Hey Don,

I'm not from your area, and dont know the local situation there - but I I thought I'd share my thoughts anyways.

For digital signals : As Im sure you know they're broadcast using UHF frequencies just like the analog signals (or possibly VHF) - however if you have a marginal signal, then you're more likely to lose that signal in the rain. whereas with an analog signal you may just get a bit of snow - barely noticable on a smaller set, with a digital signal it could be enough to lose entirely.

Digital: If the datastream isnt complete your reciever cant process it and create the wonderful picture / sound. period. so you get tiling, or loss of picture entirely. Mmmm, maybe not such a bad thing with reality shows...:-)

Analog : You'll get picture / sound with varying degrees of quality depending on the signal degradation.

In the Buffalo and Toronto areas, most digital stations are broadcasting at reduced power - presumably due to the relatively small numbers tuned into these broadcasts, (Just buying hardware to recieve these broadcasts is very difficult here in Canada) and so those low power signals are more likely to be attenuated by poor weather conditions, particularly if you have a marginal signal to begin with. - I'm not sure what the situation is in Raliegh, but it's something to consider. (Although I personally recieve very reliable reception from all stations except WB49 which I dont get at all)

I think w'ere going to have to wait another year or two for (a) the stations to go full power (b) for the technology to mature a little more - both tranmission and reception (c) for the viewers tuned into these signals to increase - surely once that happens the stations will be able to justify devoting more resoures to them, both $ and manpower.

From a TV station point of view : I'd guess if there's a problem that requires resources at the digital transmitter, and a problem at the analog transmitter - then analog will get taken care of first and foremost, as thats where most of the viewers are. That's just my guess, I dont really know for sure.

My understanding (and I could be wrong here) is that higher frequncies can travel further with less power, but are more susceptible to inteference, being blocked etc. A satellite uses much higher frequencies to broadcast, and at very low power, requiring the use of a parabloic antenna and LNB (the ubiqitious "dish") simply putting your hand in front of a satellite LNB will block the signal. Satellite dishes are also very prone to rain and heavy clouds, I know back when I used to have one, it would lose signal 2 or 3 times a year during heavy rain / thick dark clouds appeared - and my dish was properly aligned. A bigger dish helps a lot, but not many people want a large ugly dish on their house, particularly if it has to go on the front.

Craig