6 hours to go

At midnight tonight, the last full day of full power analog television broadcasting in the United States begins. Various stations in the San Francisco markets will be transitioning at various points throughout the day, so if a station you watch doesn't appear to be there, a simple rescan on your receiver will likely bring it back.

To be determined is how owners of DirecTV DVRs will cope, since the list of available stations comes over the dish - there is no way to get the receivers to rescan.

Some stations are already using their post-transition facilities, and no changes will be made going forward. Those stations that are making some sort of change around here are:

KTVU will move from channel 56 to channel 44
KRON will move from channel 57 to channel 38
KGO will move from channel 24 to channel 7, where their analog signal used to be
KSBW will move from channel 10 to channel 8, where their analog signal used to be
KNTV's digital operation is already on their post-transition facility, but their analog transmitter will be doing nightlight duty for the next 14 days.
KTNC had already shut down their digital transmitter back in late January. They are going to bring up their new digital transmitter on channel 14 as soon as they can after KDTV-TV shuts down.
KTFK has already shut down their analog transmitter, and will shut down their Mt. Diablo transmitter and begin post-transition operation from Walnut Grove, ending their availability for most viewers in the Bay Area.

Look for KSBW to shut down their analog operation shortly after the end of their noon newscast and bring up their post-transition digital signal on channel 8. This will be the big indicator (for me, at least) of whether or not elimination of the QRM from the Walnut Grove analog signals was the only thing keeping us from being able to receive the Fremont Peak VHF DTV stations. Fingers crossed!