Obituaries touting the death of NTSC television may be premature.

[jhalphen]

Hi Richard,

Please give me your E-Mail address so that i can send you the Indextron (KVX-370) pdf manual.

Best Regards

jhalphen at dial dot oleane dot com

[Richard D]

Sure can, dallk01@aol.com Thanks for sharing it. I will keep you posted.
Richard.

[merrylander]

You would think that the news coverage of how the FCC should auction off the TV frequency spectrum would give everyone a clue. I would not expect too much from this clueless administration.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by merrylander

You would think that the news coverage of how the FCC should auction off the TV frequency spectrum would give everyone a clue. I would not expect too much from this clueless administration.

I think that is wrong, auctioning off the spectrum, it is not a limitless resource and it should be held in common for all. I'm sorry if I'm touching politics, but I feel bad for voting for this current administration twice although the other side is just as bad and has nothing to offer either. No matter who you vote for, the common people get rolled over. I'll just leave it at that.

[RVonse]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

I think that is wrong, auctioning off the spectrum, it is not a limitless resource and it should be held in common for all. I'm sorry if I'm touching politics, but I feel bad for voting for this current administration twice although the other side is just as bad and has nothing to offer either. No matter who you vote for, the common people get rolled over. I'll just leave it at that.

I agree completely with this.

Selling off the spectrum to private interests will mean our government will no longer have the vehical to easily communicate to the public over the air. There are still many families not hooked up to satelite or cable. Digital technology is great but if there are no more VHF channels left its not going to travel any kind of distance over UHF. In case of national emergency there will be significant areas not covered by UHF and that means the public at large will not get proper instruction from our federal government.

The VHF spectrum needs to be kept in the public domain IMO.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by RVonse

I agree completely with this.

Selling off the spectrum to private interests will mean our government will no longer have the vehical to easily communicate to the public over the air. There are still many families not hooked up to satelite or cable. Digital technology is great but if there are no more VHF channels left its not going to travel any kind of distance over UHF. In case of national emergency there will be significant areas not covered by UHF and that means the public at large will not get proper instruction from our federal government.

The VHF spectrum needs to be kept in the public domain IMO.

True although we still have the AM band for this. I think the point is that we are selling off a very limited resource because of the "Wal*Mart mentality" in order to make a buck. I'm not against making a buck but there are times that the public interests should be above that. I just think that we should have both systems going at once and for once let the people decide. If at some point NTSC goes away, well, that could happen or if HDTV never catches on, well, I think the FCC should set aside some channels and let the people decide. I hear HDTV sales are not doing as well so who knows, maybe 2009, NTSC will still be around beyond the shutoff date.

[3Guncolor]

IMO, the AM radio band is what should really be used an an emergency. It works well and there are many 50KW stations. As far as free over the air TV their days are numbered. They will just become program supplyers to cable and Satelite when 2009 comes around very few people will use the 8VSB signals

[RVonse]

Well it appears the corporations have already figured out how to get us paying for bottled water and finally have figured it out how we are going to lose our free television.

Makes you kind of wonder when they will figure out how to charge us for breathing the air.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Not all of us are paying for our TV reception. I dropped satellite TV in December 2005 and have saved US$1,615.00 so far, that I used toward more worthwhile entertainment options.

I use a roof TV antenna, and I receive more free TV signals than ever before. Yep, it's... umm... Digital TV.

[John Folsom]

Those foolish enough to pay for bottled water (tap water from somewhere else) get what they deserve!

Sorry, just had to respond to the bottled water comment.

[fsjonsey]

Boy, broadcast television I have to pay for? I cant wait!

[Steve McVoy]

The idea that "free" broadcast TV will disappear is silly. Some form of advertiser supported television (and radio) will always be with us. Advertisers need a vehicle, and broadcast TV is perfect for them. Remember that "free" TV is not free - we pay for it every day when we buy toothpaste, cereal, or any other product.

[3Guncolor]

When 80% are paying for "free" TV it's not free any more. All that will end up really being free will be the channels that just have lots of advertising on them. It could be end up being all of their broadcast time. We already have that with shopping channels. Advertisers already are paying to be on "cable networks". The problem is the cable neworks are able to get money from both the viewer and advertisers so their programming will be better they will be able to pay for it. Broadcast TV will not disapper but most of the users of it will.

[polaraman]

USA Today article on the death of Analog TV signal!

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/product...TV-cover_N.htm


polaraman

[Carmine]

Comments from the article:

I don't have a digital TV, my parents got one though and they only have a few stations that broadcast in digital and they said the signal is terrible. I had digital tiered cable and got rid of it because I was sick of losing the signal even in good weather...you get that pixalated look and it's awful. Analog, sure you get weaker sometimes, but at least that is only in bad weather. Granted, my TV wasn't digital and I thought that was part of it, but after talking to my parents I have been digging heels in on having to get a new TV, particularly since my TV isn't that old. And for those questioning rabbit ears, until I was able to run cable back to my bedroom, I had only rabbit ears back there and was able to get quite a few local channels with it if you live in a major metro area. And I know lots of people that don't want to pay the high prices of cable. It's creating a bigger monopoly and for those on fixed incomes or those that don't want to pay, they should still be able to receive their basic channels without an expense. This whole thing is ridiculous.

if you are still using an antenna then you are probably using a wood burning stove & have an outhouse.

The change from analog to digital has nothing to do with money. From what they've been telling us for several years and the half-dozen articles I've read on the problem is that analog waveforms are contributing to global warming. The continuous sinusoindal waveform of an analog signal traps heat in the lower half of the troposphere where as the on and off nature of a digital signal allows heat to escape back into space whenever the signal goes low or to the off state.