Daniel Bergey

Context: On February 17 of next year, analog television stations will cease broadcasting. This will no doubt upset a lot of people living in rural areas who do not currently pay for cable. Fortunately, the government is partially subsidizing digital converter boxes for those who do not yet have a television with a digital tuner (if you bought a new TV in the last few years, you probably already have one).

When we decided to purchase a television at the end of April (a controversial move on at least one side of the family tree), reception was pretty poor. We could somewhat blurrily receive the local NBC and CBS affiliates, and squint to watch public television and a very snowy ABC, but pretty much every time we changed the channel, the antenna had to be moved from one side of the TV to the other. That’s rural South Carolina for you.

So a few months ago I signed up for a TV converter box coupon. To make a long story short, yesterday I finally got around to purchasing it. Several trips to Wal-Mart (twice) & Radio Shack (twice) later, I had a 50db amplified antenna ($30) and a TV converter box ($20 after coupon).

Now, because of the way a digital signal works, you either get:

1. perfect reception,
2. a blocky picture and spotty sound, or
3. nothing at all.

Whereas an analog signal degrades gracefully, the picture going snowy first, and the sound accruing only mild static until the signal is completely gone.

Initially only one or two channels came in perfectly, and I was about to dismiss the whole transition project as a huge blundering government intrusion. But after two days of playing with it, and balancing the antenna on top of the nearby window’s curtain rod (not attractive), we now get perfect reception on all stations for the first time. Yay, technology!

Sure beats $60/month for Charter cable service.

You can find more information at the FCC’s official DTV transition website, and also claim your converter box coupon(s).

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analog, digital, dtv, television