lol, you think so?

We're The FCC. We're part of the Goverment. We know what's best for you...Resistance is Futile...You are an Individual, therefore, you're an Idiot, WE know what is best....We're The FCC.....

This must be a good night for DX'ing....

I don't usually bother with 42, because it's a lot of CBS re-broadcasts, and I can't think of one of their shows I enjoy. Is there some local content that's worth watching? Here it is:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...1198457907.jpg

Here is 54 (French):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...1198457904.jpg

32 is a must-have, just for their Saturday night movies:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...1198457898.jpg

This is LPTV Channel 33 from Detroit. Fun to watch just for the amateur factor (like pre-'94 Ch. 62):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...1198457901.jpg

I have a smallish roof antenna with no rotor. (I might upgrade soon) It's aimed SW, absolutely wrong for those stations. I'm going to miss TV DX'ing come 2009.

The first image is from the TV show Cold Case.

Yes, the episode where some 50s song solves the crime. I hate that I know that... I hate all Jerry Bruckheimer shows, and that's pretty much all of CBS. :thumbsdn:

I can get all those except 42.

There's also a channel 19 that's somewhere in Ohio. there's a channel 55, no clue where it is. There's a channel 22 which is also Canadian.

19 and 55 are impossible to bring in unless you have a damn good tuner, seeing as they're right next to channels 20 and 56...

Okay here's a more on topic question:

I know sattilite boxes have signal strength meters, do HDTV boxes, or HDTV's have signal strength meters as well? omething like that would be damn helpful for figuring out which way to point the antenna...

I've never seen 19, nor 22 nor 55! The tuner in that Zenith splits channels 32 & 33 like a razor.

I get 14 (I think) which is all religious stuff.

23 (Spanish... Univision I think)

31 (LP Ann Arbor I think)

32 (TVO)

33 (LPTV Detroit)

38 (WADL, now called "urban TV"... Been nothing but infomercials since sign on in '89, but now seems to have picked up where 62 left off in '94, plus some old re-runs of Heat of the Night, etc. Overall, a nice change)

42 (CTV)

48 (ION)

54 (French)

66 (LPTV, Religious full-time)

Do you remember channel 78 from Canada? That goes back to the 70s I think.

I skipped the obvious 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 20, 50, 56, 62.

What city are you in? I'm guessing SW of me in St. Clair Shores?

Carmine is right, $$$$$$$ selling the spectrum.

I think that this is why HD radio does not seem to be taking off(Circuit, Fry's, Radio Shack, etc only seem to carry one home type HD radio model), no spectrum to sell.

16 is the religion channel. 19 is WOIO. I brought it in twice, and have never seen it since. 22 is Global, another Canadian station, very hard to bring in. I have no clue what 55 is. I do know it's not a ghost of 56 though.

As for what city I live in, PM me.

Most ATSC STBs have signal meters that are used for antenna tuning. In my area, all but PBS transmits at 10% of their analog ERP, PBS transmits at 20% of their analog ERP. And yes, the whole reason for this switch is so the FCC can auction off the unused $pectrum. But, even though our government is money hungry, we all can benefit from digital TV if the transmitter power is high enough. Clear picture, EPG, show title, description, and sub channels. All of the modern digital features we got used to with satellite TV. But, TV DXing will be gone, unfortunately. :(

No.

It isn't now, and it won't be during or after 2009.

I haven't checked all the posts but...

The mandate that I read about in Scientific American is that all BROADCAST TV be DIGITAL, not HD. The mandate doesn't affect the way that cable or satellite will be delivered to the customers.

The point was to, a decade late, to get broadcast into digital and turn over the bandwidth for HD.

The cute thing is that our lawmakers, in their ineptitude, or maliciously if you would think so, have left a loophole for the networks to send less than true HD and use the rest of the bandwidth for other commercial gains.

Reminder-this thread was starting by quoting a FCC ruling made this fall, not the mandate. The mandate may not affect cable/satellite operaters, but the ruling does.

Sorry, the thread is titled "2009 HDTV Conversion," whereas it should be 2009 digital broadcast conversion.

That was my point. It isn't HD but Broadcast analog to digital that will be converted.

The first post addressed only local broadcast being delivered to local customers by cable and dish. Which is what the FCC ruled on this fall.

I meant what I posted to be a clarification. There is a lot of confusion on these points.