TV signal
Seeing the Unseen
Broadcast signals circle your head constantly following straight paths from point A to point B. They are everywhere and it would be extremely difficult to find any square foot of this planet that does not have some RF signal present. Think about it, satellites pretty much cover the entire planet, signals from radio and TV [...]
TV Antennas are Crazy
Now that I have my converter box in hand, I’m researching antennas here in the burbs of Wendell. I just picked up a Phillips Silver Sensor PHDTV3 indoor antenna at Target in Knightdale and ran some tests versus my outdoor antenna. Target has also re-stocked the RCA box, and a trip across the street to [...]
Replacing an Outdoor Antenna
I recently replaced Mom’s antenna which had endured damaging winds in Northeastern North Carolina. Well, maybe not endured as it had lost several elements, but it was still working for the most part, although one of my “to do list” items every time I went home was to turn the antenna back towards the stations [...]
Elon University Students Help the Nation With DTV
Several Elon University students studying communications were in Wilmington, NC for the big switch on September 8th. Guided by their professor Connie Book, they intended to compile demographic information by answering the phones at each of the network stations, which is going to be a valuable resource when the rest of the nation’s televisions switch [...]
An “A” Student
I received this email from a viewer that turned out to have one of the coolest and most creative antennas I’ve ever seen. If his Professors are reading, give this man extra credit!
I’m a student at NC State, and got an HDTV with a digital tuner over the summer. Being the poor college student that [...]
Tour the WNCN transmitter site
Getting from outside to inside
I have spent quite a bit of time on indoor antennas, but I want to touch on outdoor antennas for a while. These are the more reliable way to get DTV signals, but they too have some traps newbies can fall into. Face it, many of us have forgotten it’s out there, or it has [...]
August is hot in North Carolina!
So what’s that have to do with digital television? Nothing, I just like stating the obvious now and then, and with the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics tomorrow night, it’s going to be pretty hot! Plus the fact that it is H.A.D.N.M! Maybe my bud’s comment to make it Help A Digital Newbie Year is a [...]
HADNM: Getting more help
I’ve been doing some homework on indoor antennas for HADNM (Help A Digital Newbie Month). Since many viewers live in apartments, hanging an ugly antenna out the balcony is not an option. I was talking with Matt at WRAL last week, (yes, engineers have friends) and we were discussing companies that install antennas, and to be [...]
A Lesson On Wavelength and Earth Science
I have been walking you through some basic “start slow and cheap before going fast and costly” steps to getting reliable off air reception. Now let’s get a little geeky to see if we can make more sense of this. As I wrote in the earlier posts, there’s no difference in the RF signal, and [...]
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