The Monitor from McAllen, Texas • A16

manager of the TV department. HDTV programming provides viewers with not only a detailed, sharper picture, but it makes Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound available on some shows. is the best programming on the said Joe Selvera, a customer service representative at Time Warner Cable. like the transition from black and white to color HDTV allows broadcasters to send about six times as much information over the same amount of bandwidth as an analog signal. That allows much better picture quality, as well as other programming options, according to the Federal Communications Web site about digital TV, www.dtv.gov.

Congress set Feb. 17, 2009, as the deadline for broadcasters to fully transition from an analog signal to a digital signal. After that day, anyone with an analog set without a converter will literally be left in the dark with no television programming. Lawmakers appear to agree with the FCC, which contends that not only is DTV a more flexible and efficient technology than the current analog system, but that converting to it will also free up broadcast airwaves. Those portions of the airwaves can then be used for other important services, such as advanced wireless and public safety services police, fire departments and rescue squads use.

So, local TV stations are gearing up. In 2002, Newschannel 5 KRGV-TV began transmitting both a digital and analog signal. Through ABC, Channel 5 now provides the Valley with 16 to 17 hours of HDTV programming a week, said Charles Salge, chief engineer for the station. Channel 5 does not locally produce in HDTV, but expects to do so eventually, Salge said. A standard digital signal allows for more video and audio capabilities than the analog signal, he said.

KGBT-TV Channel 4 has been transmitting its digital signal since 2003 and offers more than 20 hours of HDTV a week through CBS, said Phillip Rich, operations manager at the station. takes a lot more electricity and a lot of equipment to make this Rich said. a very big In February, KVEO-TV Channel 23 began offering HDTV, though it has been transmitting its wide-reaching digital signal since June 2005. The station transmits most of prime time programming as well as NASCAR races and some sporting events in HDTV, said Peter Hoekzema, chief engineer of the station. While KNVO-TV, which broadcasts Univision, Telefu- tura, and FOX, transmits a digital signal, it will not offer HDTV to the Valley until Univi- sion finishes building its HDTV facilities next year, said Sonny Cavazos, director of engineering at Entravision Communications.

More TVs come built-in with digital tuners that can pick up the local signals, said Garza. For Circuit City, about 60 percent of its TVs. Six months ago, it was only at about 10 percent, he said. To get HDTV from the store to the home, buying a screen is just the first step. These TVs are not to be confused with HD-ready TVs or HDTV monitors, which lack the necessary digital tuner to receive the HDTV signal.

people go home and plug in their HDTV and realize they need a Chapa said. realize they need to contact a company for access to HDTV Consumers can get HDTV programming through cable or satellite, or even an antenna, as long as the TV set has an HDTV tuner. Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Dish Network, Cox Communi- cations, Comcast, Charter Communications, Insight and Cablevision all provide HDTV programming in packages at an extra charge to customers. At one point, the Time Warner Cable based in Harlingen could barely keep up with its demand, nearly running out of cable boxes that receive the HDTV signal, Selvera said. since stocked up on more.

And not just plasma and LCD TVs that carry this technology. All types of television can be an HDTV set. Rear and front projection TVs, and even the old-fashioned cathode ray tube TVs, are now made with HDTV capabilities. HDTV does come at a price, though. Garza and Chapa agree that consumers should prepare to pay $200 to $300 more for an HDTV model.

At $720, the least expensive HDTV at Circuit City is a 30- inch Samsung cathode ray tube TV. At Best Buy, a 27-inch HDTV Samsung runs for about $585. A beginning price for a plasma HDTV is about $2,000. Angela Castellanos covers general assignments for The Monitor can reach her at (956) 683-4472 For this and more on local www.themonitor.com 8B Monday, July 10, 2006 Texas 78 Today Partly sunny and breezy. 96 78 Tuesday Partly sunny and breezy.

98 76 Wednesday Partly sunny and breezy. 98 78 Thursday Partly sunny, very warm and humid. 98 77 Friday Humid with plenty of sunshine. 98 Good Monday morning Mainly dry and hot weather will return to South Texas and the Valley this week. There is only a small chance for a sea breeze shower during the afternoon.

Some locations in the Upper Valley will reach 100 degrees later this week. Today: Partly sunny. Highs in the middle 90s. Winds: SE 12-22 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear with patchy fog.

Lows in the middle 70s. Tuesday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 90s. ACCU WEATHER FORECAST www.themonitor.com AccuWeather Texas West Texas: Sunshine and patchy clouds thunderstorm in the panhandle and Transpecos. Mainly clear tonight.

East Texas: Clouds and sun today with a stray in central parts.Partly cloudy tonight with a stray thunderstorm. North Texas: Partial sunshine today. A thunderstorm in the northern panhandle and northeastern in northeastern parts. South Texas: Periods of sun, breezy and humid today.A thunderstorm in parts of the area near the Coastal sunny toward Laredo. Mexico Temperatures are highs and lows.

Shown is weather. Temperatures are highs and lows. Five-Day Forecast for McAllen Almanac McAllen through 5 p.m.Sunday. High ..................................................93 Low ..................................................77 Normal high ......................................95 Normal low ........................................74 24 hrs.ending 5 p.m.Sunday Month to date Year to date Temperature Precipitation Sun and Moon Full Last NewFirst July 10July 17July 24Aug 2 Sunrise today .........................6:48 a.m. Sunset today ..........................8:29 p.m.

Moonrise today ......................8:37 p.m. Moonset today .......................6:00 a.m. Tides South Padre Island Mon. 6:36 a.m.1.6 ft.9:08 p.m.-1.1 ft. nonenone Tue.

7:21 a.m.1.7 ft.9:57 p.m.-1.1 ft. nonenone Day TimeHighTimeLow -10s-0s0s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s100s Showers T-storms Rain Flurries Snow Ice Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation.Temperature bands are highs for the day.Forecast temperatures are for selected cities. Fronts National Weather Today The Weather With Tim Smith Valley National Summary: A cold front moving east of the Great Lakes today will trigger thunderstorms over the Appalachians; some storms will be strong over western parts of the Northeast.Watch for heavy thunderstorms over the southcentral Plains.Cooler air will spread over the Northwest. World Cities Sunday National Cities Sunday Starr Hidalgo Willacy Cameron Rio Grande City McAllen Weslaco Harlingen Brownsville All forecasts and maps provided by UV Index Higher index numbers indicate greater eye and skin exposure to ultraviolet rays. Highest Today in McAllen 10 a.m.................................................6 1 p.m.................................................11 4 p.m...................................................6 0-2, High; 8-10, Very Extreme Cold Warm Stationary Buenos Hong Mexico New Rio de Atlantic Charleston, Charleston, Columbia, Columbus, Des Greensboro, Jackson, Kansas Las Little Los New New York Oklahoma Portland, Rapid St.Louis93/73/sh Salt Lake San Santa Sioux Washington, College Corpus Del El Fort San San Wichita Texas Cities Sunday Weather -sunny, pc -partly cloudy, -cloudy, sh -showers, -thunderstorms, -rain, sf -snow flurries, sn -snow, i -ice.

Amarillo Wichita Falls Austin Lubbock El Paso Alpine Del Rio Laredo McAllen Brownsville Odessa Abilene Dallas Waco Houston Fort Worth San Antonio Lajitas Corpus Christi Tijuana Puerto Penasco Hermosillo Chihuahua Sabinas Mazatlan La Paz Cabo San Lucas Guadalajara Acapulco Oaxaca San Luis Potosi Monterrey Tampico Mexico City Veracruz Villahermosa Ciudad HDTV continued from page 1B studying in Military School of Aviation. Carranza proved an excellent student and was commissioned a lieutenant in his air force. Within a year, he was a national hero for his part in strafing enemies while putting down a rebellion in Sonora region. In the summer of 1928, Carranza was selected to undertake a goodwill flight from Mexico City to New York City in response to the flight Charles Lindbergh took from New York City to Mexico City the previous year. Before this point, flight from Mexico City to Washington, D.C., was the second longest flight in the world, behind only flight from New York City to Paris, according to information from American Legion Post 11.

For his trip to New York, Carranza landed at Roosevelt Field on Long Island and was honored in New York City with an event that included then- New York City mayor Jimmy Walker. Despite fierce storms he and U.S. officials were against flying in, an order from commanding officer in Mexico forced him to take to the skies. It was on the return trip home that Carranza encountered a thunderstorm over the Pinelands of southern New Jersey and crashed. Post members found the 22- year-old body the next day and vowed to honor the Mexican pilot with a ceremony at the crash site each year from then on.

Today, a 12-foot monument stands in New Wharton State Forest marking the site of the crash. The monument, installed with funds donated by Mexican schoolchildren, depicts a falling eagle of Aztec design. Every July on the Saturday nearest the anniversary of crash, American Legion Post 11 members and an entourage from the Mexican consulate offices in New York City and Philadelphia honor Carranza with a special ceremony. This event, the 77th annual, was Saturday at the Carranza Memorial on Carranza Road in Tabernacle, N.J., near Mount Holly. Carranza Park is open every day.

No pass or admission is necessary to visit the memorial. His story is simply too significant to ignore. In fact, a lecturer at Rutgers University-Camden in New Jersey is working on a 90-minute documentary featuring Carranza. Robert A. Emmons Jr.

discussed his project in a Burlington (N.J.) County Times story posted at MSNBC.com this week. Emmons, 31, says in the story that he focused the documentary on U.S.-Mexico relations, and American Legion commitment to preserving legacy. He plans to finish the film this winter and title it Goodwill see this project as a way to foster goodwill with us and Emmons said. important now more than ever because of debates over immigration Deborah is a deputy metro editor for The Monitor You can reach her at themonitor.com or (956) this and more on local www.themonitor.com HERO continued from page 1B By ETH ORENSTEIN The Associated Press HOUSTON The international space station can finally live up to its name, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter crowed Sunday. His mere presence is a milestone for the continent of Europe: Reiter is the first non- American and non-Russian to take up long-term residence in the so-called orbital outpost.

fact that there is a European representative on board makes the international space station more Reiter, who is from Frankfurt, Germany, said during a news conference. to date it has been more kind of a more bilateral Reiter joins American Jeffrey Williams and Russian Pavel Vinogradov aboard the space station. Europe we are waiting for the launch of a European-built module for the space station called Columbus he said. The lab, predominantly for science, has been delayed because of shuttle problems and is set for launch in 2007. mission is kind of a said Reiter, who lived aboard the Russian Mir space station for 179 days and is scheduled to be at the international space station for six months.

international space station in the future will be indeed very While Reiter wanted to talk science and space Sunday, the European media was more interested in the World Cup, asking Reiter several questions. The sta- tion was scheduled to be flying over northern Europe at about the time of the start of the World Cup final in Berlin. no time to follow the game on the Reiter said. will certainly check on the score after the not going to side with he said. work with colleagues from Italy and from France.

Therefore just going to be surprised by the result. going to cross my fingers for both comments about the World Cup were broadcast to the stadium in Berlin and when Mission Control notified him about it, the German astronaut let out a hearty laugh. However, Discovery astronaut Piers Sellers had revealed earlier that he and Reiter were cheering for different teams. Sellers seemed to be rooting for France. When crew was told about victory, commander Steve Lindsey noted that in their in-space predictions, both Sellers and Reiter were wrong and Lisa Nowak and Mark Kelly predicted the eventual winner.

Reiter said much of his unpacking, training for a future spacewalk and plans to practice the guitar once he finds a missing string for the instrument will have to wait until after Discovery undocks on July 15. Presents from home will also have to wait. had any time to unpack this package that my family sent Reiter said. have not found it sure going to find it, but right now too For Europe, a milestone in space with World Cup overtones.