Border Stations and Low Power Analog

I take it that Canada has its own rules for digital transition. In
addition, low power stations can remain analog, so I take it that a
border town like Buffalo or Detroit will be luckier in getting post-
transition analog signals? Exactly how powerful is Class A, and is
there anything around Detroit I can check out for an example?

wrote:
I take it that Canada has its own rules for digital transition. In
addition, low power stations can remain analog, so I take it that a
border town like Buffalo or Detroit will be luckier in getting post-
transition analog signals? Exactly how powerful is Class A, and is
there anything around Detroit I can check out for an example?

The FCC is still working out the transition process for low power (LP)
stations - and is rather late in addressing the issue - but I would
expect to see a fair number of the low power stations do a digital flash
cut conversion in 2009. Digital broadcasting could be quite a boon for a
LP and Class A stations in a large city that can get a decent power
level. For the people that can get the LP signal, rather than a noisy
analog picture, they get a clear stable picture. The -LD (low power
digital) station can provide sub-channels as well, so expect to see some
odd specialized sub-channels going after niche markets or 24/7
informercial sub-channels. However many LPs won't be ready or have the
money, so they will be stuck in analog for several more years. However,
the FCC chairman stated recently that they are looking at having all the
low power stations and translators required to be converted to digital
by 2012.

The practical restriction on low power stations is a maximum broadcast
power, not a minimum power. So some will be 30 kW on UHF to cover a fair
size area and other LPs will be several hundred watts serving a rural
town or small part of a major city. You can look up the FCC database
(http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/tvq.html), tvfool.com or antennaweb.org or
even wikipedia to see what low power analog stations are in your area.
An explanation of the various broadcast station types in the US can be
found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...tation_classes.
Class A stations are still low power, although they tend to be at decent
broadcast power levels, but have some degree of protection for their
broadcast channel. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_A_television_service.

Canada has a digital transition date of August 31, 2011, but I do not
how set in stone this is politically. The US transition date of February
17, 2009 for all full power stations is a done deal.

Alan F

On Mar 4, 8:33*am, Alan F wrote:

* Canada has a digital transition date of August 31, 2011, but I do not
how set in stone this is politically. The US transition date of February
17, 2009 for all full power stations is a done deal.

I'm not sure how done the deal can be without enough converter boxes
to cover the transition. We're already past previous deadlines for
improved ID for Canadian border crossings. I think WTVS' antenna
problem was a sign that significant demographic subsets will be hurt
by the inability to convert: shut ins on limited income, priorities
during a recession, etc.

And then there are still people able to pick up HDTVs without ATSC
tuner.

wrote:
On Mar 4, 8:33 am, Alan F wrote:

Canada has a digital transition date of August 31, 2011, but I do not
how set in stone this is politically. The US transition date of February
17, 2009 for all full power stations is a done deal.

I'm not sure how done the deal can be without enough converter boxes
to cover the transition. We're already past previous deadlines for
improved ID for Canadian border crossings. I think WTVS' antenna
problem was a sign that significant demographic subsets will be hurt
by the inability to convert: shut ins on limited income, priorities
during a recession, etc.

And then there are still people able to pick up HDTVs without ATSC
tuner.

Gosh, down here on the southern border we're
moving right along. Tijuana is moving to DTV
swiftly. Haven't run a tuner scan in a couple
of months but, in December, I added five TJ
stations to our line-up.

Three of those have more HD content than the
stations on the U.S. side of the border.

That said, the U.S. -- Mexican border has large
markets contiguous to one another and there's
always been an effort (sometimes unsuccesful) to
co-ordinate spectrum and format choices.

--
pj

wrote:
On Mar 4, 8:33 am, Alan F wrote:

Canada has a digital transition date of August 31, 2011, but I do not
how set in stone this is politically. The US transition date of February
17, 2009 for all full power stations is a done deal.

I'm not sure how done the deal can be without enough converter boxes
to cover the transition. We're already past previous deadlines for
improved ID for Canadian border crossings. I think WTVS' antenna
problem was a sign that significant demographic subsets will be hurt
by the inability to convert: shut ins on limited income, priorities
during a recession, etc.

And then there are still people able to pick up HDTVs without ATSC
tuner.

We are still early in the process of rolling out the converter boxes.
The coupons only started to show up a few days ago and the stores are
still just starting to put converter boxes out on the shelves. Give it 3
or 4 months to see if there are shortages of the boxes. The government
has allocated for 33 million coupons, 22 million of those in the initial
run for anyone who asks. The second batch of 11 million are supposed to
households which are OTA only, but I expect that can't be enforced.

As for getting HDTVs without an ATSC tuner, where? The cut-off date
for moving TVs across state lines that had NTSC tuners, but no ATSC
tuners was March, 2007. I expect some warehouse stores or discount
outlets still have some NTSC only TVs around gathering dust, but those
should be pretty much out of the main stores by now. I do think the FCC
should have pushed harder on an earlier date for all TVs to have ATSC
tuners, but until Congress set the Feb. 17, 2009 analog shutdown date,
there was likely a lot of pushback from the manufacturers and the retail
chains on going with earlier dates.

BTW, the transition process is further along than I had thought in
that there somewhere over 30 full-power class stations across the US
that are currently digital only with no analog signal. Most are PBS,
religious, or independents, but there are several ABC, NBC affiliates
among them.

Alan F

On Mar 4, 4:04*pm, Alan F wrote:

* As for getting HDTVs without an ATSC tuner, where?

That other antenna thread. Poster said it was new, although smaller
than 36".