Indian Wells Valley TV Booster, Inc.
P.O. Box 562
Ridgecrest, CA 92556-0562
760-375-0233
December 10, 2009
see our web site: iwvtvbooster.org
Dear Friends and Supporters of TV Booster:
Last summer saw completion of the official Washington D.C. version of the digital television transition for the U.S. In L.A. the digital TV transition is still in motion—space freed up on Mount Wilson when the old analog TV equipment was removed has set in motion a series of improvements to the digital stations replacing them. The Fox network stations on channels 11 and 13 will get new equipment by next May that ups their power by about a factor of 10; we expect that this will eliminate the annoying signal dropouts that we have experienced.
Those who did not buy a digital converter box when the $40 government coupon program was operating will find converter boxes harder to get—they have disappeared from retail shelves (both physical store shelves and electronic on-line shelves). The coupon-eligible boxes should be available second hand as never-used-still-in-the box, and little-used units that were put out of service when viewers bought new wide-screen TVs. They should be available used for some time to come.
We have added a ninth digital translator station, bringing in L.A.'s PBS affiliate KLCS channel 58, which broadcasts four channels. Currently we are broadcasting 20 digital channels. We continue to urge all valley residents to make use of our digital TV signals, including cable and satellite users. If you have neighbors who aren't yet using our digital signals, make sure they get to see the high definition programming you are getting in your home. When they see how sharp and colorful the picture is on your TV set, and the sub-channels you have that they are not getting, they may decide to make the effort to use our signals in addition to those thay are already paying for.
We continue to experience annoying outages of the 107.1 MHz classical music service. For the most part, these are caused by events affecting the Las Vegas station that we translate into the valley.
What's to come? We have the FCC's permission to build several more TV translator stations. Several digital signals from L.A. are available for our use, and a few more will become availabe soon (notably PBS affiliate KOCE, channel 50). We lack only the money to complete some of these plans. We hope to get some digital transition grant funds to buy new equipment.
Please help with a donation to keep the TV Booster broadcasting. We mail this letter once a year to get the lowest postage rate. So, if you have already donated this year, we thank you for your support. Remember, your donations are essential and are very much appreciated.
Ronald Cole
President
Please put name/address on the other side of this coupon if it has no label. If labelled, mark corrections if needed. Send it and your contribution to IWV TV Booster, PO Box 562, Ridgecrest, CA 93556-0562. To save postage, we don't mail receipts unless requested. Note that contributions are not tax-deductible.