Welcome to Direct-Pickup.com and the direct pickup information page

 

If you found this page you must be having reception problems with your Cable TV or Digital cable TV reception. If you see analog interference it will appear as noise or wavy lines, But for digital reception you see macroblocking or no video and audio.  Digital interference most likely  cause the picture and sound to come and go.

 

 We are seeing a new revolution of wireless devices, some are called Television Band Devices or White Space Devices they operate between 50 &700Mhz. There is also another class of devices that operate, between 700 to 800 Mhz. At this point AT&T, VERIZON  have not announced what they will call this product or how they work. We do know that the 700 to 800 Mhz spectrum was bought for 19 Billion dollars or $19,000,000,000 and they got to do something!

You may be looking for a shield to protect your TV from these transmitters  Here is my e-comerce web site where I sell Direct-Pickup shields and TV band filters.

 

Our government has changed the licensing of the 700 to 800 MHz frequencies from television,  to communication devices. In the past the TV transmitters were on mountain tops many miles from your cable TV, now they will be only 4 watts and distances that could be measured in inches.

 

The FCC own report has stated concern for interference susceptibility of three Digital Cable Ready (DCR) TV’s.

Only those devices Thru2way or Cable card certified must meet the requirements as required by The FCC & Cablelabs


Additionally  AT&T, Verizon who have spent 19 Billion dollars for the 700 to 800 mhz of spectrum could make 100 mhz of cable spectrum channels 109 through 125 un-useable or at least a problem to be dealt with.

AT&T’s cellular service is around 820-850Mhz does your cable provider use channels 129-134? WHY?
 

Diagnosis and fixing the problem.

You will need to identify the problem channel, the first issue is Digital TV channels have what is known as virtual channels. For example ch 2.1 could really be operating on ch 122. In the cable world, the least difficult method of channel Identification would be use the diagnostic menu or the channel add/scan menu to determine the channel you are currently watching.

 

Once you know what channel you are watching, some method to improve shielding will have to be accomplished. The first thing I would do is insist that the cable company show that their cable box can work.

If their cable box works without macroblocking the problem is the shielding of your TV (See TV below)

If their box does not work, insist that they replace the coaxial cable to the house; time, movement,& stretching degrades the cable shielding.

If that does not solve the problem, see if you can get them replace the cable between the house entry and the TV.  If not, see if you can pay or replace it your self. Make sure the cable is the highest quality with 2 shields (metal foil & braded wire) RG-59 or RG-8

If you have a TV problem

See if moving the set, or rotate the TV from the wall, If it does.

It could be that the TV has poor shielding when it was built, or that it has seen a damaged  antenna connector. As little as 5 pounds of force can degrade the tuners shielding property’s by 10dB.

If you have a wall mounted TV, or the cleaning person or Dog has pulled on the antenna connector your effective shielding could be degraded.

My Direct pickup shield available on my e-comerce web site can help, It is most effective on channels 62-135.

If you use an antenna to receive your television programming, You could have reception problems from these sources. An explanation can be seen at http://www.white-space-filter.com

 

Hope this helps

Bill Bennett

Kq6ly@hotmail.com

For more info on the subject go to these sites

http://www.showmywhitespace.com/?gclid=CJjPmbPv85kCFYZM5Qodo0qbSA

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/153320/us_fcc_approves_rules_allowing_whitespace_devices.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_space_(telecommunications)

Evaluation of Prototype TV-Band White Space Devices – Phase II

 

Relative calibration of un desired power to meet CEA 23a

Ch              EIRP dBm at 2 meters from device

Ch2            +10

Ch6            +6

Ch7            +5

Ch13          +5

Ch65          +7

Ch125        +10