I just got back from a week’s vacation in Canada, relaxing on an island in the St. Lawrence River that separates New York from Ontario. At this location, I can watch plenty of Canadian and American TV broadcasts.

The Canadian TV signals originate from Kingston, Cornwall, and Ottawa, while the US shows come in from Watertown, Carthage, and Syracuse. (I may be the only person on the island with DTV reception capabilities, not to mention a portable spectrum analyzer and MPEG stream analyzer.)

What’s interesting is the complete lack of 8VSB signals from the Canadian side, even at this late date. CKWS-11 out of Kingston has its transmitter and antenna about 10 miles from our cottage, and while it can be received using a paperclip for an antenna, there’s been no sign of any digital signal so far.

Ditto CJOH-TV and a handful of UHF stations that broadcast CBC programming in English and French. While there is some DTV activity in Toronto, that’s several hundred miles distant to the southwest and not receivable.

Many of the islanders watch American TV programs, but the few I spoke with were barely aware that USA NTSC signals would go away after February 17. And awareness of the NTIA converter box program was also low, even though these boxes would have to be bought stateside and brought in through customs.

Unlike the USA, the digital TV transition in Canada is moving at a much more leisurely pace, one which will probably accelerate after 2/17/09. I’ve heard 2012 as a target date for the majority of Canadian stations to fire up 8VSB transmitters, but again, it’s not a hard deadline — so far.

Hopefully, Canadian broadcasters are paying attention to the missteps that have plagued our DTV transition and can ease their viewing population into the digital age with a minimum of problems. But for now, things are still "status quo" north of the border.

It will be very interesting to see how things have changed next summer after CBS, FOX, ABC, The CW, and PBS disappear from Canadian TV households along the N.Y. border. Will residents install new antennas and set-top boxes, or buy new TVs to get their American TV "fix?" Or, will they just settle back and wait for their local DTV transition to catch up?