It looks like this digital "upgrade" is going to happen, the FCC has already auctioned off frequency blocks. One last question, What are folks like myself who live in Florida, Lousiana, Texas, and most of the eastern seaboard supposed to do when the weeks and months after a hurricane and there is no power and our battery powered sets get nothing.:thumbsdn: I could hook it to an A to D converter box but without power to run it you will have hundreds of thousands with portable TV with boxes of new batteries that won't work. BACKWARD COMPATIBLE, IT SHOULD STILL BE THE LAW!
Richard Dalkranian, Miami Fl.

I've got a little Panasonic portable that will become pretty useless as a TV come February. We felt the effects of hurricane Katrina up here in MS. And the little battery TV came in handy. Cable was not an option at the time, as the lines were blown down. Thank the Lord analog was still on! We also have an inverter that runs on a car battery that was used during Katrina. That option might be the best one as you can plug a converter and a small (13" or so) TV into it. There are also converters on the market that run off a wall wart power supply. It wouldn't be too hard to rig up a battery pack to run such converters. Of course, it would be a little sloppy having the converter and it's connecting cables connected to a battery operated portable TV. I'm sure there will be portable DTV's on the market; but, I don't like being forced into buying something. My 1978 Panasonic portable works just as good now as it did 30 years ago and it will probably go another 30 years, provided I could still use it! Well, I know it will never get used as a true protable again.

One last question, What are folks like myself who live in Florida, Lousiana, Texas, and most of the eastern seaboard supposed to do when the weeks and months after a hurricane and there is no power and our battery powered sets get nothing.If I lived in an annual hurricane area I'd have a gas powered generator on hand.

An uninterruptible power supply can be an option to power the box; a cheap one will only cost $30. You should be able to run both the portable TV & converter box for at least 1-2 hours with a cheap UPS...

There are also some ATSC receivers that use external 12V power supplies. They could be run directly off a vehicle battery or other 12-volt source along with whatever TV or monitor you have available. Here is a link to one at Fry's Electronics stores or their Web site:

http://shop4.frys.com/product/5659171

Since the whole thing was Verizon and AT&T's idea maybe you can get them to buy you an HDTV portable.

Yea i built a digital decoder with RF amplifier inside my 5" color portable set.

its one of those LXI 80's models, but there was just enough room inside to take a cheapo "digitalstream" converter and RF amp and stuff inside of it. i had to hack the digitalstream power supply to accept battery inputs. (as it ran off 120v).

Yea i built a digital decoder with RF amplifier inside my 5" color portable set.

its one of those LXI 80's models, but there was just enough room inside to take a cheapo "digitalstream" converter and RF amp and stuff inside of it. i had to hack the digitalstream power supply to accept battery inputs. (as it ran off 120v).

Good idea! I had thought of doing that with a console set but not a portable. Now I have to try it!!

I got an adapter for the 13" set in the greenhouse but if the amplified rabbit ears don't bring in stations you might see a big yagi on its roof.:D

One last question, What are folks like myself who live in Florida, Lousiana, Texas, and most of the eastern seaboard supposed to do when the weeks and months after a hurricane and there is no power and our battery powered sets get nothing.

Might considering hooking up with a ham net in the area now, while you can, and get a portable scanner/transciever. Hams can get the news around in times of disaster pretty darn fast. I usually monitor the skywarn freqs during really bad storms to get a better idea of actual tornado sightings.

If I lived in an annual hurricane area I'd have a gas powered generator on hand.

I have a generator that I run from 8 am to 11 pm for the refrigerator and other big stuff, charge a marine deep cycle battery that runs an inverter overnight for small fans and flouresent screw in lamps. Lets the neighbors get some sleep. Also, the more watts you use the more gasoline you have to find.

I have these worries about what to do also. I live in an area plagued by tornadoes , ice storms and severe thunderstorms which all wreak havoc with power lines. I have a '86 Bentley 5" set that comes in handy in these storms,
but will be useless in February.

An uninterruptible power supply can be an option to power the box; a cheap one will only cost $30. You should be able to run both the portable TV & converter box for at least 1-2 hours with a cheap UPS...

I have a few APC UPS units that will work fine if the power fails. But if you turn them off they will not turn back on. I think they lock into the incoming 60 cycle and once that is gone they will not start back up, even if the batteries are new and you had it turned off for one second with no load or little load on them.:thumbsdn:

yup. thats the way the CPU works on those stupid APCs. i hate them for that.

there is a trick i used to use. I would grab a piss weak power inverter, like a 70watt. and then use that to trigger the APC to power up. :-) but either way your wasting alot of excess power being burned up in the inverter inside the UPS/inverter. I would get a 12v box, or mod the box to take 12v :-)

BACKWARD COMPATIBLE, IT SHOULD STILL BE THE LAW!
Richard Dalkranian, Miami Fl.[/QUOTE]

I had not thought of that situation. I see this as one of thousands of examples that we the people will accept whatever big business decides to sell us regardless of what is appropriate or best for all.
Not too long ago I would think that people should speak about such in order to figure out how to make things right. I should have been a teen in the '60s. After reading much here and spending too much time trying to change the mind of my fashionable freinds I know better. So, I'll end this with some nice words that are positive and respectful to our god big-business.
I'll just go and buy an adequate generator to power the convertor box. Then I can enjoy life and continue to ignore all the pointless things like thinking and communicating about issues that are none of my business... or should I say: none of my big-business?(free comedy!)
I sure am thankful I have the money to do such and take my mind off the needs and right of others. Afterall, those who can't afford such must have done something wrong and therefore deserve what they get.

ooooooook

That's what I was thinking!
We must be alike. Let's be freinds!

hehehe

I have a few APC UPS units that will work fine if the power fails. But if you turn them off they will not turn back on. I think they lock into the incoming 60 cycle and once that is gone they will not start back up, even if the batteries are new and you had it turned off for one second with no load or little load on them.:thumbsdn:

You have to check the manufacturer specifications (usually online) to know if you can do a "cold start", not all UPS's have that feature. It's funny that APC didn't include that feature in your UPS, they are suppose to be the best. My Tripp-lite UPS can be cold started, I did that once after running it for 10 minutes; I use it to power my computer.