As Larry 'Taste of NAB Road Show' Bloomfield keeps pointing out, iit ain't over, yet.
Curt this is so late 70s, early 80s. In our larger cities, people pointed small transmitters toward the cable co's antenna farms, that received no regular signal, after the various national broadcasting channels were turned off at night. Hook-up a vcr and borrow/rent a couple of vhs tapes from the local videostore.
Larry's list form opendtv:
There is little doubt that yesterday was a significant milestone in the history of American television, but what many seem to forget is that only 20% of all licensed television transmitters had to drop analog and remain on the air strictly digital.
As of February 27, 2009 (from an FCC press release) these are totals for broadcast television stations licensed as of December 31, 2008:
UHF COMMERCIAL TV 796
VHF COMMERCIAL TV 582 1,378
UHF EDUCATIONAL TV 252
VHF EDUCATIONAL TV 129 381
TOTAL 1,759
Only the 1,759 Full Power TV Stations had to comply. But there is a total of ~8,600 television transmitters in the US of these, 6,862 stations that did not have to comply.
The guys I have compassion for are those who had to go out and make sure their translators, LPTV that serve as translators and other types of service being fed by the full power are working properly.
Here’s some interesting numbers from the same FCC press release:
TOTAL CLASS A STATIONS 550
TOTAL TRANSLATORS 4040
TOTAL LOW POWER TV 2272
TOTAL all the above 6862
So my friends, analog isn't over just yet. :-)
--
Larry Bloomfield, KA6UTC
