We're losing our best 6 meter beacon

Do you 6 meter buffs realize that come February 17, 2009 we will no longer be able to tune our TV sets to an unused low channel (say channels 2, 4, 5 or 6 here in Charleston-Huntionton, WV) and wait to see a picture from far away to tell us that a sporadic E opening has made 6 meters come alive? Alas it is true.

For so many years a TV picture on an unused local channel was often our first indication of a sporadic E opening into places far, far away. But in Feburary 2009, when analog television has to shut down in favor of digital TV on new frequencies, those pictures from hundreds of miles away will fade into memories from the past like white bucks, leisure suits, Johnson Rangers and Monica Lewinsky.

Enjoy this tool again in 2008. Next year it will be gone.

We don't know what services will replace brodacast TV on those low channels, but they probably won't be anything comparable to 100,000 watt television stations. And I still need 46 entities for DXCC on 6 meters. Help?