Thanks, Domino, for the reply. I appreciate it.
To tune in 1002, 1004, etc., as you suggested, one must have the HD cable box from Cox. I do not. Cox transmits the Clear QAM local broadcast stations signals down the coax...and until Saturday, all of them came in perfectly. On Saturday, 5 of the 7 major local broadcast stations disappeared.
As I am sure you know, if you have a TV or other device (such as a DVR) that has a built-in Clear QAM tuner, you set it to scan for all Clear QAM stations automatically.
Los Angeles channels 2, 4, 7, 9, and 11 went dead yesterday morning. No signal. Channels 5 and 13 are still there in their HD Clear QAM format. (There are a few other non-major stations that also are still coming in fine.)
Either something broke yesterday on Cox's end when it comes to pushing the free Clear QAM signals for those 5 stations (hopefully they will fix it tomorrow), or maybe they switched to scrambling them (doubtful since I still get 5 & 13, etc.).
There is no way to tune to virtual channel 1002 or 1004 etc. just using either TV's built-in QAM tuner. (Again, I do not have a Cox HD or any Cox Cable set-top box.)