Cable Television Proof-Of-Performance A Practical Guide to Cable TV Compliance Measurements Using a Spectrum Analyzer

Your job as a cable television technician or engineer continues to change as your cable system evolves. The last ten years have seen a doubling in the number of subscribers and a ten-fold increase in the services offered. These changes demand increased technical performance from your cable system and an increase in the complexity and frequency of system testing. This book will help you keep up with test and technology growth by teaching you the basics of broadband RF cable compliance and maintenance measurements using a general-purpose spectrum analyzer. Common industry test procedures, including those developed in Hewlett- Packard's Santa Rosa cable television research and design lab, have been used. The spectrum analyzer, with its proven utility to the cable industry, provides quality measurements while giving you a graphic vision of the measurement results. It is the only single instrument capable of full compliance testing. I have used Hewlett-Packard spectrum analyzers, but have kept product-specific controls and features to a minimum in order to widen the book's versatility and lengthen its useful life. The chapters are organized by measurement complexity, progressing from carrier amplitude and frequency, to the more complicated noise- and distortion-related testing. Interference, leakage, audio, and video measurements round out the final chapters. Appendices provide background references, including a glossary of common cable TV and spectrum analyzer terms, and a tutorial on differential gain, differential phase, and chrominance-to-luminance delay inequality. In selling services in today's marketplace, the quality of service and efficiency of testing maximizes your company's return-on-investment. Therefore, where possible, emphasis is placed on making tests that do not interfere with the delivery of services to your subscribers. Making tests efficiently and without disrupting product delivery will become more important as competing entertainment comes knocking at your customers' information door. I will feel successful about the work put into this book if, after applying the book's concepts, you find that your cable maintenance and proof testing jobs make more sense, are more efficient, and are a bit more fun. Jeff Thomas Internet jeff_thomas@sr.hp.com CompuServe 74211,2014 Introduction Overview This book will teach you how to make cable television system compliance measurements with a spectrum analyzer. Its text, graphics, and examples provide a background in measurement technology, along with signal and test theory. Don't let the word theo ry intimidate you. The emphasis is on the practical principles of television signals, measurement concepts, and system carriers, not their detailed mathematical analysis. what you will learn You will learn to make the proof-of-performance measurements with a spectrum analyzer, whether in the relative comfort of the head end, or in the field where time, temperature, and weather make efficient and accurate measurements important. The measurements covered are for NTSC-specified signals with compliance to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Rules and Regulations for cable television systems. Quotes from these regulations are in their respective chapters. Many of th e techniques and guidelines apply to systems with PAL television standard signals since the modulation is similar, although channel and carrier spacing is different from NTSC, and wider modulation bandwidths require different measurement settings on the spectrum analyzer. Working Examples The examples in this book show step-by-step measurement procedures for compliance tests, including the amplitude and frequency of carriers, the hunt for intermodulation and cross modulation distortion products, the diagnosis of hum disturbances, and practical and system flatness tests. Each example is supported with material to helpThomas, Jeffrey L. is the author of 'Cable Television Proof-Of-Performance A Practical Guide to Cable TV Compliance Measurements Using a Spectrum Analyzer' with ISBN 9780133063820 and ISBN 0133063828.