48 hours left!
 

Not in some eBay auction, but only 48 hours left in over-the-air NTSC. :tears:

It's a very, very sad thing indeed.

The end of a fine era indeed. I grew up around this, and I'm only 25. :tears:

As I am basically a devious, evil bastard who enjoys to no end the sufferings of my fellow man, I sincerely wish this whole thing would blow up in the Fed's-and the Funny Cookie Company's faces, & the whole USA suddenly was without one of our REAL gods, television, for awhile... I read once that they introduced TV in deepest darkest Africa, & a year later, came back & asked the locals what they would be LEAST willing to do without-Access to food, water, or TV-and TV won out overwhelmingly...Imagine what would happen if America was forced to go Cold Turkey w/o The Idiot Box...An' it was THIS thumb-sucking bureaucrat who caused it...His life wouldn't be worth a plugged nickel...

Just wait Sandy, it ain't over 'till the fat lady sings.

I'm kind of with Sandy G on this... I almost hope it causes widespread dissent and a huge backlash, forcing them to return to the status quo ante.

While I am not against technological progress [Where would we be without the internet and access to AK, for example? :D ], in this case I think it served the needs of a limited number of people (and the government) making more money, more than it served to benefit the general public. It is primarily an exercise in transfer-of-wealth without sufficient other justification. Let it be revealed for what it is, and let the bureaucrats learn a lesson!

Of course, I am basing this on a limited amount of information, and may be wrong. If I am wrong and it turns out to be overall better for the consumer, then so be it. I'll be sad to see the old systems go. I LIKE the sound of my Marantz TV tuner, and would like to be able to play things off the air over vintage TV gear... but it won't be the end of the world, any more than the passing of crank-and dial phones was. {Although dial phones STILL work when connected to modern systems!}

Fortunately, Hong Kong is still broadcasting both formats, and has not announced any timetable for cutting off the free-to-air traditional (PAL) channels. Unfortunately, I suspect it is only a matter of time before they do announce such a date here, too...

My condolences to those more immediately affected! :sigh: :no:

That's the spirit! Never say die! :thmbsp:

{But what do you do when the fat lady DOES eventually sing? :tears:}

...you get out your converter box so the tubes can continue beaming, mixing and amplifying!

Keep those old sets runnin; no matter what it takes! I'm going to make sure mine are still used here and there to keep em in working order. :yes:

Well, digital broadcasts use less bandwidth compared to analog - picture was on one frequency and sound on another. This will basically free up the analog bands for fire and police departments to use (which don't have enough frequencies now).

Yes there will be pain - is it a big deal - NO.

Wait until the total conversion of our enegy system to sustainable energy for the REAL PAIN!!!

W-a-a-a-h! I had this scheme to pile up some vintage TVs, tune them to different channels, and videotape the Big Moment.

Then I scheduled a last-minute weekend trip out of state. I'll be staying at my sister's house tomorrow night, and they probably don't even own a TV with antenna, so I'll miss it altogether.

Phil Nelson

less than 24 hours left.... RIP NTSC.

I will mourn the loss of my portable sets most of all. The larger sets can run off a converter with no great hardship but I will miss being able to use a pocket size TV. I have a 10" netbook computer in which I am using a USB tuner as a portable digital TV solution. So far, it is working out rather well and the battery life is comparable to a standard portable. Sometimes you have to get a little creative.

You can get a bit creative with some standard amplifiers and a decent antenna for your portables.

I tried a 1/4 wave dipole with a balun on a Blonder Tongue AM60-550 and had strong reception everywhere in the house. Outside the house it was weak, as I had hoped. I suppose due to the isocyanurate foam with the aluminum sheet on it that insulates my house.

John

John, Could you please post all of the intricate details of how you made the antenna, for dummies like me, what and how a blaun is used in the configuration. Also what chanel.

I have procured several Holland VHF modulators (60db out) and was wondering how to do what you did.

thanks for the advice in advance!

Bob

I was thinking of several fat ladies standing outside Congress shaking their fists and shouting rather than singing. This project has been a total screwup from day one. They needed the bandwitdth for fire and police etc. Really? Is that why Verizon and AT&T wound up with the lion's share and so far no one has picked up on the public service part as yet.

Why, even though the standard allows for a 4:3 signal inside the 16:9 broadcast do we get letterbox viewing?

This was a blatant grab by the cell phone companies, and why not cellphones print more money than the mint.

Well, this blows. I'm gonna be at work when the shutdown here happens! :grumpy:

KAIT 8 is going off at 7AM friday
KEMV 6 is going off two hours later at 9AM.

Well, there's the direct VCR method, connect as many VCRs as you have to antennas, and program them to record from 10:30PM Friday night to 2,4 or 6 hours later (depending on the tape speed you select). Then you'd see if the stations just kill the carrier in the middle of Conan, or play the National Anthem, and or a public service announcement saying "tough bananas if you didn't get a converter box".

Well they must be planning on giving the cops and firemen cell phones...

Maybe I'll get better service then. :thmbsp:

Im pissed, my Sony Watchman is now obsoulete. I enjoyed watching it in bed sometimes. If I am watching it tommorow afternoon, will it turn to dust at noon?

Some modulators, standard amplifiers and a decent antenna will keep your watchman happy :thmbsp:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/create_channel_3.html

Modify the RF modulators of a couple of converter boxes to get a channel 2 and a channel 5 or 6 like I did in this thread: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=220321
Feed the resulting channels 2, 4 (from an unmodified converter box set to ch4), and 5 to the amp. Then you can change channels on the vintage set at will.

Well, I'm all set...

All my TV's have been attached to cable for a very long time. In fact, I attached a set of bunny ears to my old DuMont RA-105B "Sussex", and will watch analog blip into the history books.

BTW, I granted an interview with the Press on the "Demise of Analog Broadcast Television", and, it made today's local cable TV news. All my vintage TV's are filmed in action.

Here is a link, enjoy:

http://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/2...244756863.html

I had great fun doing this interview.

LJB

Wilmington is STILL there!
 

As many of you are aware, Wilmington NC was the test market for a full-scale early swapover on September 8, 2008.

It appears to have survived.

It was still there last week when I was working on a project there.

According to the reports in the local newspaper, it took place with little mayhem and civil unrest. :D


Of course, my tiny Casio LCD TV I carry with me as I travel is pretty useless now. :sigh:

Hey Lee- great interview. The closest I get to your hobby is my old sony watchman but that segment has peaked my interest. You have some cool "conversation pieces" there!! After watching it I gotta get up tommorow and hook up a few old TV's I have and watch big brother flip the switch.

I turned on my 1970 Zenith b/w 23" metal cabinet (14NC22 chassis) to see what I would get with the antenna. First I found buzzing in the sound that didn't belong. I've had that set for 7 years and it never needed a single repair ... until now. Anyway, what I did get was some message on ch 2 and 4 about programming a converter box. (And ch 4 must have reduced it's power - it used to come in much better) There seems to still be regular programming on ch 6 and 9. Nothing on the other vhf stations. I know we used to have a ch 13 and a ch 5 and a ch 7, now I get nothing but static on them. (I haven't really lived here long enough to memorize all the stations, what they are and where they're from.) I didn't look at uhf.

looks like stations that intend to keep their analog channel for digital have been pulling the switch early today, so as to give their engineers time to swap out antenna connections from the analog transmitter to the new digital transmitter set up on the analog TV channel. In NYC, channels 7, 11 and 13 are taking back their analog assignments and placing their digital signals on their old analog assignment. There's one case where a digital channel 33 is being handed off from one broadcaster channel 11 to another, channel 2. Wouldn't be surprised that that all that needed to be done for that was to change the baseband digital data stream feed from one station's studio to the other station's studio. And using the same transmitter and antenna. "Channel 11" becomes "channel 2". I suppose tonight, if you didn't rescan your box, and you punch in "11", you'll see "channel 2", and not channel 11.

Over at a New York City radio station listener forum, there are DTV reception reports: http://www.musicradio77.com/wwwboard/

No DTV in NW MI yet...
 

Here in the Traverse City area, we currently have one analog station still broadcasting until 11:30pm to ensure that we all will be able to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Other than that, there are NO digital OR analog stations on the air!:tears:

Seems they all shut down their existing DTV signals first, then the analog, and we are STILL waiting for the digital to come back. Promised deadlines have come and gone... with only new estimates that come and go. :thumbsdn:

So much for a seamless transition!:thumbsdn:

Was that Channel 7 in Traverse City? Today was a good day for dxing I live in Escanaba across the lake and picked up Channel 7. Up here our NBC station switched off the analog. The had a low power digital for a few months now they said they were getting a new stronger amplifier for the big switch. Guess what .....crapo signal. After much digging and my own deduction they have yet to up the power like they claimed they were going to. Now it's perhaps by the end of summer. Sucks to be them. Our pbs station broadcasting from the same area switched early this week and has a good signal. Our Fox is not working well. I will give them a couple days and then start harassing them. And it's not a question of equipment on my end. Bottom line is Digital transition has failed.

final countdown
 

I guess the big losers will be people that want to use antennas in fringe reception areas. What was a watchable snowy picture will now have the "no signal" text bouncing around on the screen or be blank. The winners will be Time Warner and the other cable/satellite providers.

Has anyone seen a list of the frequencies and bandwidths for the new digital system? How many digital channels will there be?

We are going to stay up tonight and see how a few stations sign off. I didn't get my 1951 RCA fixed in time to watch tonight. I'm waiting on a "doorknob" HV cap. to arrive from china to fix it....

Very little radio/TV/electronics production in the USA, GM bankrupt, value of the dollar going down...It's easy to understand why people enjoy watching Andy Griffith on a old B&W set.

Yes it was 7. They are also broadcasting ABC 29 so we have neither of them. 9&10 CBS and Fox 33 have been off since noon on both digital and analog. 7 is the ONLY station still broadcasting in ANY format for most of the day... and they're turning it off right after the 11pm news! They are also out on cable and satellite! What a snafu this is turning into.

Channel 6 just went out at midnight. 2 and 4 are still repeating the stuff about dtv converters. Channel 9 is still going (I think it's Canadian) Nothing else on vhf. This is the very last image that went out over ch6 before they went off the air. http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...ze=big&cat=503

Similar in Chicago. One UHF channel looping info about converter boxes. Channel 9 (WGN) is running 'According to Jim' like nothing special is going on. I've got it going on my Emerson 648 if anything interesting happens at midnight.

WGN is gone without ceremony. I flipped around and discovered a low power station on channel 6 broadcasting light jazz. I believe low power stations are exempt. I think there's a Korean language NTSC station on 41 as well.

The analog switch off went without ceremony here in Hampton Roads Virginia. The CBS and ABC affiliates switched off at or near midnight. I thought there might be a little more ceremony but they just switched off. O.h well. We're in the future whether we like it or not.

Sing to the tune of NBC chimes: We Are Screwed

The last hour here in the Bay Area, and all the NTSC stations are still on the air. The 11 PM news stations are discussing the switch, and showing how to re-scan your digital channels tomorrow.

Interesting-they are running one of those out-of-band "pseudo-FM-radio" stations like the one in New York City. Since it is low-power, it may stay on the air indefinitely and be a remaining source for OTA analog tuner testing.

Only if the TV set isn't the "intercarrier" IF strip type. That is, a 6MHz wide passband that feeds a video detector, which also produces a 4.5MHz FM sound carrier. Older sets had a completely separate sound IF.

NW MI area update
 

Well, 9&10 CBS and FOX33 digital feeds came back on shortly before 11pm last night... almost 11 hours after it cut off both formats! Both networks broadcast now on one channel X.1 and X.2. They made no mention of the fact that they were off the air for most of the day, merely mentioning that the digital transition had gone smoothly!!??

7&4 NBC ended the analog broadcast after the 11pm news last night. As of 10am today, they are still not on the air. 29&8 ABC digital has been off since 10am yesterday. They are also combined on one channel now. No report on when they might be back as it's 11 hrs past the deadline.

Strange that no one mentioned that there would be all these complete shutdowns.

Many stations have a direct video feed to the area's cable companies, so they may not have worried too much about the over-the-air viewers that much... And they may have wrote off the day's lost commercials.