Thread
:
TV antenna
View Single Post
#
3
posted to rec.boats.electronics
Larry
external usenet poster
First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,275
TV antenna
Larryr wrote in news:ea1fdcdd-3aa2-4708-92c0-
:
So, I am very dissatisfied with this unit's performance. I am looking
for suggestions as to how to improve my drop out situation while
swinging on the hook. It should be omni directional, i think. I
understand that digital's phase sensitivity to movement is much
greater than analog. Any Ideas? Not interested in servo gyro type
stuff.
The lawyers at the FCC, determined to sell off as much of the public's
airwaves as possible to line their pockets, have chased most of the VHF
stations into the UHF band where multipath reflections are just
terrible.
Digital TV uses a very fast stream of data to render the high definition
pictures the public demands that flickers less than the old system, so
the data streams are very intense. You come along and get the main data
stream coming at your all-around, non-directional antenna PLUS a couple
of hundred OTHER data streams bouncing off tall buildings, mountains,
bridges, other towers, the hotel whorehouse on the beach and EVERY
airplane aluminum cloud that passes overhead landing at the airport.
The old UHF TV was almost unwatchable with all these late-arriving
reflected signals we called "ghosts". The solution was a DIRECTIONAL
antenna that only listened in ONE, very narrow, direction so it wouldn't
pick up the ghosts so bad as an omnidirectional did. The picture got
clearer and you were happy. Those days are ovah!
The computer now sees the main data stream and a bunch of weak then
strong then weak then strong secondary data streams, which in the old
days were those ghosts fading in and out to the right of the main
picture (because the sweep was left to right like reading a book). But,
now, the computer starts to receive, every so often, TWO channels with
the same picture data on them....the main stream coming in directly PLUS
another stream from the reflection off the "Honeymoon Hotel" out on the
beach sticking up. The computer has a very complex error correcting
algorithm which can detect the right stream to render....UP TO A
POINT....when the reflected stream is nearly as powerful as the main
stream. Now confused by the two strong signals it's reading
simultaneously, the computer and its algorithm become swamped, which
causes it to stop trying to render either. Your picture pixelates into
the squares the picture is made up of, finally locking or only decoding
a pixel square or two every scan. The "good" tv lock up and blank so
you can't see ATSC's dirty little secret.....it can't handle multipath
signals changing in phase too rapidly. It can't handle a moving TV at
all!
The solution is Direct TV, but I know you didn't want to hear that.
Reply With Quote
Larry
View Public Profile
Find all posts by Larry