Is DTV DXing As Enjoyable as Analog TV DXing?

[Mike-CT]

Now that you've been doing it for a few years, what do you think?

[NN2E]

I credit DTV with my renewed interest in TV DXing. With over 1000 analog stations in the book things were getting kinda slow. It's nice to have some new ones to look for on DTV.
Now, if I can just get my new / repaired / modified antennas back on the tower...
73, Ed NN2E
Owner / Operator - Murphy's Law Test Site & Thunderstorm Proving Grounds

[antennanut]

I'm just not a fan. It disgusts me when I have a quite watchable picture on analog and yet the station can't decode on digital. I have the Accurian, Samsung DTB-H260F, Zenith DTT901, and Insignia set top boxes, as well as the built in tuner for my JVC HD52F987 TV. The farthest DTV signal I have snagged to date has been Memphis, which is around 180 miles southwest. I can catch two of the Huntsville, AL DTVs most anytime at about 75 miles south, but the other Huntsville stations only make it around 25% of the time, at best. Jackson, TN at about 70 miles west decodes only 15% of the time. Not a peep of any DTVs from Birmingham AL, which is around 160 miles south. Also not a peep from Paducah KY, close to Ed's stomping grounds. As my signature shows, I have a CM 8 bay up right now, but it is doing a somewhat worse job than the Winegard 9095 it replaced. Think I'm going to try the AntennasDirect 91XG (or XG91, depending on which website you visit).

[cd637299]

I voted less enjoyable, mainly due to the fact that I have yet to catch anything beyond 120 miles, and I think analog TV & FM at the same time & area goes wayyyy beyond.

cd

[NN2E]

I agree, DTV DXing is more challenging. There were several analog stations I could see on a daily basis that are now only seen occasionally on DTV.
KFVS 12 (DT 57) Cape Girardeau, MO. is running promos warning viewers that there may be loss of signal in some areas when they switch to DTV on channel 12. They'll go from 316 KW analog to 6.8 KW digital. There's gonna be Hell to pay when grandma can't watch her Soaps so, I suspect there will be a power increase for some DTV stations in the future.
73, Ed NN2E
Owner / Operator - Murphy's Law Test Site & Thunderstorm Proving Grounds

[ES5NHC]

I as a matter of fact do enjoy DTV DXing even more... If you're finally able to lock into the station, you can have good quality picture with full ID. Honestly, I love it... Analog TV is history for me.

[KA9UVY]

I think that the PSIP info can give a positive ID is a great improvement over analog. Since I only count stations here that I photograph or screen capture. I cannot begin to count the hours spent watching some lousy program only to have the top of the hour fade come by or the miniature, transparent ID slide keep me from catching one. Now with DTV if the band opens into an area I can grab several stations within a single hour.
One more thing... once the analogs are all out of the way even weak DTV will lock easier.

[Danny]

My vote is less enjoyable. On the other hand, I've learned to accept it for what it is and to log as many DTVs as possible. DTV, however, is not my major concern for the future of TV DXing. White-space devices on VHF and UHF and new LPTVs on low VHF might be a bigger challenge to DXing.

[Robert Grant]

All in all, I would say that the frustration involved with getting a DTV signal outweighs the very real appealing attributes of DTV DX, particularly perfect picture and sound "popping in", and the universal use of PSIP so you are almost always able to identify a DTV station if you can get it to "lock".

One thing that is true - after 30 years, one really could get bored with yet another relog of WCIU by trop and WEDU by skip (with maybe the first DX of the season still being exciting). I don't think I would have really gotten back into dedicated TV DX if it were not for DTV (yet, in the 3 1/2 years of having DTV capability, I've added more new analogs to my log than digitals!).

I would certainly say that those much younger than I have missed a great thing in analog TV DX (Myself, I missed out on DXing on yet-unoccupied channels, DXing in the afternoon hiatus, test patterns with big call letters, and the peak of sunspot cycle 19).

But, as for the claim that DTV "cannot be DXed", or that DTV DX is too restrictive to be enjoyable, consider this:
Think of a "new" kind of broadcasting that produces excellent signal quality when DX does come in, but broadcasts on frequencies that are not usually affected by ionospheric skip, requires the signal strength be above a certain threshold, and offers no chance of IDing a station if it's signal is not the strongest station on it's frequency at your RF input. Am I describing DTV? No! All of this is true of FM (in comparsion to AM radio).
Needless to say, there are a ton of people on this forum who would disagree that FM DXing is impossible or cannot be enjoyed.

So, enjoy DTV DX, while you target the almost empty band I for LPTVs and exotic real DX!

[LMolineux]

Robert,

Yeah the thrill for a while will be the LP TV stations in the event with Analog being shut-down in just 6 days now we will be surely be having some sort of fun trying to E-Skip or Trop these LP Analogs, I often wonder about DTV DX'ing also with the Analog Shut-down as far as us who have outdoor antenna's and who have them high enough as to if problems will occure with 2 stations with PSIP fighting for the same Virtual Channel yet working off of Physical Channel spot. I just wish that there would be a way to shut-down the PSIP feature and just keep it on its Physical Channel.

[tvropro]

Digital is good till you hit the digital cliff then it gets quite aggravating. I also don't really care for how airplane flutter affects a digital signal. When it's solid locked it's great.

[N1LF]

I'm new to the game, but find pluses and minuses when it comes to DTV. In 2001, when I left the hobby, DTV was just coming into the scene. I had a WinTV card, and had to be one of the first people in my area to watch DTV and HD off the air. Truly experimental in those days...with hours of art cards, and strange programming.

Now that the technology has "matured", I find it a mixed bag. It's cool to see PSIP signals decode, even if a picture isn't viewable. And the move of domestic stations has opened up some truly incredible analog DX on the low bands.

But it's also hard not to miss something that was such a part of my childhood.

But change is part of life, and the best we can do is adapt to it. The best part is that the death of TV DXing has been greatly exaggerated. The hobby seems to be alive and well, and I hope that it will continue for generations to come.

73,

Les Rayburn, N1LF

[Radiotron]

I tend to not enjoy digital DXing as much but still avidly do it. So far Houston and Austin, Texas are the longest digital. I'm in New Orleans and use a Channel Master 4251 With a Wade VIP-307SR underneath about 32 feet up. It's a hefty package but a older Alliance U-110 has been a trooper at handling the two on one double (one split and forced into the other) mast.
Average reliable is around 125 to 150 miles on the CM4251.
The VIP-307SR generally gets aimed at Mexico for low band VHF analog.

[Frank Merrill]

I estimate that I enjoy DTV-DX'ing somewhere between 15% and 20% as much as I enjoy(ed) analog. Gone are the days of incipient CCI that doesn't belong, watching it slowly build until the Tropo duct causes the 570-mile analog signal to overpower (or at least be able to produce an audio of a different offset that can be separated, perhaps) the "pest" that's 115 miles in the same direction. Some of the analog CCI just "looked really cool" - I remember a good example of the [VERY RARE] KLEW-3 causing VERY exotic-looking CCI against KTVO. Every opening had different mixes of CCI, and it could be fun when (on ES) one station may be coming in with a snowfree picture and no apparent CCI, yet the audio is coming from another station. All of this stuff is gone by the wayside now, other than the fact that "foreign countries" are still analog, but that won't last either.

With DTV, there is little leeway between a signal-quality bar which is low or "bad," and something that decodes with absolutely perfect video. There is no such thing as video CCI, ever, with DTV - the only effect of CCI is to cause something not to decode. The "bad" or weak quality bar for some NEEDED exotic logging at a distance of 625 Tropo miles, or for something 58 miles away that you don't happen to have the antenna pointed at, looks exactly the SAME. Boring!

It's like DX'ing with "VIDEO AND AUDIO MUTING" on, basically. On the other hand, once something is coming in, it (in effect) ID'S **CONSTANTLY**, with the rare exception of those few DTV's that don't transmit PSIP information.

I'm waiting for somebody to come out with a decoder which, THOUGH IT MAY NOT PRODUCE THE VIDEO, will "decode" and show a PSIP as soon as the unit detects that there is indeed a signal with SOME (poor) data quality trying to come in. In other words, those signals and ubiquitous bars that show up as "bad" or low would give PSIP information long before there was a usable enough quantity of good data to give video. Of course, this box would need to be as sensitive as, say, the Insignia/Zenith boxes. There have been many openings where EVERY DTV channel (other than lowband) has some level of signal bar, but most of them are too poor to decode. A signal bar *ALWAYS* means that there is ONE specific station coming in stronger than anything else is right now. If there are two stations of equal strength, there will simply be no bar at all.

It would make things so much easier if this stuff would decode...and I'd pay SERIOUS money for any kind of box that would do this!!

[OzarksDXer]

With analog, I used to be able to see local channels pretty well. But I could see the Joplin, MO stations as well as Columbia, MO and several others from Springfield. Before I really had any idea about skip and tropo, I managed to see quite distant stations brought in by atmospheric phenomena (one station came in from Idaho, another time I had a Florida and South Carolina station duking it out for my attention) as well. Usually at least a little interference on locals even, but not enough to detract from viewing pleasure. Now, it is a good day when I can make it through one program without at least a couple or three break-ups. "Distant" stations are now a county or two away. I hate digital. The trade-offs are not worth it, to me. I'd rather see a little snow than a blank screen anyday, and I would REALLY like to see those Joplin, Columbia and other regionals come in regularly or at least on many occasions as well as distant stations!