and the FCC allowed certain OUTRAGOUS gouge rates for services like Caller ID and call forwarding and such on the promises to build fiber networks out to the homes and businesses that all need this. Still using dial up 10miles from town and the STUPOR INFO HIWAY?

28. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    August 7, 2009 at 11:18 am

    Shutdown of web and other communications in the works? If “someone” is practicing how to paralyze the social networks (just one day after the US Marines blocked them from their own networks, I might add) then something big is about to happen and shutting down non-governmental forms of mass communication will be part of it. http://www.startribune.com/business/52582807.html? Whether man caused or natural our communications methods are subject to major interruptions from solar magnetic storms or hackers

29. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    August 7, 2009 at 11:24 am

    We should probably have several alternative communications modes available, FRS radios CB Ham, shortwave, micro FM, FTA satellite, and the associated power supplies like solar chargers or wind turbines, rechargeable batteries. Set times to broadcast on Top of each hour for 2minutes? IF no one is out there it would be of little use unless you are long range like ham or illegal CB amplifiers. SOME GMRS FRS radios can go over 10miles supposedly. A 12volt car battery can power many police scanners. Unprepared Neighbors would find this valuable enough to trade something just to listen to or for the information?

30. nighthawk says:

    August 7, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    GMRS (base & mobile 50W units) & HAM (AM) 28-29 Megs would be good. CB would be OK but “High Traffic”, so you’d have to run illegal amplifiers in an emergency—but locals might get jammed by certain folks who think they own all 40 channels? The 50W GMRS units are a little harder to get a hold of but IF you are in “line of sight” (antenna to antenna) would be reliable to some extent. Most (not all) Ham Operators recognize emergency communications as “authorized transmissions”, So… the 28-29Mhz band would be handy for distance. IF you have a FRN then your “legal” anyway I suppose, as the FCC hasn’t been sending renewal forms for a few years now (or it appears so).

31. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    August 17, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    How many national emergencies are we and have we been under since the 1933 Banking emergency? As I understand it there is a section of the FCC code from the height of the cold war like 1956 that says no license is required during a national emergency declared or undeclaired and as such no license is required so that if you have the equipment you might go ahead and use it or at least test it and make it ready for use. Obviously if you are on air traffic freq.s or military channels you are gonna invite a confrontation and Ham’s might report you if you have spurious emissions into harmonics off the channel you are putting out a call on, I have heard that “Channeled CB’s can be out of band to the point of getting into Military or aircraft channels so that is unwise anyway since many do not have the illegal extra channels.

32. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    August 25, 2009 at 1:15 am

    Couple of corrections I noticed Charleston is Northeast not NW I have heard that skip is brining in some channels for folks that are playing around with the antenna aimings HAVE FUN… AREA Possible, not always probable DTV OTA channels include (but not limited to) “RF” CHANNELS TO SCAN: (some may change) NORTH/N East (out of DMA market) Portsmouth 17(weak) 43 stronger OSU PTV Cincinatti 31 (12) (skips in) 33 (64 WSTR) 35 (WLWT 5) 29 (WXIX 19 interfererce from 29analog Charlston) 10 (WCPO local 10 interference in Rowan possible) North East/WVA 23 (wsaz) 19 WVAH (wxix analog cochannel possible til june?) 47 (wowk 13) 41 (wchs skip interference? from 41 WHIO- 7 Dayton West (Lexington DMA Market) 42 (Ket WKLE) 39 WLEX co-channel from ION 29/39 Charleston 40 WTVQ only on DTV now 13 WKYT (on Analog 27 “accident” took out 13 WOWK?) 4 (set to change to 30? 46? WDKY 56analog) East or SE 22 KET Pikeville 12 WYMT/WKYT (57 off) Hazard 21 ION 67 (frenchburg) 15 WKMR-38 7 WLJC Beattyville mapped, aiming directions look like a asterisk almost *in five or six general directions but just a tweek of 1/4inch on the rotation will lose some signals; most of these signals are only gonna come in during unusual skip conditions at dawn or dusk fall and spring. UNLESS you are up on a flat or open ridge with a very deep fringe antenna with low noise booster and some basic filters; FM trap and such, or there is a open gap in the hills in the direction you are aiming. . Nothing in the consumer market I have tried has a fast signal meter built in to use for aiming (YET) Reflected signals, local interferences, good antenna…all major factors, duh.

33. nighthawk says:

    September 18, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    Permalinks to the archives changed. Too much coding for me to fool with fixing them. / thread as links from google are now useless.

34. nighthawk says:

    September 18, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    Moving some stuff out of UNCAT Category and older archive of this thread currently appearing on front page.

35. Kat says:

    September 18, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    Nighthawk, Dave said ’someone’ had gone in and messed up the codes and that’s why it wasn’t working. He has it fixed now.

36. nighthawk says:

    September 18, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    I mean the permalinks have been changed Kat & Dave. Instead of permalinks like: RowanReview.com/KATS-SCANNER-SCOOP-FRI-SUN-SEPT-18-20/ the permalinks are like: rowanreview.com/?p=2272 and it isn’t back-compatible with the old system of permalinks. So clicking on one of the old links takes you to the front page. Scroll up to the top of this page and click on one of the “Archive” links for a live example. Could be the only way of fixing the problem, but will require A Lot of work repairing the now dead links. Not really complaining, just explaining why the links up top of this page takes you back to the front page. (Some folks might think the archives have been deleted) At least the newer articles will work right. I’ll eventually find time to go in and fix some of the now broken links, but for the meanwhile I just tried to get all the archived pages into the same categories. That way people who want to find them can find them. Now who could have broken in to the MAIN Admin Panel? Maybe the result of upgrading the software… hummm… I didn’t check the dashboard to see if the software has been updated. Update: I just checked and the software has been updated. This could have been the cause of the problem: http://wordpress.org/development/2009/09/keep-wordpress-secure/

37. [pseudonomen] says:

    November 19, 2009 at 6:33 pm

    FOX 56 is on 31 now. Is KYT 27 still on 12? Thinking about letting the box sit on channel 12 to see if 27 will skip in while I am watching the local programs this evening. Don’t exactly want to rescan right now.

38. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    November 20, 2009 at 12:43 am

    WKYT is on 13 as the RF channel they are the 57.2 channel on 12(RF) out of Hazard. You need a long All band VHF UHF yagi to bring in 12 or 13 and a FM trap if you are within 10 miles of Morehead or Owings ville or Westliberty as there are about 3 to 5 FM stations per town in those locations and especially if you have a pre-amp or amplified rabbit ears antenna the harmonics in the amp will potentially fuzz out the signal for a lot of locations. If you are triing to pic up anything in the upper band of VHF from 7 (beattyville) to 13 Lexington gennerally only need to pull out the smallest 2 sections of a rabbit ear dipole to tune it to the upper band VHF frequencies, I noticed this several years ago on local analog on unamped rabbitears it lessoned the wavy gravy from the FM without a trap. Of course with 8Vsb DTV you cannot SEE this effect on the picture or even on a fast signal meter since most of them just indicate the pilot signal on the particular channel you are scanning for and not a signal quality like many satellite FTA boxes do.

39. [pseudonomen] says:

    November 20, 2009 at 1:53 am

    Well I’ll try 13.X tomorrow to see if it will change to 13.1>>27.1 at any time while I’m out during the day. 27 scanned in back a year and a half or so ago but can’t get it now and haven’t for quite some time. Might try shortening the VHF beams on a junk antenna or play with some similar size (copper line?) until I get a good signal and take measurements, then try cutting the antenna itself. Just looking for some of the old shows on 27.2 but channel 10 has some good older shows too.

40. Knopp says:

    November 28, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    I had a tough time trying to find the a plasma hdtv but I finally found it and bought it online from http://astore.amazon.com/50-inch-lg-hdtv-for-sale-20

41. nighthawk says:

    December 1, 2009 at 7:10 pm

    I suppose that I am going to be FORCED TO SUBSCRIBE TO CABLE or DISH. I guess that’s what OTA is all about huh? Only a tease “sneak peak” of television broadcasting. Well, why in the hell don’t they just call it cablecasting? There is a radio station that interferes with everything I own. Computer, TV, Shortwave, etc… Name any device right down to my lightbulbs flickering to the beat of the music.

42. nighthawk says:

    December 1, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    Me hopes that radio is forced to transition over to a crummy digital system that is so narrow banded that a lawnmower will take them out. I hope radio is forced into a digital system so crummy and crappy that they have to lower their power and modulation to keep from canceling themselves out.

43. nighthawk says:

    December 1, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    I’m lucky to get what little bit of television that I do get. Something is WRONG when KET is being taken out by a certain (group of?) Radio Station(s).

44. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    December 1, 2009 at 8:50 pm

    Well sorry you have such trouble even getting KET, I would try a couple of FM traps between the antenna and any amp devices, if the amp has a FM trap switch it IN and see if you can see any difference in local analog OTA channel 10, the ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ wavy gravy should increase as you switch the FM trap out. One FM trap from the Shaq is about 4bucks last I checked but online they are cheaper and might be better so as to not notch out any channel 6 or 5 signal you might be getting skipping in or in the future. (channel 6 audio sub carrier in analog is 87.75Mhz and there is no digital 8vsb allowed on 6 that I have found. FCC has been triing to get rid of low band VHF but some will not budge off of it even with interference problems from AC electric lines and such. All fittings must be good humidity proof so the shield is always making a good ground (or shield if there is DC voltage going up to a pre-amp at the antenna.) I used to have a R.S pre amp with adjustable gain and I could see a analog 38 bleed into 36 as a ghost image as I turned up the gain and eventually wavvy gravvy from the FM stations as the gain was turned up even with the internal FM and a FM trap in line. SO there is a limit to certain amps gain level a inline pot to drop the voltage might help if you are using a non-adjustable power supply. You might find that sweet spot of max gain and least harmonics that will allow the 12.x and 13.x signals to scan in? The 8bay dipole is the best consumer antenna for UHF and two might have to be stacked for enough gain for our deep Fringe area for reliable signals from WV or Lexington I do not know anything for car ignitions except a Christmas present to the offending neighbor of new suppression wires and or plugs?

45. Required Voluntary Compliance says:

    December 1, 2009 at 9:14 pm

    Radio Shack is the only place advertising a converter with analog pass thru. A solution for those without a pass-through Set top box STB is to run the video from the STB back into a VCR input jacks first connect the antenna into the VCR and then the out put of the VCR F connection that says “TO TV” into the antenna connection on the STB DTV box remember that when the VCR tv button is pressed it cuts off the signal to the STB. You can now watch local 10 if you have enough signal that it does not go to blue screen (some VCRs allow this to be turned off in the menu) and then for the DTV signals you go to “input” or video or AV1 or 0-0 or which ever enables the VCR inputs. the signal from the VCR VIDEO outputs is fed into a TV and you have your local LPTV and DTV without a pass through box and without signal loss of a splitter and you can record the DTV or LPTV signals on the VCR/DVDr as long as you remember the VCR/TV button will cut off the signal to the DTV box.

46. nighthawk says:

    December 1, 2009 at 9:22 pm

    Local 10 is the only dependable station that I can get. Really don’t need any more I guess. They have a good lineup. I have to switch from horizontal to vertical antenna at times, but I know that I can most always pull in Local 10 — no matter how hard the radio stations are blasting me. It just got under my skin a while ago as I was watching and had to adjust the radio station out of the signal. The antenna is a part of the tuner on my old televisions, adjust the antenna, then fine tune with the knob. Don’t I have some dinosaurs in service here? It is all I understand and am able to relate to though. Maybe the Bellamy Brothers will write a song about me some day.