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Message: [QUOTE="FOX TV, post: 55842, member: 4493"]Hello DTV Fans,Here is a quick and easy way to contact your LOCAL political Representatives, and express your displeasure over loosing access to your free over the air TV signals. Broadcasters are outraged at having their frequency taken away after spending billions on the DTV conversion, and you should be too. This is only another example of how greed overrides common sense at the extreme detriment of the public's only reliable emergency notification system. Think back to one of the 21st centuries most frightening times, and that was the 9-11-2001 terrorist attack on this country. How did you receive the initial news of the attacks, and how did you keep informed on a real time basis on what was actually going on? In most cases, the answer will be TV, and for a lot of people, it was free TV !!If you want to join broadcasters who will only have a small voice due to their limited numbers, here is your chance to take advantage of our political system and have your voice heard in Washington D.C. Please join our fight to save free broadcast TV, and participate in the political system in a way in which this nations founders envisioned for a free and open society. Visit the website below to see who your local political voice is in Washington D.C., and feel free to copy my letter and forward it to your representatives in D.C. Of course you may write your own if you feel the need !! <a href="http://keepfreetvfree.com">Keep Free TV Free</a>_______________________________________________________Dear (Mr. Mrs. Senator, Congressman)I am very concerned over the movement by the Broadband industry to take over the radio spectrum that TV broadcasters currently use to provide me with free access to broadcast TV signals. I have recently spent some of my hard earned money on the DTV transition, and I now watch in amazement that it could all be for nothing if the broadband industry has its way, and succeeds in forcing broadcast TV off the air.The current broadcast infrastructure has been in place for over 60 years, and we are all well aware of its life saving potential in times of emergency communications needs, which has been proven many times in the past. The current Broadband infrastructure is woefully lacking in the area of emergency preparedness, and this issue alone is reason enough to save the current TV broadcast infrastructure for emergency communications purposes, as this is the main reason TV broadcasters have been allowed use of the &#8220;Publics&#8221; radio spectrum in the first place.Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to afford Pay TV, or Internet access. Is it fair in a free society to relegate the less fortunate to second-class citizen status where emergency communications needs are concerned? The broadband agenda is mainly just for the purpose of obscene profits for private companies that want to use a &#8220;Public Resource&#8221; for private profits at the expense of the very public who is supposed to collectively own the radio Spectrum as outlined by the laws of this nation.Is risking national and personal security on an infrastructure whose technological ability in terms of emergency preparedness is very lacking in its sustainability in times of extended power outages a wise thing to do? The broadband infrastructure has been proven to be woefully inadequate during times of extreme emergency such as the 9-11-2001 terrorist attacks, or the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. Do we really want to risk the people&#8217;s personal safety at a time when Islamic Extremists still want to destroy our country and its people; a lot of which only have local broadcast TV or radio to keep them informed in times of extreme emergencies.I urge you to educate yourself on this topic, and please do not let a new technology that has not even shown all of its merits fall victim to another technology that is less dependable at the expense of those who depend on it for entertainment and emergency needs. A lot of your constituents such as I, depend on broadcast TV in times of emergency, and cannot afford any other means of emergency communications or entertainment methods. The safety, health, and welfare of its citizens should ALWAYS be considered as more important than obscene profits for privately held companies that want to steal a public resource to obtain those profits solely for their shareholders and owners.There is a House bill (HR-2160) titled "Amateur Radio Emergency Communications act of 2009" that was introduced by Sheila Jackson from Texas, along with a Senate companion bill (S-1755) with the same title proposed by Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and Senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut that mirrors the house bill.Although these bills address the Amateur Radio Service, they are a complete parallel of the importance of preserving broadcast TV for the same emergency communications reasons as Amateur Radio is being treated. I urge you to give  the same importance level to broadcast TV that is being given to Amateur Radio for exactly the same reasons. Lets get logical about this and apply the same amount of &#8220;Public Interest Concern&#8221; and emphasis on emergency communications that the FCC has always applied to TV broadcasting since its inception, as that aspect of emergency communications has always ruled where TV broadcasting and the &#8220;Publics&#8221; airwaves are concerned. It seems that the FCC's mission statement has changed from protectors of the airwaves to procurers of the dollar in recent years, and that should be a big concern for homeland security. I would bet the FCC doesn't even view this issue in this way, for them, it is obviously about the dollar, and the value of the "Publics" radio spectrum and how much money they can milk from the American public, which Mr Genachowskii has publicly admitted recently.In the past, emergency broadcasting has always been the reason broadcasters have been allowed to &#8220;use&#8221; the bandwidth, and they have always taken that role seriously and made real infrastructure investments into ensuring that they could be depended on most all of the time to provide needed emergency communications to masses of people in times of emergency situations. Lets put the same amount of real concern into not losing that communications method in times of dire need to a much less dependable system, whose drawbacks have already been proven in times of extreme emergencies.[/QUOTE]

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