47 Days to All Digital Television … Not!

One of the things that really irks me (and has not been a recent development, it has been that way as long as I can remember) is an incomplete dissemination of information. In my way of thinking, it is very close to lying.

This is how I feel about the upcoming change to digital television.

I have written about this before, and yet all of the information has still not come out.  This led to the notice I sent to the local PBS affiliate in San Bernardino. (For those geographically challenged, San Bernardino is about 65 miles east of Los Angeles, and well within the television reception range of those stations appointed to serve Los Angeles and outlying areas. We have the privilege of being in range of 3 other PBS affiliates, 2 in Los Angeles, 1 in Orange County. I must also say that this can be, at many times an embarrassment of riches.)

I simply have a question.

Why is it that you insist on showing a person ( I assume an employee ) talking to the audience about the transition to digital that is spewing out incorrect and/or false information?  By telling people that all television will be all digital after Feb 17,  yet refusing to clarify that the statement is not strictly true waters down the message, and, if others are like me, tends to make me wonder about anything else I am told by your station.

That is to say that not ALL television will be digital in the U.S. after Feb 17, and I secretly suspect that your affiliate in the Low Desert, with its -LP designation, means EXACTLY that - it might continue to be analog for awhile after the ‘deadline’.

Also, each and every broadcast station in this area (greater Los Angeles) does the viewers no favors by touting the ‘wonders’ of digital television without tempering it with the information that reception for many, now served well by the analog signal, might be facing large frustrations with the upcoming change. Only recently the ads on commercial broadcast television have begun to speak of the possibility of antenna changes that might become necessary. This has also been a great disservice to many, and a waste of the taxpayers money, both on the incorrect/false messages and the antennas that will only partially ameliorate the reception problems. (After some information about where the frequency assignments of the now non-linear channel assignments reside, many people purchased UHF-only antennas, eschewing any VHF reception possibilities, while no one had made the point that after the Feb 17 time delineation, some of the stations will return to the original assignments in the upper band VHF.)

I am, as well as others I speak with are, aware of the deception and duplicity of the federal government, and the poor track record in the past 20 years of the FCC, but we don’t expect it from public television.

We should be getting at least (complete) truth for our money.

I have not gotten any response, and its possible that I might never get one, but I do think it is necessary to admonish those who provide less than full disclosure, for whatever reason.

At this point in time, it is still in the shaded areas that we find the truth of the digital television transition.

All analog television will NOT cease after February 17, 2009, however, most of it will.

Many stations that have been located in the UHF spectrum, (once channels 14 – 83, most recently channels 14 – 69 - after the last usurping of the public airwaves), that have their analog designations in the upper VHF band, channels 7 – 13, will be returning to that part of the frequency spectrum. Therefore anyone who tells you that VHF will no longer be used for television in America anymore is an uninformed idiot. This also means that it is not necessarily time to throw out the old antennas, as they are probably still useful.

Most, if not all, stations that were located in the low VHF spectrum (channels 2 – 6), will continue to have their digital output come from the UHF spectrum, as that portion is now broadcast. This also means that channels will no longer be  linear, that is, channel 2 will not necessarily be lower in frequency than channel 25, or channel 54, for that matter. (Apparently, this only matters to the organized and logical mind, of which there are few, if any, in Washington.)

Stations that were located in the UHF region before digital television will return to their proper (linear, pre-digital frequency of operation) place in the spectrum.

Stations that were designated from UHF channels 52 through 69 will be reassigned, as this part of the spectrum has already been sold off, and if they have had a digital presence before the transition, will probably stay at that frequency.

If any of this concerns or bothers you, I would suggest that you write your Congresspersons, it might do some good if enough people renounce apathy.

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Nothing is illegal if one hundred well-placed business men decide to do it.Andrew Young