The failure of a Microsoft device intended to operate in the cracks between broadcast stations to pass muster at the FCC has only led to renewed requests for more tests. The NAB is asking for a common sense approach which means tabling this concept until the DTV conversion has been pulled off successfully. NAB EVP Douglas S. Wiley has fired off a letter to Microsoft has fired off a letter to Microsoft’s Jack Krumholtz asking that they cease and desist. "As you know," he wrote, "even a small amount of interference freezes a digital picture, making it unwatchable. This affects new DTV sets and government-subsidized digital-to-analog converter boxes." He also noted the Pandora effect: "Once millions of unlicensed devices are in consumers’ hands, they cannot be traced or recalled. Interference may come form the next apartment or from a neighbor down the street." NAB is calling for fixed systems to make use of available spectrum so such problems can be avoided. Meanwhile, the Washington Post used its editorial page to add its two cents. As an owner of television stations, it is dead set against allowing TV-potentially TV-obliterating devices into this spectrum. It said, however, that it has no problem with continued research and development.
