Are You Getting All Benefits from Digital Television?

"Bay Area residents, are you ready for the DTV Transition?" If you watch television a lot, you may probably know those public announcements about the transition to digital television broadcasting. But do you know you may still not able to watch your favorite TV channels even though you get a digital converter box or a built-in digital tuner television set, here is my own experience.

I have totally two TVs in my house; one is hooked up with satellite service, so there's nothing to worry about. My second one is a television set with built-in ATSC (Digital) Tuner, what I just need is an indoor VHF/UHF antenna to receive the channels. My house is very close to the San Francisco's Downtown, so with an indoor antenna, my TV can pick up most of the Bay Area's channels, except for channel 11 (KNTV), channel 36 (KICU), and channel 54 (KTEH). I know most Bay Area's channels have their transmitters on the Sutro Tower in San Francisco, but some of the channels are not. For instance, channel 11's transmitter is located on San Bruno Mountains, while the transmitters of channel 36 and 54 are located somewhere near Fremont. Technically, you must get an amplifier along with your indoor VHF/UHF antenna to receive the channels; my antenna has a built-in amplifier. The problem is I cannot watch channel 11 and 54 even I turn on the amplifier, nothing on the screen, but dark. Channel 36's reception is okay, although sometimes there may be a few interferences.

The real problem came out earlier last week. I still don't even know what is going on; my TV cannot pick up signals from channel 36, along with channel 11 and 54. When I tune to those channels, it shows "no signal" on the TV screen. I thought that rescan the channels may help with the problem, so I tried to rescan all the channel, channel 11, the signal strength is red, which means no signal or signal is too weak. How about the other two channels, same thing happened. I also tried to rotate the antenna to see if my TV can pick up the channels, no matter how I turn, adjust the antenna, those three channels' signal strength are still red.

That is strange, and also remains many unanswered questions. Why the signal of channel 36 is weakening so much? I used to be able to watch that channel, there is no problem to receive that channel even it shut down the analog signal. (Channel 36, along with four other Bay Area channels, have already shut down their analog signals on February 17 this year) I still cannot watch channel 11, 36 and 54 at this time, so what I can do is just wait 60 more days when all television stations in the country are required to shut down their analog signals, to see if anything improves.

According to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) report,* there are approximately 196 stations are predicted to experience some existing population coverage losses of 2% or more, the reasons of coverage loss can be the station changes its transmitter location, the change of antenna pattern, the change of antenna power, or some combination of those factors. FCC's report also indicated that there are 123 more stations across the country are predicted to experience some existing population coverage loss of 2% because of changes in coverage and digital cliff effect. FCC identified that the digital cliff effect occurs where a station's signal is predicted not to be strong enough for reception because of many technical factors. For instance, if a station changes its channel from VHF to UHF channel, the radio propagation may not as reliable over the hills; even you are within the coverage area. People who live in rural areas may also have trouble to receive DTV signals.

For the San Francisco Bay Area, there are three TV channels have the significant changes on the coverage, according to FCC.** For example, There are about 6 million people can receive channel 2 in digital format, but almost 340 thousand people who receive analog channel 2 lose their signals. If you are watching KTVU Channel 2 with over-the-air antenna, and live in parts of Sonoma, Marin, Lake, Napa, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, you may lose your signal after June 12. If you have trouble to watch channel 2, 4, and 65 because of that, I think your only options are subscribe to cable or satellite service, or get a powerful outdoor antenna. You can go to dtv.gov to see if you are being affected by the DTV Transition, you can also check the DTV coverage map to ensure you won't lose signal after June 12.

When you are not ready, you cannot watch TV, when you are ready, you still cannot watch TV, and that is the DTV!

* "Report - Map Book For Full Power Digital Television Stations Having Significant Changes in Coverage", Federal Communications Commission.

** "San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose - Map Book For Full Power Digital Television Stations Having Significant Changes in Coverage", Federal Communications Commission.