In a few months, American television will change forever when all TV broadcasts will switch from analog to digital transmission. That may seem like progress, but let's not be too complacent.

But on Feb. 17, television stations across the nation will convert to all-digital signals. That will free up the airwaves for other uses. People who get cable or satellite TV won't be affected. And most televisions sold recently are designed to receive digital signals over the air.

But thousands of televisions in Utah will get no signal at all on changeover day, unless they have taken action. The owners of such sets can buy converter boxes to get digital signals. The U.S. Dept. of Commerce even has a coupon program that offers $40 toward the purchase of such a device. To learn more, go to www.dtv2009.gov or call 888-DTV-2009.

Still, problems loom. Observers think many TV owners are not aware of the cutoff. They could be in for a shock. We've all heard of road rage, and on Feb. 17, Americans may experience "rec room rage" when they turn on their trusty old sets but see nothing but electronic "snow."

Then there's the matter of hooking up the converter boxes to the televisions. Various self-appointed experts assure us this will be simple. Sadly, most us have heard such assurances in the past with some electronic gadget. These devices invariably come with instructions that seem to have been translated from Esperanto into Urdu and only then into English, leaving them undecipherable.

We can call the help line, of course. The problem, however, is that if we knew what the thingamajig was called or what the whatsit looked like, we wouldn't have to call the help line.

And if we do get the converter boxes hooked up, that may not be the end of our troubles. Some folks in other areas who have begun hooking up converter boxes complain that they don't work. The problem is that digital signals are "all or nothing." When they are received, they deliver a crisper picture. But if there's any problem, there's nothing you can do.

That brings up one of the advantages of the old sets. If the picture was fuzzy, a viewer could manipulate the rabbit ears or the antenna to make it better. With digital pictures, however, the viewer is helpless. Will the government send someone rushing over to help? No.

More serious issues arise. More than 7 million people own battery-powered, portable televisions. Many of these sets are taken on camping trips or put to other recreational uses. But millions of families also have them for use in emergencies, when the regular power lines go down. The glitch: Almost all converter boxes must be plugged into a wall socket, so there's no way for these portable TVs to get a signal if the power does go out.

The irony is that switching to digital signals was meant to free up more of the airwaves for emergency situations.

Of course, in the end we'll muddle through. Some old televisions will be converted; some people will buy new ones; other folks will break down and sign up for cable or get a satellite dish. Companies have even begun to sell battery-powered converter boxes, so that old portables can still be taken on camping trips or held for an emergency.

Nevertheless, there will be some losses. The poor pictures and static on the old sets had some pluses. The need to adjust the rabbit ears was a small part of our American tradition of self-reliance. Without that need, we'll be just a tad more passive -- that is, the ones who are not already on cable or satellite.

More important, no one enjoying the scratchy sounds and fuzzy images would assume that they're seeing "the real thing." It was obviously just some electrons flitting across a screen. On some level, that may have left viewers with a healthy detachment.

Will a crisper, digital image delude us into thinking that television reality shows are actually reality?