Wbob-tv is on the air!

[ohohyodafarted]

Well, I finally got around to putting it all together, and it works great. AThe shut down of analog NTSC is not going to silence my tv's

WBOB is transmitting on VHF chanels 3,6,8,10, and 12. The front end is 4 Magnovox Digital to Analog converters and one DVD player. They feed 5 Holland modulators which feed into a 12 input Holland combiner. Output is sent via wire to my sets. Signal is strong and clear.

I still need to put up an antenna to feed the D to A converter boxes, but at least it is functioning and most of the hard work is already done.

I welded up a small equipment rack frame and designed the whole mess to mount with a couple of lag screws to the wall.

When completely finished, each converterwill be tuned to a local chanel and I will be able to use the tuners in my tv's to switch from chanel to chanel and even select the dvd player, which will be transmitting on chanel 8 (DVD player is not shown in photos)

What sort of work arounds have other AK members dreamed up to keep their old sets fed with signals?

Bob

[newhallone]

My plan is to get one of these media players with a terabyte or more and shoot the signal throughout the house. I have not checked into it but it would be great if the remote for the thing was RF. We used to have a satellite dish receiver that had a rf remote and you could use it anywhere in the house. Here is a link to one.

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

[zenithfan1]

Looks great Bob! I remember when we had a lengthy conversation on this subject, now I need to build mine too! Great work!!

[AUdubon5425]

Nice!

I would like to set up something similar for testing and just for kicks - one channel would be fine for me. Looks like I'll have another project on the list for this year.

[old_tv_nut]

Nice!

[Phil Nelson]

I see a new cottage industry in your future -- building these units for other TV collectors

Phil Nelson

[Hemingray]

Mine is two dish boxes, and a DTV convertor, however I'm on channels 3, 31, 54 and 60.

[ohohyodafarted]

I kept to the vhf spectrum because most of the old sets I collect do not have a UHF tuner.

[jhalphen]

Hi Guys!

My solution to End-of-Analog, scheduled for 2011 OTA SECAM L norm is personal transmitters.

I currently run:
- 2 x NTSC, VHF, Ch-3 & Ch-12
- 1 x PAL B/G, VHF, Channel E-12

& occasionally
- SECAM L France, VHF
- UK, PAL/I, UHF, Ch-30 something.

All are home-built, 100 mW into the antenna.

If the government sells off the frequencies i will either:
- Move all to VHF Band I (35-60 MHz) abandonned here
or
- Pump Watts into the PA's!

Have stocked up on wideband +30dBm/1 Watt RF power modules, "just in case".

Advantages:
- No coax all over the place to feed numerous TVs
- Use TVs with "Rabbit Ears" (easy)
- Non-broadcast modulators are DSB (Double SideBand) NOT Vestigial SideBand like Broadcast transmitters, therefore channels must be spaced wide apart and there is always a risk of interference because of harmonics.

US Solution: When NTSC goes dead, cable networks will offload Pro-Modulators by the truckload, so there will be good deals to be made.

Just FYI, over here we currently receive 18 free OTA channels encoded in MPEG-2/625/50/i it's called TNT! not meaning dynamite but "Television Numerique Terrestre" (Terrestrial Digital Television)

5 additional channels are encrypted and require a subscription + smartCard.

HD terrestrial started Oct 1st. It is encoded in MPEG-4 which allows transmitting an HD channel using the same bandwith as MPEG-2/625. The standard adopted is 1080i/50. So far, 4 channels are broadcasting Free to Air.

TNT tuners are available from 30 Euros (35 Bucks) to 300 Euros.
30 Euros gets you a basic tuner. All have composite video out + RGB which we use with the 21 pin SCART plug, a requirement since 1980.

For 60 Euros, you get 2 tuners, watch one channel, record another.

For 130 Euros, the same + a Hard Disk for recording, also a slot for memory card recording.

For 200 Euros, you get an HD Tuner + 625 tuner.

For 300 Euros, the same + HDD/SmartCard recording.

My experience: i have 5 TNT tuners, first of which in service May 2005 when experimental programs started. All have the sensitivity of a crystal set "Hello! where have all the good RF Engineers gone".

I'm slap-bang in the heart of metro Paris with the Eiffel Tower transmitter 5 miles away and on certain Multiplex frequencies (8 channels together) reception is touchy. No DX-TV for sure with these tuners...

Such is the status of the market in France as of Jan 2009.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[ohohyodafarted]

Hi Jerome,

Is there some sort of amplifier that I can feed with the output of my combiner, that would allow me to broadcast over the air, my chanels 3,6,8,10,and 12 so that I dont have to hard wire cable to each of my sets?

And what kind of amplifier would it be and what sort of antenna do I pump the amplifier into?

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by ohohyodafarted

Hi Jerome,

Is there some sort of amplifier that I can feed with the output of my combiner, that would allow me to broadcast over the air, my chanels 3,6,8,10,and 12 so that I dont have to hard wire cable to each of my sets?

And what kind of amplifier would it be and what sort of antenna do I pump the amplifier into?

NOTE: Unlicensed broadcast is not legal in the TV band in the US. Low power AM and FM radio-band transmitters are legal and work for some short-range purposes, because the band width is smaller and a radio receiver can get by on lower signals. FM adapters for auxiliary devices in cars (cassette, satellite radio) work this way. Also, the 'Mister Microphone" toy, if you remember that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_15_(FCC_rules)