Hundreds of Hawaii television viewers called in for help Thursday as the state's television broadcasters switched to all-digital transmissions in a move mandated by Congress to free airwaves for other uses.
But a liaison with the Federal Communications Commission overseeing the digital switch in Hawaii said there were only a few complaints of viewers losing their signals because they were located on the fringes of the new signal range.
"There were no surprises," said Lyle Ishida, project director for the Hawaii DTV Transition Project. "The calls into the call center are things we expected to get."
But he said he did not have detailed information Thursday night on the effects of the switch in Maui County and the Big Island, the areas most affected by the switch.
As part of the transition, Hawaii broadcasters were required to set up their transmitters at a new site at a lower elevation on the slopes of Haleakala.
The relocation of the broadcast antenna is expected to cut off viewers who still rely on an antenna to receive signals in areas of Haiku, East Molokai and parts of the Big Island.
The transition was at noon Thursday in Hawaii when a message appeared on analog TV sets across the islands: ''All full power Hawaii TV stations are now digital.''
Residents lit up special TV help center phone lines on Oahu set up by the FCC transition project and the broadcasters. By evening, calls were coming in at nearly 100 an hour.
On home screens, the shutdown message flashed for about a minute in white text on a blue background. Then, a seven-minute announcement video began a broadcast loop that will continue for several weeks on major island stations.
Technicians are calling it the ''analog night light.''
Officials at the call center made last-minute checks with some 20 TV stations around the islands, with all reporting they were ready.
''The smart people have already converted,'' said John Peters, president of the Honolulu Amateur Radio club and a volunteer at the help center. ''The people calling in today are the ones who didn't prepare in advance.''
Some confusion had been expected.
''No matter how many commercials we run, there will always be a certain part of the population that doesn't get the message,'' said Chris Leonard, president of the Hawaii Association of Broadcasters, who was helping out at the call center.
But viewers who were prepared for the switch on Maui and the Big Island got a bonus. Three broadcasters - KHON, KITV and KHET - added a second digital channel to their broadcasts to the Neighbor Islands.
Mike Rosenberg, manager of KITV, which is now being received in Maui County at Channels 4.1 and 4.2, said the station had been broadcasting two digital channels on Oahu because the digital signal can carry more data.
"It enables us to multicast. We can take the signal band and split it up into four channels, if we want," he said. "It's now split into two, the regular programming and our island weather channel."
At the KITV offices, he said there were few problems being reported.
"It's been amazingly quiet on the phones," he said.
"The interesting thing is we're finding a lot of the areas where we thought it would be problematic are not. I got an e-mail from Kaunakakai from someone who thought they would lose their signal but they didn't.
"Someone who lives near Makawao Elementary School told us he got a signal where we thought it would be problematic. In Haiku, someone told us he is getting a signal, but he is doing it with a good outdoor antenna."
Ishida said most of the calls appear to involve antenna issues that can be remedied with teams of specialists available to make house calls to assist individual viewers.
The transition posed two problems for viewers who still use an antenna to receive a television broadcast. Households with older analog-only television sets needed to get a converter to translate the digital signal to analog.
But even with a converter, viewers who only receive a weak signal because of obstacles between or distance from the transmitters will get no picture at all. With analog TV signals turned off, residents on Thursday found out whether they are missing any channels or whether they still have any service at all.
Government officials and broadcasters estimate about 20,000 households in Hawaii still get their TV signals over the air, meaning they'd have to buy new TVs with digital tuners or digital converter boxes.
''It's really amazing how many people wait until the last minute,'' said June Gonzales, a member of the FCC team.
The FCC team is continuing to hold public clinics to assist viewers with problems. Sessions are scheduled:
* Today in Kahului from 1 to 7 p.m. at Queen Ka'ahumanu Center (center court); and on Molokai, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Home Pumehana, 553-5788. Ishida noted the clinics may be relocated if there are problems with weather today.
* Saturday in Kahului, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Queen Ka'ahumanu Center and on Molokai, 9 a.m. to noon at Home Pumehana.
Assistance also is available:
* (808) 541-2388, (808) 541-2389 or (808) 541-2390
* e-mail to HawaiiDTVtransition@fcc.gov
* www.dtv.gov/hawaii or www.hawaiigoesdigital.com
The analog shutdown for the rest of the country is scheduled for Feb. 17, but is in doubt because the government has run out of money for $40 coupons to subsidize converter boxes. President-elect Barack Obama's transition team has asked Congress for a delay.
One key Democrat, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia, introduced a bill Thursday that would postpone the transition to June 12. Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee are also including $650 million in funding for the coupon program in their economic stimulus proposal.
The Hawaii transition team is asking viewers who have a coupon that they do not need to turn it in to the tran sition teams to distribute it to households that do need them. The coupons are worth $40 to the purchase of a converter box.
Hawaii was moving to all-digital TV before the Feb. 17 date set for the rest of the nation because the Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel nests near the summit transmitters. Broadcasters and Haleakala National Park rangers want to take down analog transmission towers at the summit before the bird's nesting season.
