# 2377
While not a scientific law like Boyle's law or Torricelli's law, the Law of Unintended Consequences can be pretty much counted on to raise its ugly head anytime you think some new idea will `fix things'.
If you are one of millions of families who has a cheap, battery-operated portable TV stuck in a closet for use in case of a power outage, then listen up.
In four months time, that portable TV set will no longer be able to receive over-the-air signals from TV broadcasters. At least, not without the use of a converter. And since a converter requires electricity, that kind of puts a crimp in using one during a power outage.
For those of us who live in hurricane or earthquake country, having a battery operated TV has always been recommended. And in recent years, you could pick one up in discount stores for less than $30.
Replacement units, capable of receiving the new digital signals, are hard to find and far more expensive. Prices, they assure us, should eventually come down.
So while the goal was to upgrade our television broadcast standards, one of the unintended consequences will be fewer people will have a valuable information source during a crisis.
This from The Tampa Tribune.
Digital Changeover To Darken Most Emergency TV Sets
By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune
Published: October 9, 2008TAMPA - During next year's hurricane season most battery-powered televisions people use after storms will be the electronic equivalent of paperweights.
That's because most of the portable sets receive analog signals that will vanish from the airwaves on Feb. 17 as stations switch to digital broadcasts.
Converters will allow owners of older televisions to continue watching TV but that's little help for owners of portable sets because the converters require electricity.
"I'll just throw mine away," Ralph Metcalf said of his battery-powered set.
The change won't affect people with cable or satellite television service, but cable boxes and satellite receivers also require power.
The potential loss of television as a communication source after a disaster — such as when a hurricane knocks out power over large areas — snuck up on emergency officials.
"It didn't necessarily hit us right away. It concerns us that it does reduce one of the ways to communicate," said Holley Wade, spokeswoman for Hillsborough County emergency management.
The loss of portable televisions as a way to broadcast information after a hurricane means people will have to find alternative sources, she said.
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