The threat of a Kona storm that shut down schools and most state government operations Friday also canceled consumer clinics scheduled on Maui to assist television viewers cut off by the switch to digital broadcasts in Hawaii.
Tom Derenge, a Federal Communications Commission official providing technical assistance to Maui viewers, said a worker who was supposed to conduct two clinics Friday and today at the Queen Ka'ahumanu Center was reassigned because of the weather threat.
Anyone with problems can call the Hawaii DTV Transition call centers on Oahu or go online for assistance, he said. The contacts are:
* (808) 541-2388, (808) 541-2389 or (808) 541-2390
* e-mail to HawaiiDTVtransition@fcc.gov
* www.dtv.gov/hawaii or www.hawaiigoesdigital.com
Derenge on Friday was on Molokai, where he said the weather also appeared to have affected turnout at a clinic scheduled in Kaunakakai.
He did not have information on how many viewers have lost their television reception because of the switch, but he said anyone with a problem should check if any neighbors use an antenna.
"In Pukalani, Makawao, the map says they should be OK, but there are people in the area who lose their signal because of the hills or something that causes the signal to get lost," he said.
"We are available on the telephone and we do have volunteers in the community who are able to help set up a set with a converter," he said.
Generally, Hawaii's first-in-the-nation switch to all-digital TV went smoothly, with volunteers handling about a call a minute to a special hotline and only minor technical glitches reported.
Experts from six teams made several house calls for last-minute hookups, said Chris Leonard, president of the Hawaii Association of Broadcasters. There was no wait to get through on a special hotline as the switch from analog to digital was made at noon Thursday.
''There have been very few surprises, if any. I'm happy about that,'' Leonard said.
Congress ordered television broadcasters to switch from analog transmission in the VHF bands to digital using UHF bands to open the lower radio frequencies for other kinds of telecommunications uses.
But older television sets need a converter to translate the digital signal and in some areas, the digital signal may be lost because of distance or terrain. While a weak analog signal will provide a picture, even if it is fuzzy, a weak digital signal will result in no picture.
The FCC transition team will assist in installing converters, but if a viewer is no longer in range of the new digital signal, their only option is to sign up for cable or a satellite receiver.
