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

[Larry Weil]

At 01:18 AM 12/4/2008, Mark Laurence wrote:
>On Dec 3, 2008, at 6:32 PM, Peter Q. George wrote:
>
>>  This is a very exciting time in television.
>
>I hope you're right.  I'm thinking "disastrous" for people who don't
>live within 20 miles of a transmitter.  I've spent some time plugging
>addresses into antennaweb for places I've lived in Central Mass. and
>Maine, places that had decent reception from all major networks.
>Once you throw the "digital" switch the channel choices drop to a
>small handful.  In many towns around Worcester, you'd better learn
>Spanish because channel 27 will be your only friend.  In central
>Maine, dozens of channels disappear and all you'll get is PBS.  I
>live in Boston now, and I still have to move the antenna whenever I
>switch between digital channel 4 and the other digital channels.  I
>lose the signal if people in the street open a car door, and I live 5
>miles away from Needham.  I hope there's plenty of room for
>improvement, because many people will need it.

To begin with, I think Antennaweb may be giving you info based on the 
current digital channels, and not those after the switch.  As I noted 
in a previous post, some of the digitals are going back to VHF after 
the switch.  I think this may include some of the Providence 
stations, and as I remember from when my sister went to college in 
Worcester the Providence stations came in better there than the ones 
from Boston.

That said, here in Salem, NH, I receive all the current digitals from 
Boston and NH, as well as WMTW-DT from Maine.  Granted, I have an 
antenna 30 feet up with a rotator, which not everyone has.  But we 
can't stop the world just because a few people are unwilling to do 
anything to deal with the change.



Larry Weil
Lake Wobegone, NH