Confused about location of KQMK-LD in Omaha, NE market

ATSC Recommended Practice:
Receiver Performance Guidelines

Document A/74:2010, 7 April 2010

RECEIVER PERFORMANCE GUIDELINES

5.1 Sensitivity

A DTV receiver should achieve a bit error rate in the transport stream of no worse than 3x10E-6 (i.e., the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service, ACATS, Threshold of Visibility, TOV) for input RF signal levels directly to the tuner from –83 dBm (-34 dBmV) to –5 dBm (+44 dBmV)for both the VHF and UHF bands.

5.2 Multi-Signal Overload

The DTV receiver should accommodate more than one undesired, high-level, NSTC or DTV signal at its input, received from transmission facilities that are in close proximity to one another. For purposes of this guideline, it should be assumed that multiple signals, each approaching –8 dBm (+41 dBmV), will exist at the input of the receiver.

Presumably for Two Strong Input Signals.
Max Signal Input and Output would need to be DERATED for more than two stromg signals.

In your case:

WOWT -27 dBm + 12 dB antenna gain + 18 dB LNA-200 gain = +3 dBm; tuner overload

Intermodulation Distortion
The IMD creates new spurious signals within the preamp (or tuner) itself that can interfere with the reception of your weakest desired signals if the spurious signals are stronger than the noise floor of the weakest desired signals. The spurious signals are caused by the interaction between two or more of your strongest signals.

IMD is not the only distortion that can be created within the preamp; you can also have distortion caused by signals so strong that the top of the strong signals are clipped, which causes compression of the signals. This can be seen if you increase the input to the preamp by, for example, 10 dB and the output increases by less than 10 dB.

Spurious Free Dynamic Range

The Spurious Free Dynamic Range needed is the difference in strength between your strongest signal and your weakest desired signal, plus 16 dB for the SNR of the weakest signal, using the dBm Pwr scale on your tvfool report. This difference is expressed in terms of dB, not dBm, because the original units are the same. The difference between the strongest signal and the weakest signal is the Signal Dynamic Range/Dynamic Range, which is 16 db less than the SFDR, because it doesn't include the SNR of the weakest signal.

SFDRdiagramJ3_1.jpg


Another way to think of SFDR is from the top of the strongest signal down to the bottom (noise floor) of the weakest desired signal. The top of the spurious signals must be at or below the noise floor of the weak signals if they are not to cause interference. The Signal Dynamic Range is from the top of the strongest signal down to the top of the weakest desired signal.

You can also use the Noise Margin or Signal Margin scale for your calculations, but I prefer to use the dBm Pwr scale because most tuners drop out around -85 dBm.
 
Thanks again for all the good info. I tried powering the pre-amp again and added attentuators. I tried 10dB, 13dB and 16dB. Both 13dB and 16dB gave me a decodable signal on RF 21. The MER sits around 43, so there is pixelation. Also the signal will become undecodable at times. I left at 16dB to reduce the possible interference from 20 and 21. I may try 13dB after a while to see what it does. Working with the equipment I already have right now.

From your pre-amp chart, am I correct in thinking a "Mini Circuits ZHL1010" would be a good choice? The max signal input is -10.5 dBm, which RF 26 + my antenna still exceeds, but not as much. The 10.4 dB gain may be enough to get a fair signal on RF 21. I'm getting a decodable signal part of the time with a 2dB gain (18dB - 16dB, if I understand correctly). The ZHL1010 would reduce possible interference and noise introduction caused by the LNA-200 18dB gain.

Or, I may not be able to get 21 unless the transmitter gets more power. The noise may already be too high when it gets to my antenna.
 
I tried powering the pre-amp again and added attentuators. I tried 10dB, 13dB and 16dB. Both 13dB and 16dB gave me a decodable signal on RF 21.
Thank you for the report of your tests. It sounds like you are able to receive RF21 at times.
The MER sits around 43, so there is pixelation. Also the signal will become undecodable at times. I left at 16dB to reduce the possible interference from 20 and 21. I may try 13dB after a while to see what it does. Working with the equipment I already have right now.
When you say MER I assume you mean the HDHR Signal Quality. It's often said to be eqivalent to SNR with a Signal Quality of 50 equal to an SNR of 15 dB at dropout, but it probably IS derived from MER.

With the LNA200, it is necessary to insert the attenuator before the preamp to keep it from being overloaded. Even a small amount of overload will produce IMD that will create spurious signals that will raise the noise floor and reduce the SNR of RF21. I redid the SFDR diagram to make it a little clearer, I hope:

SFDRdiagramJ3_3.jpg


From your pre-amp chart, am I correct in thinking a "Mini Circuits ZHL1010" would be a good choice? The max signal input is -10.5 dBm, which RF 26 + my antenna still exceeds, but not as much. The 10.4 dB gain may be enough to get a fair signal on RF 21. I'm getting a decodable signal part of the time with a 2dB gain (18dB - 16dB, if I understand correctly). The ZHL1010 would reduce possible interference and noise introduction caused by the LNA-200 18dB gain.
The ZHL1010 is much more resistant to overload, so you could add any necessary attenuation after the preamp to reduce the chance of tuner overload. The Mini Circuits preamp costs $150, and there is no guarantee that it would improve your reception of channel 21; only you can decide if the gamble is worth it.

An alternative is the CM3410, which isn't quite as good as the ZHL1010, but is much less expensive.
Or, I may not be able to get 21 unless the transmitter gets more power. The noise may already be too high when it gets to my antenna.
That's true.

I'm still curious to see what the channel 21 signal looks like on an SDR spectrum analyzer scan. These scans were with an SDRplay RSP1A SDR ($100) and RSP Spectrum Analyser software:

11-1-2020 RSP SpecAnal-17dBamp_2.jpg


11-1-2020 RSP SpecAnal-17dBampUHF_2.jpg
 
The noise floor diagram and explanation makes sense. I tried moving the attenuation to before the pre-amp. I tried 10dB, 13dB and 16dB. The only time I found a signal for RF 21 it was very choppy and pixelated, "decodable" but unusable. That was watching on the HDHomeRun, I didn't get a MER value. I'm resolved to believe that the SNR at my location is already too low. I'd be interested in the analysis too but I'm out of money for this project, at least at the moment. Thanks again for your help, I've learned a lot. The good news is the rest of my stations have better signal.
 
The noise floor diagram and explanation makes sense.....Thanks again for your help, I've learned a lot. The good news is the rest of my stations have better signal.
Thanks for the report. Glad that I was able to help a little and that your other channels are OK.

The RTL-SDR.COM V3 dongle is only $25 and the SDR# (SDRsharp) software is free.
Buy RTL-SDR Dongles (RTL2832U)
But, it only covers part of a channel because the bandwidth is only about 2 MHz. See post 13.

You can also use the dongle with the free Touchstone software which covers more than one channel:
Touchstone — RF Spectrum Analyzer Software

Touchstone 10-26-2020 UHF 10dBAttn_1.jpg


A disadvantage is that there is no way to adjust the gain of the dongle with the Touchstone software, so you need an attenuator to get a good scan.

Toner Attenuator No. 1 Calib Curve3.png


Toner Attenuator Label Inverted.jpg


My amateur Videos
I didn't use a preamp for this scan. The channel 16 signal (first strong signal on the left) measured -6.3 dBmV (-55.1 dBm) with my Sadelco DisplayMax 800 signal level meter:
Touchstone RF Spectrum Analyzer 2020-10-27 14-45-43.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/no068tnzs...pectrum Analyzer 2020-10-27 14-45-43.mp4?dl=1

When I used a 17 dB preamp (CM7777HD Amplify, low gain setting), more attenuation before the dongle was needed.
Touchstone RF Spectrum Analyzer 2020-10-27 14-27-48.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/18g3b36dm...pectrum Analyzer 2020-10-27 14-27-48.mp4?dl=1

I use VLC Media Player.
 

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