The VHF's Return after UHF (was Re: CH 40 Analog was shut down Sun nite)

[Peter Q. George]

More than likely, Channel 7 will make the switch to DTV almost instantaneously or a few minutes after midnight on 2/17/09. WHDH probably already has a transfer switch, of sorts, to go between the analog to the digital equipment at the appointed time.  I believe they are going to use the existing analog antenna on Channel 7 for the time being on the top of the tower, then later use a temporary DTV Channel 7 antenna on the old Channel 42 perch (side mounted) and the meantime replace the old Channel 7 antenna to a more efficent model that will handle DTV signal more effectively.  WHDH's Channel 42 DTV will cease to operate at the time of the switch.  WMUR/9 will do a similar situation.  They will use the existing Channel 9 antenna at midnight and simply switch from analog to DTV with simple flick of a switch.  Their old Channel 59 DTV will be switched off at the same time.  I believe WMTW will do the same and return to Channel 8 as a DTV.  This is a very
 exciting time in television.  We've already seen part of transition already.  WGGB/40, WGBY/57, WZMY/50 and more have already made the move to exclusively DTV.  I would not be surprised if others will make an early exit.  We shall see.   


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
"Scanning the bands since 1967"
radiojunkie3@yahoo.com
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--- On Wed, 12/3/08, Kevin Vahey <kvahey@comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Kevin Vahey <kvahey@comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: CH 40 Analog was shut down Sun nite
> To: "Larry Weil" <kc1ih@mac.com>, "(newsgroup) Boston-Radio-Interest" <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
> Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 3:18 PM
> Larry and others
> 
> When the changeover happens how much time will be involved
> for say
> WHDH to move digital from UHF back to VHF?