With a little more than a month to go before Hawai'i's television stations go to an all-digital transmission, an official with the Federal Communications Commission urged residents to act now to receive the digital signals or risk not having reception when the transition occurs.

On Jan. 15, Hawai'i will be the first state to switch from over-the-air analog television signals to an all-digital format. Federal law mandates that broadcasters switch to digital television by Feb. 17, but local broadcasters agreed to move that up a month to accommodate an endangered Hawaiian bird, which breeds near an analog transmission facility on Maui.

For months, broadcasters have warned residents of the switch and said that if they receive television signals through rabbit ears or roof-top antenna that they would either need to subscribe to a cable or satellite service, buy a digital TV set, or purchase a special converter box.

The federal government has offered coupons good for $40 to $70 off a converter box to help people through the transition.

The state estimates that there are about 20,000 households here that receive TV signals over the air. At a press conference yesterday, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona said more than 39,000 coupons have been requested, but only 9,185 had been redeemed as of Sunday.

Aiona said it takes about 30 days to process a coupon request, so with the Jan. 15 conversion rapidly approaching, residents must act now.

"Those who are waiting, you run the risk of not being able to redeem the coupons for the purchase of a converter box," he said.

Aiona said he purchased a box for one of two TV sets in a Kapolei house that receives analog signals. He said the process of hooking up the box was relatively simple and the reception is "fabulous."

Jonathan Adelstein, a commissioner with the FCC, is in Hawai'i to meet with government and broadcast officials about the conversion. He said this is a "pressing issue" for residents here because the state will be switching over before the rest of the country.

"We have a lot of people here who have heard about this, but they don't know exactly what it is they need to do to get ready. They need to act now. They can't afford to wait," Adelstein said. "People who wait will find themselves lost in the crush of people who go at the very last minute and our phone lines are going to be overwhelmed and the people that are willing to help are going to be overwhelmed."

Although Hawai'i will be the first state to convert, the first city to go all digital was Wilmington, N.C., which made the switch in September. The city had an estimated 180,000 TV households and 14,000 that received over-the-air signals.

Adelstein said there were many problems in Wilmington, whose motto was "First in Flight, First in Digital."

"Unfortunately, what it really depicted was the transition was not ready to fly," Adelstein said. "We got thousands of calls from that little community."

To avoid similar problems here, Adelstein urged Hawai'i residents to be prepared. He said the FCC will be taking a close look at what happens to see what problems will pop up during such a large conversion.

"We are absolutely looking at Hawai'i as a test case," he said. "This is for us a major experiment and we appreciate the bravery of the good broadcasters here and the people to be able to be the first ones to lead this effort. We are going to draw an enormous amount of information from what happens here. We're going to be watching it extremely closely and we will try to apply the lessons of Hawai'i to the nation."