Digital Transition

[curt8403]

Hawaii is going to do their Digital Transition early, to protect birds that are an endangered species.

More to follow

[krock918316]

Huh? How is the digital transition going to protect birds?:confused: :whatdidid

[curt8403]

Hawaii is going to do their Digital Transition early, to protect birds that are an endangered species.

More to follow


Hawaii will completing their Digital Transistion by Jan 15, 2009.

If digital transition occurred Feb 17, 2009 - it would interfere with birds breeding In Hawaii.

The Hawaiian petrel bird is an Endangered Species.
Their breeding season begins mid-February - when the U.S. goes digital.
They breed on a hill (Haleakala) - where the Hawaii TV transmitters are.
Pronounced = Ha lay-AH-kala

so Hawaii goes digital early (on Jan 15, 2009):
It can replace its older TV transmitters without disturbing the birds.

[bobnielsen]

It is more complicated than most of the transitions. They are using a different location for the digital transmitting antennas and the current location needs to be cleaned up (towers removed, etc.) prior to the breeding season. An article I saw said Kauai is not affected because they use low-power translators, but I don't know where they would get an analog signal to translate.

[Jon Ellis]

Most analog translators will stay on the air, retransmitting the digital signal in analog format. Congress only ordered full-power stations to switch, so low-power stations and translators can stay in analog if they want. Eventually the FCC will set a transition date. (This applies to the entire U.S., not just Hawaii.)

[jclewter79]

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=142030

Here is more infomation about this.

[bobnielsen]

Most analog translators will stay on the air, retransmitting the digital signal in analog format. Congress only ordered full-power stations to switch, so low-power stations and translators can stay in analog if they want. Eventually the FCC will set a transition date. (This applies to the entire U.S., not just Hawaii.)

Having to decode the digital signal and retransmit as analog would require more equipment and complexity than just translating to a different frequency.

[Jon Ellis]

Having to decode the digital signal and retransmit as analog would require more equipment and complexity than just translating to a different frequency.

Actually all they have to do is buy a digital receiver and plug it into the analog transmitter, in place of the analog receiver that had previously supplied the programming. Eventually they will have to replace the analog transmitter with a digital transmitter, and that'll be more involved. Here is a county in Minnesota describing the transition's effect on its translators:

http://www.co.koochiching.mn.us/news/newsDigitalTV.htm

[Grentz]

Hawaii is also unique because pretty much everyone uses cable instead of OTA. Pretty much everyone can get cable and that is what pretty much everyone has.

[curt8403]

Hawaii is also unique because pretty much everyone uses cable instead of OTA. Pretty much everyone can get cable and that is what pretty much everyone has.

wait times for getting a tech in Hawaii (for a service call or install) can be 2 - 3 weeks.

[bobnielsen]

Actually all they have to do is buy a digital receiver and plug it into the analog transmitter, in place of the analog receiver that had previously supplied the programming. Eventually they will have to replace the analog transmitter with a digital transmitter, and that'll be more involved. Here is a county in Minnesota describing the transition's effect on its translators:

http://www.co.koochiching.mn.us/news/newsDigitalTV.htm

OK. I had assumed that they simply translated the signal (mixers, filters and amplifiers) rather than demodulating and feeding the modulation input of a transmitter with a baseband signal.