Digital TV
Charlie Rhodes is a consultant in the field of television broadcast technologies and planning. He can be reached via e-mail at
cwr@bootit.com.
White Spaces: Myth or Reality?
by Charles W. Rhodes, 11.18.2008
In this market, all vacant channels in the high VHF and UHF bands are also adjacent channels to one or two broadcast channels. So are adjacent channels really suitable for sharing? More...
Improving a Digital EAS With the New ATSC Signal
by Charles W. Rhodes, 10.15.2008
What a DTV signal can do that an analog signal such as NTSC could not do is to awaken sleeping persons believed by the local authorities to be threatened. More...
An Emergency Alert System for the Digital Era
by Charles W. Rhodes, 09.17.2008
What is needed is an EAS which can alert the threatened populace while not scaring the entire nation. Our present EAS cannot do this, but a well designed Digital EAS could over our DTV channels. More...
DTV Assignments May Jinx Post-Analog Reception
by Charles W. Rhodes, 09.03.2008
The DRL channels permit a "feedback" or "return" link to be established from an ENG receive-only (ENG-RO) site to an originating TV pickup station (i.e., ENG truck). This link allows automatic transmitter power control by ENG More...
The End of Analog Allotments
by Charles W. Rhodes, 07.23.2008
This is the first allotment table having no analog TV channel allotments; it is our future broadcasting universe. More...
Addressing Interference Problems Using FAAF
by Charles W. Rhodes, 06.25.2008
In the April 2, 2008, issue of TV Technology, I proposed a solution to DTV reception problems. This proposal could address interference problems including interference from unlicensed transmitters operating on “vacant” broadcast More...
Unmasking the Threat of Adjacent Channels
by Charles W. Rhodes, 04.02.2008
They found that signals of this form produce what amounts to co-channel interference into channel N. Take my word for it, they would also have found the same in channel N+3K. More...
More Interference Due To Signal of Triplets
by Charles W. Rhodes, 02.20.2008
Had the FCC been able to anticipate this problem of receiver-generated IM3 (noise) in “vacant channels,” perhaps it could have established minimum performance standards for consumer DTV receivers. More...
Troubles With Triplets Foreseen
by Charles W. Rhodes, 02.06.2008
Last month, this column covered DTV-DTV interference from one and two undesired signals. In this issue, we will address the matter of triplets of undesired DTV signals. More...
Triplets: A Grave Threat to DTV Broadcasters
by Charles W. Rhodes, 01.09.2008
There are 42 symmetrical triplets in the FCC Table of Allotments, and 161 asymmetrical triplets. Of the two kinds, Murphy’s Law says that the more numerous kind are also the worst kind from an interference point of view and More...
Single Distorted DTV Signals and Pairs
by Charles W. Rhodes, 12.19.2007
While the FCC DTV channel allotment process was based on the DTV Planning Factors in OET Bulletin No. 69, those Planning Factors were based on the assumption that each DTV station might face one, but not more than one, More...
Television Signals in the Post-Transition Miami Market
by Charles W. Rhodes, 11.21.2007
Now that we pretty much know the permanent channel allotments from the 7th Report and Order and Notice of Proposed Rule Making dated October 2006, I asked my friend Louis R. du Triel Jr. to revise the data in Table D.1 of the More...
How Unlicensed Devices Could Affect Your Future
by Charles W. Rhodes, 10.17.2007
By the time you read this, the FCC is expected to propose a set of rules by which unlicensed devices will be allowed to share TV Channels 2–51. More...
Concern Over Interference Continues
by Charles W. Rhodes, 08.22.2007
The saga of the FCC Laboratories Report, “Interference Rejection Thresholds of Consumer Digital Television Receivers Available in 2005 and 2006” continues. More...