You’ve probably already heard come Feb. 17, analog television will be gone.

If you have cable or satellite, you have no problem. You will continue to get television like you do now. The conversion is handled by your cable or satellite provider.

If you get TV off an antennae, whether indoor rabbit ears or an outside system, you either need a newer television that picks up digital signals, or you need to buy a little digital converter box.

Now you probably know all of that. What you might not know is, your conversion, if you have the antennae, may be more complicated than that.

The guy in charge of informing the nation about the big digital conversion, Todd Sedmak, communications director, National Telecommunication and Information Administration for the U.S. Department of Commerce, is quick to agree.

If you happen to live in a rural county, in a valley, with lots of tree cover, the problems will be even worse. Hmmm, sounds a bit like Ashtabula County, doesn’t it?

Sedmak, during a recent conversation, said people in Ashtabula County especially should “apply, buy and try” because of its rural status.

Sedmak should know. He isn’t your faceless Washington bureaucrat. He happens to be from Geneva.

And one of his goals is to get the message to his home community.

“Ashtabula County is far from Erie and Cleveland television stations,” Sedmak said. “Based on geography, some in the county will get a great signal, some will get a poor signal.”

That’s why it is important to act if you haven’t already. Otherwise, when February rolls around, you won’t be able to pick up any full-service American TV stations. Canada hasn’t made the transition yet, so you might pick up an errant signal from London, Ontario, after the conversion.

All of this can be illustrated in Wilmington, S.C., where digital conversion took place in September as sort of a test center.

If you’re not familiar with digital signals, they take up much less of the airwave spectrum, offer a better picture and improved sound. Keep in mind digital signals are not necessarily high definition. All high definition signals are digital, but all digital isn’t HD. But it is better than analog.

Your home antennae may be able to pull in analog stations from Cleveland or Erie or Youngstown today and they may be watchable, although not the best reception. Stations may have snow. The signal may break up a bit

But in the digital world, if the signal isn’t good, you won’t get a picture at all.