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ANALOG TURN OFF DATE FOR LPTV STATIONS

sdwulfdawg

sdwulfdawg

Does anyone know the official analog turnoff date for LPTV stations?

I have noticed that yet another low powered station here in San Diego is signing on with two digital signals.
 
willdav713 said:
Joe_Capitano said:
No they're not. Transition day is September 1, 2015 per the FCC
Click to expand...

Unless, Congress or the FCC extends that deadline.
Click to expand...

From my understanding, the FCC is not extending the deadline, because they want all stations to go digital, & have been plenty of time to convert to digital. Those that are on UHF might not have converted because of either cost, or worried that they'll get bumped off the air, if a full power station wants their channel. For some, they're worried because of the channel repackaging that's been talked about. The Franken FM stations (those on channel 6 with audio being heard on most radios at 87.7 FM) want the deadline extended, because it allows them to pretend that they're an FM station, & not a TV station. They know on September 1, 2015, that they'll no longer be heard on FM radio, due to HD radio & ATSC using different digital audio standards. I believe one station tried to transmit video in digital, & audio in analog, & was told to shut down the analog audio by the FCC. I forgot which station this was, but it's one that broadcasts on RF channel 6. The stations that are on channel 6 will either have to operate as a TV station, or turn in their license. Some LPTV stations (regardless of channel) will simply go off the air, because some can't afford to convert to digital.

I don't know how many full power stations couldn't afford to convert to digital, & were forced off the air by 2009. I know my local PBS station, WYIN in Merrillville, IN (licensed to Gary, IN) would have gone off the air, had it not been for a grant to pay for new equipment, because they didn't have it in their budget to pay for it They were operating on used analog equipment that was supposedly used by the former WCAE, which was operated by the Lake Central School System in St John, IN .
 
I think you are thinking of WRGB-6 in New York. They transmitted CBS audio on 87.9 for a couple of weeks after the transition before the FCC caught them and forced them to turn it off.

IMO, DTV is not good at all. Who wants to watch pixels and "no signal" in the mountains or in a multipathed area? Or on the boat? In the '90s we used to take a little 5'' analog TV on our boat out in Puget Sound and watch 4, 5, 7, etc. from Seattle just fine on analog. We went to Hood Canal a couple of months ago, which can only get one channel (13 KCPQ). Before DTV, most of the local channels came in, albeit some ghosting. There are defects with DTV, IMO.

-crainbebo
 
I suspect that if the Incentive Auction happens next year, as scheduled, the LPTV conversion date stays put. If it gets delayed for some reason, they could delay it so that LPTV operators don't have to build twice.

- Trip
 
What about W35BN Tallahassee (low power) and W21BK Tallahassee (low power) and
WBXT-CA 43 Tallahassee (ALL 3 low power stations) are not on digital yet. These stations are now under slient or STA for the time been. (Tallahassee Florida) These stations pop up quicky before digital took over.

Any news about these stations?
 
crainbebo said:
I think you are thinking of WRGB-6 in New York. They transmitted CBS audio on 87.9 for a couple of weeks after the transition before the FCC caught them and forced them to turn it off.

IMO, DTV is not good at all. Who wants to watch pixels and "no signal" in the mountains or in a multipathed area? Or on the boat? In the '90s we used to take a little 5'' analog TV on our boat out in Puget Sound and watch 4, 5, 7, etc. from Seattle just fine on analog. We went to Hood Canal a couple of months ago, which can only get one channel (13 KCPQ). Before DTV, most of the local channels came in, albeit some ghosting. There are defects with DTV, IMO.

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

The current standard is not a good one for those who move around a lot. Portable TV's are only good if it stays stationary. I have found with my own portable DTV, that if it moves to much, it loses the signal, & has to find it again. If the DTV standard gets changed again, I hope the next upgrade will be a universal standard that also works with portable TV's on the go, & be mpeg4. That was one thing the FCC didn't look into when they decided on the current ATSC standard. VHF was another issue, as it wasn't fully studied in the initial phase. VHF-LO doesn't work as well due to multiple interference sources, as well as the biggest problem, it's nearly impossible for VHF-Lo to work with rabbit ears. VHF-Hi isn't as bad, as it can work with rabbit ears, but most VHF stations in general still do not operate on enough power to reach their viewers with rabbit ears (not as much of an issue for those with outdoor antennas that are optimized for VHF, whether VHF-Hi only, or VHF-Lo & Hi).
 
Joe_Capitano said:
No they're not. Transition day is September 1, 2015 per the FCC
Click to expand...

However, smart operators have already made the transition. How many people do you know have a NTSC set just to watch the low power and a HDTV set in their living rooms?
 
Bengalsfan said:
Joe_Capitano said:
No they're not. Transition day is September 1, 2015 per the FCC
Click to expand...

However, smart operators have already made the transition. How many people do you know have a NTSC set just to watch the low power and a HDTV set in their living rooms?
Click to expand...

Spanish Speaking Households with Children. In the kids room an old NTSC set (Why throw out a perfectly good set?), and the living room an HDTV set. When I was 8 my grandparents gave me my first TV, and it was a Black and White TV set and the year was 1988, and yes I hooked up a splitter and the 300-75 ohm adapter to it! Or the Household which thinks non Biblical networks are offensive for the children, as some of the Religious Television stations also broadcast in low power. I am sure there is still that small market out there to justify the means.
 
I am not sure if it is a mandate, like the requirement for a UHF tuner, but most if not all HDTV's have both digital and analog tuners. My Sharp Aquos will tune to analog 36 if you enter in 36.0, or digital 36 if you enter in 36 or 36.1, and it scans for both analog and digital channels.
 
unclehonkey said:
all TV's made after like 2005 had to have both an analog and digital tuner in them
Click to expand...

It was more like 2007 that required all new TV's to have both tuners. It started out with the largest TV's over 40" to have both in 2005. 2006 for TV's either 25" or 30" & up. Then in 2007, all TV's. I had tried to hold out on getting a new TV until the price went down, but the one I bought in 1994 started going bad toward the end of 2003. Walmart hadn't had any HDTV's in stock yet, & neither did Target, Kmart, or Meijer. I was forced to get another analog TV, & bought another RCA in December 2003 from Kmart, & put it on layaway. That TV still works after almost 10 years. Once it quits working, it gets trashed. I'm using a converter box with that TV. My mom however has a newer HDTV that I got on Black Friday, & it has both tuners, though I now wish it only had the digital tuner. That TV can still pick up about 5 or 6 LPTV analog stations, & all of them, except for 1 are religious stations. The sole LPTV station that isn't religious is one that broadcasts on channel 13 to the Ogden Dunes community in Porter County Indiana, & it has NOAA radio for audio, & video with just pictures & words for stuff happening in Ogden Dunes. Whoever owns that station (WODN-LP), I'm not sure if they'll put in an application to flash-cut to digital, or just turn in their license.
 
It would make sense for new TVs to still have analog tuners because of some people still using old VCRs (inclucing me) that would work on it.
 
I remember seeing crummy-looking 9'' analog TVs at Wal*Mart, etc. as late as 2006 or 2007. Stuff that looked like it was from a decade and a half before that!

-crainbebo
 
Dave said:
unclehonkey said:
all TV's made after like 2005 had to have both an analog and digital tuner in them
Click to expand...

It was more like 2007 that required all new TV's to have both tuners. It started out with the largest TV's over 40" to have both in 2005. 2006 for TV's either 25" or 30" & up. Then in 2007, all TV's. I had tried to hold out on getting a new TV until the price went down, but the one I bought in 1994 started going bad toward the end of 2003. Walmart hadn't had any HDTV's in stock yet, & neither did Target, Kmart, or Meijer. I was forced to get another analog TV, & bought another RCA in December 2003 from Kmart, & put it on layaway. That TV still works after almost 10 years. Once it quits working, it gets trashed. I'm using a converter box with that TV. My mom however has a newer HDTV that I got on Black Friday, & it has both tuners, though I now wish it only had the digital tuner. That TV can still pick up about 5 or 6 LPTV analog stations, & all of them, except for 1 are religious stations. The sole LPTV station that isn't religious is one that broadcasts on channel 13 to the Ogden Dunes community in Porter County Indiana, & it has NOAA radio for audio, & video with just pictures & words for stuff happening in Ogden Dunes. Whoever owns that station (WODN-LP), I'm not sure if they'll put in an application to flash-cut to digital, or just turn in their license.
Click to expand...

You could still sell those used, but it had to have a disclaimer stating that this tuner or DVD recorder has a NTSC tuner, and a DTV converter box is required to receive OTA broadcasts. I remember buying my first DVD Recorder Magnavox MRV-700VR back in 2007 with that disclaimer. The Recorder was manufactured in 2005, followed by my Magnavox MRV-660 which was made in 2005 or so.

When DTV became law of the land in 2009 (1 year before that, in 2008) all DVD recorders and VCRs sold in stores must include ATSC tuners, or no tuner. That is why you see Line In Only DVD recorder/VCR (Magnavox) at Walmart. They do have several DVD player combo units that can't record.

I bought my first CATV tuner PCI Card on Ebay in 2007 for $15 NTSC and the disclaimer was added to the listing.
I also bought another one for my other PC the next year.
 
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