Figs

orget the old analog TV! February brings only digital pictures for your viewing pleasure! I've heard a lot of people complain about the federal mandate. Why should the government demand we watch high-quality TV?

As it turns out, there's quite a bit more to digital TV than a better picture. Way back in the "good old days" when radio became popular, problems started arising -- everyone wanted to broadcast. Back then, you didn't have your own blog; you had your own radio station. In order to do this, you, of course, needed your own station (or "frequency"). Otherwise, your radio waves would collide with someone else's radio waves, and when that happens, the radio waves cancel each other out, creating a tiny speck of light. Originally, this was no problem because there were enough frequencies (or "stations") to go around.

Just like blogs, the idea of having your own radio station spread like wildfire, and soon they ran out of frequencies. The way around that, of course, is to use someone else's frequency and transmit more powerfully than they do so you can "overwhelm" the other guy's radio waves. Well, the the other guy would do the same and boom! You have an even brighter speck of light.

The problem grew and grew. In the mid-1920s so many people were trying to transmit more powerfully than everyone else that in densely-populated areas like Chicago and New York City, the night sky became as bright as day. Tired and grouchy citizens demanded federal regulation on radio waves so they could once again sleep at night. Thus, the FCC was created.

One of the jobs of the FCC is to allocate ranges of frequencies for different purposes. This worked well for a while, but the demand for wireless communication has continued to grow. Once again, we are almost out of usable space. Digital transmitters seem to be the answer to this problem. A digital transmitter can transmit the same information in a much "skinnier" station. It's like using an old radio to listen to a Spanish station -- move that dial a a little and you've lost it. Using digital transmitters has made "skinnier" stations and thus frees up space. Since TV currently uses really fat stations, congress mandated that television be converted to digital to free up a large sections of frequencies; TV has gone on a diet.

(Ok, the colliding radio wave stuff isn't really true -- I was having fun making up stuff.)

I'd probably agree that TV should be converted to digital, but having Juris Naturalists tendencies, I don't believe the government should hand out coupons for converter boxes. I'm of the opinion that the Federal aid probably had the same effect on converter box prices as insurance companies on medical prices. Once the converter box coupons are gone, the price of the converter box might fall to $10-$20 a box.