Hawai'i: The canary in the DTV coal mine?

[KamaAina]

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090115/BREAKING01/90115056

Hawaii residents lit up special TV help center phone lines as the state shut down all analog broadcast signals today at noon, more than a month before the rest of the country....

"The calls we're getting now are from those poople (sic :rofl: ) who are waking up and saying, 'Oh, my God, what do I do?" said Lyle Ishida, the FCC's Hawaii digital TV project manager, just before the switch....

One glitch cropped up even before the switch, with the PBS station on the Big Island reporting it hadn't yet received equipment to send its digital signal south of Hilo to the southernmost point in the nation, South Point. PBS has been the only station serving the rural area. The problem was expected to last for several days.

Hawaii was moving to all-digital TV before the Feb. 17 date set for the rest of the nation because of an endangered bird, the Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel. Broadcasters and park rangers want to take down analog transmission towers on the slopes of Maui's Haleakala volcano before the bird's nesting season.

So help me, I had no idea the petrels were dark-rumped! :P

edit: added graf

re-edit: maybe it should be "the dark-rumped petrel in the rock quarry", as we have neither canaries (except pets) or coal mines.

[hlthe2b]

1. I want to know more about this dark-rumped creature!

LOL I am certainly glad they are receiving all needed protections, however. ;)

[Chipper Chat]

2. Here ya go:

http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/345/galleries/photos/THS_042604_100001/image_preview

[hlthe2b]

3. Sassy!

little hussy....
:rofl:

[KamaAina]

4. And here's her bio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Petrel

[RC]

5. Why can't they wait till after the nesting season?

How long can that be?

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. If you had ever nested with a Petrel, you'd know the answer to that question.

I do.

(Don't ask how I know.)

[KamaAina]

7. Apparently, after Feb. 17

everyone's supposed to be broadcasting DTV by then, despite the lack of funding for the converter box program, etc.

[Fla Dem]

8. I have cable....but have always had a small battery antenna tv to use in emergencies

I live in Fla and during hurricane season frequently lose power. Now we will not be able to watch news/weather, just when we need it most. Once we lose power, we lose cable.

[KamaAina]

9. Guess who's expecting a huge windstorm tonight and tomorrow?

If you said "the home of the Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel", you're right! Spotty power outages are even in the weather forecast... and they'd tend to focus on just the sort of isolated areas that may be losing coverage... :scared: