Nothing in that list of suggestions deals with the translator/low-power issues in much of the rural areas.
When a plan forgets to address a significant portion of the customer base, well, it is sorta doomed from the outset. And that’s the problem with the DTV conversion plan(s). The bureaucrats and industry flunkies thought that everyone lived in cities. They don’t. They thought that all the sources of signal would be converted to broadcast in DTV. They won’t be.
UHF is UHF, regardless of whether it is digital or analog. Calling a station Channel 2 or Channel 4 doesn’t mean a thing if that signal is broadcast on a UHF channel (now 14-51, or analog to 69). If the digital signal is at or near the noise level, you won’t get the picture. UHF has many problems, especially in hilly areas and areas of vegetation, even your neighborhood trees cut the signal a lot. And most TV signals will now be on UHF.
The $75,000 income rule for coupons proposed here sounds a lot like a “progressive” income tax.
We are rural and the CBS affiliate has already completely converted. Some nights it comes in fine some nights it sucks. Thank you, feds.