Robert Grant
08-01-2007, 06:44 PM
I recently returned from a vacation in Upper Michigan, during which I used the RCA ATSC-11 set-top-box to DX digital TV. At first, I tried to DX DTV the same way I did it back home, by surfing the UHF channels in analog mode, looking for channels with hypersnow, adjusting the antenna for strongest hypersnow, then trying the channel digital mode.
This did not work well on vacation with the old TV and RCA STB. First, it was time consuming to switch the antenna between the TV set and the STB, and to which the TV set between the STB (RF modulator, actually) and antenna.
Second, using the amplified antenna into the old Sanyo TV, every open UHF channel looked like it had hypersnow on it!
I soon discovered a better way: Set the antenna in such a way that you would expect DTV signals to come in, then use the menu to go to the Auto Channel Search and Confirm same.
While the STB is scanning for channels, carefully pay attention to the channel number being scanned. I have noted that it usually takes about a half-second to “dismiss” an open channel and flag it “No Signal”, and even less time to find a usable signal and flag it “Added”.
On many channels, it will stop for almost three seconds. Sometimes it will flag a channel “Added”, but about 90% of the time, it will flag it “No Signal”. I noticed that many of the channels it did this on (I’ve called it a “balk”) were the same channels on which I had been hoping to catch a particular DTV station.
I found that if I paid attention to the channel scan and write down each channel number that the tuner “balked”, I could then go to those channels manually, then position the antenna while the tuner was scanning the channel, I had a much better chance of getting a station.
I also notice that the STB “balked” on several channels for which one could find a logical station that might be causing it to “balk” (e.g., “balking” on channel 52, a channel overwhelmed by analog WWRS, but would likely have been WLS-DT)
The RCA ATSC-11 “balked” on signals far too weak to possibly be logged as digital.
Good luck DXing the “balks”
Robert Grant, N8NU
This did not work well on vacation with the old TV and RCA STB. First, it was time consuming to switch the antenna between the TV set and the STB, and to which the TV set between the STB (RF modulator, actually) and antenna.
Second, using the amplified antenna into the old Sanyo TV, every open UHF channel looked like it had hypersnow on it!
I soon discovered a better way: Set the antenna in such a way that you would expect DTV signals to come in, then use the menu to go to the Auto Channel Search and Confirm same.
While the STB is scanning for channels, carefully pay attention to the channel number being scanned. I have noted that it usually takes about a half-second to “dismiss” an open channel and flag it “No Signal”, and even less time to find a usable signal and flag it “Added”.
On many channels, it will stop for almost three seconds. Sometimes it will flag a channel “Added”, but about 90% of the time, it will flag it “No Signal”. I noticed that many of the channels it did this on (I’ve called it a “balk”) were the same channels on which I had been hoping to catch a particular DTV station.
I found that if I paid attention to the channel scan and write down each channel number that the tuner “balked”, I could then go to those channels manually, then position the antenna while the tuner was scanning the channel, I had a much better chance of getting a station.
I also notice that the STB “balked” on several channels for which one could find a logical station that might be causing it to “balk” (e.g., “balking” on channel 52, a channel overwhelmed by analog WWRS, but would likely have been WLS-DT)
The RCA ATSC-11 “balked” on signals far too weak to possibly be logged as digital.
Good luck DXing the “balks”
Robert Grant, N8NU