To the editor:

Zzzrrrrp! Snap! Blllrrrt! Bright, shifting colors, distorted images, sporadic sound — that’s what our modern digital TV (about 18 months old) offered on digital broadcasts via a rooftop antenna as we tried to track severe weather this week.

A very few years ago, on our ancient analog TV, we could receive a strong signal in violent weather and pinpoint exactly where a tornado was from the excellent information on the screen. This week, we reverted to our old analog tellies (fortunately not yet hooked up to converters) and were able to follow the weather pretty well. Soon, thanks to the ill-conceived digital transformation, we will be in the pixilated dark as the violent weather season approaches. And, we can’t hear the sirens out here.

The digital changeover will leave us completely out of the loop for emergency information except by radio, which is pretty generic in its forecasts (and who knows when that will be sold off?). Our options? Can’t use Sunflower; there is no cable here. Satellite TV breaks up with every rainstorm in Ottawa so (perhaps!) a huge antenna at how many megabucks?

Before selling out to special interests, our representatives should have considered the implications for the nonurban, noncable population and at least kept a few (analog) channels for public national security. We do vote!

Catherine Robins,
Lawrence