If you have been watching the political side of the DTV transition, the last several weeks have been interesting: a number of folks -- most prominently President-elect Obama -- have called for the February 17th analog shut-off date to be postponed, out of concern that folks won't have their TV sets ready in time.  Our own Senator Schumer has been sending out press releases warning of imminent catastrophe as viewers fall off the digital cliff... a rather graphic turn of phrase.

This recent activity has me scratching my head just a bit: you see, these are largely the same people who set the date in the first place.  At the time, I wondered at Congress imposing a deadline for equipment not yet in existence, to be purchased with coupons administered by an infrastructure still to be established.  Finally addressing the problem with little more than a month remaining speaks poorly for their foresight; pushing for a delay now suggests that they still do not understand the consequences of their decisions.  But that's my own personal take, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the station, staff, management, etcetera.  It's just the wonderment of a lonely engineer tasked with making stuff actually work.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is making the case that changing the analog shutdown date will create unnecessary confusion, and that the best solution is to fix the coupon program: get it funded and resolve the problem of coupons that expired before there were boxes available on the store shelves.  And as far as it goes, this makes sense.

Realistically, there are other consequences to delay:  for one thing, a number of stations are holding their analog transmitters together with spit and bailing wire, and replacement parts for some of these antiques are no longer available.  On top of that, the combination of a miserable advertising climate right now and the cost of powering both analog and digital transmitters is squeezing television stations very hard... particularly stations in small markets.

A more direct consequence to viewers is that in many areas -- Binghamton and Elmira, for example -- stations are either running temporary digital transmitters at low power, or are waiting to start their digital service because their permanent full-power DTV assignment is on the same channel as their existing analog signal.  Until these stations are allowed to decommission their analog transmitters, they will be unable to provide their full digital coverage -- which means that the majority of people who have taken steps to become digital-ready won't be served.

The third effect of postponing the transition date is that a number of new wireless and emergency services have already paid the government to use the channels that TV stations are getting booted out of.  A delay means they won't be able to begin the services they have contracted to provide, and their huge investments in equipment won't generate revenue.  There are lots of ripple effects possible here, and it isn't going to be pretty.

How does all this affect you?

It's too soon to tell what will come out of Washington... but we do know that whether analog stations shut down on February 17 as scheduled, or whether our politicians slam on the brakes, the analog shutoff will eventually happen.  For now, the best advice is to keep getting ready: get your coupons, buy your converters, see how well you receive digital stations, and upgrade your antennas if necessary.

Someday this long nightmare will finally be over... better to be ready than not.

-- Jeff