The analog Sunset (ASO) is finally upon us

Some people/ads forget to mention that if you already have IPTV, satellite or cable then nothing needs to be done... even the local cable company I use has been running commercials on the channels that do run OTA saying "we have packages starting at $8.95 per month".

Not sure what happened but I have lost 2 of the OTA digital channels that I had earlier in the week. I have repositioned my antenna and rescanned many times with no luck. Hopefully I can get them back sometime this weekend.

Go back and reread BobDee's post again. Many stations changed channels as part of the conversion - even if they were already digital.

Go back and read what pseudonym wrote:

Rescanning should have taken care of the issue... I'd suggest checking the antenna positioning... or, if you have an antenna geared to only UHF frequencies, you might need an antenna that can get the VHF channels as well, because some stations have, as of yesterday, gone back to their original channel assignments. Example: in my area, the NBC affiliate's digital signal was on CH. 62-UHF, and analog on Ch. 10-VHF. They went back to Ch. 10 and broadcast in digital there. I had to get a new antenna. They actually made the switch at what was the original "deadline" not yesterday.

And as I just noted above, some stations who's digital signals were on a UHF frequency have reverted to their original channel assignments in the UHF band - so some people may need a new antenna if theirs is a UHF only antenna.

I forgot the words Vice-versa for the bands

Pre-transition the two stations in question were broadcasting analog VHF and digital UHF, post-transition they are broadcasting digital VHF. My antenna is capable of both UHF and VHF and is picking up all the UHF channels but is not picking up the VHF channels that need red and blue antennas. Looks like I need a new antenna!

Antennaweb.org is a good source of information. You can enter you street address and it will list the available channels, the compass heading and distance to the tower, and the type of antenna required to get the signal.

Well if you didn't know this over a year ago, you must live in a cave without cable, satellite or broadcast TV as they have been hammering the changeover on a daily, hourly, and now recently by the minute, or be a complete idiot!

It should have change six mouths ago when it was scheduled. If you didn't get your $40.00USD coupons for a converter box or make other arrangements to receive the digital signal, TOO BAD FOR YOU! Enjoy the Blackout.

I have had satellite since the day it became available, but still I have converter boxes for one older TV at home and three others at the lake just in case. Don't need to buy new TV's (yes, I'm probably a cheap Charlie, but why throw away perfectly good TV's, especially at the lake when the only time they're used is during bad weather.

Well here is a little fact that is unknown to most. Because of the cost involved in the new digital broadcast equipment small town stations could not afford it and would have had to shut down. Since these station serve alot of small-town rural America, the Congress could not let that happen so these small-town stations became exempt from the changeover. A loophole in the law made it so the large, big city stations that repeat their signal to parts of rural America via repeaters, are also exempt.

OK, I feel better now. Thank God for 12:01am June 13th, it will finally be over and it didn't hurt a bit.

Wait! I do know an old guy who is an idiot and will enjoy the blackout. Ran into him the other day and he was fretting cause he didn't know what to do. Well I couldn't help it I just told him to enjoy the peace and quiet.

I still think the cable, dish and AT&T U-verse companies put money in pockets in Washington to make the change thereby allowing them to make tons more money themselves.

The power has been out in my area since Wed. night and the only way for me to see TV was with a hand held size TV that of course only worked on analog. At 12 noon Fri. my power was still out and I had no choice but to throw away a perfect emergency backup TV. How many other people in Florida and everywhere else along the coast will be completely in the dark now. The companies mentioned above have no interest in making emergency TVs or we would have seen something by now.

There's several USB receivers that plug into a laptop. Search for something like "usb hdtv receiver". As a caution it takes a more powerful processor if you want to receive HD but for emergencies SD should be fine.
Of course without power you'd be limited to battery life or have an alternative means to recharge the laptop.
Also there's a 12v version of the converter box if you kept an analog tv.
In fact we all should keep at least one analog..... just in case a future government funded study finds digital causes tooth decay!!

"Also there's a 12v version of the converter box if you kept an analog tv."

I hadn't heard about a 12v version. I'm glad the trash pickup hasn't come today yet, I recovered it based on your new information. Thanks

P.S. I've got the power! It came back on just a few minutes ago. It is supposed to be hot here today and we were planning a day at the movies to stay cool.

Don't be sorry, I'm with you, I have been with Direct TV since they first went live in 1994 and used C band before that with a 3 meter Paraclips antenna. I remember HBO when they were only on the air 2 hours a day.
I don't know anyone affected by the analog sunset myself, although I did watch the switch get thrown and dumped to snow just to see history.

Television is slow moving in broadcast technology that I am so surprised that moss doest grow on TV's.
In my life time I have seen the first color telecasts, 3d experiments, Galvin Set top UHF converters and now digital. With digital we might see advances a little faster in the future.

Anyone have an old Alliance Tenna Rotor laying around?

http://www.rotorservice.com/press3-alliance.htm

I don't have any first-hand info but here's a typical link on installing a 12v converter box in a RV.
http://www.ezdigitaltv.com/RVs_and_Converter_Boxes.html
A friend and I were talking about digital tv reception and RV's. He uncovered the info on 12v units. Don't recall specifics but the 110v units draw very little power (10-15W range). Probably operate OK using a 12v to 120v converter.

The inverter is the best solution going, then you can power other devices. you might already have one!

Gary,
are you looking to spin a tv antenna? if you look at the below link, a friend of mine bought one of these and it's pretty slick. If not.. sorry can't help with the Alliance.

http://tinyurl.com/mmsgdd

In the highest number of panic phone calls of "my TV doesn't work!" 800,000+ calls last week. Over 428,000 calls on Friday alone for "where do I get a converter box?"

Top 5 cities ranked by number of calls:
Chicago
Dallas
New York
Philadelphia
Baltimore

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/digital-tv-hotline-...

I guess if the mostly mostly Hispanic TV watchers living in a English speaking country would have bothered to learn English, they wouldn't be in this situation.

Or
the Elderly's Children would have give a damm to make sure mom and dad were taken care of for the switch. Come folks we had 8 years of warning and two years of drum beating that this was going to happen, even a walk to the brink, then a delay giving a second chance.

Here is the proof in the Pudding!
The Federal Communications Commission said that about 317,450 calls went into the help line, 1-888-CALL-FCC, on Friday alone, the day analog signals were cut off. Another 102,000 on Saturday up till 6:00 pm.

I know I made sure my Mom was ready! who here did the same for mom and dad, or even themselves. Or better yet how many Morons do we have among us that can't watch tv because they we stupid and lazy, come on one be honest.

I was just being funny (notice the ).

I'm showing my age by bringing up the old Alliance rotors. I installed several of them in my day. We're talking the 1960's & 1970's.

All my TVs are on Verizon FiOS, no OTA. But I did install several DTV converter boxes for my in-laws this past Spring (as you suggested in your most recent post, above). They live in rural Indiana, out where all the corn fields are located.

Thanks for asking.

I read that a lot of people who already had the converter boxes forgot to rescan after the switchover was made.

I reminded my brother-in-law, who lives near my in-laws, to stop by and re-scan the converter boxes. They are in their 80's, and while still pretty sharp, were having trouble grasping the concept of a new remote and having to use it to power on/off both the TV & the converter. They also had a difficult time understanding that you no longer change channels on the TV, but on the converter box. I eventually had to reset all their TVs to only tune to channel 3 because they kept changing the TV channel by mistake and had no idea how to undo what they just did. I am not looking forward to getting old.

I also heard of folks having problems after the switch because of stations switching from the UHF to VHF band.

For example, one of our local broadcast stations in the Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg area had been transmitting analog on VHF channel 10. In the months leading up to the final switch-over, they were also broadcasting digital on UHF channel 24. So, on Friday, they shut down the analog transmitter on channel 10 and moved the digital transmission from channel 24 to their permanant location on channel 10. There were a lot of problems reported that people could not now pick up the digital signal on cahnnel 10. Most were due to either the type of antenna they had or the direction it was pointed in.

I am just glad that I don't have to watch the stupid reminders anymore that aired every day for the last 2 years.

...the one's that some people ignored for 2 years and when the switch happened on Friday, sat there wide-eyed and dumbfounded wondering what happened to their TV picture?

(I'm sorry, I'm being cynical).

Hold on a second. What are you guys talking about? Analog television doesn't work anymore???

I would Imagine thats it's a matter of time before the FCC Shuts down the analog FM signals as well, because of where it resides, between channel 6 and 7 VHF.

54 - 72 TV Channels 2-4.

Channel 2 Audio (Wideband FM) 59.75
Channel 3 Audio (Wideband FM) 65.75
Channel 4 Audio (Wideband FM) 71.75

72 - 76 Manufacturing, remote control, eavesdropping bugs, etc.

76 - 88 TV Channels 5-6.

Channel 5 Audio (Wideband FM) 81.75
Channel 6 Audio (Wideband FM) 87.75

88 - 108 Your standard FM radio dial.

108 - 136 Aeronautical communications (AM).

136 - 138 Satellites.

138 - 144 Military communications.

144 - 148 Amateur radio 2 meter band.

148 - 150.8 Military use.

150.8 - 174 Business, highway, law enforcement, government weather,
maritime.

174 - 216 TV Channels 7-13.

Channel 7 Audio (Wideband FM) 179.75
Channel 8 Audio (Wideband FM) 185.75
Channel 9 Audio (Wideband FM) 191.75
Channel 10 Audio (Wideband FM) 197.75
Channel 11 Audio (Wideband FM) 203.75
Channel 12 Audio (Wideband FM) 209.75
Channel 13 Audio (Wideband FM) 215.75

It's already happening elsewhere.

The Australian commercial radio industry is set to launch digital broadcasting in capital cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in 2009, creating a new wave of consumer interest and excitement about this well-loved medium.

want to read more?
http://www.digitalradioplus.com.au/

As a technology used to transmit and receive audiovisual infotainment programming content over-the-air, yes - analog equipment is obsolete.

I thought I forgot to buy from the advertisers, so now what do I do, oh me, oh my . . . .

was in St. Louis, where numerous people, on Friday morning, upon learning that all their TV could pick up was snow, called 911. Don't know what the 911 dispatcher responded to them.

What you don't aim your antenna by jacking the truck around in the driveway?

The local news is picking up the story of the TV stations that have disappeared. I have read quite a few account of people in my area with UHF and VHF antennas who are not able to receive the same stations as me. Some stations in different markets are asking the FCC for permission to increase transmitter power, I hope my stations do as well.