the Converter Box scam

Remember the barrage of ads leading up to the digital tv switch over on February 17? How many of you ordered your converter boxes, hooked them up to a pair of digital rabbit ear antennae and felt at great peace prior to the switchover? Like our family, we were fully prepared for the digital switch....which, while I felt that it was probably the grand idea of some special interest group wanting to sell more digital tvs, I did think that the picture was sharper.

With our antennae & converter box we were pleased to get additional channels, including our public television station-34-which stopped its analog signal when its transmitter bit the dust. So, I figured, ok, this switch to digital.....not such a terrible thing.

Then February 17th rolled around and we took a deep breath at 6:30pm when it was announced analog would end. We re-scanned our television for channels and guess what? We lost a number of our channels....including 34.

How can that be? Seriously. How can we have a harder time receiving Fox and PBS, and channel 25-whatever that it-when we were receiving it by digital before the 17th, and not receive it now? I have to believe this is one big scam. We buy the converter box (although it cost us $10, it cost us in tax dollars an additional $40) hook up a digital antennae and for some reason don't receive signals now......and what really honks me off is that PBS is probably all I really care to watch.

We are some of the last hold-outs within our circle of friends to not have purchased a digital tv and we wear it as a badge of honor that we don't have cable.....but what options are left if we want PBS? I think that a lot of folks got rich off of selling digital antennae and converter boxes that are essentially worthless; which provides for someone else to get rich off of the sell of digital tvs and cable subscriptions.

It's always good to know that the Federal Government is working for the working man's best interest.