We the People own the public airwaves.

[mhatrw]

How are We the People benefiting from the analog to digital broadcast TV conversion?

Yes, the switch will free up frequencies so corporations can make even more money using the public airwaves. We are they writing our laws?

[tritsofme]

1. How are you being hurt from the conversion?

I want access to more broadband technology, its just being wasted in our current setup.

[jtrockville]

2. Analog TV signals are FREE to receive. WiMax will not be.

I'm excited about additional broadband possibilities, but it does seem like we gave away some very valuable property without getting much in return.

[Breeze54]

3. You can get a certificate for 2 free converters per address at the FCC!

;)

[mhatrw]

5. And what if the digital stations come in like crap like mine do?

What about all the old people who just want to keep watching their old TVs?

[Breeze54]

6. You need a converter box or cable or satellite.

Do you have a converter? I don't think they've made the switch yet. It won't happen until Mar. 2009.

[mhatrw]

9. Yes, I have the fucking converter box.

Most stations have already made the switch, but they are still broadcasting on analog as well. Analog comes in fine; digital comes in fine for a few seconds and then degrades.

[Breeze54]

13. Have you called those stations and inquired? My understanding was none of them have switched yet.

:shrug:

[mhatrw]

14. Let me guess. You have cable or satellite, right?

Almost all are broadcasting digital right now. It's just that they are pulling the plug on analog early next year.

[Breeze54]

18. No shit Sherlock... I already said that and no; I boycott all PAY TV. n/t

They complete turnaround is not until 2009.

[LTR]

20. This reallocation is not unprecedented

Ever wonder what happened to Chs. 70-83? They used to be on TV sets back in the day but no longer are. Well, those stations were reallocated back in 1980 or so to create what is now our wireless communications spectrum. That's what our cell phones and wireless broadband currently operate on.

The digital conversion will delete Chs. 52-69 from the TV spectrum. This is what the FCC has been auctioning off. In addition, some of this spectrum has been set aside for use by police, fire and rescue authorities (first responders). They may also be used as a sort of early warning system in the case of hurricanes and other disasters. With DTV, the need for a large spectrum is greatly diminished, as opposed to the 70-year-old technology that is analog television.

[mhatrw]

21. OK, so how much are we getting in this new auction?

How does this compare to the billions that have been made and will be made by all the wireless communication corporations that took over the public airwaves from Chs. 70-83?

[LTR]

25. Here's some more about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_2008_wireless_spectrum_auction

Did the advice I provided regarding reception help you out at all?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3156167#3157381

[mhatrw]

26. So we are selling our public airwaves for about the cost of one month in Iraq?

I rent an apartment. I can't mount an external antenna on my apartment building and even if I could, I can't afford one.

[LTR]

27. A regular indoor antenna should work adequately

Amplified would be best. They're not very expensive.

Like I said, if you have any problems with your reception, check out the links I posted in this thread. Or PM me for advice. Or call the TV stations that you have trouble receiving.

As for the reallocation of the airwaves, might I ask what you would do with them? Do you really think it's that beneficial to hold on to spectrum we don't need, when it could go toward more effective uses?

If you open your mind to this, you may realize that you may actually benefit from this in the long run.

[mhatrw]

29. How in the hell am I benefiting from having to buy a new antenna?

Analog works fine with my crappy old antenna. Digital does not. How am I benefiting from this conversion again? More critically, how are our poorest citizens in general benefiting from this?

[LTR]

30. Well, I know that $10-20 is going to absolutely kill your wallet...

...but you're carrying on like this is some kind of tinfoil hat thing. It isn't.

Have you tried plugging a cable right into the wall? If there's a cable outlet, it could possibly be hooked up to an outdoor antenna. Ask your landlord if he/she still has one of those gargantuan metal clothes racks up on the roof. There, problem solved.

Now, quit whining.

[mhatrw]

4. You want "access to more broadband technology"?

WTF is that supposed to mean? What broadband technology do you want that you can't have right now because of broadcast TV?

I am being hurt by this corporate driven conversion because several broadcast stations I can pick up fine right now are unwatchable using a digital converter.

[tritsofme]

8. Change is hard, no reason to keep using 1930s era technology

when we don't have to, and we can free up the airwaves for more productive technology.

[mhatrw]

10. What is the more productive technology?

This is supposed to be a democracy, not a corporation.

Microsoft dominated the software market by being backward compatible. Why can't new TV technology do the same?

[EOTE]

12. More productive technology is fitting several channels into the same

bandwidth that previously only afforded a single channel. Many consumers are going to benefit from this switch. Not just corporations.

[mhatrw]

15. Which consumers are going to benefit from what technologies?

Why can't the technology be backward compatible?

[LTR]

19. Here I come to save the day...

This site may help you out:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx

It explains how to improve reception, and which stations should be available. In addition, pay heed to the station frequencies that digital outlets are broadcasting on. These stations may not have showed up in the initial channel scan. Try dialing in the temporary digital channel allocation (different than the digital channel displayed) in your converter box. Or run another channel scan with antenna in optimal position. That may restore your stations.

One trick to finding the actual DTV allocation is by typing the missing stations' call letters into a Wikipedia search. The article will list the digital channel allocation.

Another possibility may be that the DTV station is offline. Some may be down on a particular day for maintenance (engineers are busting their rumps trying to get ready for next year), or are not yet signed on. LPTV stations are likely to fall in this category.

As for the digital conversion, it is not limited solely to the U.S. Most of Europe is in the process of converting to DTV, or already has (parts of England have already shut off analog). Digital transmission is simply a much more effective means of transmission than analog, and it uses much less power.

I got my converter box last week, and I'm impressed. My reception was garbage before, since I live close to an airport. Now, I get stations I've barely even heard of, in addition to some really good side channels (the PBS outlet has a bunch of them and the local NBC station has a 24-7 weather channel). In addition, there is no ghosting, no static and no 'shows up whenever it feels like' situations. I'm impressed with it.

DTV may have some issues in more distant rural areas, but the advantage of getting the converter boxes out in the marketplace early is a way of working out the kinks. And once analog shuts down, it's very likely that stations may boost their power to assure the same signal strength as before.

If you have any further questions pertaining to where you live, PM me and I can give more direct advice (based on where you live or whatever). This can be rectified easily.

[JuniperLea]

17. It costs money and it's not reliable

All the digital cable I get now is CRAP!

With broadcast, the most you had to worry about was sunspots... once in a while.

[Rex]

7. Corporations control our country, not we the people.

Never do they care about benefiting the people. They barely take care of vets nowadays as the VA hospitals.

[EOTE]

11. Change works both ways, you know.

Why would a wealthy insurance company CEO want to migrate towards a single payer healthcare system? Many people are benefiting by this by getting far better picture quality and more reliability in most cases. The U.S. shouldn't have to lag behind the rest of the industrialized world simply because there are some out there with sub-standard antennas.

[mhatrw]

16. Who gets far better picture quality and reliability?

Who? Where? What is the evidence for this?

[tom_paine]

22. That's so naively Old American. In Imperial Amerika, the Subjects own NOTHING.

In Imperial Amerika, there is no such thing as the "public good" (to quote Michael Foul and other prominent Bushies).

In Imperial Amerika, there is no We the People, there is only an apathetic, ignorant, tired, harried, hurried, TV-addled populace of slack-jawed consumers who are going to make excellent concentration camp guards and neighborhood spies.

But as far as this We the People stuff, let alone owning anything the aristocracy covets, that's so 12/11/2000, the Last Day of the Old United States of America.

And that place is gone. Gone. Long gone.

It may return one day, but at this point I put the chance at 2% or less.

[tritsofme]

23. So what exactly does your cute little rant have to do with us joining the rest of

the industrialized world in dumping 80 year old broadcast television technology in favor of more efficient and productive ones?

[tom_paine]

24. It has to do with debunking your cute, archaic nonsense about We the People owning the airwaves.

I could not let that naive and archaic nonsense just sit out there unchalleneged.

Not that I disagree in principle. Ideally, who but a Bushie or Nazi wouldn't want the restoration of Free America and all of it's ideals, including the idea that the public owns the airwaves.

But we do ourselves no service by ignoring reality. Quite the opposite. By clinging to false hopes, as the Germans did in the early 30s, we blind ourselves to the true nature of the Bushie-Nazi threat to liberty, freedom, and each of us individually.

Old America is dead. It died in 2000. Our nation is now sister and similar nation to Russia and China.

Learn it. Know it. Accept it in your heart. Because if and when Crunch Time comes (economic depression or 9/11 #2) that triggers the full force of the Bushie Tyrannical Police State, if you still cannot internalize and accept where and when you live, then you will fall in line iwth the rest of the sheep and even if you don't wish to do that, the Bushies will get the drop on you while you are examining your navel.

I don't like it any more than you do, but it is what is.

So, my comment had little to do with digital conversion, but with debunking your cute naive comment about We the People owning the public airwaves, which in this Empire is a flat out falsehood.

[Karenina]

28. Tell it like it IS.

Danke.