Re: Who remembers how bad analogue television was?

On 2/28/2025 5:08 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

On 28/02/2025 01:29, Don Y wrote:

On 2/27/2025 5:46 PM, Chris Jones wrote:

If reception conditions were poor, yes the picture could degrade a bit, but that is far preferable to the behaviour of digital systems that completely drop out halfway through the movie if the rain gets too heavy.

>
Is it the presence of the water in the air that is the problem?
I've noted the correlation but assumed it was because of the
effects of wind and rain on the *tree* that is in my line-of-sight
to the broadcast towers.

 Quite likely to be a factor. Wet tree leaves can be pretty destructive to signals to hence our local microwave internet requires clear line of sight or the microwave link is unreliable.
 Some VHF/UHF bands are less susceptible to water in their path.

*Most* of the local broadcasters transmit from the same general
location "on the mountain".  We're pretty close to the *base* of
said mountain so the line-of-sight to the transmitters is ~12 miles
"over" and ~2 miles *up*.  For most positionings of the (outdoor)
antenna, this passes directly through the SOLE tall tree in the
area.  :<  Of course, said tree will continue to grow taller and wider.
We've noticed that reception suffers during Monsoon storms -- high
winds and intense rains.  But, I've not been able to determine
definitively if it was the rain or the "wet, BLOWN tree" that was
the problem.
[This is important as it determines how much effort I should expend
to re-site the receiving antenna]

I.e., if the transmitter had a COMPLETELY unobstructed path to my
antenna, would rain *still* be a problem?

 Obviously it depends a lot on the frequency, but my satellite feed drops out when there are tall cumulonimbus thunderclouds overhead irrespective of whether it is actually raining. TDTV holds good under most conditions expect when the local mast burned down spectacularly in a freak accident.