Cutting the cable! TV cable that is

TV brought the imaginary into the living room with an implicit message:" This is the way your life should be." The advent of so-called reality TV is another step in the same direction.
Much reality TV is so ridiculous that maybe it's a slap in the reverse direction. People definitely imitate what they see on TV, which is actually promoted as how you ought to be, same as Hollywood did in its heyday though less explicitly. TV is the main tool of the social engineering we've been subjected to for the last decade or so.
 
Much reality TV is so ridiculous that maybe it's a slap in the reverse direction. People definitely imitate what they see on TV, which is actually promoted as how you ought to be, same as Hollywood did in its heyday though less explicitly. TV is the main tool of the social engineering we've been subjected to for the last decade or so.

“ Your mind is totally controlled, it has been stuffed into my mold, and you will do what you are told until the rights on you are sold!”

 
I've been making progress, ordering parts and doing research. I got my antenna the other day and today I got it mounted on my house, it's not hooked up yet. I have decided to do a proper code ground for my little lightening rod.
Still waiting for some parts to arrive. I will have a full report on performance , cost and photos when everything is done!
 
Alrighty then! I know enough now to post some findings. As I said , I got my RCA compact Yagi antenna mounted up on my roof yesterday.
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It's a very nice antenna that comes fully assembled, which is not always the case. The only thing that you have to attach is the mounting pole and base, which is included with the antenna. Most antennas that I looked at required purchasing the mounting pole separately.
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So I got it mounted up and prepared to aim it. I was all set with compass coordinates and printed out maps that had directional lines overlayed on it. Then I looked in the general direction that I wanted to point it and started laughing. I'm only 17 miles in a straight line from the towers and I could clearly see them from my position on the roof. I was able to sight down the antenna like I was sighting down a rifle and aim it exactly towards the towers.

I got my coax cable attached and routed and secured with mounting clips, then routed into the house and hooked up to my TV. Time to do a channel scan. I was very surprised. I was expecting around 40.
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95 channels! Most of them CRAP! Haha! But, I went through them all and I came up with 28 channels that I thought I actually would watch. Some of them show up in a couple of places.

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All of the network channels are HDTV, most of the channels that feature older content, obviously aren't.
I have ordered and am still awaiting delivery of, a coax grounding block and a 100 foot roll of solid core 10 guage grounding wire.
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As soon as it gets here I will wire it up just like this, which is code. It will run from the back of my house to the front electrical panel riser.
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For right now, in place of the grounding block, I have a coax splicer, which I can easily unscrew and insert the grounding block.

Also, this isn't really part of the antenna installation, but just to give me more viewing choices. I ran to Target and bought a ROKU express, at $30 it's the lowest price ROKU unit available. If you are not familiar with them, they connect to your wifi and plug into an HDMI plug on your set and allows you to watch TV through your internet. If you want to have NETFLIX or HULU or one of the other streaming services, you must have a device like this to make the connection. Initially I had planned to get basic HULU ($8 per mo.) but I was surprised how much free content is available through the ROKU unit it's self! Tons of channels, scores of mostly older movies and TV shows, amazing really!

So here's where I'm at. Prior to doing this my combined high speed internet/cable TV bill was $150 per mo.
Today we called our cable company and dropped the TV portion. Our new bill for Internet only will be $55 per mo.

RCA compact Yagi antenna. $45 on eBay
50' RG6 sheilded coax cable. $13 on eBay
100' solid core 10 guage
Copper ground wire $25 on eBay
Coax ground block. $6 on eBay
Total. $89
Optional ROKU. $30. At Target

Note: this feeds just one TV in our living room, we only have one other TV in the house, a small one hanging on the wall above a treadmill in a bedroom. I intend to just hang a flat panel antenna in that room for that one TV.

$95 bucks a month back in my pocket baby!

"I can see by your eyes friend you're just about gone
Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on"
 
Years ago when they first went digital you had to either purchase a new tv or buy a box to convert it to your old tv.....
now all tv's have that built in so theirs no fuss....
what I found back in the day before all this digital stuff was.... the bigger the antenna the better off you are !
I had an antenna farm, along with my Ham radio gear I also made TV antennas and used tv antenna AMPLIFIERS. i don't even know if their available now days but they were the best thing to get.... even more important than the antenna itself ! a 20 db gain amplifier from radioshack
made it possible to get TV at our location.... only 3 channels but at least we got something!
as long as you live close to the towers your in great shape..... you can do this.... but if you live 50 to 75 miles away from the towers
you are better off paying for dish.... as you will be lucky to get ANY channels and poor reception on any that you do get !
they do have repeteres up now that they didn't have back in those days... so you may get the channels on different channel settings because of the repeaters.... but that's only one or 2 channels....
I can live without TV the stupid commercials drive me nuts the same thing over and over again is enough to boil my water !
i might try going without Dish at this location ,and see what I can get but I do not hold much hopes.... I'm 75 miles from a big city
and small towns simply do not count.... I expect I could get 3 channels from repeaters here at this location.... that's my guess.
so dropping dish would be like cutting the cord for real ! ....and you still get commercials ! AURGH !
if your in the flat lands to rolling hills your chance of reception is allot better than in the mountains like I am we used to be in a box canyon 20 miles away from Redding Ca. and could only get 3 channels 7 (abc),12(nbc), and 9 (pbs) 7 and 9 were quite watchable 12 might take pointing the antenna better.... we had a big yaggi antenna and a antenna amplifier too ..... but that's all we got for 40 years !
so when the satellite dishes came out we jumped on the bandwagon ! watched commercial free TV for about a year before they started doing what the local channels had.... Now it's 10 min of program 5 minutes of commercials... unless your on sci-fi and its like 10 minutes of program and 10 minutes of commercials..... and it flat runs me off !
i am still amazed that the advertisers on tv pay what they do, to show their crap over and over and over again ! and cannot come up with better commercials than they do ! it boggles the mind !
you would think that they would have an option where you could select commercial free tv.... after all we pay enough for TV now... but their greedy and just want more..... it's the American way after all !
LOL....
Bob.......
 
thanks 2M ! the thing is when trying to receive tv reception it's really important to get a really good antenna if your 20 miles or so away from the towers..... if your 50 to 75 miles away, you just as well forget the idea because the reception will be so poor you can't watch it.
for mailman to get good reception with that tiny antenna he got boggles my mind... and more than one channel to boot ? he's gott'a be in town and close to ALL the towers ! hehehehe I guess they have made a few changes sense I tried the last time.... although I did try it here
with a bow-tie antenna and found 3 signals bit none of them were watchable.....
you could not believe the reception values they gave for their antennas..... if it said 175 miles for a fringe area antenna you could figure about half that...... I seriously doubt they started telling the truth sense then , so be warned ! 50 miles away and you buy a 50 mile antenna and it will be really fuzzy reception..... 50 miles away and get a 150 mile antenna and it will be watchable.... but not like cable !
90% of the TV antennas that I've dealt with were cheap pieces of crap that should never have been made, the elements brake off and the antenna wire hookups all rust up, they don't even use stainless steel on them !
I would love to be educated and hear how much better it is now.... but I don't think much has changed....
yah you can go without cable or satellite TV.... but don't plan on getting it from your local tv stations unless you live real close to them.
i wish everyone luck that is trying to cut the cord.... but it isn't as easy as they say it is...especially if you live out in the boonies!
... my 4 coppers !
Bob.........
 
Hey, Bob! The new ATSC signal is designed to give good digital quality even when the signal strength is too poor for the old NTSC. My fav stations are about 80 miles away, closest about 25 miles. That 25-mile-away station will come in just by dangling the bare coax out the window. Have you looked into that antennae mapping link in post #1?
 
Humm seams like a far cry from what it used to be !
I just checked on the site map thing and it said I should get 9 of those stations... 4 with just a rinkey dink antenna ! ( indoor type)
and each one of those can have 1 to 5 sub channels so maybe 20 channels here !..... I would not have believed that !
going digital must really have helped ! ..... thanks 2M....

OK I'm convinced ! I'll give it a go and see if I can cut the $68 buck monthly payment off ! I'ed love too..... that's allot of sandpaper for my shop !
LOL.....
now the question is how long do I have to wait to be out from under the thumb of Dish's contract ???? LOL probably only till mid summer I'm guessing.....so I have time to prepare for the cutting of the cord !!!!! Muahahahaha !!!! (evil laugh!) ..... more money for BEER !
heheheheh!
now I gott'a shop for a good Yagi antenna !
.....
Hay 2M what kind of antenna are you using ? and what coax is it 75ohm or 300 ohm ?
Bob.....
 
ahh you know your antennas ! good !
I've made dozens of antennas in the past mostly for Ham radio but 4 or 5 for TV the best I ever made was a corner reflector and added a tv amp to it and used it in Vinton,ca to get Reno's TV signals ! LOL back in the before digital age !
where did you get that antenna if you don't mind me asking I'ed like a Monster antenna here ! I have a crank up 50' ham tower I could put it on !!!!! HAHAHAHAHHA !
......
Bob......
 
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hay that's good to know ! thanks 2M!
.....
so a regular VHF antenna can be used to receive Digital signals right ?..... i just happen to have one out back.... needs a bit of repair though.
I suppose I could make one but I don't have my AARL Antenna handbook anymore or my Machiner's handbook,.... they burnt up....
2 indispensable books that I have yet to replace ! bummer deal dude ! anyway...baring buying one of the black plastic pie pan looking things they call antennas i guess a person could use any old TV antenna right?
Bob.....
 
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