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NTSC broadcasts finish today.

The FCC is shutting down full-power NTSC television broadcasts today, freeing up about 414MHz (69 channels * 6MHz/channel) of the airwaves for other uses. So, as I did a year ago when the FCC killed off the AMPS cellular band, I figured I'd stay up until midnight to see what would happen.

Strangely enough, the same thing that happened last time repeated itself: those channels are still broadcasting after midnight. Waste of my time, indeed.

Print | posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 12:02 AM | Filed Under [ Movies and Music ]

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# re: NTSC broadcasts finish today.

And what did WE get out of this? No, I don't mean the we as in 'multi-billion dollar corporations'.
6/12/2009 12:14 AM | Dave
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# re: NTSC broadcasts finish today.

How advanced! Australia is still broadcasting in the old analogue still.
6/12/2009 1:19 AM | dark skinned Antony
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# re: NTSC broadcasts finish today.

"Australia is still broadcasting in the old analogue still."

And digitally in case you haven't noticed, and in the fullness of time when they somehow find a way to fill in the big gaps that would be left with complete withdrawal, analogue will fade into history.
DON is not impressed by your sucking up, "How advanced!".
Beautiful Boston will not be without its teething problems either!
6/12/2009 9:23 AM | Zen Master Wu Yi
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# re: NTSC broadcasts finish today.

@Dave: Better-looking free TV, at least, even if I barely ever watch it. And that's not to mention the possibility of a new means of distributing broadband, to break up the Comcast-Verizon duopoly.

@Antony: How advanced! Australia cut off their analog mobile phone service almost eight years before we did.
6/12/2009 4:12 PM | Don_HH2K
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# re: NTSC broadcasts finish today.

"Australia cut off their analog mobile phone service almost eight years before we did."

And many rural communities are still bemoaning the fact. There are vast distances in inland Australia and the analogue bands used to cover them better. Even some coastal community fringes have black spots with no signal at all. Antony was bitching during his visit to Tasmania about the very same thing.
Free to air TV in widesreen digital hi-Def is certainly an improvement over the old system.
6/12/2009 11:14 PM | Zen Master Wu Yi
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# re: NTSC broadcasts finish today.

I know there was an uproar around here from the (mostly rural) midwest areas, which were largely still serviced on the old AMPS network. Due to lack of subscribers, none of the the networks had seen fit to build out their GSM or CDMA (both digital) networks into those areas. I've heard that some large farms out there use an ancient radiotelephone standard called MTS, where very little is automated other than channel selection and making the phone ring, and there's a real live human being sitting at one end ready to route calls, because MTS signals can carry upwards of 100km.

Interestingly enough, General Motors complained quite a bit about dropping AMPS, because their crash detection services still used analog modems and had only upgraded to CDMA the year before, meaning that any GM car made 2006 or earlier wouldn't be able to use the service. I'm not sure what, if anything, ever came of that,
6/13/2009 12:22 PM | Don_HH2K

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