Unlike some other parts of the state, the mid-valley is likely to hit a snag when the conversion of local television stations to digital signals is complete on June 12. Residents who have relied on television over the air may find that they can't get all the stations from Eugene and Portland they have been able to watch.

They have the choice of hooking up to the local cable system. Or they can try to install much more powerful or directional antennas, which sounds like a hassle. (Also it's against the covenants in some housing developments to put an aerial on the roof.)

Or people can make do with watching the three or four Oregon Public Broadcasting channels being transmitted digitally from Vineyard Mountain near Corvallis. Those are excellent programs, but they might not be enough for the average viewer.

In the mid-valley, our trouble is that we live midway between two television markets - and on the far fringes of each. The transmitters for the main network stations are between 30 and 60 miles away from most locations in the mid-valley. And hilly terrain makes reception over such a distance a very iffy thing.

Analog transmission and reception is more forgiving than digital, as people with marginal antennas and poor reception have already found out. They found it out when they installed the digital converters they bought with help from those $40 coupons they received from Uncle Sam.

Where the traditional analog signal would produce ghost images and occasional snow depending on the weather and other factors, the digital picture may break up completely when somebody in the house makes a wrong move, if it comes in at all. The result is that because of this switch, for some people in the mid-valley watching TV will either become impossible or a hassle with antennas or much more expensive. Until recently they had a choice of a handful of channels for free, and soon they won't be able to watch those unless they pay every month.

That may not have been what Congress had in mind when it ordered analog broadcasting to stop, but that's the way it's working out. Congress is disrupting the television habits of an undetermined number of mid-valley residents.

Here's a suggestion, though it's obviously too late to prevent problems this year: While it is mandating changes in communications technology, Congress might as well mandate something else, in the interest of saving taxpayers money and aggravation:

It should make federal broadcast licenses contingent on stations operating enough translators in enough places so that most people in an area such as the mid-valley - with nearly 200,000 people in Linn and Benton counties - could still receive a varied selection of free television broadcasts over the air. (hh)