On Tuesday, June 9, our region experienced an extreme weather event unlike any we had seen in decades. My neighborhood in particular was directly in the path of the most volatile storm cells, and hail fell in spots. Across the street from my home, a neighbor’s tree succumbed to the wind, downpour, lightning or a combination of any of them, and blew over onto a garage. Fortunately no vehicle was inside and nobody was hurt.
The power also went out for nearly three hours.
Barely 72 hours before the scheduled June 12 transition into the digital age of television, we found ourselves breaking out something that was in its last hours of existence: the little battery-powered portable TV/radio/cassette player we kept for emergencies. The screen was only three inches, and it was black and white (horrors!), but we picked up the local newscast without power simply by popping nine D batteries into the back of the gizmo. At least we were able to find out that no other imminent danger was on the horizon in the absence of electricity.
Just for the heck of it, we set up the little battery-loving machine next to our main set in time for one network’s official countdown to switching off the analog signal: suddenly, at 12:15 PM, the little picture turned to snow and wavy lines. It was a strange experience.
What, we wondered, will television networks do to inform the public during future power outages?
According to the website DTVanswers.com, our power-outage helpmate can survive the conversion with a similarly battery powered digital to analog converter if the proper connections are in the back. Doesn’t it seem rather odd to have to take your portable and a converter and two sets of batteries to, say, the beach or campground?
Some folks might be thinking it’s better to pitch the old stuff, but if you’ve seen what happens to the world’s forgotten electronics on shows like 60 Minutes–children in countries like India sorting through piles of wires, metal and chemical waste to sift out profitable bits to sell or recycle–you’d give it another thought.
Analog television still has a purpose, and I fear it may be needed in the future, as we modernize ourselves to the point of no return.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 
DTV: One Minor Detail
Posted at 10:21 pm by kayewer, on June 13, 2009
On Tuesday, June 9, our region experienced an extreme weather event unlike any we had seen in decades. My neighborhood in particular was directly in the path of the most volatile storm cells, and hail fell in spots. Across the street from my home, a neighbor’s tree succumbed to the wind, downpour, lightning or a combination of any of them, and blew over onto a garage. Fortunately no vehicle was inside and nobody was hurt.
The power also went out for nearly three hours.
Barely 72 hours before the scheduled June 12 transition into the digital age of television, we found ourselves breaking out something that was in its last hours of existence: the little battery-powered portable TV/radio/cassette player we kept for emergencies. The screen was only three inches, and it was black and white (horrors!), but we picked up the local newscast without power simply by popping nine D batteries into the back of the gizmo. At least we were able to find out that no other imminent danger was on the horizon in the absence of electricity.
Just for the heck of it, we set up the little battery-loving machine next to our main set in time for one network’s official countdown to switching off the analog signal: suddenly, at 12:15 PM, the little picture turned to snow and wavy lines. It was a strange experience.
What, we wondered, will television networks do to inform the public during future power outages?
According to the website DTVanswers.com, our power-outage helpmate can survive the conversion with a similarly battery powered digital to analog converter if the proper connections are in the back. Doesn’t it seem rather odd to have to take your portable and a converter and two sets of batteries to, say, the beach or campground?
Some folks might be thinking it’s better to pitch the old stuff, but if you’ve seen what happens to the world’s forgotten electronics on shows like 60 Minutes–children in countries like India sorting through piles of wires, metal and chemical waste to sift out profitable bits to sell or recycle–you’d give it another thought.
Analog television still has a purpose, and I fear it may be needed in the future, as we modernize ourselves to the point of no return.
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Author: kayewer