As we plod toward the delayed end-date for analog television -- June 12th, unless it gets delayed yet again -- the FCC is ramping up new requirements for stations to educate the public about digital television.  One of their concerns is that viewers be able to predict whether they will be able to receive digital signals, so that they can make an informed decision about spending money on over-the-air equipment.

To that end, the FCC has come out with studies and maps for every station.  They estimate where coverage will change: both in gains from people who could not see the station in analog but who will now get the digital signal; and in losses from analog viewers who will have difficulty pulling in the digital signal.  These maps are only estimates, and have limitations that need to be understood:

• They illustrate changes in projected ability to receive the station.

• They are not comprehensive maps of areas where you are can or cannot receive a digital signal.  They are merely a comparison of digital versus analog coverage.

• The FCC's maps show very little detail, which makes it difficult to tell exactly where their markers equate to real-world locations.

• The estimates are based on unstated assumptions about the antenna system, which makes them less than ideal for making a buy / no-buy decision.

Let's work through these issues and take a look at the resources we have:

First, here are the FCC's maps for the Syracuse market.  You can tell some interesting things just by giving them a glance:

• WCNY-TV, WNYS-TV and WSYT-TV gain a substantial number of viewers because of the greater efficiency of the digital signal, and in WSYT's case because of dropping from channel 68 down to channel 19.  None of these stations have major numbers of analog viewers who cannot receive their digital signal.

• WSPX-TV loses some analog viewers, but gains a similar number of new digital viewers.  Mostly, this seems to be the result of a slightly different antenna pattern.

• WSYR-TV loses about 2.6% of its analog viewers, but gains digital coverage for a net gain of about 62,605 viewers overall.

• WSTM-TV loses about 4.8% of its analog viewers, but gains digital coverage for a net gain of about 103,779 viewers overall.

• WTVH-TV loses about 12.1% of its analog viewers and gains very few digital viewers, for a net loss of 158,621 viewers overall.  Ouch.  Giving up a low VHF analog channel for a fairly high digital UHF, combined with the lower transmit antenna height, contribute to this.

Interesting as all this might be, how does this apply to you?  I don't particularly like the FCC's base map:  it doesn't have enough features for me to tell where their markers really are.  Here's a more detailed version I worked up that puts their data on top of a terrain map.  Remember, the markers only show projected changes in coverage -- if you're in a deep valley and don't see a yellow diamond or red triange, most likely the FCC is assuming that you can't see the analog signal anyway.

So how do you predict whether you will be able to receive digital TV at your location?  The FCC has a lookup tool that can give you a simplified idea of the signal conditions at your address.  Personally, I prefer the modeling at TVFool.com: it provides projected data that you can use to figure what kind of antenna system performance you will need, and it lets you experiment with changing your antenna height.  The FCC site is simple, but it makes too many unstated assumptions about antenna performance and height to be fully useful.

Take a few minutes and check out these resources... in the next few installments we'll get into how you can use all of this information to make an informed choice about how to approach your television reception.

-- Jeff