Pardon our static

By The Daily Progress Staff

Published: November 19, 2008

If you pick up your television signals through antennas or rabbit-ear devices, expect a channel to be dark during the day on Monday.

Public television station WVPT will take down its channel 50 analog signal between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday. The antenna and tower work necessary to complete WVPT’s digital conversion makes the temporary outage necessary.

When the national conversion to digital television occurs on Feb. 17, viewers who use antennas or rabbit ears will need to have DTV converter boxes to view their favorite channels.

The television industry is required by law to switch from traditional analog broadcasting to digital technology, and analog broadcasts will cease Feb. 17.

In order to receive the new digital signals, some older televisions will need upgrades.

Viewers who use TVs with rabbit ears or an outdoor antenna have three options:

l Purchase a digital converter box.

l Buy a new digital TV with a built-in digital tuner to receive the signals using an existing antenna.

l Sign up for digital cable or satellite television service.

To learn about digital channels available to antenna users, visit http://www.antennaweb.org. The site also offers suggestions on choosing antennas.

A coupon program is available to help viewers pay for converter boxes, which usually cost $90 or less. Congress created the TV Converter Box Program to offer coupons while they last through March 31. Viewers can get a maximum of two $40 coupons, which expire after 90 days. To apply for the program, call the hotline at (888) DTV-2009 (388-2009).

Digital conversion information is available at http://www.wvpt.net.