48 hours left!

[jimbofish]

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.

[Adam]

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

[bandersen]

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.

[bandersen]

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.

[compucat]

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

[ChrisW6ATV]

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.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by bandersen

I flipped around and discovered a low power station on channel 6 broadcasting light jazz.

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.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

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.

[jimbofish]

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.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by jimbofish

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!!??

.

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.

[jimbofish]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

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.

I have a feeling they've written off all the OTA viewers too.

BTW, the other two channels came back today shortly before noon. So it looks like the entire switchover process must take approx. 11 hrs. Too bad their signal is so variable that we won't be able to watch their programming, even though we are within the published circle.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

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.

Originally Posted by wa2ise

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.

Why would the type of sound IF matter with that low-power TV station? Isn't the sound going to be on 87.75 MHz with 25 kHz deviation, 10dB below the video carrier on 83.25 MHz in any case?

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

Why would the type of sound IF matter with that low-power TV station? Isn't the sound going to be on 87.75 MHz with 25 kHz deviation, 10dB below the video carrier on 83.25 MHz in any case?

If there's no picture carrier 4.5MHz below that FM station, most analog TV sets won't demodulate it, as there won't be a signal at 4.5MHz at the video detector diode. (I assume that the FM station at 87.7 or 87.9 has no "video" signal associated with it. Though someone could put up an MTV LPTV station on channel 6 so as to become a fake FM radio station).

If you set a TV to channel 6, or cable channel 96 (cable channel using the spectrum between 88 and 108), inject a local oscillator into the TV set antenna port, along with an antenna picking up FM radio stations, and tune that oscillator to a frequency 4.5MHz below a desired FM station, you should hear it out of the TV set's speaker. It will probably sound overdeviated though.
If your town happens to have two FM stations approx 4.5MHz apart, you may hear a really yucky mix of both their audio.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

If there's no picture carrier 4.5MHz below that FM station, most analog TV sets won't demodulate it, as there won't be a signal at 4.5MHz at the video detector diode. (I assume that the FM station at 87.7 or 87.9 has no "video" signal associated with it. Though someone could put up an MTV LPTV station on channel 6 so as to become a fake FM radio station).

If you set a TV to channel 6, or cable channel 96 (cable channel using the spectrum between 88 and 108), inject a local oscillator into the TV set antenna port, along with an antenna picking up FM radio stations, and tune that oscillator to a frequency 4.5MHz below a desired FM station, you should hear it out of the TV set's speaker. It will probably sound overdeviated though.
If your town happens to have two FM stations approx 4.5MHz apart, you may hear a really yucky mix of both their audio.

It does have picture, scenes of Chicago. I think it is a rule that if there is sound being broadcast, there must be a picture too.

[mid-fi-ry]

In Chicago I heard that the WGN nightly news, I think they said twice a day, will still be broadcasted on another station (not 9 in chicago) for a few weeks.