afiggatt
join:2007-07-12
Sterling, VA
| reply to Matt
Re: Morons
said by Matt  :I would just like to point out, that I saw an service announcement last night that my local Fox affiliate wouldn't have their OTA DTV broadcasting ready until March or April. So anyone who uses an OTA antenna won't have a Fox station at all after February 17th for 2 months or so. I'm betting a lot of other stations are in this same boat. No. There are a small number of stations which will be operating at reduced digital power and coverage from a side-mounted antenna until a new antenna can be placed on top of the tower in place of the analog antenna. But almost none which will have no digital signal the day after the transition.
If your Fox station is WGHP-DT Fox 8, according to their FCC filing and their website, they are switching from UHF 35 to an auxiliary transmitter & antenna operating at reduced power on VHF 8 at the transition. They will then modify their current analog VHF 8 equipment and switch to their full digital coverage in a week or so.
Stations have had 3 years to get their post-transition channel allotments, plan, and prepare for the transition. Many stations have worked out careful coordination plans so one station can shut off it's analog broadcast to allow another station to start up a post-transition digital broadcast. As of this time, around 170 stations have already shut off their analog broadcast. A last minute halt to the transition will seriously mess up a lot of carefully laid plans and may leave some stations without a analog or digital broadcast signal for months. |
