The Bart Head
In December I joined the crowd and purchased a TinySA from R&L Electronics:
http://www.randl.com/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=75243
One of the first things I tried was to look at the signal from the closest PBS DTV station (Ellison Bay, WI), a translator (repeater) of WPNE in Green Bay. The station is on RF channel 17 or 488 MHz to 494 MHz.
I don't know who originated the term but many digital RF signals look a little like this guy:
and more specifically, the top of his head:
Here is a view of channel 17 using the small whip antenna supplied with the TinySA:
The spike on the left side is a carrier located at 310 kHz from the bottom of the channel which the TinySA automagic marker says is about 488.319 MHz, pretty decent accuracy !
QST had an interesting "The World Above 50 MHz" column by Gene, W3ZZ in the February 2009 issue, page 92 which dealt with the upcoming (in 2009) digital TV cutover and how it would affect Ham Radio. It's available for members on the ARRL web site:
http://www.arrl.org/arrl-periodicals-archive-search
That's all for now.
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY