Jonathan, I know absolutely zip about most of what you said above (I'm sorry!) but any TV set made today with the pushbutton "up/down" and direct access tuning is indeed fully automatic and will home in on the carriers, meaning yes, they're AFT. As long as the converter's output is within a couple of MHz of a standard broadcast channel, the TV set will follow it and lock onto it.
At least
one question answered for you.
Tom