Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs
I don't know how it is possible for a television station to switch from analog NTSC to ATSC digital while remaining on the same RF channel, but somehow 23 did it.
|
Technically it is very easy to change from analog to digital just by swapping exciters, although meeting the strict out-of-band radiation limits could prevent doing it that simply (some high-level filtering may be required). A few stations (mainly public broadcasting, I believe) requested and got permission to do a direct cut with no transition period of dual broadcasts. In one of the cases I read about, they determined that only 3% (IIRC) of their audience was using the over-the-air signal, since they were serving a large state-wide area rather than a single concentrated urban population.