Actually, the market is forcing this to happen anyway.For those stations who are presently operating on their final channel at their final power, the 17 Feb cutoff date is easy - just turn off the NTSC transmitter.
For those stations who are currently operating on a temporary or out of core channel, the options are to either build a third transmitter on the ultimate frequency, or else shut off analog early so the transmitter can be converted and tested prior to 17 Feb. That is the route our station is forced to take, because we are moving our digital from 55 to 40, and shutting down our analog 23, and we cannot afford to build a third transmitter. So we will shut down the analog 23 and convert it to digital 40.
In many cases, especially where markets overlap, the patchwork quilt of analog NTSC, temporary DTV, and final DTV frequency assignments are so intermingled that it is almost impossible to have one market convert to their ultimate digital frequencies without mutual interference with an adjacent market that has not converted.
Hence the free-for-all on the night of 17 Feb. I just wished they picked a nice warm summer night to do the switch.
JohnP.S., congrats on the new position. I'm sure by now you're knee deep in the acronym "UAV."
----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen W. Long" <longsw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Actually, it would make more sense to roll out over a couple of weeksinstead of the whole country on one nightmare day - roll out one time zone a week in Feb. and March. I made this suggestion some time ago - it would benice if someone listened from time to time. Stephen Long BTW, I am back in the Motion Imagery business - the new Science and Technology Advisor to the SECDEF ISR Task Force. Busy times. SWL
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