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Tonight, it was raining and I decided to run an experiment on DTV reception here. The local stations (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CW) were all coming in with signal levels in the 60's and 70's. Normally, these come in the 80's and low 90's. The PBS transmitter is about 35 miles away and is doing good if it moves the meter into the 50's and there is often major signal drop out. Tonight, there was just a blank screen with virtually no signal strength. I tuned the TV to PBS's analog channel 14 and it came in very clear. I can receive analog channel 34, (CW) which is about 75 miles away, with a bow-tie antenna during most times of the day and night. The picture is not the best; but, it's watchable. I often run an update scan with the DTV converter just to see if any distant digital stations are detected. So far, none have been detected.
I am unaware of any plans to turn off analog early in my area. All the channels are constantly running DTV PSA's and CBS is running crawlers across the bottom of the screen concerning the DTV transition.
I'm going to miss analog DX'ing and knob-turning when DTV fully takes over. Maybe something will happen at the last minute and we'll get another extension.
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