The switch is on to digital television today. I like the digital technology. I do, however, see a lot of problems with the switch to UHF frequencies. Analog VHF television broadcast is in the VHF spectrum. The spectrum experiences little interference from ionicsphereic skip. The wavelengths are still long enough that they refract downward due to differences in atmospheric density. The wavelengths are also long enough that they pass around or through some obstacles. Over the horizon reception is possible.
UHF wavelengths are short. They don’t diffract downward. They are easily blocked. The reception is line of sight only. UHF analog stations tried to get around this problem by increasing transmitter power. Some stations put out megawatts. It spite of this attempt the UHF spectrum fell to the use of various specialty broadcasts. Digital TV will make this problem worse. Digital transmutation does not degrade gracefully. I predict that over the air transmission in hilly or congested areas is finished. The real action will be on cable. Of course, digital is easy to encrypt, there will be many creative ways to bill you for the signal. No one wants to pay more. If they don’t watch sports, why must they contribute to the high salaries of the players? I have already began to see the end of broadcast television coming. I know people who have dropped cable TV because of its excessive and rising costs. Now they can’t pick up the over the air TV any more. We are going to find many people watching what they want, for free, in very low definition, over the internet. Sobb, I miss my friend JED.
