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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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#1
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TV problem
I have a very old large Radio Shack directional antenna that is about
12 years old. It is on top of a tower. I get all the stations I want with the exception of channel 5 that used to be no problem but now goes in and out. I have a rotor but it was not put on properly because the wind blows the antenna around. ANyway, I am tired of fooling with it. What I want to do is to get one of those round, omni directional antennas and mount it on a 5 foot pole on top of the existing antenna, use a diplexer to connect that antenna to my new antenna, and be done with it. My thinking is this will give me the little signal boost I need to get the channel. I dotn want to fool with this very much as I hate climbing on the tower. DOes this sound like it will work? One reason for wanting to increase the signal is I bought my wife a 19 Dynex tv for Christmas. great picture. But when you tune to channel 5 and the signal starts messign up and you tune back to a known good channel the tuner messes up and can now get no good channels. If you tune the tv off then back on it can get the known good channel now. I took the tv back and got another one and the new one did the exact same thing. I am so frustrated. I live a long way from town and it is hard to find time to ake things back, etc. ANy advice is appreciated!stryped Posts: 1 Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2008 2:01 pm Private message |
#2
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TV problem
In article
, stryped wrote: I have a very old large Radio Shack directional antenna that is about 12 years old. It is on top of a tower. I get all the stations I want with the exception of channel 5 that used to be no problem but now goes in and out. I have a rotor but it was not put on properly because the wind blows the antenna around. ANyway, I am tired of fooling with it. What I want to do is to get one of those round, omni directional antennas and mount it on a 5 foot pole on top of the existing antenna, use a diplexer to connect that antenna to my new antenna, and be done with it. My thinking is this will give me the little signal boost I need to get the channel. I don't want to fool with this very much as I hate climbing on the tower. DOes this sound like it will work? One reason for wanting to increase the signal is I bought my wife a 19 Dynex tv for Christmas. great picture. But when you tune to channel 5 and the signal starts messing up and you tune back to a known good channel the tuner messes up and can now get no good channels. If you tune the tv off then back on it can get the known good channel now. I took the tv back and got another one and the new one did the exact same thing. I am so frustrated. I live a long way from town and it is hard to find time to take things back, etc. ANy advice is appreciated!stryped One assumes that use of a tower, rotator and directional antenna, an expensive option, is necessary. Be aware that an omnidirectional antenna has far *less* gain than a directional antenna, and so may not work at all (even with an amplifier), depending on how far you are from the various transmitting towers. It's hard to see how one could misinstall a rotator to cause this effect. It sounds like your rotator is either worn out, broken or too small for the antenna. I would look into replacing the rotator and perhaps the antenna as well. Local radio amateurs will know what does and does not work in your area. Joe Gwinn |
#3
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TV problem
On Jan 7, 6:27*am, stryped wrote:
I have a very old large Radio Shack directional antenna that is about 12 years old. It is on top of a tower. I get all the stations I want with the exception of channel 5 that used to be no problem but now goes in and out. I have a rotor but it was not put on properly because the wind blows the antenna around. ANyway, I am tired of fooling with it. What I want to do is to get one of those round, omni directional antennas and mount it on a 5 foot pole on top of the existing antenna, use a diplexer to connect that antenna to my new antenna, and be done with it. My thinking is this will give me the little signal boost I need to get the channel. I dotn want to fool with this very much as I hate climbing on the tower. DOes this sound like it will work? One reason for wanting to increase the signal is I bought my wife a 19 Dynex tv for Christmas. great picture. But when you tune to channel 5 and the signal starts messign up and you tune back to a known good channel the tuner messes up and can now get no good channels. If you tune the tv off then back on it can get the known good channel now. I took the tv back and got another one and the new one did the exact same thing. I am so frustrated. I live a long way from town and it is hard to find time to ake things back, etc. ANy advice is appreciated!stryped You may be going to a lot of trouble for nothing, all the digital stuff is pretty much up in what used to be the high-VHF and UHF region, channel 5 used to be below the FM band and had a lot better propagation. Might be you can't get your channel 5 anymore. The good news with the new digital stuff is that if you can get any sort of signal strength, the picture is likely to be good, better in fringe areas than with the old analog stuff. But it's either going to be great or you aren't going to get it at all, no in-between fuzzy-ghosty pic. And most of the long elements on those old TV antennas are mostly waste metal anymore. Nothing on the air now to pick up at those frequencies. You can contact the station and find out which direction they're beaming their signal. My folks had that problem with a station about 60 miles away, they changed the direction that they were beaming the signal and reception became crap. Stan |
#4
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TV problem
On Jan 7, 11:45*am, wrote:
On Jan 7, 6:27*am, stryped wrote: See my antenna description on "Machining Thespians". The rotator doesn't have to be at the top of the mast. Mine is on the bottom end where it's accessible. The wind pressure on two ends of the antenna are fairly well balanced and it doesn't swing out of line unless the wind is really strong. jsw |
#6
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TV problem
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#7
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TV problem
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#8
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TV problem
On Jan 7, 1:38*pm, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote: . And there, Stan, is the crucial problem our emergency services planners didn't think out well. Not only is fringe area reception spotty, but rain and dust storms can also interrupt it. It used to be, you could rely upon a cheap battery-operated TV for emergency information during major storms. Even a noisy, snowy picture was (usually) useful for determining, say, storm tracks. * Now, the probability of that working has been reduced to almost zero. LLoyd My HDTV reception is good during storms but the information available from radio and TV isn't too useful. If any neighbors' phone lines are still up this is the best source I've found: http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/northeast_loop.php I think the really important information is whether I'll have enough time to cut out and repair storm damage or I need to cover it up solidly enough to withstand a snow load. jsw |
#9
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TV problem
On Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:08:54 -0500, Joseph Gwinn
wrote: In article , stryped wrote: I have a very old large Radio Shack directional antenna that is about 12 years old. It is on top of a tower. I get all the stations I want with the exception of channel 5 that used to be no problem but now goes in and out. I have a rotor but it was not put on properly because the wind blows the antenna around. ANyway, I am tired of fooling with it. What I want to do is to get one of those round, omni directional antennas and mount it on a 5 foot pole on top of the existing antenna, use a diplexer to connect that antenna to my new antenna, and be done with it. My thinking is this will give me the little signal boost I need to get the channel. I don't want to fool with this very much as I hate climbing on the tower. DOes this sound like it will work? One reason for wanting to increase the signal is I bought my wife a 19 Dynex tv for Christmas. great picture. But when you tune to channel 5 and the signal starts messing up and you tune back to a known good channel the tuner messes up and can now get no good channels. If you tune the tv off then back on it can get the known good channel now. I took the tv back and got another one and the new one did the exact same thing. I am so frustrated. I live a long way from town and it is hard to find time to take things back, etc. ANy advice is appreciated!stryped One assumes that use of a tower, rotator and directional antenna, an expensive option, is necessary. Be aware that an omnidirectional antenna has far *less* gain than a directional antenna, and so may not work at all (even with an amplifier), depending on how far you are from the various transmitting towers. It's hard to see how one could misinstall a rotator to cause this effect. It sounds like your rotator is either worn out, broken or too small for the antenna. I would look into replacing the rotator and perhaps the antenna as well. Local radio amateurs will know what does and does not work in your area. Joe Gwinn One of the most common problems with ratators is that the mast clamps aren't tightened sufficiently and they eventually work free. Align the rotator to North, aim the antenna north and run a self tapping screw through the back plate and mast. It won't get out of alignment again. I do that with my ham antenna. I don't think that putting the omni on with the directional will help but I could be wrong. If all else fails, go to satellite service and you won't have to worry about it. These new digital signals are not as strong as the old analog signals and if you're not aimed directly at them you will have problems, or at least tha's my understanding of the situation. Jim N5COT |
#10
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TV problem
On Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:38:42 -0600, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote: fired this volley in news:8d0c8279-66a3-4b3c-9db1- : The good news with the new digital stuff is that if you can get any sort of signal strength, the picture is likely to be good, better in fringe areas than with the old analog stuff. But it's either going to be great or you aren't going to get it at all, no in-between fuzzy-ghosty pic. And there, Stan, is the crucial problem our emergency services planners didn't think out well. Not only is fringe area reception spotty, but rain and dust storms can also interrupt it. It used to be, you could rely upon a cheap battery-operated TV for emergency information during major storms. Even a noisy, snowy picture was (usually) useful for determining, say, storm tracks. Now, the probability of that working has been reduced to almost zero. You'd have thought that our far-sighted FCC and other planners of emergency communications would have reserved ONE analog VHF station per service area, just for that primary purpose. But no. Now we must rely upon radio ONLY for crisis communications. That, or we can wait for the sheriff's deputies to come along the streets with PAs blasting the news. Hmmm... Town Criers! Who'd have thought we would have "planned" ourselves back to that. LLoyd The FCC didn't do that to us, Lloyd, it was the idiots in CONGRESS who passed the law requiring all TV to go to digital. Come Nov 2010 we will have the opportunity to completely clean house in the Congress. I, for one, am going to vote against ANY incumbent. I would like to see ALL of them thrown out on their ears, regardless of party and see us start over with some people who aren't crooks and who have no ties to any groups. Wouldn't THAT be great? Jim |
#11
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TV problem
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#12
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TV problem
On Jan 7, 11:38*am, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote: fired this volley in news:8d0c8279-66a3-4b3c-9db1- : The good news with the new digital stuff is that if you can get any sort of signal strength, the picture is likely to be good, better in fringe areas than with the old analog stuff. *But it's either going to be great or you aren't going to get it at all, no in-between fuzzy-ghosty pic. And there, Stan, is the crucial problem our emergency services planners didn't think out well. Not only is fringe area reception spotty, but rain and dust storms can also interrupt it. It used to be, you could rely upon a cheap battery-operated TV for emergency information during major storms. Even a noisy, snowy picture was (usually) useful for determining, say, storm tracks. * Now, the probability of that working has been reduced to almost zero. You'd have thought that our far-sighted FCC and other planners of emergency communications would have reserved ONE analog VHF station per service area, just for that primary purpose. *But no. *Now we must rely upon radio ONLY for crisis communications. *That, or we can wait for the sheriff's deputies to come along the streets with PAs blasting the news. Hmmm... Town Criers! *Who'd have thought we would have "planned" ourselves back to that. LLoyd The old low TV channel frequencies are supposed to be auctioned off to the highest bidder and the congress critters have their beady little eyes and itchy palms on those potential billions. So that's the reason there's NO VHF TV signals allowed. Can you say "cell phone" and "WiFi"? I knew you could. Stan |
#13
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TV problem
Jim Chandler wrote: One of the most common problems with ratators is that the mast clamps aren't tightened sufficiently and they eventually work free. Align the rotator to North, aim the antenna north and run a self tapping screw through the back plate and mast. Great, as long as some stations aren't almost due north, causing you to run the rotor from end to end to move a couple degrees. I used to install them facing east, where there were no local stations. The old Alliance U98 or U100 rotors have a dial that could be rotated. The CDR AR22 did the same thing. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#14
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TV problem
"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote: fired this volley in news:8d0c8279-66a3-4b3c-9db1- : The good news with the new digital stuff is that if you can get any sort of signal strength, the picture is likely to be good, better in fringe areas than with the old analog stuff. But it's either going to be great or you aren't going to get it at all, no in-between fuzzy-ghosty pic. And there, Stan, is the crucial problem our emergency services planners didn't think out well. Not only is fringe area reception spotty, but rain and dust storms can also interrupt it. It used to be, you could rely upon a cheap battery-operated TV for emergency information during major storms. Even a noisy, snowy picture was (usually) useful for determining, say, storm tracks. Now, the probability of that working has been reduced to almost zero. You'd have thought that our far-sighted FCC and other planners of emergency communications would have reserved ONE analog VHF station per service area, just for that primary purpose. But no. Now we must rely upon radio ONLY for crisis communications. That, or we can wait for the sheriff's deputies to come along the streets with PAs blasting the news. Hmmm... Town Criers! Who'd have thought we would have "planned" ourselves back to that. The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#15
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TV problem
On Jan 7, 6:10*pm, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote: ...The old Alliance U98 or U100 rotors have a dial that could be rotated. *The CDR AR22 did the same thing. The stop on my AR-22 is due west. It was in a basket of dead rotators and control boxes I bought at a ham flea market around 1985. All it needed was a new motor capacitor and some scrubbing of the contact disks. I picked up the antennas about the same time and have been cleaning and patching them every few years, and slowly converting them to home-made. They are much easier to scrub clean with removeable screwed connections instead of the original rivets. OX-GARD ("monkey snot") protects the contacts and F connectors for several years. The next project will be a new UHF dipole tuned to the highest local station, using a plastic project box for the center insulator. The box will protect the balun from the weather. I'd love to have a spectrum or network analyzer to tune it and check the cables but everyone who has one for sale unfortunately knows what it's worth. I disposed of several million worth of HP 8753C's etc at MITRE, all Air Force property that I couldn't bid on. Likewise I got rid of a 13" South Bend I really wanted to take home but couldn't. jsw |
#16
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TV problem
"Ed Huntress" wrote:
Try going to http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx and follow the "choose an antenna" route. Wow. That's cool. My Zip code shows I can get 26 broadcast stations. g 17 without a preamp; !2 of them are in yellow. I could get all of two. ABC and PBS. I'll stick with Dish. Wes |
#17
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TV problem
"Wes" wrote in message ... "Ed Huntress" wrote: Try going to http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx and follow the "choose an antenna" route. Wow. That's cool. My Zip code shows I can get 26 broadcast stations. g 17 without a preamp; !2 of them are in yellow. I could get all of two. ABC and PBS. I'll stick with Dish. Wes Some of mine are duplicates, anyway: New York (yellow) and Philadelphia (mostly violet) I may have access to 15 distinct stations. This may be one of the best reception areas in the country. The ideal is probably ten or fifteen miles southwest of me. -- Ed Huntress |
#18
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TV problem
"Wes" wrote in message ... "Ed Huntress" wrote: Some of mine are duplicates, anyway: New York (yellow) and Philadelphia (mostly violet) I may have access to 15 distinct stations. This may be one of the best reception areas in the country. The ideal is probably ten or fifteen miles southwest of me. That comes from the population density. Your area can support that number of stations. My two choices West and South, 22 and 32 miles away come from an antenna, 56 degrees, 11.7 miles away (somewhat East for those not paying attention). Go figure. Must be one tall hill there. Wes I'm spoiled, but I remember having just two stations, in Pennsylvania. I didn't watch much TV then, but if I missed a favorite show, it was a disaster. -- Ed Huntress |
#19
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TV problem
stryped wrote:
I have a very old large Radio Shack directional antenna that is about 12 years old. It is on top of a tower. I get all the stations I want with the exception of channel 5 that used to be no problem but now goes in and out. I have a rotor but it was not put on properly because the wind blows the antenna around. ANyway, I am tired of fooling with it. What I want to do is to get one of those round, omni directional antennas and mount it on a 5 foot pole on top of the existing antenna, use a diplexer to connect that antenna to my new antenna, and be done with it. My thinking is this will give me the little signal boost I need to get the channel. I dotn want to fool with this very much as I hate climbing on the tower. DOes this sound like it will work? One reason for wanting to increase the signal is I bought my wife a 19 Dynex tv for Christmas. great picture. But when you tune to channel 5 and the signal starts messign up and you tune back to a known good channel the tuner messes up and can now get no good channels. If you tune the tv off then back on it can get the known good channel now. I took the tv back and got another one and the new one did the exact same thing. I am so frustrated. I live a long way from town and it is hard to find time to ake things back, etc. ANy advice is appreciated!stryped Posts: 1 Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2008 2:01 pm Private message Before investing any additional time and money, consult the following web site: http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx Plug in your address and elevation of your rig. The report generated will tell you which level of antenna gain will pull in which stations and their respective directions. I currently use a DB8 with a pre-amp signal distributor. The antenna is directional but has a wide field for short to mid-range stations. Longest pull in without distortion is 70 miles with my current set up. Another thing to keep in mind. The station your trying to pull in may be operating at a lower power output to perform signal testing, has not installed new equipment to complete conversion, or to prevent interference with another station operating in your region. As for putting one antenna over another, you may run into a signal mixing problem. Old analog, the problem would manifest as a ghost in the video. In the digital realm, it screws up the audio and can pixelate(?) the video. General rule, 2 antennas 2 poles 2 feeds. Switch or multiplex inside the building. Good luck sorting this out. Jim Vrzal Holiday, Fl. |
#20
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TV problem
On Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:31:50 -0500, the infamous Wes
scrawled the following: "Ed Huntress" wrote: Try going to http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx and follow the "choose an antenna" route. Wow. That's cool. My Zip code shows I can get 26 broadcast stations. g 17 without a preamp; !2 of them are in yellow. I could get all of two. ABC and PBS. I'll stick with Dish. I get one channel and dropped Dish. Hey, why are you guys responding to the known stryped troll, anyway? You all (should) know better. -- We rightly care about the environment. But our neurotic obsession with carbon betrays an inability to distinguish between pollution and the stuff of life itself. --Bret Stephens, WSJ 1/5/10 |
#21
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TV problem
In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote: fired this volley in news:8d0c8279-66a3-4b3c-9db1- : The good news with the new digital stuff is that if you can get any sort of signal strength, the picture is likely to be good, better in fringe areas than with the old analog stuff. But it's either going to be great or you aren't going to get it at all, no in-between fuzzy-ghosty pic. And there, Stan, is the crucial problem our emergency services planners didn't think out well. Not only is fringe area reception spotty, but rain and dust storms can also interrupt it. It used to be, you could rely upon a cheap battery-operated TV for emergency information during major storms. Even a noisy, snowy picture was (usually) useful for determining, say, storm tracks. Now, the probability of that working has been reduced to almost zero. You'd have thought that our far-sighted FCC and other planners of emergency communications would have reserved ONE analog VHF station per service area, just for that primary purpose. But no. Now we must rely upon radio ONLY for crisis communications. That, or we can wait for the sheriff's deputies to come along the streets with PAs blasting the news. Hmmm... Town Criers! Who'd have thought we would have "planned" ourselves back to that. The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Joe Gwinn |
#22
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TV problem
In article ,
Jim Chandler wrote: On Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:08:54 -0500, Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , stryped wrote: I have a very old large Radio Shack directional antenna that is about 12 years old. It is on top of a tower. I get all the stations I want with the exception of channel 5 that used to be no problem but now goes in and out. I have a rotor but it was not put on properly because the wind blows the antenna around. ANyway, I am tired of fooling with it. What I want to do is to get one of those round, omni directional antennas and mount it on a 5 foot pole on top of the existing antenna, use a diplexer to connect that antenna to my new antenna, and be done with it. My thinking is this will give me the little signal boost I need to get the channel. I don't want to fool with this very much as I hate climbing on the tower. DOes this sound like it will work? One reason for wanting to increase the signal is I bought my wife a 19 Dynex tv for Christmas. great picture. But when you tune to channel 5 and the signal starts messing up and you tune back to a known good channel the tuner messes up and can now get no good channels. If you tune the tv off then back on it can get the known good channel now. I took the tv back and got another one and the new one did the exact same thing. I am so frustrated. I live a long way from town and it is hard to find time to take things back, etc. ANy advice is appreciated!stryped One assumes that use of a tower, rotator and directional antenna, an expensive option, is necessary. Be aware that an omnidirectional antenna has far *less* gain than a directional antenna, and so may not work at all (even with an amplifier), depending on how far you are from the various transmitting towers. It's hard to see how one could misinstall a rotator to cause this effect. It sounds like your rotator is either worn out, broken or too small for the antenna. I would look into replacing the rotator and perhaps the antenna as well. Local radio amateurs will know what does and does not work in your area. Joe Gwinn One of the most common problems with ratators is that the mast clamps aren't tightened sufficiently and they eventually work free. Align the rotator to North, aim the antenna north and run a self tapping screw through the back plate and mast. It won't get out of alignment again. I do that with my ham antenna. I don't think that putting the omni on with the directional will help but I could be wrong. If all else fails, go to satellite service and you won't have to worry about it. These new digital signals are not as strong as the old analog signals and if you're not aimed directly at them you will have problems, or at least tha's my understanding of the situation. I thought they all came with the anti-rotation feature. Oh well. I do recall lots of discussion in the 1950s and 1960s abut who made good and bad rotators, and there was a wide variation in rotator quality. My father's solution was to figure out where the various stations were, and build a rhombic antenna point in at the most distant. The rhombic was in the attic and built of #14 bare wire, straight out of the Radio Amateurs' Handbook. Cheap, simple, and worked just fine with the black and white TVs of the day. Joe Gwinn |
#23
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TV problem
In article
, Jim Wilkins wrote: On Jan 7, 11:45*am, wrote: On Jan 7, 6:27*am, stryped wrote: See my antenna description on "Machining Thespians". The rotator doesn't have to be at the top of the mast. Mine is on the bottom end where it's accessible. The wind pressure on two ends of the antenna are fairly well balanced and it doesn't swing out of line unless the wind is really strong. Be aware that such a well-balanced antenna still experience aerodynamic torque from the wind, the torque tending to align the antenna broadside to the wind. The search term is Rayleigh Disk acoustic radiometer. Deep theory: http://www.archive.org/details/acoustictorquesf00kell Joe Gwinn |
#24
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TV problem
Joseph Gwinn wrote: Michael A. Terrell wrote: The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made for political reasons, instead of sound engineering. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#25
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TV problem
In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: Michael A. Terrell wrote: The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made for political reasons, instead of sound engineering. When did you work at the FCC? Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever* really run by non-lawyers. Joe Gwinn |
#26
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TV problem
On Jan 12, 8:14*am, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
... Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever* really run by non-lawyers. Joe Gwinn The government by its nature doesn't create, it only redistributes. Otherwise it would be in unfair competition with the private enterprise it's supposed to regulate fairly and even-handedly. We don't stick to that completely, the Federal Reserve, NASA and the many FFRDCs are in a grey area that trades philosophy for efficiency and permanence. They inhabit the .ORG domain even if they act like .GOV. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ment_ centers Because of that the government isn't necessarily a good place for really creative and ambitious engineers to work, unless they seek management positions. jsw |
#27
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TV problem
Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: Michael A. Terrell wrote: The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made for political reasons, instead of sound engineering. When did you work at the FCC? Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever* really run by non-lawyers. Have you ever read the 'early' history of the FCC? -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#28
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: Michael A. Terrell wrote: The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made for political reasons, instead of sound engineering. When did you work at the FCC? Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever* really run by non-lawyers. Have you ever read the 'early' history of the FCC? I learned it from my engineering colleagues the oldtimers who joined the FCC during the Depression. But perhaps you have a URL or reference to offer. But I bet that the official history differs from that recounted by those oldtimers in precisely the most telling areas. Joe Gwinn |
#29
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TV problem
Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: Michael A. Terrell wrote: The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made for political reasons, instead of sound engineering. When did you work at the FCC? Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever* really run by non-lawyers. Have you ever read the 'early' history of the FCC? I learned it from my engineering colleagues the oldtimers who joined the FCC during the Depression. But perhaps you have a URL or reference to offer. I had access to a private library in the '70s at what had been a Crosley plant. It held their archives, including FCC documents, in get this: REAL BOOKS where they described the work required to straighten out the AM broadcast mess, their early work on TV standards and the issues of Amateur radio. How many of your old timers were there in the first few years of the FCC But I bet that the official history differs from that recounted by those oldtimers in precisely the most telling areas. BTW, Joseph, tell us what you know about 'Courtesy' Radio & TV broadcast licenses. Specifically the power specifications and expiration dates, and how they differ from commercial broadcast licenses. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#30
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: Michael A. Terrell wrote: The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made for political reasons, instead of sound engineering. When did you work at the FCC? Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever* really run by non-lawyers. Have you ever read the 'early' history of the FCC? I learned it from my engineering colleagues the oldtimers who joined the FCC during the Depression. But perhaps you have a URL or reference to offer. I had access to a private library in the '70s at what had been a Crosley plant. It held their archives, including FCC documents, in get this: REAL BOOKS where they described the work required to straighten out the AM broadcast mess, their early work on TV standards and the issues of Amateur radio. How many of your old timers were there in the first few years of the FCC All of them, I think. The FCC was founded in 1934. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commission But I bet that the official history differs from that recounted by those oldtimers in precisely the most telling areas. BTW, Joseph, tell us what you know about 'Courtesy' Radio & TV broadcast licenses. Specifically the power specifications and expiration dates, and how they differ from commercial broadcast licenses. Nothing. I was not in the Broadcast Bureau, I was in the Office of the Chief Engineer. But I can guess - Courtesy licenses had far better terms than other kinds of license. The Broadcast Bureau was easily the most political part of the FCC, because Congress cared deeply what the broadcasters thought. Something about the power of the press and don't get into fights with people who buy ink (or by extension electrons) by the barrel. What Congress did *not* care abut was technical issues. And you have proven my point that engineers have never and will never be running regulatory agencies. Joe Gwinn |
#31
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: Michael A. Terrell wrote: The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made for political reasons, instead of sound engineering. When did you work at the FCC? Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever* really run by non-lawyers. Have you ever read the 'early' history of the FCC? I learned it from my engineering colleagues the oldtimers who joined the FCC during the Depression. But perhaps you have a URL or reference to offer. I had access to a private library in the '70s at what had been a Crosley plant. It held their archives, including FCC documents, in get this: REAL BOOKS where they described the work required to straighten out the AM broadcast mess, their early work on TV standards and the issues of Amateur radio. How many of your old timers were there in the first few years of the FCC All of them, I think. The FCC was founded in 1934. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commission But I bet that the official history differs from that recounted by those oldtimers in precisely the most telling areas. BTW, Joseph, tell us what you know about 'Courtesy' Radio & TV broadcast licenses. Specifically the power specifications and expiration dates, and how they differ from commercial broadcast licenses. Nothing. I was not in the Broadcast Bureau, I was in the Office of the Chief Engineer. But I can guess - Courtesy licenses had far better terms than other kinds of license. The Broadcast Bureau was easily the most political part of the FCC, because Congress cared deeply what the broadcasters thought. Something about the power of the press and don't get into fights with people who buy ink (or by extension electrons) by the barrel. What Congress did *not* care abut was technical issues. And you have proven my point that engineers have never and will never be running regulatory agencies. Courtesy license were issued to military radio & TV stations. They were issued for place keeping only, and to prevent a commercial station being licensed on the same area and frequencies. It had nothing to do with politics. The differences in the two licenses we Power level: The license stated the initial power at the time it was issued, with the disclaimer, "OR AS DEEMED NECESSARY". The expiration date was: "UNTIL NO LONGER NEEDED". There are a lot of old records in the online FCC database, but no record of the stations I engineered at, at Ft. Greely in the early '70s. The FCC replaced the DOC as the ruling agency, and their first job was to cleaN up the mess of radio stations that interfered with each other. Once again this was an engineering problem, not political. Stations had been allowed on the air with little or no control. Early TV has similar problems, requiring the realignment of channel and power assignments. This was an engineering problem, not politics. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#32
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: Michael A. Terrell wrote: The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in charge, a long time ago. Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme Court, and always do. Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made for political reasons, instead of sound engineering. When did you work at the FCC? Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever* really run by non-lawyers. Have you ever read the 'early' history of the FCC? I learned it from my engineering colleagues the oldtimers who joined the FCC during the Depression. But perhaps you have a URL or reference to offer. I had access to a private library in the '70s at what had been a Crosley plant. It held their archives, including FCC documents, in get this: REAL BOOKS where they described the work required to straighten out the AM broadcast mess, their early work on TV standards and the issues of Amateur radio. How many of your old timers were there in the first few years of the FCC All of them, I think. The FCC was founded in 1934. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commission But I bet that the official history differs from that recounted by those oldtimers in precisely the most telling areas. BTW, Joseph, tell us what you know about 'Courtesy' Radio & TV broadcast licenses. Specifically the power specifications and expiration dates, and how they differ from commercial broadcast licenses. Nothing. I was not in the Broadcast Bureau, I was in the Office of the Chief Engineer. But I can guess - Courtesy licenses had far better terms than other kinds of license. The Broadcast Bureau was easily the most political part of the FCC, because Congress cared deeply what the broadcasters thought. Something about the power of the press and don't get into fights with people who buy ink (or by extension electrons) by the barrel. What Congress did *not* care abut was technical issues. And you have proven my point that engineers have never and will never be running regulatory agencies. Courtesy license were issued to military radio & TV stations. They were issued for place keeping only, and to prevent a commercial station being licensed on the same area and frequencies. It had nothing to do with politics. The differences in the two licenses we Power level: The license stated the initial power at the time it was issued, with the disclaimer, "OR AS DEEMED NECESSARY". The expiration date was: "UNTIL NO LONGER NEEDED". There are a lot of old records in the online FCC database, but no record of the stations I engineered at, at Ft. Greely in the early '70s. What a letdown. By your presentation, I suspected dark undercurrents. The FCC replaced the DOC as the ruling agency, and their first job was to clean up the mess of radio stations that interfered with each other. Once again this was an engineering problem, not political. Stations had been allowed on the air with little or no control. Early TV has similar problems, requiring the realignment of channel and power assignments. This was an engineering problem, not politics. Well, neither of us were at the FCC during this period, but having worked there I have a lot of difficulty believing that they were ever free of politics. Joe Gwinn |
#33
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Courtesy license were issued to military radio & TV stations. They were issued for place keeping only, and to prevent a commercial station being licensed on the same area and frequencies. It had nothing to do with politics. The differences in the two licenses we Power level: The license stated the initial power at the time it was issued, with the disclaimer, "OR AS DEEMED NECESSARY". The expiration date was: "UNTIL NO LONGER NEEDED". There are a lot of old records in the online FCC database, but no record of the stations I engineered at, at Ft. Greely in the early '70s. What a letdown. By your presentation, I suspected dark undercurrents. Most people have never even heard of a Courtesy license, let alone have any idea what they were. A lot of broadcast engineers have never heard of them, or seen one. The FCC replaced the DOC as the ruling agency, and their first job was to clean up the mess of radio stations that interfered with each other. Once again this was an engineering problem, not political. Stations had been allowed on the air with little or no control. Early TV has similar problems, requiring the realignment of channel and power assignments. This was an engineering problem, not politics. Well, neither of us were at the FCC during this period, but having worked there I have a lot of difficulty believing that they were ever free of politics. Joe Gwinn Joe, the FCC was created because the DOC was purely political, and screwed up everything. They were to created to fix the technical problems. Once that was taken care of, the FCC turned into a typical, lawyer driven government agency. After all, someone had to fine the stations that didn't comply to their new rules. Do you know about the first TV channel realignment? When the '150 mile rule' went into effect, a lot of TV stations had to move to a different channel. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#34
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
Jim Wilkins wrote: On Jan 7, 6:10 pm, "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: ...The old Alliance U98 or U100 rotors have a dial that could be rotated. The CDR AR22 did the same thing. The stop on my AR-22 is due west. It was in a basket of dead rotators and control boxes I bought at a ham flea market around 1985. All it needed was a new motor capacitor and some scrubbing of the contact disks. I picked up the antennas about the same time and have been cleaning and patching them every few years, and slowly converting them to home-made. They are much easier to scrub clean with removeable screwed connections instead of the original rivets. OX-GARD ("monkey snot") protects the contacts and F connectors for several years. The next project will be a new UHF dipole tuned to the highest local station, using a plastic project box for the center insulator. The box will protect the balun from the weather. I'd love to have a spectrum or network analyzer to tune it and check the cables but everyone who has one for sale unfortunately knows what it's worth. I disposed of several million worth of HP 8753C's etc at MITRE, all Air Force property that I couldn't bid on. Likewise I got rid of a 13" South Bend I really wanted to take home but couldn't. I have a Polorad SA that I haven't been able to find a manual for. Some 'tech' unsoldered a wad of wires in one of the power supplies, so I can't trace the 20+ missing connections to troubleshoot it. I don't have the model number handy, and it isn't on my 'Projects list' on theis computer. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#35
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Courtesy license were issued to military radio & TV stations. They were issued for place keeping only, and to prevent a commercial station being licensed on the same area and frequencies. It had nothing to do with politics. The differences in the two licenses we Power level: The license stated the initial power at the time it was issued, with the disclaimer, "OR AS DEEMED NECESSARY". The expiration date was: "UNTIL NO LONGER NEEDED". There are a lot of old records in the online FCC database, but no record of the stations I engineered at, at Ft. Greely in the early '70s. What a letdown. By your presentation, I suspected dark undercurrents. Most people have never even heard of a Courtesy license, let alone have any idea what they were. A lot of broadcast engineers have never heard of them, or seen one. Well, as I said, I was not in the Broadcast Bureau. The FCC replaced the DOC as the ruling agency, and their first job was to clean up the mess of radio stations that interfered with each other. Once again this was an engineering problem, not political. Stations had been allowed on the air with little or no control. Early TV has similar problems, requiring the realignment of channel and power assignments. This was an engineering problem, not politics. Well, neither of us were at the FCC during this period, but having worked there I have a lot of difficulty believing that they were ever free of politics. Joe Gwinn Joe, the FCC was created because the DOC was purely political, and screwed up everything. They were to created to fix the technical problems. Once that was taken care of, the FCC turned into a typical, lawyer driven government agency. After all, someone had to fine the stations that didn't comply to their new rules. Do you know about the first TV channel realignment? When the '150 mile rule' went into effect, a lot of TV stations had to move to a different channel. I always guessed that after the FCC came into existence, there had to be adjustments, as there were lots of problems with cochannel intereference, and also with adjacent-channel interference (because TV receivers didn't have to be that good, for economic reasons). There was not going to be a no-impact solution. When I got there all this was managed using a stack of big paper maps with the theoretical coverage areas drawn on the maps for the co- and adajecent channels. I was involved in replacing these maps with computers, at least for land mobile radio services. Joe Gwinn |
#36
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Courtesy license were issued to military radio & TV stations. They were issued for place keeping only, and to prevent a commercial station being licensed on the same area and frequencies. It had nothing to do with politics. The differences in the two licenses we Power level: The license stated the initial power at the time it was issued, with the disclaimer, "OR AS DEEMED NECESSARY". The expiration date was: "UNTIL NO LONGER NEEDED". There are a lot of old records in the online FCC database, but no record of the stations I engineered at, at Ft. Greely in the early '70s. What a letdown. By your presentation, I suspected dark undercurrents. Most people have never even heard of a Courtesy license, let alone have any idea what they were. A lot of broadcast engineers have never heard of them, or seen one. Well, as I said, I was not in the Broadcast Bureau. The FCC replaced the DOC as the ruling agency, and their first job was to clean up the mess of radio stations that interfered with each other. Once again this was an engineering problem, not political. Stations had been allowed on the air with little or no control. Early TV has similar problems, requiring the realignment of channel and power assignments. This was an engineering problem, not politics. Well, neither of us were at the FCC during this period, but having worked there I have a lot of difficulty believing that they were ever free of politics. Joe Gwinn Joe, the FCC was created because the DOC was purely political, and screwed up everything. They were to created to fix the technical problems. Once that was taken care of, the FCC turned into a typical, lawyer driven government agency. After all, someone had to fine the stations that didn't comply to their new rules. Do you know about the first TV channel realignment? When the '150 mile rule' went into effect, a lot of TV stations had to move to a different channel. I always guessed that after the FCC came into existence, there had to be adjustments, as there were lots of problems with cochannel intereference, and also with adjacent-channel interference (because TV receivers didn't have to be that good, for economic reasons). There was not going to be a no-impact solution. When I got there all this was managed using a stack of big paper maps with the theoretical coverage areas drawn on the maps for the co- and adajecent channels. I was involved in replacing these maps with computers, at least for land mobile radio services. That sounds like no fun, considering a lot of them had errors. Also, during that time some 'so called' frequency coordinators really screwed up and did things like allowing a fleet of school buses on frequencies reserved for ambulance service. Not only did they refuse to correct the mistake, the bus drivers intentionally interfered with the dispatch of ambulances. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#37
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: [snip] I always guessed that after the FCC came into existence, there had to be adjustments, as there were lots of problems with cochannel intereference, and also with adjacent-channel interference (because TV receivers didn't have to be that good, for economic reasons). There was not going to be a no-impact solution. When I got there all this was managed using a stack of big paper maps with the theoretical coverage areas drawn on the maps for the co- and adajecent channels. I was involved in replacing these maps with computers, at least for land mobile radio services. That sounds like no fun, considering a lot of them had errors. Also, during that time some 'so called' frequency coordinators really screwed up and did things like allowing a fleet of school buses on frequencies reserved for ambulance service. Not only did they refuse to correct the mistake, the bus drivers intentionally interfered with the dispatch of ambulances. We (the staff of the FCC) knew that the maps and the then "licensee database" (really a big print file) were riddled with errors, and so made all licensees reapply for their licenses (at no cost). The biggest problem was that the latitudes and longitudes were usually in error, sometimes grossly so, and it mattered because we were going to use propagation models running on these newfangled computers to predict actual service areas and required spacings, all in an effort to pack more users into a given geographic area. Crosschecking zipcodes (which were also new then) with latitudes and longitudes helped a lot. The founding articles on cell phone technology were published at the same time. AT&T was going to implement the technology, but the rest of industry (led by Motorola) appealed to the FCC to stop this, to instead allow unregulated industry to do the job, and this is what happened. Although nobody realized that cell phones would one day displace land lines. Joe Gwinn |
#38
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: [snip] I always guessed that after the FCC came into existence, there had to be adjustments, as there were lots of problems with cochannel intereference, and also with adjacent-channel interference (because TV receivers didn't have to be that good, for economic reasons). There was not going to be a no-impact solution. When I got there all this was managed using a stack of big paper maps with the theoretical coverage areas drawn on the maps for the co- and adajecent channels. I was involved in replacing these maps with computers, at least for land mobile radio services. That sounds like no fun, considering a lot of them had errors. Also, during that time some 'so called' frequency coordinators really screwed up and did things like allowing a fleet of school buses on frequencies reserved for ambulance service. Not only did they refuse to correct the mistake, the bus drivers intentionally interfered with the dispatch of ambulances. We (the staff of the FCC) knew that the maps and the then "licensee database" (really a big print file) were riddled with errors, and so made all licensees reapply for their licenses (at no cost). The biggest problem was that the latitudes and longitudes were usually in error, sometimes grossly so, and it mattered because we were going to use propagation models running on these newfangled computers to predict actual service areas and required spacings, all in an effort to pack more users into a given geographic area. Crosschecking zipcodes (which were also new then) with latitudes and longitudes helped a lot. The founding articles on cell phone technology were published at the same time. AT&T was going to implement the technology, but the rest of industry (led by Motorola) appealed to the FCC to stop this, to instead allow unregulated industry to do the job, and this is what happened. Although nobody realized that cell phones would one day displace land lines. I remember when Motorola offered to give up all their old mobile phone frequencies to get what they wanted for cellular service. Some idiots thought that they could set up their own mobile phone service if they could get the licenses. They were too stupid to realize that the startup cost was huge, and that the manufacturers would stop making new equipment after Motorola shut down that service. Not only were the startup costs high, but you needed an operator on duty 24/7 and customers couldn't 'roam' and still use their old car or briefcase phones. BTW, I repaired one of those briefcase phones and had to replace the 'Gates' lead acid batteries. They were over half the weight of that crappy phone. As far as an organized system, that is like when HBO had the Videochiper II developed to scramble C-band TV signals. They wanted to set up a single clearinghouse for everyone who used the scrambling, but the sat TV dealers didn't like that. We ended up with a real mess. Sometimes you had to change vendors to get a new channel. Others were over billing, terminating service on paid accounts, or randomly dropping channels from your package and claiming nothing was wrong. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
#39
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: In article , "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: Joseph Gwinn wrote: [snip] I always guessed that after the FCC came into existence, there had to be adjustments, as there were lots of problems with cochannel intereference, and also with adjacent-channel interference (because TV receivers didn't have to be that good, for economic reasons). There was not going to be a no-impact solution. When I got there all this was managed using a stack of big paper maps with the theoretical coverage areas drawn on the maps for the co- and adajecent channels. I was involved in replacing these maps with computers, at least for land mobile radio services. That sounds like no fun, considering a lot of them had errors. Also, during that time some 'so called' frequency coordinators really screwed up and did things like allowing a fleet of school buses on frequencies reserved for ambulance service. Not only did they refuse to correct the mistake, the bus drivers intentionally interfered with the dispatch of ambulances. We (the staff of the FCC) knew that the maps and the then "licensee database" (really a big print file) were riddled with errors, and so made all licensees reapply for their licenses (at no cost). The biggest problem was that the latitudes and longitudes were usually in error, sometimes grossly so, and it mattered because we were going to use propagation models running on these newfangled computers to predict actual service areas and required spacings, all in an effort to pack more users into a given geographic area. Crosschecking zipcodes (which were also new then) with latitudes and longitudes helped a lot. The founding articles on cell phone technology were published at the same time. AT&T was going to implement the technology, but the rest of industry (led by Motorola) appealed to the FCC to stop this, to instead allow unregulated industry to do the job, and this is what happened. Although nobody realized that cell phones would one day displace land lines. I remember when Motorola offered to give up all their old mobile phone frequencies to get what they wanted for cellular service. Some idiots thought that they could set up their own mobile phone service if they could get the licenses. They were too stupid to realize that the startup cost was huge, and that the manufacturers would stop making new equipment after Motorola shut down that service. Not only were the startup costs high, but you needed an operator on duty 24/7 and customers couldn't 'roam' and still use their old car or briefcase phones. No, they knew that startup costs were larger than they could handle. Th game was to block a billion=dollar company, who would then pay to make the problem go away. A number of fortunes were founded in this manner. Joe Gwinn BTW, I repaired one of those briefcase phones and had to replace the 'Gates' lead acid batteries. They were over half the weight of that crappy phone. As far as an organized system, that is like when HBO had the Videochiper II developed to scramble C-band TV signals. They wanted to set up a single clearinghouse for everyone who used the scrambling, but the sat TV dealers didn't like that. We ended up with a real mess. Sometimes you had to change vendors to get a new channel. Others were over billing, terminating service on paid accounts, or randomly dropping channels from your package and claiming nothing was wrong. |
#40
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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TV problem
Joseph Gwinn wrote: No, they knew that startup costs were larger than they could handle. Th game was to block a billion=dollar company, who would then pay to make the problem go away. A number of fortunes were founded in this manner. Some only found out after they did a little research. Local two way radio shops with dreams of being billionaires when they couldn't take care of the few customers they already had. It was fun bursting their bubbles, for a while. It quickly turned into shooting fish in a barrel. -- Greed is the root of all eBay. |
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