KCPT raises its transmitters for digital age today The experiment begins thead of schedule on Channel 18 By AARON BARNHART -i tflfrlAi lowvwivti nw In his 22 yean as chief engineer for KCPT Channel 19 John Long has learned to be thrifty That comes from working on a public television budget Recently for example a vendor wanted to charge $300 to put a roof over some outdoor cables Long went to a hardware store bought a few sheets of corrugated aluminum at $9 apiece and started fashioning the cover himself be pretty but the only one have to look at it he says Now through a fortuitous set of events Long has come into what sure ly must be the biggest bargain ever TVvo years ago KCPT applied for a grant to replace its aging unreliable main transmitter When the grant money finally arrived few months ago a new product had come onto the market that essentially offered two transmitters for the price of one Using a breakthrough technology a station could broadcast a conventional signal on one channel (say 19) while sending out a second digital signal on an adjacent frequency (18 or 20) As it happens 1 8 was the digital channel the 2000 A look ahead government assigned last year to KCPT The station bought the transmitter the first in the nation to do so and for three weeks Long and his crew have been working around the clock installing it In the predawn hours Friday Channel 18 signed on the air and KCPT became the only broadcaster in Kansas City the only station in fact between here and the West Coast experimenting with digital TV Word of KCPTs unexpected foray into digital spread quickly last week See KCPT E-4 Col1 TAUS BERGMANISThe Star Bill Reed general manager of KCPT is leading the station into the digital era.