Senate vote soon - we need a "digital white area"

[waltinvt]

"The Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday said it would vote Oct. 19 upon a digital TV bill that is expected to include a date for ending traditional analog TV broadcasts.

Aides have said the House is to begin considering its digital TV bill around the same time the Senate panel votes. ..............<snip>
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/re...t_id=1001264473 "

Per the Dec '04 SHVERA wasn't the FCC supposed to have defined the "digital white area" by now?

I realize the upcoming house & senate committee votes are basically for adopting a digital transition "hard date" but you can bet there will be other digital issues addressed in whatever bill makes it through the gauntlet.

The FCC seems to be dodging the "digital white area" issue.

This new legislation might be the only chance we have to get something more definitive in place to insure that the many sat customers without digital OTA options can easily qualify for HD DNS without this "affiliate biased waiver hoop" process.

Unless there's a "defined" digital reception area model in place with some sort of testing "appeal" process, most of us are NOT ever going to see HD DNS under current rules.

 

[mikew]

That's not good news for many. I live just outside of Tucson and can't get any digital signals OTA. Cox offers PBS & CBS and has been at war with Fox, NBC, ABC and WB. All of this technology available, and it looks like many are just screwed.

 

[M Sparks]

I can see why it's a difficult issue. I live about 30 miles from the only digital transmitters in my area, and I am surrounded by tall pines. They are all running at ultra low-power. I have a fair to decent picture on the analog channels on the same tower. The engineer at one of the stations is a friend of mine and said he wouldn't expect me to get anything until they went full power.

Well, I got a 942 last week, and was surprised to fine I have a 75-80 signal strength on these channels, with very few dropouts.