ATTENTION: Please note that the August General Meeting
will be a picnic meeting. Read this newsletter and visit the GARC
website for more details.
Digital Television is Coming
By Bob Wexelbaum, W2ILP
Digital TV is actually here now, but
in the near future it will not just be a fancy option. It will be required by FCC regulations. The transformation to digital TV is definitly
a technical improvement over the conventional analog system that has been around
since TV became popular. Digital TV
either works perfectly or it does not work at all. Analog TV which is received from a weak
signal or a poor antenna rides on noise.
This is the same type of noise that can be heard on 2-Meters when the
squelch is not set and there is significant RF gain. On TV the noise appears as what is called “snow”.,
and this is what is seen when mixed with the weak video on the TV display. To understand what happens if a digital
signal becomes weak as you are observing it, you must realize that the digital
pixels of a true digital TV receiver are stored in RAM, which acts just the
same as the digital memory on a digital camcorder. As the signal becomes weak the picture
freezes…and then if then as time passes
the frozen picture may fall apart, like a jig-saw puzzel in a tornado. Finally there is a totally blank screen,,,but
never is there any snow.
Aside from the FCC preparing to
require every broadcasting station to broadcast digital TV, and every TV viewer
to be ready to receive digital TV, the FCC eventually wants to eliminate the
over the air VHF TV channels (2-13) and require only UHF TV channels (14-83) to
be available for actual on the air broadcasting. Freeing up the VHF spectrum will provide for
a lot of additional emergency mobile services. The entire VHF spectrum is
30-300 MHz. which makes it 270 MHz wide. Each TV channel requires 6 MHz of bandwidth ..
When TV was first developed UHF was at the cutting edge of developmemt and VHF
technogy was in its infantsy.. There was a TV Channel 1 where the 6 Meter Ham,
band is now located. Channels 2 ,3 and 4
go from 52 to 72 MHZ, Channels 5 and 6 go from 76 to 88 MHz and Channels 7 to
13 go from 174 to 216 MHz.. Thus 12 TV channels take up a total of 72 MHz. That
means that VHF TV now takes up more than 26 % of the entire VHF band! We can see why the FCC wants to free up the
valuable VHF airwaves. Hams who have
used 2-Meters, know the advantage of VHF for local medium range
communication. It has advantages over HF
in that shorter non-directional. vertical whip antennas are practical and very
large ground planes are not necessary.
HF is troubled, especially at night by distant signals that are unwanted
for reliable medium range work. UHF frequencies require more expensive
equipment which can not cheaply work with the same power efficiencies as VHF,
but UHF is also an option for mobile services.
VHF or UHF NBFM is great for mobile use.
The maritime mobile users of VHF will need
more frequencies, as both commercial ships, small boat owners and the Coast
Guard use VHF for the same reasons that Hams do. The avionics users, both
general aviation and air transport, continue to need parts of the VHF spectrum
for both communication and navigation aides.
Again it is thus easy to see why the FCC wants to free up additional VHF
frequencies and get TV off of them.
Another obvious reason for eliminating over the air VHF TV is because
fewer people are now using it. My QTH in
What about Digital TV? The FCC has spoken. As of midnight
February 17, 2009, all full-powered TV broadcasting stations must stop
broadcasting in the analog format and broadcast only in the digital
format. Digital broadcasting can provide
improved picture and sound quality. This
can now be appreciated by those who are using larger TV screens and advanced
surround sound technology. What you, as
a TV user, need, if you don’t buy a TV set equipped for digital TV, is a set
top box that can adapt digital TV to analog TV and feed it into your analog TV
antenna input. The FCC is going to require all cable , fiber
and satellite companies to take care of this conversion requirement, by either
contiuing to provide analog signals or to distribute set-top boxes that will
make the conversion, (as well as any other descrambling and converting
functions their present boxes may provide for) at no additional charge to their
customers. For those folks who remain
using antennas there will no longer be a need for any VHF TV antennas and
on-the air reception will require only UHF antennas. The FCC has promised to send two $40 coupons
to old analog TV set users who use UHF antennas, so that they may convert the
UHF digital signals from antennas to analog signals for up to two TV sets. The coupons are supposed to pay for buying the required set-top boxes to do the job at
retail stores.
There
is going to be a lot of confusion in regard to buying a new TV set or
understanding what kind of TV sets people now own. This is because of terms like “cable ready”
and DTV, HDTV, etc. being poorly understood. Because of this the FCC has required as of
March 1, 2007 that any TV set that is shipped by interstate commerce or
imported to the
This television receiver has only an
analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17,
2009, to receive over the air broadcasts with an antenna because of the
nation’s transition to digital broadcasting.
Analog TV sets should continue to work as before with cable and
satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar
products. For more information call the
FCC at 1-888-225-5322 (TTY 1-888-835-5322) or visit the Commission’s digital
televiaion website at www.dtv.gov.
Therefore after
have an
internal “digital TV tuner” There
remains a lot of uncertaintly however as to what may be labled a TV set that is
ready for digital TV reception There is
a lot of confusion as to what is meant by DTV, ATSC , SDTV, HDTV. or EDTV.
The FCC says that in their documentation a “digital receiver”
may be substituted for a “digital tuner”.
As I can understand it; a digital tuner may only mean that a front-end
converter box, which is the same a a set top converter, can be included inside
of the TV receiver and the remaining circuits of the TV receiver can be the
same as the old conventional analog TV set circuitry. This set up will work OK but will not take
full advantage of modern digital TV. A
true digital TV receiver will process the digital TV signal just as a PC or Mac
digital computer processes digital signals from a modem and displays streaming
video. The final conversion to analog
signals, which drive the display will be made at the TV screen. In the case of what are called TV monitors,
the final conversion to analog may be made in the monitor itself. The newer flat screen computer monitors ae
now equipped with both analog or digital input recepticles. Modern TV displays will be no different. Users will be buying large flat TV displays
anywhere from 20 inches (diagonally measured) to large enough to cover a whole
wall ! My guess is that the flat screen
types will make cathode ray tube screens., and front or rear projection screens
obsolete.. There is now some competition
between liquid crystal displsays (LCDs) and plasma screen technology. The larger screens will always be more
expensive. Which ever display technology
is best will, in my opinion, eventually become the most economical, becauise
whatever warrents the most mass production will be marketed at the most
reasonable prices..
Digital TV is more adaptable to
multi-casting…Multi-casting means feeding more than one broadcasting channel
onto one 6 MHZ equivalent channel by the broadcaster; or.two channels can be
combined to produce up to twice the resolution of a single channel! The latter has already been sucessfully tested
in
As is done in computers, the digital signal itself can change
the protocol of the digital processing system in the TV set to enhanbse various
aesthetic apeareances or create 3D illusions.
Viewers may be able to change received signals for slow-motion viewing
and have greater flexibility whan recording programs than can be provided by CD
recording units themselves. In short, the flexibility of digital video
processing may enable even more possibilities than are being considered now and
this can be in the realm of software, that is yet to be developed, that can automatoically
alter the TV set’s internal operating and/or processing system. At this time how much firm-ware updating (if
any) may be needed in future TV sets has not been entirely established.
To tell the truth, I never thought that I would live long
enough to see the FCC entirely remove the CW
requitrement
from Ham tests. Now I think it might be
possible (and almost necessary) to eventually
buy and use
a new large flat screern digital TV set, while I am still kicking. I was never one to heed Crazy Eddie’s call
to “GET IT NOW!”. My time on Earth may
be limited, but I can wait to get that fully digital TV receiver with a wall to
wall display. Heck…When digital cameras with 8 MegaPixel
resolutions sell for less than $100.00 some of you guys might be around long
enough to rue your early purchases.
ATTENTION…FREE FOOD!
The GARC meeting of
PRESIDENT’S PAGE
BY
KE2LJ
One of the activities we had planned to do this summer
was the Lighthouse/Lightship weekend. We didn’t do it last year because we
couldn’t get on the
In order to increase attendance at our Summer
meetings, we decided to see if a picnic would help. Our August 15th
meeting is going to be a picnic at a nice park in
Last Tuesday, we had our house closing, and
it went well. No surprises, thankfully. The buyers were a young couple with two
pre-school daughters, and the mother-in-law. The three of them had to sign
zillions of mortgage and title papers, and also go back and resign the original
contract. It took at least two hours to get out of there. The Jody and I headed
straight to
After August, I will no longer be involved in
any Club activities. The only thing that I will continue to do is maintain the
web site. I am also reasonably sure that we will no longer publish a paper
newsletter like we do now. Once I go, we have no access to free repro services.
It’s very expensive to print this thing, and it would deplete the treasury if
we had to pay the repro costs. It is possible that the Executive Council could
find a way to do it cheaply enough, and then you would still see the same
excellent newsletter. But I think this might be the last one. At any rate, you
should check the web site mid-month to see if a newsletter has appeared there.
I have
thoroughly enjoyed my term as President here, and I hope I did a good job
running the Club all these years. I sure am going to miss you all. Come visit
me if you ever get to
GRUMMAN AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
MINUTES OF GENERAL MEETING -7/18/2007
Secretary, Karen KC2OPX (not present)
The
meeting was called to order by Pat at 5:24 PM.
TREASURERS REPORT – Ed, WB2EAV REPEATER REPORT – Gordon, KB2UB
Finances
continue to be in good shape. The
weak.
Pat has not been able to get on the roof
to check connector, antenna, etc.
VE REPORT – Bob, W2ILP NET REPORT- Zack, WB2PUE
5 applicants applied.
2 passed General exam,
Propagation continues to be poor for the Sunday
1 passed the Extra exam, 1 passed Tech exam. morning
40-Meter net.
1 failed 4 VEs
were present: AB2NT,
KB2QFT, KA2GVD
and W2ILP.
OLD
BUSINESS:
Continued
discussion of this newsletter when Pat retires and we can no longer get
newsletters reproduced at Grumman. We
also discussed repair of
NEW
BUSINESS:
Discussing
possibility of having a picnic.
Discussing possibility of an activity at Eaton’s Neck Lighthouse on Lighthouse Day August 17th. The possibility of a lighthouse day activity
was deemed to be only 50 % probable at
this time.
PROGRAM
There
was no formal program and the meeting time was mostly taken for the above
mentioned discussions, however Jack Hayne WB2BED brought in a large RF plug-in
coil/transformer, probably from the final RF power amplifier of a military
BC-610 transmitter for show and tell.
The meeting was adjoined at 6:15 PM.
GARC NETS:
40 Meters:
7.289 MHz at 7:30 AM EST Sundays.
2 Meters
(via repeaters): 146.745 MHz (-.600)at
145.330 MHz (- .600) at 9:00 PM EST Thursdays.
[Tone for
both repeaters is 136.5 Hz]
(ARES/RAS) Mondays
MEETINGS
General Meetings of the GARC
are held on the third Wednesday of each month, starting at 5:30 PM. The
meetings will be held at the
GARC WEB SITE
The web site of the GARC can be found at http://www.qsl.net/wa2lqo/ Webmaster is Pat Masterson KE2LJ. Pictures of GARC activities, archives of
newsletters, roster of members, and other information about the GARC may be
found there including Field Day pictures.
All future newsletters will be available on the website.
INTERNET LINK OF THE MONTH FOR
INTERNERDS
The cover story of this
newsletter was partially researched on the FCC website. For those who want to
read the FCC’s own words you may go to:-
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html
PUZZLE
Here is another cryptogram. This one is for experts, because it is very short.
UIRD MW
DJJ XMIK DFDVS.
–NXFV TIKKD--
Solution to the July Cryptogram:-
MEN MARRY WOMEN WITH THE HOPE THEY WILL NEVER
CHANGE. WOMEN MARRY MEN WITH THE HOPE
THEY WILL CHANGE. INVARIABLY THEY ARE
BOTH DISAPPOINTED.
--ALBERT EINSTEIN--
20 Years Ago- “CQ DE WA2LQO” –
July & Aug 1987 Vol. 59 N0.1&2 CIRC 407
In
the newsletter cited above there was a list of all those who attended the Field
Day event in each of the years from 1984 to 1987. This list was developed from
the sign in boards at each of the Field Days.
It is always possible that some folks forgot to sign in and did not make
the list. The list included 80 GARC
members. The following members attended all FDs from 1984 to 1987: K2AMM, NN2C (WB2VEX), K2CRL, K2MC, KA2CWS, KA2JJJ, KC2DH, W2DKM, K2DOD, N2DYE, W6GI,
W2ILP, W2INJ, W2IVA, K2KSP, K2MFN, K2MFY, WA2MPP, WB2PUE, WB2QBS WB2QDT, K2TGC
and W2ZZE . The following members
attended 3 out of the four FDs listed: - AD2D, N2CRD, KA2CWT, KA2PYK, W2DT, and
K2KPD. The following members were able
to attend 2 of the FDs listed:- K2AAN, W2BLH, W2QUV, N2CPE, N2EAR, N2EGQ,
WA2FGB, N2FUI, N2GCW, K2HPG, KA2IPN, WB2KCT, WA2NDP, W2PL, KB2UB, and
W2ZVJ. The following hams were at least
at one of the FDs listed:- KB2ANS, W3BH, K2BZP, AD2C, N5CIW, W2CJN, W2GJQ, KA2DXU, AE2E, N2EJP,
N2FEN, KA2FJG, WB2FMP, N2FYA, N2GCN, WB2GMY, KA2GUI, K2HXB, W2HPM, W2HGV,
W2III, WA2ITA, NJ2K, KA2NUZ, WB2PCK, W2PF, KO2R, WA2SUH, KA2TDZ, K2UAT, WA2UVY,
WA2UYA, W2WDD and KA2YTJ. Contrast that list with the list of those at
this years FD. Look for the calls of
those who remain GARC members and those who didn’t make the list when they
became silent keys or never made the list because they joined the GARC in later
years. For me..: memories are made of
this.
73 de W2 ILP