Posted on 01/15/2019 2:40:05 PM PST by Openurmind
Wow - Now there’s 2 bruce Springsteen tunes I actually like. Thanks.
I buy a $43 Trek antenna from WMart every 2 yrs(that’s how long it seems to last).
So, I pay 21.50 a year for my TV.
Also, my neighbor lets me mooch off his wifi. He refuses to let me give him a cent, so I bring him fresh fruit now and again. It’s the only thing he will take.
Thing is, when you get into the n.2, n.3, even n.4 OTA channels, you get all sorts of old stuff hard to find even on cable. “H&I” has Star Trek TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise, 6 nights a week. There are lots of 70’s and 80’s cop shows and such. Movies tend to be pre-70’s, or not well known, but I have little time for ‘em anyway. VERY occasionally I will buy a movie from a few years back — year-over-year, the cost is under 1/10 what I’d spend on cable. The only thing I really miss are nature and history documentaries, because our PBS station is too weak to easily receive. But, many such are on You Tube, available 24/7.
To top it off, “Comet” had a Babylon 5 marathon over the Holidays. Woo-Hoo! (Inside joke) :-)
Whooa, “Space Commander”!
It took a fair amount of force to press those buttons, as I remember. I couldn’t do it these days with my arthritic thumbs!
And that’s the sneaky part of the mess. I remember when the “deal” was pay for TV and you do not get commercials. They slipped it in on everyone and then even raised the rates and we let them.
Good to see I’m not the only one who saw this.
There are about 72 of them in the Chicago area. Of that 72, only about 9 of which aren't (a)religious programming; (b)shopping networks;(c)spanish language;(d)polish language;(e)chinese/asian language.
I'm not kidding.
Do any of them air Bill Swerski’s Super Fans?
I watched a video on YouTube how to make a digital antenna, I picked up 14 channels, all from metal coat hangers, made another one a year later with 30 “ears” and picked up 23. It was a fun DIY project, i used the signal strength meter on the TV to find the sweet spot on my roof.
there are so many more surface antenna channels today. I have a smart tv and it allows you to know the schedule of the channel you are receiving and breaks down the programing. there are over 40 channels listed but being practical about 20 channels you might use. Lots of programing from the 70,80,90 that is shown on theses extra channels which is ok because they are the shows of my childhood. some shows are just as good today as they were when they aired but some shows just make you cringe when you watch them. as a 10 year old The six million doller man was my show. today watching it makes me cringe especially when I watch the special effects or references to technology
Yep. well done. Thank you.
Nope.
Bounce TV had a Roots marathon, and I ended up watching the entire thing.
I was a kid when it came out and never had seen it before.
As for sports, I can watch anything that’s not on ESPN.
Can’t wait for the Masters in April.... and I have been peeking at the NFL playoffs.
Go Brady. And, go Rams.
Uh, no way is 150 mile reception (unless you are having a “skip” night) likely.
A broadcast antenna (actual radiating elements) 2000 ft. above average terrain has a radio horizon) service range of about 63 miles. A tall receiving antenna will help, mostly by getting you above some of the local “clutter”, and by extending the radio horizon slightly. (Approximately, for the latter, add your antenna height to the broadcast antenna’s height.)
https://www.everythingrf.com/rf-calculators/line-of-sight-calculator
You will be better off with a good antenna (say, Stellar Labs # 30-2415 or 30-2370, or equivalent of similar design: see my post 92) on a tall tower, with a rotator, than a dish at a manageable height (assuming your “house” is not 50 ft. tall, with a spot on the roof you can place the dish.)
The dish will also be very directional —good for gain & multipath, but a pain to point, esp if you have multiple stations at varying directions. If you have a tall house and can work some sort of turntable for the dish - well, maybe...
Even then, 80 miles is probably tops under most atmospheric circumstances.
I was a little bummed that the Clemson-Alabama (Championship) game was not OTA-TV, AND, very difficult to get here on radio, too. (Faded in and out, finally “out” pretty much for good, in the 4th quarter.)
I’ll live. :-)
and real 1080p reception for sports and documentaries. Cable and satellite must compress their signal.
Yeah. Damn ESPN hogged all the bowl games.
I had to go to a friend’s house a few times.
Thank YOU!
TDS Cable is fighting with Nexstar Media Group which owns 177 TV stations in the across US. Because a contract is not in place, at midnight December 31 TDS was required to take down all NexStar channels across its distribution area in Indiana, Oregon, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Colorado, Utah and Nevada over what TDS CEO Jim Butman said was an unreasonable demand for an “up to 129%” retransmission consent rate increase.
In Oil Patch City, NM, we lost both CBS and Fox from Albuquerque. For a while the CBS station in Odessa Texas was still on the cable but last week it came down too. Turns out Fox Lubbock is over the air here and by switching to antenna from cable we can get Fox for the NFL playoffs. TDS suggested we download the NFL app for mobile devices and we can watch the playoffs and the Super Bowl on CBS on a really small screen.
There is reportedly no progress in negotiations with Nexstar so the channels remain dark. I don’t know which comes first — end of the border wall Federal partial shutdown or restoration of major network cable channels.
You explained it much better than I think I could have. I would have probably got too technical with actual frequencies, DB ratings, stub adjustments, Etc. lol
Really, that was just a succinct understandable very well worded explanation. :)
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