Pahrump television watchers who use analog antennae, known colloquially as "rabbit ears," will be happy to know the Pahrump Town Board May 13 accepted a bid from GWR Technology Inc. to replace the town's EMS tower.

The town's tower, located on Wheeler Pass Road, was felled by a wind storm last October.

Since the tower was connected to several repeaters that transmitted Las Vegas stations to Pahrump, many homes were left with only local stations to watch.

Some residents were fortunate enough to have line- of-sight to the translator on Mt. Potosi, thus giving them access to Vegas stations, but for many residents on the north side of town the translator was little comfort.

Especially since in many of those areas CMA has not yet extended its lines, meaning cable wasn't an option.

The town approved a bid for $227,154 for GWR Technology to replace and install the tower.

Since the majority of the costs are covered through the town's insurance, Pahrump will only need to spend $2,500 for the deductable.

A completion date for the tower is not yet known.

But the rabbit-eared constituency may still harbor some concerns over a Federal Communications Commission mandate that all broadcasts switch over to a digital signal by February 2009.

Adrianne Abbott, broadcast consultant and field engineer for the Nevada Broadcaster's Association, confirmed that translators are not currently required to convert to digital.

However, she added, "At some point there will be a mandate for translators to convert, we just don't know when yet."

Since Las Vegas stations are going to be converting to digital, however, there will have to be some sort of accommodation from Mt. Potosi to get a signal out to Pahrump.

Abbott said one option was for the owners of the Mt. Potosi translator (who remain unknown despite efforts to identify them) to install a "reverse converter" which would receive the digital signal coming from Las Vegas and re-convert the signal back into analog that would be broadcast on to Pahrump.

If that's the case, then Pahrumpians will not need a converter box for their television.

However, if there is no reverse converter on the Mt. Potosi translator, then converter boxes will be needed here.

(For those looking for an excuse to get a new TV, the alternative to purchasing a converter is to get a new HD set.)

Converters are relatively inexpensive, and the federal government is offering a $20 coupon on its Web site www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon.