W2RU - Bud Hippisley wrote:
> On Jan 24, 2009, at 1:33 AM, Roger (K8RI) wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> But my point was: Joe Viewer doesn't care about any of that; Joe
> Viewer up here will notice that he can no longer receive Channel 2 (or
> whatever) in ANY fashion. In short, while the various coverage charts
> may or may not be accurate for any given station's Analog or Digital
> pattern, there is a tremendous loss of OTA TV coverage in many parts
> of the country, such as where I live. But, of course, we Joe Viewers
> on the outskirts are a small percentage of the total population.
>
>
Likewise I agree. Most TV "users" are like most computer "users".
Completely clueless and don't care. OTOH Like the cars we drive they
shouldn't have to be experts, but at least care enough to check the
oil. I taught "The Introduction to computer Science" as a GA when
starting out working on my Masters. I had 195 students total in 5
classes that were basically learning how to "Turn 'em on, plug in a
disk, load and run a program(s), print a document, and turn 'em off".
The actual knowledge of these students (mostly business) was appalling
and less than 10 of them could type.
>
>> Also, *Unfortunately* I've not found an up-to-date site listing all
>> current, and final digital assignments and that includes the table
>> put out by the FCC.
>>
>
>
> Yes, and there are sites that purport to tell you what you'll be able
> to pick up, based on your zip code (much too coarse-grained) or your
> topo coordinates (better). Yet they are not in agreement at all.
>
> A good source for lots of tables, charts, and links to even more
> tables & charts, is www.w9wi.com. But, as you say, even the FCC
> lists are not up-to-date or fully consistent.
>
>
I'm going to try and import that into a spread sheet and then sort
according to state. When it comes to cities and stations available it
becomes a real bear.
> The crawler on one of the local Saturday morning news programs out of
> Syracuse this morning says Congress has reached agreement on extending
> the switchover date from February 17th to June 12th. So the delay is
> one step closer to becoming law. However, many stations will not be
> able to delay their switchover (existing facilities leases may be
> terminating) or they may not wish to (many will see substantial
> reduction in utility bills after they switch to Digital). As I
> understand the rationale for the implementation delay, however, it was
> because the government coupons had expired and/or all the money
> Congress allocated to subsidizing the converters had been used up
> before everyone who wanted one got a converter or two. That is, the
> delay has nothing to do with technical or digital coverage issues.
>
>
That's correct. The plan was insufficient and poorly implemented. When
the first coupons went out, the converters weren't available, yet the
coupons had a relatively short life before expiration. "I think it was
two months" and if your coupons expired and it's likely many of the
early ones did, you don't get another.
Although the plan may have been poor, it would have been better for the
implementation and us if they had just gone ahead. Now "I would expect"
confusion to reign supreme.
73
Roger (K8RI)
> Bud, W2RU
>
>
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