Say good-bye to analog television

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Letum

Oh, I dunno.
I would rather be happy/entertained yet cold and hungry than sad/bored yet warm and full-bellied.

*edit* SB: I doubt the analouge radio signal will ever go off. It's much more power efficient than digital and doesn't requite half the cost or component size.
There might even be national security issues. In the event of a major disaster it will always be easier to pick up analouge signals than digital.

Fully agreed.

I gave my father an old, pre-war "Detektorradio" (crystal radio?) as a christmas present two years ago. It's 70 years old, and still fully functional, and needs no electricty at all, no battery, no network, no solar panel, no nothing. He dreamed of owning such a thing since he was a small boy. Most people today could not believe it that it runs without consuming any energy at all, they could not imagien anythign running without battery or a AC adapter. But this one does: Deutsche Welle, loud and clear, some scratche son the massive wooden box, but that is all.

Things are not being build like that anymore. If your item does not break down before reaching it's fifth birthday, you are already lucky. A longevity of eight years they already call "robust construction". Anything beyond ten years will be remembered as a miracle.

For the younger ones who may have cellphones, PCs and MP3 players, but do not know what this kind of radio was:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio
It needed no separate energy ressources, since it took it's energy directly from the transmission wave of the broadcaster.