Antenna plus converter box isn’t working for some TV viewers

Some metro Atlanta TV viewers who thought they were prepared for last week’s digital switchover have discovered the hard way that they weren’t.

They got the digital converter boxes needed to continue to get free, over-the-air broadcasts. But it turns out their old antennas can’t reliably pick up digital signals, which carry just as far as the old analog signals but have different characteristics.

“No matter what we do, turning the antenna this way or that, or adjusting the rabbit ears, we still can’t get anything on the air from about 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.,” said Reece Cornelius, 50, of Kennesaw, who was watching TV Friday when it suddenly went out.

This past weekend he bought an “antenna booster” at the local Radio Shack and installed it, but he still can’t get reception he used to when the stations broadcast in analog.

“I’m one of these people who is just not going to get cable because I think TV should be free,” he said. “Cable is a rip-off.”

Before stations switched off their old analog signals by midnight last Friday, the Federal Communications Commission predicted about 26,000 of Atlanta’s 2.4 million TV households might lose their signal for a number of reasons.

The main one was not having either a digital-ready TV or a converter box that enables old-fashioned analog TVs to pick up a digital signal.

Less discussed was the risk of not being able to get a broadcast signal because of the type of antenna used or its location. No one knows how many over-the-air TV viewers are being affected in the wake of the switch.

Cornelius lives on the north side of Kennesaw Mountain and his home is 23 miles from the transmitter of WSB-TV, according to the Web site AntennaWeb, where you can fill in an address and find out what kind of antenna you need to get the new signal. In general, more capable antennas, perhaps placed higher on the home, are recommended to fix problems.

With analog, getting WSB wasn’t a problem, said Cornelius. With the switch, he says he still can’t get the station no matter how much he fiddles with the antenna. (WSB is owned by Cox Enterprises, which owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)

The FCC says WSB’s digital signal travels just as far as its analog signal did. But broadcast engineers say the nature of the digital signal makes a difference.

“Digital signals fall off a cliff,” said Jeff Johnson, vice president of technology for Gannett Broadcasting, which operates 23 stations across the country, including WXIA and WATL in Atlanta.

“They’re not like analog, where the picture gets fuzzy when the reception is bad. You just don’t get a picture. If your picture was fuzzy with analog, now you’re not going to get it at all.”

Bill Hoffman, general manager of WSB, said the station heard from about 125 viewers after the switch.

“Unfortunately if you are on the wrong side of a hill or in a valley you could have problems,” said Hoffman. “Line of sight is best.”

The signal loss has been a boon to cable provider Comcast, which reported an increase in callers seeking to hook up to cable to get their TV reception back. Comcast, metro Atlanta’s primary cable company, offers base service at $10 a month for 12 months, with a $20 installation fee.

For those still trying and hoping to pull a signal in over the air, the FCC offers a primer on antennas at its Web site.