[opendtv] Re: PR: Consumers in 39 Million U.S. Households Cannot Receive Complete Network Digital Service
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 21:04:25 -0700
Spin, spin, spin, spin, SPIN.
Funny how you don't mention the discredited (by the Judge) engineering --
and I will assume it was done by the same folks that did it this time
around -- that EchoStar offered in the Florida court case brought by CBS
that EchoStar lost (summary judgment; no triable issues of fact) last year.
In that case, the "since 1999 argument" was also offered up, but was
ridiculed by the judge.
Have you read the judge's decision? I would offer it up, but my harddrive
crashed this week. I'll have to regain the document.
You may not know, but I do, that the predicted coverage for broadcast
stations has used methodology that was adopted by the FCC around the time I
was born -- the mid 1950's. It's been used for every subsequent radio
service, including TV, and FM, and cellular radio, and ..., and ...
There has been one change since then: knife-edge diffraction, which the FCC
accepts on a case-by-case basis. I also recognize that EchoStar acquired
the rights to two different databases to do knife-edge diffraction analysis,
but apparently has not offered up the results to anyone that I know of.
Maybe that was because the judge in the Florida case also ridiculed the
efforts?
There is ZERO MERIT to the argument that consumers have been complaining
about this since 1999. What you mean to say is that EchoStar viewers and
dealers, inspired directly and indirectly by Charlie Ergen, have been
complaining about this since 1999. Funny that DirecTV viewers don't
complain about it.
Oh, yeah, that's right: DirecTV has never been adjudged by a court as to
having tried to spin the stations out of their affiliation rights, nor has
DirecTV been adjudged by a court as having violated anti-trust in violating
the rights of broadcast stations.
When EchoStar -- belatedly -- started in a small way to accede to their
legal carriage requirements in 1999. (A very good friend of mine once had
all of EchoStar's installation business in a Southern California county; he
gave it up when the fees were reduced to below what he pays his installers,
and the payments stopped arriving even at that level.
Echostar started to follow -- in a very de minimus fashion -- their legal
requirements in 1999, and started stimulating for a change in predicted
coverage then. IT WILL NOT BE CHANGED IN YOUR LIFETIME!
So, every broadcast engineer in the U.S. -- save for the few whores EchoStar
has been able to compromise (sometimes in front of a judge) -- sees no
reason to change the method of predicting service contours because the only
people complaining have no horse in the race: they're just trying to
unfairly compete with broadcasters, and not being successful with that, now
want the rules changed to their benefit.
What's the SECOND satellite company whose engineers complain about the
methodology?
As to what methodology the engineers followed, I'm not so sure that I would
believe the results, unless I was supervising the work myself.
So, the only way around is this simpleton's "greenroots" effort. Rotsa
ruck.
Then, you offer up this canard: "According to Digital Transition Coalition's
website, the group wants consumers across the country to be able to receive
DTV service from local broadcasters immediately, and for the analog spectrum
used by the broadcasters returned by 2006."
Yes, so now EchoStar and the CEA (funders of the DTC) people who have made
some of the only dollars of profit on DTV, now want the broadcasters be
punished because they (having not made a penny on DTV, but spent billions)
have a perceived interest in NOT MAXIMIZING their signal level, even though
an FCC rule gives them a "use it or lose it" deadline on their maximum
power.
My, what balls you guys have!
Also, if the DTV wants the analog spectrum returned by 2006, they want
something that they have no right to, since clearly that spectrum by law
cannot be turned over until 2006 has elapsed.
So, amigo, why should I forward a complaint to the FCC about the map not
including the Mexican-based Fox affiliate for San Diego? My, what balls you
have!
Nothing you write proves anything except that you can type and have a bare
understanding of one party's viewpoints on this matter.
I'll let you know when I encounter the first broadcast engineer that thinks
that your maps are conservative, or that the predicted service contour
methodology has problems. Don't hold your breath: I don't suspect it will
come in this life: I've been talking to engineers about these methods for
more than 2 decades.
John Willkie
P.S. Note: it doesn't take me a week (did you refer it to a committee?) to
respond to this drivel.
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Dallas Axelrod
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2004 2:14 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: PR: Consumers in 39 Million U.S. Households
Cannot Receive Complete Network Digital Service
John:
The information you question like the methodology and the source of the
information is posted on the www.iwantmyhdtv.com website. In addition, the
company that did the work for the coalition is also posted on the site. I
assume that you could contact those engineers to get the answers to all your
questions.
However I'd you'd just be told that the maps were made using the same
methodology used by the FCC to determine whether a consumer is served by an
over the air broadcaster. As you may or may not know, consumers have been
complaining about the accuracy of these predicted models since 1999. The
satellite TV companies keep complaining that the methodology should be
updated to take into account modern consumer expectations, but the
broadcasters remain firm in their view that the methodology is accurate.
According to Digital Transition Coalition's website, the group wants
consumers across the country to be able to receive DTV service from local
broadcasters immediately, and for the analog spectrum used by the
broadcasters returned by 2006.
The conclusion is that the maps and figures provided by this group are
probably on the conservative side, especially since they're used a
methodology supported by the National Association of Broadcasters and used
by the FCC. The individuals who posted complaints about the accuracy should
direct there complaints to the FCC rather than lodge their complaints at the
Digital Transition Coalition. It just further proves that the broadcasters
are dragging their feet in making DTV service available.
*****
[opendtv] Re: PR: Consumers in 39 Million U.S. Households Cannot Receive
Complete Network Digital Service
From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 10:14:37 -0700
Why are you introducing any reality into this debate? What was the
antennacriteria? What noise figures for receivers were used? Did they
employfree-space, R-6602 or some other signal loss criteria?You don't have
much geographical (hill/mountain? limitations in Illinois,but how (if at
all) were those figures included in the data set?Who provided the source
data (the FCC's old databases are NOTORIOUSLYinaccurate) and could they
provide the names of the actual engineers thatdid the calculations, or the
programmers who wrote the algorithms?Who verified the maps against the data?
(I suspect nobody.)Here's the nub: who not in a mental hospital (or working
againstbroadcasting) thinks that any broadcaster wants to reach fewer people
withdigital than with analog. In other words, why do we have to devote
anyeffort and energy to overcome a problem that broadcasters will either
solveindividually or will suffer collectively as a result of?John Willkie
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