On Jan 8, 2:05*pm, Josh wrote:
On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:21:22 -0800, Don Bruder
wrote:



Partly correct, but for exactly the opposite reason you think. VHF
antennas will indeed become essentially useless. However, this is
because *ALL* digital transmitters are already on UHF (though some are
operating at lower-than-licensed power levels) and will stay there. When
the VHF signal is turned off in February, the VHF antennas will still
function as (lousy) antennas, but performance is likely to be so poor
that they won't be useful except in cases where there are very strong
signals.

And no, it doesn't matter that a station is now on a VHF channel, yet
transmitting digital - What's happening is that they're transmitting on
two separate frequencies - The standard analog signal on their "old" VHF
frequency, the digital signal on their "new" digital frequency. Which,
in *ALL* cases, is in the UHF band.

This is *not* true -- some (not all) stations that are now
broadcasting digital on a UHF channel will switch their digital
broadcast back to a VHF channel.

Checkwww.antennaweb.org, among other sites, for detailed station
locations from a specific address. *For example, in Sacramento, KXTV
is currently Channel 10 (analog) and Channel 61 (digital). *On Feb
17th, they will broadcast digitial on VHF Channel 10 (and give up
Channel 61). *On the other hand, KCRA (channel 3 analog) will remain
digital *on channel 35, but according to the results, their antenna
location will change.

I believe the FCC has similar information available somewhere online.

Josh

I just ordered the TIVAX STB-T8 , supposedly top rated. I'll report
my findings.