In two days TV will switch from analog to digital

By: Michelle Carolla | SCNOW
Published: June 10, 2009

The switch from analog television to digital television will open the airways allowing for other communication signals to operate more freely. Now emergency response agencies across the country will revamp their radio communication systems to ensure clean signals.
With more and more cell phones in use, frequencies for cell phones and emergency signals were starting to cross. Emergency worker calls were not going through and they were picking up cell phone calls. So, with the freeing up of airspace with the DTV switch, the FCC mandated the revamping of the emergency systems throughout the country.
In Horry County alone, there are 3000 analog emergency service radios, each of those will go through a reprogramming to allow for better communication among emergency workers.
“If I have an officer, and he's trying to communicate with someone else and he's getting cell phone interference, obviously, that puts him at risk,” said Angie Illhardt, Horry County Rebranding Manager.
The county is in the middle of reprogramming both hand-held and vehicle radios for all 42 agencies. The city of Myrtle Beach is already finished with the process.
Chief Alvin Payne of the Myrtle Beach Fire Department said "In the past, frequencies were so close together that it caused static, it caused crossover so you could be talking to someone and someone on a different frequency would be crossing over into your conversation."
Ensuring an open line of communication is one more step in keeping the community and the emergency workers safe.
The switch will also open airspace for consumers, possibly leading to fewer dropped cell phone calls. The project didn't cost taxpayers anything. It was funded by Sprint-Nextel the company agreed to pay the expenses for moving 21-hundred public safety agencies to new airwaves. In exchange, they will receive a piece of the airwaves after television switch.

In two days TV will switch from analog to digital

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