Hughes HTL-HD can't receive Channel 32.1???

[mike]

I've been gearing up for the big ATSC switch.
I have a Hughes HTL-HD receiver. Works fine except that
it can't receive channel 32.1...no signal.
I have an outside antenna on a rotor...nothing.

I have two of these receivers that behave identically.

I have two other different brand receivers that work just fine on 32.1.

I've plugged the antenna into a spectrum analyzer and don't
see anything obvious. Plenty of signal. Bart's head is pretty
flat across the top of 32.1.

I have no idea where to start troubleshoothing this problem.
I'm in Portland, Oregon.
Suggestions?
Thanks, mike

 

[Joerg]

I've been gearing up for the big ATSC switch.
I have a Hughes HTL-HD receiver. Works fine except that
it can't receive channel 32.1...no signal.
I have an outside antenna on a rotor...nothing.

I have two of these receivers that behave identically.

I have two other different brand receivers that work just fine on 32.1.

As Dave wrote, maybe the chipset is older and can't deal with multipath
so well.

I've plugged the antenna into a spectrum analyzer and don't
see anything obvious. Plenty of signal. Bart's head is pretty
flat across the top of 32.1.

I have no idea where to start troubleshoothing this problem.
I'm in Portland, Oregon.
Suggestions?

Yes: It takes a long time, several seconds, for a DTV box or receiver to
latch onto a data stream. You can't just zip the rotor through to see
what'll pop up like in the good old NTSC days. Move it 10 degrees, wait
10sec, move another 10 degrees, wait 10sec, and so on. Maybe it sticks
at some point.

DTV out here has huge problems with multipath. We have a top-notch
antenna but lose digital channels at random. Analog is fine but only
until early next year :-(

 

[mike]

As Dave wrote, maybe the chipset is older and can't deal with multipath
so well.




Yes: It takes a long time, several seconds, for a DTV box or receiver to
latch onto a data stream. You can't just zip the rotor through to see
what'll pop up like in the good old NTSC days. Move it 10 degrees, wait
10sec, move another 10 degrees, wait 10sec, and so on. Maybe it sticks
at some point.

DTV out here has huge problems with multipath. We have a top-notch
antenna but lose digital channels at random. Analog is fine but only
until early next year :-(

Extremely annoying. You can watch a ghosty picture when a rain storm
passes thru. But digital just goes away.
I fear there'll be riots in the street come next February...or maybe
there just won't be enough of us non-cable people left to mount a riot.

Never thought about it before, but why didn't they just turn off
broadcast completely? Can't be feasible to run a transmitter if there
are only a few hundred of us left and we're too cheap to buy anything
advertised.

 

[Joerg]

Extremely annoying. You can watch a ghosty picture when a rain storm
passes thru. But digital just goes away.
I fear there'll be riots in the street come next February...or maybe
there just won't be enough of us non-cable people left to mount a riot.

That's what I said all along. Not really riots but the phones at
congress representatives will probably ring like crazy and with mighty
miffed callers. I am shocked how many neighbors in this area of
typically well educated people are blissfully unaware of what's going to
happen. Seriously, one engineer (!) looked me in the eyes "Converter
box? What converter box?"

Never thought about it before, but why didn't they just turn off
broadcast completely? Can't be feasible to run a transmitter if there
are only a few hundred of us left and we're too cheap to buy anything
advertised.

Some day it'll probably all end up as Internet streams anyhow. Most
people have a reliable web connection but their OTA television
connection will become a whole lot less reliable in February 2009.

We had that yesterday. Again. Wanted to watch the news, clear digital
picture but with the usual "painted faces". Then the smoke from the
wildfires shifted a bit and, poof, gone. Switched back to analog to see
the news.

 

[Joerg]

Though if you don't have cable TV, cable broadband is not only unlikely
but probably ridiculously expensive... and you're less likely to have
DSL... in which case getting radio over your web connection is not really
an option, let alone TV.

Well, we have DSL. About one mile farther out begin some areas where
people who move there have to decide that they don't need all this
newfangled stuff. About another 100 miles or so east you might even have
to accept that there ain't no singing wires, no phones, nada.

We have the three biggest networks on low-band analog here. Their digital
signals are more reliable (and look a LOT better) than their analogs.
Likewise CW-58, Ion, and one each religious and shopping channel. The
only one that's *less* reliable in digital is MyNetwork.

Very different here. The only analog one that sometimes goes into
multipath beyond recognition is FOX. All others are always viewable with
slight to modest ghosting. On digital the average is about 50% of
channels being flaky or "no signal", meaning beyond the digital cliff.
Unless they increase the power after Feb 2009 we'll be quite TV
deprived. It's ok for us but some neighbors might become rather irate
and vocal about that. Whoever is in political office early next year
will need a lot of Maalox.