Waiting on SelkirkThe Borders Digital Roadshow hit Duns on Saturday as part of a public education programme preparing the masses for the analogue switch off in much of the Borders between 6 and 20 November. Here as in many other aspects of Life the Merse leads the UK-only a small bit of Cumbria has irrevocably moved into the Digital Age ahead of the Borders.
Huttonian is up with the game with his spanking new flat screen HD ready, Olympics prepared, Credit crunch beating, Digital enhanced TV apparatus. That's the sitting room sorted. But in the kitchen a small,squat, uncool heavy analogue TV set lurks, unconverted and unrepentant at its increasingly cliff hanging existence. Come 6 November, D Day, a blank screen and irritating hum. But I wonder. The digital area maps are fuzzy at the edges, rather like the South of Scotland, NE England weather diagrams and Scottish News comes through blurred and buzzing, enhancing the Salmond image but distorting most else. Northumberland/ Tyneside is clear and sharp. So it may be that we are, in this part of Duns, not served by the Selkirk transmitter-the one that fades away next month but by Chatton analoguing away until 2012? White on the map in 'Switch on to Digital-page 5) and not pink in that swath covering a large amount of the region from Berwick South Westwards.
So I am tempted to wait until 6 November and see what happens, or not see as the case may be.
No signal. No problem. TV dinners in the sitting room.
I'll let you know
Labels: Borders, l Merse, Switch to Digita
