Since the February 17th conversion to digital television, hundreds of folks have had "how to" questions.

So we've made a quick tutorial with step-by-step instructions.

Here are a couple things to keep in mind as you make the switch: aim your antenna towards Metcalf, Georgia, which is Southeast of Thomasville.

The reason: Although our station is located in Tallahassee, we actually transmit our signal from Metcalf.

"We've had some problems with converter boxes. We've heard some good things about the Zenith and the Samsung boxes, but some of the other boxes you can get at other places, the big low priced stores haven't worked as well," says our very own Operations Manager, Michael Watson.

Watson says we have received roughly 400 calls with DTV questions, concerns or problems since the transition began, but he says out of our total viewership of 1 million, that number could be much worse.

Here are some helpful hints:

Where are you located? If you live in Sopchoppy, South of Perry, Panacea, Apalachicola, Tifton, Adel or on the far east or far west of our viewing area, you are on the edge of the signal. If you had an analog signal that wasn’t prefect all the time-- some days it was great, others it wasn’t-- you may have a lot of trouble getting a digital signal. The digital is an all or nothing signal and in areas where the analog signal was not strong the digital signal may be non-existent.

Antenna:- Indoor or Outdoor?
If Indoor – Just Rabbit ears won’t work. You need to have UHF (circular) and VHF (Rabbit ears). If you live more than 30 miles from the main transmission antenna which is located just south of Thomasville, GA, you will more than likely need an outdoor antenna.

Outdoor – UHF/VHF. It has to be able to get UHF (channels 14 – 50). Is it aimed at Metcalf, GA (which is southeast of Thomasville)? If antenna is arrow-shaped, the “butt” of the arrow needs to be point at Metcalf, not the pointed-end. For other antennas the smaller end needs to be pointed at Metcalf.

Outdoor – Check your connections to see if they are tight or if they are corroded. That will affect your signal.

Outdoor – Can you adjust the height? Height helps.

AntennaWeb.org If you can access the Internet antennaweb.org will let you enter your address and give you a lot of information on aiming, antennas, signal strength, etc.

Converter Box
Who makes your converter box? Some viewers have reported problems with the RCA and APEX from Radio Shack and the Magnavox from Wal-Mart. They work ok for people close to the tower but not so well the farther away you go. We have tested/seen good results from Zenith, Samsung and DigitalStream boxes.

Have you rescanned your channels recently? Can you manually delete your channels before rescanning? Some of the boxes don’t update information very well. So deleting the channels manually and rescanning has helped some viewers

Have you tried channel 46.1? Our signal is technically on Channel 46.1 and 46.2 which you should translate to 6.1 and 6.2 as well. If you are not seeing anything on 6.1 and 6.2 try channel 46.1. If they rescan while tuned to channel 46.1, this will usually help tune WCTV in on channel 6.1 and 6.2.

No Audio on Magnavox Converter Box. This is a menu setting that switches the audio from Line out to RF out. Please make this switch and test it.

What channel is your TV set to? Are you changing channels on your TV or on the converter box? The converter box functions like a VCR or Cable box. You set the TV on channel 3 or 4 and then change channels on the Converter Box and not the TV.

If you have a “HDTV” when did you buy it? If it is more than 2 years old does it say “HDTV Ready?” Older “HDTVs” don’t have the tuner built in. They were labeled as HDTV Ready. You will need a converter box. This is rare.

Digital/Analog button? Some TVs and converter boxes have a button that will let you switch between analog and digital signals. Try switching and rescanning channels.

If you have any other questions call the WCTV DTV Transition Help Line at 850-907-2115.

You can leave a message there and a staff member will call you back with an answer.