Tue, May 13 2008
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Published February 13, 2008 07:14 pm - Analog is fast fading. Times are changing The big digital change starts Tuesday A Robert Lebzelter column for Feb. 17, 2008 Analog is fast fading. You have probably already heard how analog television transmissions will be gone in a year. Coming even sooner is the analog sunset, when all analog cell phones will stop working. In fact, it’s Tuesday. So if you have an old cell phone, even if you keep it in case of emergency to call 911, better test it come Tuesday. It may work as well as trying to call Sarah the operator to place your telephone call for you. More than one million cell phone users will lose service when new Federal Communications Commission requirements begin. ‘Analog’ means “a device in which data are represented by continuously variable, measurable, physical quantities, such as length, width, voltage or pressure,” says dictionary.com. “Digital,” on the other hand, means “numerical digits expressed in a scale of notation to represent discretely all variables occurring in a problem.” To put it another way, analog is old and less efficient than digital. Which is why TV signals are going digital only exactly one year from today. The digital signals take up less space on our increasingly crowded airwaves and your TV picture and sound are better, too. Some stations will even have multiple channels with separate programming. WUAB Channel 43 in Cleveland for example hosts a 24-hour weather channel, while WSEE Channel 35 in Erie offers a CW affiliate. We at the Star Beacon have gotten many calls about the switch from analog TV signals to digital. It does sound pretty ominous. TV has used pretty much the same technology since the 1940s, when TV was all black and white on a tiny screen and programming included Uncle Miltie Berle, old movies and boxing matches. Well all of that is changing and the effects on you the viewer will be monumental. It will be like the apocalypse. People will be running around screaming. Nah. Just kidding. Gotta get your blood pumping. The switch won’t be that big of a deal. First, why the change? Well, we have many more wireless transmissions than we did in Uncle Miltie’s Day. So many homes have wireless transmitters for their Internet service. Bluetooth gives us access to our computer keyboards and mice without any wires. We can listen to music on headphones with no wire going to our MP3 players. 
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