I've got a USB tuner for my laptop and it does pick up signals over the air, except that I usually use it in the basement and the signal is too weak. The change in Feb 2009 is to digital, not to HD. I think digital is required for HD transmission, but non HD can still be broadcast. Whether a tuner will work after the change or not depends on the tuner. If it won't work, it should state that it won't in the ad. You can also look for something that says it picks up digital signals.

Feb 1 2009 the FCC will cease ALL analog broadcasts. Your Analog TV will only be useful for cable or sat. In order to view any OTA broadcasts you will need to buy an extra Digital box to convert the digital broadcast to Analog for Analog TV's I am assuming that you already have the digital Tv's You do NOT need any digital equipment to record digital TV all digital TV's that I know of have analog outputs. That being said jimisham is correct, Digital is either good or bad unlike analog which will snow up you can still see a signal. If you have drop outs you need a better antenna or point your antenna better. Maybe you have a VHF only antenna or the VHF is a bigger part of what you have. You will still get signals even with rabbit ears but you have to be close to the source. The best bang for the buck is a CM4228 cost about $50 is UHF only which is what all digital channels are and will be, but will get ch 8-12 pretty good also untill the cease to broadcast on those channels. http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/cm4228.html , if the stations are in different directions you will need a rotor. One good thing is digital travels further with less signal strength and at this time many stations are NOT broadcasting digital at full power yet. I use a CM4228 and get all the network stations at about 50 miles from here is High Definition without drop outs.

Thank, Mikie. Yeah, I saw the "consumer alert" on the pre-digital tuner sets displayed at the stores. Well, we made our purchase, yet this time the sales guy said we won't need a cable box after 2009 "just because" (like the first guy said) on the new sets (for basic cable programming), just for the old analog sets. Guess we'll find out then....... Tracey

43 miles is a long shot requiring a higher gain antenna and higher antenna mounting. The fact that you can receive analog broadcast tells me that the antenna is working and should also be able to receive digital broadcasts in the same band. Are you certain that the digital channels you are trying to receive are in the VHF band? Some stations are in UHF now and will only move to VHF following the Feb 09 analog sunset. Are you sure that the antenna is working for UHF signals? My antenna had other little elements that needed to be folded out to allow the UHF part of the antenna to work. Another thing to check is that the TV was set to scan for ATSC (digital over-the-air) and NTSC (traditional analog) over the air signals when you first had it learn the channels. When a TV is used with cable TV, it set set to scan for QAM (digtal over cable tv) and NTSC. You may want to have the TV rescan for digital channels and make sure that you tell the TV that you are NOT on a cable tv system. This problem is not likely to resolve itself in February 2009. Good luck.