Ready or not, every full-power television station in the United States will switch off its analog signal on Feb. 17, leaving only the digital signal. As you’ve heard a thousand times by now, sets still hooked up to antennas may need converter boxes, unless they’re newer, digital sets. But there’s still a lot of confusion out there; I know, because I get questions every day. And as of November, according to Nielsen, a quarter of St. Louis households were still either completely unprepared (9.45 percent) or partly unprepared (15.81 percent).

To test the level of preparedness, and to “wake up” people if they’re not ready, St. Louis stations got together, at the request of the FCC, and agreed to interrupt their analog signals for 5 minutes beginning at 6:25 tonight, Dec. 17.

TVs still getting only the analog signal will broadcast a slide warning viewers that they will need a converter box or a new set to keep getting TV as of Feb. 17. People who receive the digital signal — everyone with cable or satellite, or antenna users with a digital set — will be told that they’re OK on this set, but to run around and check all the sets in the house (like that one in the spare room still using rabbit ears) to make sure none of them is getting the warning slide. If you’re at all uncertain about being ready, make sure to catch the test.

I talked to Walt Michol, director of technology at KMOV (Channel 4), about the test, referred to as a roadblock because the same thing will be on every channel at the same time.  Channel 4 has been doing phone banks to answer questions about the conversion, with two more Thursday and Friday of this week, and Michol and others have heard from lots of confused people, some with basic issues (where to get a converter box and how to hook it up) and others with more technical questions involving reception and antennas.

“This is the biggest change in the television industry, period,” Michol says. “Everybody is still figuring out what the impact will be.” For one thing, he points out, the conversion “will leave some devices hanging,” including VCRs (which will need their own converter) and battery-powered TVs that can’t take a converter box.  

Something else that was overlooked was “how big an issue antennas would turn out to be,” Michol says. The old, pointy “rabbit ears” will be useless; the digital signal comes in on the old UHF band, requiring a circular or bow-tie antenna. (A bow-tie style is likely to pick up a broader signal.) People who get a good UHF signal (Channels 30 and 46, for example) now will probably be OK after the conversion, but maybe not, because when the digital signal reaches the edge of its range, it doesn’t fade out and get snowy; it drops off entirely, Michol says.

Some people have already found that they need to replace their old antennas, maybe with one on the roof. Even with a roof antenna, splitting the signal so it goes to multiple TV sets will weaken it proportionately, Michol says; he recommends an amplified splitter. A digital signal that fades in and out, as many have reported, may be the result of blowing tree limbs or heavy rains that block it, or even of temperature inversions. Indoor antennas are subject to problems from moving reflections. “The digital signal is less forgiving,” Michol says, in something of an understatement.

There’s an almost 100 percent chance that anybody reading this, in a blog on a website, understands what’s happening and either doesn’t need to make a change or has made one. But think about people you might know, maybe people who are older, and help them if possible. One idea I heard was to order coupons for converter boxes even if you don’t need them and donate them to people who do. The phone number is 1-888-DTV-2009.

If the test tonight shows converter boxes are needed, Michol urges getting them now and getting them hooked up. Stations are already simulcasting a digital signal with their analog one, so it’s possible to go on and use the boxes, and even get some extra channels as a result of stations splitting their digital signals. “Hook the box up now and find out if you need help getting it working. Find out if your antenna is good enough,” Michol says. “Don’t wait until Feb. 17, because that will be too late.”