The rabbit-ears television antenna is the only way our family stays tuned into the world during summer vacation.

In a tiny cottage in a working class neighborhood of Rhode Island’s South County this past August, no cable TV meant watching Michael Phelps and other Olympians through a veritable blizzard of static on NBC affiliate WJAR, Channel 10, in Providence, located 35 miles to the north.

Things will be different this coming summer. I will be able to re-aim that antenna until I’m blue in the face, and still the screen will be blank. Unless, that is, I take the time to buy and install a digital-to-analog converter for the cottage’s TV.

It’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of television watchers will be faced with dead air on February 17 — less than four weeks from today — unless Congress acts to force the Federal Communications Commission to delay the powering down of every analog transmitter at U.S. television station.

Never mind the Israeli-Hamas war and the broadening scandals with Bernard Madoff’ and Rod Blagojevich, President Obama’s first real test in office will be whether he allows the electorate to lose Vanna White’s nightly letter turning. Unless the voters/viewers subscribe to cable, Verizon FIOS, DirecTV or Dish Network, they need to have purchased an HDTV or analog-to-digital converter box or it will be dead air time.

In recent days, Consumers Union threw its support behind a bill co-sponsored by lawmakers whose committees oversee the FCC — Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. — to delay until June 12 the switch to digital.

The three big broadcast television networks certainly want to see the HDTV switchover day delayed so they can postpone further slippage of their influence. Cable stations and Internet news sites surged in popularity during the last elections-fueled ratings sweep.

Even though the overall number of people watching the network evening newscasts fell by 280,000 viewers in Nielsen Media Research’s fall ratings period, ABC, CBS and NBC together still accounted for some 23 million watchers.

The fact that a sizable number of those viewers — those whose TVs receive their signal from the airwaves — have not plunked down $50 to $75 to buy a converter is major reason to delay pulling the plug. Those close to the TV business argue that consumers are stupid procrastinators who either missed the millions of public service announcements or made a conscious decision to ignore the Feb. 17 hard stop.

Consumers Union contends that a federal government bungled a program to dole out coupons that defray the cost of the digital upgrade.  There’s also an argument that poor people and elderly people who do not have technical skills to rejigger their TV sets’ antenna systems, have not received enough hand holding.  One very funny PSA on this topic features an octogenarian who would benefit handsomely from a visit by Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

One additional wrinkle that has developed in the years since the FCC set the Feb. 17 deadline is that a whole bunch of people are now unemployed, unable to pay for cable TV, and sitting around the house watching TV.

It’s on that very same TV they learned from the U.S. Department of Labor that new jobless claims had reached their highest in 26 years with 589,000 individuals filing unemployment claims.

Let those people keep their TVs receiving the networks and, if they are lucky, PBS, and a Paxton station that features all-Waltons weekends.

Even if Obama and Congress let FCC have their way on February 17, some smart marketers (or politician) is going to buy up thousands of analog-to-digital boxes, affix their logo and become the heroes of those who did not manage to upgrade on their own. That’s how friends are made.