FCC received record 55,000 calls after analog shut off test
By Richard Lawler 
posted May 25th 2009 11:56AM
posted May 25th 2009 11:56AM
Want a preview of what things will be like June 12? A coordinated shut off soft test on May 12 spurred a record 55,000 calls to the FCC's help line on May 12. Even after the delay, of the 3 million or so estimated households still completely unready it's a far bet that the first few days of the transition to all digital television will bring even more calls to figure out what to do.
Ridiculous. the same people that have the energy to make the call just to complain, are more than likely, the same ones that don't want to bother requesting and getting the converters. Come on. How much more do you want? You have the government giving you a free, most of the times, converter, and you still don't do your part in requesting. What do these people want? Don't tell me they're also expecting some government office employee to come into their homes and installing and checking it. Please. Enough with the babysitting.
I think the problems people are facing is that the digital signal does not travel as far as the analog signal. So your analog signal is just fine but you can't get the digital signal even with your spiffy, new converter box.
Guy Incognito - I am not sure where you heard that digital signals don't travel as far as analogs do. Both are in the same VHF/UHF spectrum. In terms of RF, they both travel the same distance. With the error handling algorithms in ATSC, the digitals actually can be tuned in farther than analogs will ever be. In fact, I live in Lees Summit - a suburb of Kansas City. I am about 12 miles from the towers. I can pick up all digital signals with a $7 rabbit year. But with the same antenna and the same TV, I cannot even pick up half of the analog channels. The only places where people pickup analog and not digital is when they have a crappy early generation ATSC tuner (from an old HDTV for example) or the Effective Radiating Power (ERP) of the digital signal is actually lower than the analog one.
This article is old but I read something similar recently about the same problems:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051902730.html
Digital signals typically do not travel as far as the old analog signals, according to research by Oded Bendov, who is president of TV Transmission Antenna Group and who will replace broadcast antennas on the Empire State Building. Every city will experience different reception challenges, he said, depending largely on the local landscape. Bendov said that about half of the viewers who now receive analog channels would not reliably receive all of their digital replacements and that viewers more than 40 miles from a broadcast tower would probably need new equipment.
"The picture's clarity is impressive, she said, until an airplane flies by on its way to nearby Reagan National Airport -- a frequent event in her 20th-floor apartment. Airplane traffic used to cause seconds-long bouts of fuzziness in the analog picture. But digital signals are more sensitive to disruption, so the sound mutes and the screen freezes, sometimes dissolving into a cascade of pixels. Similar glitches happen when her roommate walks through certain parts of the living room."
"The government's message for consumers is that all they need is a converter box or digital TV," said David Klein, executive vice president of Centris, a market research firm. "That's an oversimplification of what's going to happen."
In the Washington area, about 56 percent of the 370,000 households watching over-the-air broadcasts may need to upgrade their antennas, according to Centris. Nationwide, Centris estimates that about half such households will need a new antenna.
What new digital audiences have to fear is the "digital cliff," or the all-or-nothing quality of digital reception. The picture is excellent until the signal weakens or is interrupted, causing the picture to disappear, and it is more sensitive to interference from hills, trees, buildings and bad weather than traditional analog reception. An analog picture degrades gradually, getting more static and snow as signals weaken.
To complicate the situation, some broadcasters' digital coverage areas vary slightly from their current analog coverage areas, meaning some viewers on the edge of coverage areas will not consistently receive signals. FCC engineers estimate that about 15 percent of viewers live in these fringe areas, and about 5 percent of those, or 1 percent of current analog households, will need new antennas.
Some TV watchers have found they cannot always receive as many digital channels as they did with analog broadcasts. Mike Mellish of Silver Spring said that he was generally pleased with digital reception but that he could not pick up the local PBS broadcasts now that the leaves have grown back on the trees around his house, even with an older rooftop antenna. He sometimes gets spotty reception on other stations, which he attributes to bad weather and other unknown obstacles.
"One evening they might come in great," he said, "and the next, nothing."
Francis Haynes, 77, had always gotten 24 analog stations, including several Baltimore broadcasts, but he lost five of them after switching to digital, meaning he lost some of his favorite programs.
His picture improved when he put a more powerful antenna in his attic, but he sometimes misses a few channels. Haynes, a retired engineer, wants to buy a larger antenna for his roof to pick up more signals, but his Fairfax condominium association won't allow it.
"I'm still having some trouble -- sometimes the stations flicker on and off," he said.
What I find interesting is these people are too ignorant to know this is coming or to know what to do to prepare, yet somehow they are smart enough to know that the FCC is the right organization to call.
Out freakin standing that's the funnest thing I've ever heard. and how are they smart enough to find the number to the FCC?
Lol, my thoughts exactly. I'm wondering if, since it was only a test, they saw a phone number on their screens instead of snow.
'cause for a while, the screen won't be snow, it'll be a screen with the phone number plastered up there. For lazys.
At least we know their phones work.
I realise not everyone is techno literate. But people really deserve everything they get if they're caught unawares after months and months of warnings of a shutoff, plus coupons to avail of a free / cheap box. How can you possibly be caught unawares? How would a trial run of the shutoff even prompt so many phone calls?
Maybe the FCC shouldn't be putting up their number at all. Just rotate a slideshow of instructions telling people to buy a box, install it and shut the hell up already.
So......So what......Who cares? It cost about 10 bucks to convert your present analog system to digital. Are these the same folks who own cars that burn leaded fuel? I'm sick and tired of getting half-ass signal strength for HDTV because the stations are strapped for money sending both signals. I'm sorry if new technology doesn't match your sixth century de'cor. Have a nice life in your caves....Meanwhile---Where's my jet-pack and why don't we have cars that fly?
Most of the people who are not set up will not benefit from a delay. Technically illiterate, aged, disconnected or otherwise unable to hear the message. Many will get it fixed after the turn-off, but others never will without help. Some won't even bother -- TV isn't important to them.
But we'll never know who needs the help until they complain.
Turn it off.
OK, so you're told the shut-off will be on June 12th, and suddenly on May 12th your screen goes blank.
Could it be this was a poor way to rest readiness?
I dont get it, they received 55,000 calls... how large was the test area for this "soft test"... if it was nationwide 55,000 calls is nothing really.
Also the people affected dont see "a blank screen" they see just a message saying something to the effect of "your tv is not DTV ready please call the FCC at ....." so it really shouldnt be much of a surprise if you were not expecting the test.
I wonder if we will have to wait another 4 months for the DTV switch if these 55,000 people who arent ready start complaining again.
Does it happen at Midnight on the 12th?
Don't answer the calls, they'll thing they failed the 'digital phone transition' and go whimper on their sofas.
There's still no converter for the radio I have that gets TV signals, is there?
Maybe I'll keep it around for when aliens attack and the only way to hear them is via VHF.
I used to have one of those too. It also picked up signals from 900 MHz cordless phones, but you could only listen to one side of the conversation at a time since they were on different frequencies.
This is no great surprise. There were always going to be those people who managed to keep themselves in an information vacuum. Isn't that what the test was for in the first place? The really interesting part will be seeing if the converter boxes work for them, since there's a high probability these people are in marginal reception areas.
After they finish terminating analog TV maybe they should next focus on shutting down the AM band & replacing the Medium Wave spectrum with something like Digital Radio Mondiale - just to really torture people. ;)
No more delays! People have had long enough to switch over! Analog should be shut off on June 12th. People would then get their act in gear, when they find out they have no TV except religion and HSN on their Local LPTV stations! Digital Converters are Cheap as chips, and there are still coupons still avaliable. If they don't switch now, they never will if we keep delaying it.