Friends, I get a lot of my best article ideas from people who call Solid Signal with questions. If you haven’t tried our help line at 888-233-7563, you really should. Our US-based team has tons of knowledge about the products and services we sell. And, whenever I hear about a question that I haven’t covered on this blog, I try to write about it. I’ve actually talked about this topic here and there but I haven’t ever done a whole article about it. So, here goes.
Radio and television broadcasting is obviously one of those things that exists in the real world and so it follows certain laws of physics. Why do I even mention that? Because one of those laws has to do with the way energy dissipates over distance. Whether it’s a sound, an electrical signal (like radio and television) or even the impact of a rock being thrown in a pond, it all obeys the same basic rules.
Rule one is that the signal degrades slowly and naturally. There’s no way to get a signal to just stop exactly where you want it to. That’s just not how the real world works. Rule two is that as you increase the distance, the signal degrades proportionally. It has to with the “rule of squares” which I go into in detail here. The bottom line is that you can’t control a broadcast signal so it stops exactly where you want it to. You can shape it a little, make it stronger here and weaker there, but you can’t make it respect a national border.
At this point you might be reminded of a recent article I wrote about something called the “cliff effect” or “shelf effect.” This is a characteristic of digital signals where it actually seems like it does just sort of stop at a particular point. While that’s true, this effect is practically impossible to control and there are still things you can do like low-noise amplifiers that will change where that falloff is going to happen.
International broadcast law is an incredibly complex thing which, there’s no way I’m going to be able to boil all of it down in 1,000 words or less. Broadcasting law exists because it has to. If different countries didn’t agree to respect each other’s broadcasts, then you would have chaos any time you’re near a border. Imagine a place like Europe where the countries are relatively small compared to the rest of the world. Now imagine that a tiny country like Luxembourg decided that it was going to let people broadcast on the same exact frequencies used by their counterparts in Germany, Belgium, and France. No one would be able to receive anything.
This is why there are agencies like the International Telecommunications Union. The ITU is part of the United Nations. Its only purpose is to make sure different countries can work together and not stomp all over other countries’ broadcasts. It’s one of those rare cases where pretty much everyone on the planet thinks this is a good idea.
Of course, if you’re reading this blog there’s a 92.3% chance you’re in North America (I just checked.) So let’s talk about North America for a second. As continents go, North America’s kind of unique. Almost all of its landmass is taken up by three countries: the US, Canada, and Mexico. This has meant that pretty much all radio and television broadcasting in the entire continent is compatible in pretty much every country. It’s just evolved that way, and one of the things that’s made it happen is the fact that people actually do want to get international broadcasts.
The overwhelming majority of Canadians live close enough to the US border to get television broadcasts. Canada itself doesn’t have a lot of TV broadcasting, and so Canadians statistically watch a decent amount of US television. On the other hand, while the Mexico side of the US/Mexico border is pretty sparse, there’s a good reason for that border to have international broadcasts. It turns out that it’s a lot cheaper to put up a broadcast tower on the Mexico side of the border than it is to put up one on the US side. When you look at this list of radio stations in San Diego, CA, many of them are on the Mexico side of the border even though they largely target the US side.
If you’re close enough to a foreign country to get their broadcasts, no one is going to stop you. As I said above, in some cases they’ll encourage you. The US Government takes advantage of this to broadcast propaganda to other countries, but most folks just do it so they can watch Canadian hockey or US sitcoms.
In Europe, it’s a different story. Or, it can be, at least. Many countries in Europe have state-sponsored TV. There are only a few channels and they’re all owned by the state. In a case like that, the TVs themselves may only pick up certain channels. It’s legal to buy a tuner to let you pick up international broadcasts, but that tuner may need a smart card or chip to make it work. You get that card or chip when you pay your taxes.
So, go ahead and get a big antenna if you want to pick up Montreal TV or radio stations in Ciudad Juarez. There’s no reason not to! Check out Solid Signal for the best selection of antennas. If you want personalized service, call us at 888-233-7563 or fill out the form below.
The post Is it legal to get TV and radio broadcasts from another country? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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A little about the technology of broadcasting
Radio and television broadcasting is obviously one of those things that exists in the real world and so it follows certain laws of physics. Why do I even mention that? Because one of those laws has to do with the way energy dissipates over distance. Whether it’s a sound, an electrical signal (like radio and television) or even the impact of a rock being thrown in a pond, it all obeys the same basic rules.
Rule one is that the signal degrades slowly and naturally. There’s no way to get a signal to just stop exactly where you want it to. That’s just not how the real world works. Rule two is that as you increase the distance, the signal degrades proportionally. It has to with the “rule of squares” which I go into in detail here. The bottom line is that you can’t control a broadcast signal so it stops exactly where you want it to. You can shape it a little, make it stronger here and weaker there, but you can’t make it respect a national border.
At this point you might be reminded of a recent article I wrote about something called the “cliff effect” or “shelf effect.” This is a characteristic of digital signals where it actually seems like it does just sort of stop at a particular point. While that’s true, this effect is practically impossible to control and there are still things you can do like low-noise amplifiers that will change where that falloff is going to happen.
Now about broadcast law
International broadcast law is an incredibly complex thing which, there’s no way I’m going to be able to boil all of it down in 1,000 words or less. Broadcasting law exists because it has to. If different countries didn’t agree to respect each other’s broadcasts, then you would have chaos any time you’re near a border. Imagine a place like Europe where the countries are relatively small compared to the rest of the world. Now imagine that a tiny country like Luxembourg decided that it was going to let people broadcast on the same exact frequencies used by their counterparts in Germany, Belgium, and France. No one would be able to receive anything.
This is why there are agencies like the International Telecommunications Union. The ITU is part of the United Nations. Its only purpose is to make sure different countries can work together and not stomp all over other countries’ broadcasts. It’s one of those rare cases where pretty much everyone on the planet thinks this is a good idea.
Now, in North America…
Of course, if you’re reading this blog there’s a 92.3% chance you’re in North America (I just checked.) So let’s talk about North America for a second. As continents go, North America’s kind of unique. Almost all of its landmass is taken up by three countries: the US, Canada, and Mexico. This has meant that pretty much all radio and television broadcasting in the entire continent is compatible in pretty much every country. It’s just evolved that way, and one of the things that’s made it happen is the fact that people actually do want to get international broadcasts.
The overwhelming majority of Canadians live close enough to the US border to get television broadcasts. Canada itself doesn’t have a lot of TV broadcasting, and so Canadians statistically watch a decent amount of US television. On the other hand, while the Mexico side of the US/Mexico border is pretty sparse, there’s a good reason for that border to have international broadcasts. It turns out that it’s a lot cheaper to put up a broadcast tower on the Mexico side of the border than it is to put up one on the US side. When you look at this list of radio stations in San Diego, CA, many of them are on the Mexico side of the border even though they largely target the US side.
So it’s totally legal and at least in North America, they can’t stop you
If you’re close enough to a foreign country to get their broadcasts, no one is going to stop you. As I said above, in some cases they’ll encourage you. The US Government takes advantage of this to broadcast propaganda to other countries, but most folks just do it so they can watch Canadian hockey or US sitcoms.
In Europe, it’s a different story. Or, it can be, at least. Many countries in Europe have state-sponsored TV. There are only a few channels and they’re all owned by the state. In a case like that, the TVs themselves may only pick up certain channels. It’s legal to buy a tuner to let you pick up international broadcasts, but that tuner may need a smart card or chip to make it work. You get that card or chip when you pay your taxes.
So, go ahead and get a big antenna if you want to pick up Montreal TV or radio stations in Ciudad Juarez. There’s no reason not to! Check out Solid Signal for the best selection of antennas. If you want personalized service, call us at 888-233-7563 or fill out the form below.
The post Is it legal to get TV and radio broadcasts from another country? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
