So far, practically all the digital transition "buzz" has been focused on avoiding the trauma that would be suffered by the "poor little old ladies" vainly wiggling their rabbit ears atop their 1975 Zeniths and getting no picture (or sound) on February 17, 2009.

Yes, I'm sure there will be a few of those. But there will be a lot more, and very vocal, "little old ladies" who already have digital reception capability (HDTV or otherwise) who will be shocked on Feb. 17th to find out they are not receiving one of there favorite DTV channels, and many...

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Channels may disappear for another reason. In the San Francisco Bay Area, KGO is moving from channel 24 back to its analog channel 7 and antennas may not pick it up.

I live in the South Bay around a hill from the transmitter. I installed a Channel Master CM4228 UHF antenna twenty feet in the air to receive the digital channels. It didn’t have enough gain for channels 56 and 57 so I installed another one and now get great reception. There is enough gain to get channel 12, but I doubt that there will be enough gain for channel 7. I always had very poor analog reception (ghosting) on channels 7 and 9 even with a very high gain VHF antenna and pre-amplifier.

A "little old lady" down the street has just received her digital converter box. She asked me to come over and hook it up for her. Should I hook it up now, or is it best to wait until the actual switch over in February? I have Direct TV on one set and a second HDTV set that is attached to a rooftop antenna, so this problem does not affect me Mike

Why wait? The signals are there now. You might have to change the orientation if any of the stations changes their ATSC channels in Feb. but that should be it.

I'd like to point out a fault in the language Ed used in his latest "Ed's View". He wrote:

"As we know, on February 17, 2009, virtually all TV stations will switch to the digital format (except for some LDTV stations and translators)."

You're not alone in using this terminology, Ed. I've heard it from many other sources as well. But it gives the wrong impression. Stations will NOT be SWITCHING to the digital format. As we all know, they are using it now, and for many major market stations they've been on the air with a digital signal for almost 10 years. Digital stations here in San Francisco came on the air in November, 1998. The uninformed will read your statement as meaning that when analog goes off, the digital comes on, which, of course, is wrong.

We all need to emphasize that the digital signals are there NOW. Don't wait for next February to hook up your converter box or connect your antenna to your new HDTV. Do it now! See what you get. Yes, a small number of stations will be changing channels, many switching their digital operation to their present analog channel and others switching to other channels to move out of the channel 52 to 69 frequency band, but the majority of the digital stations will remain exactly as they are now... same channel, same power, same transmitter location. For the majority of stations, they'll simply turn off their analog transmitter on February 17, 2009, and the digital operation will continue exactly as it is today.

Larry
SF

Many people do not know that because of channel changes on 2/18 that they will have to rescan their channels. I find that some people do not realize that they can hook up their DTV convertors now and that they need some sort of an antenna to work. Some people who have cable or DBS do not know that sets no hooked up to their service provider will stop working. Some people who have newer sets with built in DTV tuners have no idea of this. And some people, who are aware of the analog turn off (a far better description of what will occur on 2/1 have not figured out that they should pick up the phone to the provider that they are sending a check each month for service to, and discuss their individual situation. I have been giving talks to civic groups on the analog turn-off and find a wild gap between the number of households who are aware that there is a change coming on 2/18 and the number who have figured out a plan that works for them,

Harold Protter
SVP / Technology
The CW Television Network

What will the outcry be from the guy who will not be able to keep up with the baseball scores on his old black-and-white TV (with a coat hanger for an antenna) in his basement workshop? Or his wife wanting to watch her soap opera on the portable (with rabbit ears) on the kitchen counter while cooking supper? Or both of them when they want to drag out the portable (with an extension cord) to the patio in the evening, while having a cool one?

And what about people like me who live in big cities like Los Angeles, poor souls who are challenged with the digital clarity of hundreds of movies, news shows, art shows, documentaries of all kinds, streaming in to sear our eyeballs with their invasive hi-def clarity, invading our satellite dish antennas with piercing electromagnetic images that challenge our minds and hearts with romance and science and late night frivolity. How will our poor analog souls survive in a world gone so cruelly digital? Oh, the humanity!!!