Still no comparison

[andy]

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[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by andy

I have a feeling that professional quality NTSC modulators will be really cheap soon (as cable companies move to digital). I've already seen them start to show up in surplus stores. They let you select any cable channel using dip switches. I even picked up a BTSC (MTS) encoder.

Yeah-- I was actually going to post something wondering if that was starting to happen. A month or two ago I got an agile RF modulator from MCM (www.mcmelectronics.com) on sale for about $32 (item # 33-2740). It has digital sysnthesized tuning (pushbutton channel selection, LED display) from UHF channels 14-69 or CATV channels 65-139. It's designed for inserting into a distribution network, but this low-cost model doesn't have a built-in combiner. So far, I've only informally tried it out, but it seems to work pretty nice and stable.

Anyway, I don't *think* this particular model happens to be in any of the current sale circulars, but I have noticed it (as well as a lot of other-- but higher-end/more expensive-- agile modulators) appearing in a lot of their sale circulars in recent months.