Jeffhs
06-14-2009, 02:27 PM
I hooked up a cheap pair of rabbit ears to my Zenith Sentry 2, scanned the channels; the set responded with a screen message that four channels were found. I pushed the channel-up button, looking for channel 3, which is the "nightlight" station for Cleveland and northeastern Ohio. Nothing. I went through the entire scan list and got absolutely nothing except snow on every channel, even what should have been the Cleveland network stations.
Next I tried my RCA XL-100 CTC185 19" set in the living room. Disconnected the cable, hooked up the rabbit ears and went through the local stations. The first one I checked was channel 3; nothing watchable. There was reception there, but it was so weak I couldn't tell if it was actually channel 3's OTA nightlight signal or leakthrough from the cable (the cable line was hanging loose about six inches from the set at the time). I scanned the channels once, fiddled around with the antenna, and tried again. This time I got a faint image on channel 51, which is a low-power station about ten miles from here; unfortunately, like channel 3, the reception was so weak I couldn't tell what I was looking at. The other network stations (5, 8, 25, 43, 61) showed nothing but snow as well.
I scanned the set again, went through all channels, and got the same results as before, even when I moved the antenna around the room. Not being one to give up easily on anything, I scanned the set a third time; yup, same results as the first two scans.
Then I decided to go through each channel individually. I again got the faint image on channel 3, intermittent reception on 51, nothing on 64 (which is a translator station for WVIZ PBS channel 25 in Cleveland; the translator is located in suburban Eastlake, Ohio and should have come in at least weakly at my location, 35 miles east of Cleveland).
I saw nothing on any other channel, so I finally ended the experiment, reconnected the cable, and came to the conclusion that analog television (full-power broadcast stations) has died in northeastern Ohio as of 12:01 a.m. 06.13.09, as it has in all other major metropolitan areas of the U.S. I feel sorry for those people who have not yet gotten converter boxes for their analog TV sets (or at least basic cable), as all they are seeing on their screens, even as I write this, is snow, unless they can receive translators or LPTV (low power TV) stations. I read an article in the local newspaper yesterday in which a local gentleman said he could not afford a converter box for his analog TV as he is on disability, so now he must go to a friend's home to watch television.
I wondered about that; why, I wondered, did this man not apply for a Government-issued converter-box coupon before the analog stations went dark? (It's not too late; he, and anyone else needing one at this time, can still apply for a coupon until July 31.) Better yet, he could have called Time-Warner Cable and had basic cable (broadcast stations only, what TW calls "lifeline" basic) installed--unless, of course, he couldn't afford cable either. However, had he applied for a coupon (he could have done it over the telephone at 1.800.CALL FCC if he did not have a computer or access to the Internet), he would have been able to purchase a converter box as soon as the coupon arrived in his mail and would only have had to pay no more than $9.95 out of his own pocket, if he got the box from a local Rite-Aid Pharmacy. These pharmacies had limited quantities of an off-brand DTV converter box in stock for months before the analog shutoff and still had a few after the transition took place; the problem was, however, that the boxes were available only on a first-come-first-served basis, with no rainchecks after the store's stock was depleted.
It's sad, very sad, to hear of such things as the foregoing (that a person must go without TV, temporarily or permanently, because of a nationwide digital television transition, and the person cannot afford even a converter box or basic cable--TW was and probably still is offering next-day basic cable hookups for $9.95 a month for the first 12 months, with no installation charge), but in today's economy I guess such scenarios are more common than many people can imagine.
Next I tried my RCA XL-100 CTC185 19" set in the living room. Disconnected the cable, hooked up the rabbit ears and went through the local stations. The first one I checked was channel 3; nothing watchable. There was reception there, but it was so weak I couldn't tell if it was actually channel 3's OTA nightlight signal or leakthrough from the cable (the cable line was hanging loose about six inches from the set at the time). I scanned the channels once, fiddled around with the antenna, and tried again. This time I got a faint image on channel 51, which is a low-power station about ten miles from here; unfortunately, like channel 3, the reception was so weak I couldn't tell what I was looking at. The other network stations (5, 8, 25, 43, 61) showed nothing but snow as well.
I scanned the set again, went through all channels, and got the same results as before, even when I moved the antenna around the room. Not being one to give up easily on anything, I scanned the set a third time; yup, same results as the first two scans.
Then I decided to go through each channel individually. I again got the faint image on channel 3, intermittent reception on 51, nothing on 64 (which is a translator station for WVIZ PBS channel 25 in Cleveland; the translator is located in suburban Eastlake, Ohio and should have come in at least weakly at my location, 35 miles east of Cleveland).
I saw nothing on any other channel, so I finally ended the experiment, reconnected the cable, and came to the conclusion that analog television (full-power broadcast stations) has died in northeastern Ohio as of 12:01 a.m. 06.13.09, as it has in all other major metropolitan areas of the U.S. I feel sorry for those people who have not yet gotten converter boxes for their analog TV sets (or at least basic cable), as all they are seeing on their screens, even as I write this, is snow, unless they can receive translators or LPTV (low power TV) stations. I read an article in the local newspaper yesterday in which a local gentleman said he could not afford a converter box for his analog TV as he is on disability, so now he must go to a friend's home to watch television.
I wondered about that; why, I wondered, did this man not apply for a Government-issued converter-box coupon before the analog stations went dark? (It's not too late; he, and anyone else needing one at this time, can still apply for a coupon until July 31.) Better yet, he could have called Time-Warner Cable and had basic cable (broadcast stations only, what TW calls "lifeline" basic) installed--unless, of course, he couldn't afford cable either. However, had he applied for a coupon (he could have done it over the telephone at 1.800.CALL FCC if he did not have a computer or access to the Internet), he would have been able to purchase a converter box as soon as the coupon arrived in his mail and would only have had to pay no more than $9.95 out of his own pocket, if he got the box from a local Rite-Aid Pharmacy. These pharmacies had limited quantities of an off-brand DTV converter box in stock for months before the analog shutoff and still had a few after the transition took place; the problem was, however, that the boxes were available only on a first-come-first-served basis, with no rainchecks after the store's stock was depleted.
It's sad, very sad, to hear of such things as the foregoing (that a person must go without TV, temporarily or permanently, because of a nationwide digital television transition, and the person cannot afford even a converter box or basic cable--TW was and probably still is offering next-day basic cable hookups for $9.95 a month for the first 12 months, with no installation charge), but in today's economy I guess such scenarios are more common than many people can imagine.