Countdown to Digital Disaster  

When February 17, 2009, comes around, will you be holding your breath?  No, I will not be, but neither will I be surprised by the fury which will be unleashed.  

If you have not heard the news about the change in television which will be happening that day, I might want to congratulate you for creating your own impregnable universe.  Television originally ran with analog signals beamed to your home antenna;  these days, cable and satellite television run with digital signals, which are clearer.  However, there are many of us who have neither cable nor satellite.  We still have analog signals.  

However, in less than a year, all signals will be digital.  Those who have old television sets which received analog signals will no longer work.  Thus, the “digital-converter box.”  

$40 discount coupons have been offered for the purchase of the box;  how to get coupons was mentioned in a past issue of E-News.  We got two coupons at home and have already used one of them to buy a digital-converter box.  

A converter box cost us only $20 when we used the coupon.  Not bad.  Then the disaster began.  When my brother, the engineer, attached the box to our television set, we certainly received a clear picture—when we received a picture at all.  It seems that the signals for several television channels were too weak, such that it became annoying to watch frozen pictures, hear voices bleat like sheep or see nothing but a blank screen.  

Brother had even tried to boost the weak signals by purchasing an amplifier, which needed a cable.  An additional $31, a trip to Wal-Mart, and the extra time did not help.  

To add insult to injury, my father, who suffers from severe macular degeneration, had learned by touch to locate the buttons on the remote control when the television was analog.  With the converter box, there was another remote control and extra buttons to push.  Matters became complicated and went from annoying to explosively irritating.  

So I disconnected the converter box, which sits quietly under the television set.  We are back to analog and there is peace.  We do not miss the clearer picture of digital.  But I wonder what will happen on February 17, 2009.  

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2008 by a local nonprofit organization. 

1. What is the significance of February 17, 2009?

(a) That will be the first President’s Day under a new Administration.

(b) All television signals will become digital.  

2. Why might we see a digital disaster?

(a) Many people have analog television and conversion to digital television might not be as easy or cheap as plugging in a converter box.

(b) Computers will crash because of a virus which has infected all Microsoft operating systems.  

3. Where should we look for a solution?

(a) The Federal government, as it approved the conversion to digital television.

(b) To our own community, because government will not have the resources to handle the coming disaster. 

May 29, 2008