[Jeffhs]

Chris, I just now looked at the "antenna" listings at TVGuide.com for the San Francisco/Oakland area, and am astounded at how many channels one can get just with an antenna in that area. I didn't count them, but my best guess right now is perhaps 30 channels, from both SF and Oakland -- some of those channels being duplicates (I noticed two DTV channels on the LiveWell Network in the SF/Oakland area, and several PBS stations).

I think I just might try my Insignia flat-panel TV on an antenna, just to see what I can receive here OTA. As I mentioned, the NBC station in Cleveland did not reach here at all in NTSC analog, and the digital signal is likely even weaker, so I don't have much hope that I'll get that channel here with an indoor antenna. ABC and CBS, on channels 5 and 19 here, respectively, just increased their transmitter power (at least 19 did; channel 5 just installed new transmitting antennas and is, to the best of my knowledge, still operating at the same power output it had when it was operating in analog), so I may have a good chance of seeing those two channels in ATSC digital. I don't have DTV converter boxes for my two analog CRT TVs yet, and don't know if I can even get them anywhere anymore, as most stores that did stock them prior to the DTV transition no longer do so, although I read somewhere on this or another forum that Radio Shack still stocks Digitalstream-branded DTV converters; for how much longer, however, is anyone's guess. Flat-panel TVs are becoming dirt-cheap these days (I bought my 19" Insignia FP at Best Buy this past August for $130, less shipping), and I just saw an ad in my Sunday paper for a 19-inch off-brand FP selling for under $100. Because FPs, except the monster 40-, 50-, 60+-inch ones, are becoming so cheap, there may not be much need for converter boxes (people more often than not trash their old CRT TVs, replacing them with FPs these days when the old sets develop any kind of repair problems), so I guess now is the time to get a box if you can find them.


BTW, I have noticed your ham radio callsign as part of your member name here at VK, and I remember reading in one of your posts to another thread a long time ago that you operate amateur TV on 440 MHz. That's one mode I never explored when I had my HF ham station in a Cleveland suburb, before moving here in 1999. Now, I operate basically just 2-meter FM and, for HF, since I cannot erect antennas (lease restrictions), I am on Echolink, node number 331660. My callsign is WB8NHV (first licensed June 1972) and appears after my name in my profile signature.