What About Television Watching in Quartzsite?

With the dire warnings about “your television signal could disappear” some have wondered what the story is in Quartzsite. If you drag your TV signal in via a satellite, you probably already know that you have nothing to worry about–the switch to digital from analog early next year won’t affect you at all.

For those coming to Quartzsite who want to get the “free stuff” off the air with a TV antenna, the situation is a bit more complicated. There are two “off air” signals floating in the Quartzsite TV heavens. The first come out of Yuma, directly from television broadcast stations. There are up to three accessible signals from Yuma, KECY 9, the Fox affiliate; KSWT 13 with CBS; and KYMA 11, the NBC network. At one point a Spanish language station drifted in and out, but it appears to be gone at this point. Of the three, our informal survey revealed most receive NBC with the best clarity, CBS fuzzily, and many said, “Fox? What Fox?”

Come February 17, all Yuma signals will switch out to digital. If you have a TV or converter box that receives digital signal, you MIGHT continue to receive Yuma stations. We say “might” as it’s pretty likely that any station you currently receive that’s “fuzzy” will completely vanish under the digital standard. Digital signals will either come in clearly, or won’t come in at all. Our RV roof top antenna probably will leave us stranded–with NBC a definite “maybe” with the digital switchover.

What if your television is the old analog variety and you don’t have a converter box? You’re not dead yet. Most folks in Quartzsite pull their television off a translator–either east of town on Guadalupe Mountain, or from the west on the hills overlooking Blythe. In either case, those translators will continue to transmit signals in good old-fashioned analog. If you can receive UHF (channels 14 and above) now, you should continue to get them after the swtich in February. That’s because the federal government has decreed that only high power broadcast stations have to change to digital, allowing tv translators and other low power local stations to stick with analog.

Of course, Quartzsite is a horse of a different color. The translators on Guadalupe whom most Quartzsiters tune into is “officially” operated by the Quartzsite Improvement Association–at least according to the Federal Communications Commission. When we phoned the QIA to ask about the operation of the translators, they told us they no longer operated them, that the assignment had been passed on to the Town of Quartzsite. A quick call to town hall revealed that they had no connection with the transmitters. The usual finger pointing for the area. We’ll hope SOMEBODY really is owning up to the care and feeding of the translators, or when the power bill runs overdue, television in Quartzsite just could go black.

Editor’s note: Since the original publication of this piece, it was finally determined that the former translator stations on Guadalupe Mountain east of Quartzsite have been shut down. Neither the QIA nor town government have any responsibility for translator signals received in Quartzsite. Rather, the translators which beam signals into Quartzsite are on the hills west of town, and are operated by the Palo Verde Valley TV Club, a non-profit organization based in Blythe, California. For more information, see more recent posts on the topic “television” on this web site. 2/2009.