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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 2, 2015 12:02:27 GMT -5
"The patron saint of antenna television is a complex figure who I have come to know very well on a nightly basis. His commercials air on almost all of the networks above. It is through the lens of this marketing onslaught that the target demographic of antenna TV becomes clear. He is an older man—a former cowboy to be exact but also, he uses catheters. His voice is grizzled, he’s been cowboying for 25 years, suffered fourteen broken bones, had two concussions and a punctured lung. He knows pain and doesn’t want any more of it, especially when he “caths.” He wears a cowboy hat, a flannel shirt, and a vest and he wants you to try a free catheter sample. He says he’s just like me, like you, like us, wondering if we should call." Ode to Antenna TV: Love in the Air(waves)
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 2, 2015 16:41:21 GMT -5
"The patron saint of antenna television is a complex figure who I have come to know very well on a nightly basis. His commercials air on almost all of the networks above. It is through the lens of this marketing onslaught that the target demographic of antenna TV becomes clear. He is an older man—a former cowboy to be exact but also, he uses catheters. His voice is grizzled, he’s been cowboying for 25 years, suffered fourteen broken bones, had two concussions and a punctured lung. He knows pain and doesn’t want any more of it, especially when he “caths.” He wears a cowboy hat, a flannel shirt, and a vest and he wants you to try a free catheter sample. He says he’s just like me, like you, like us, wondering if we should call." Ode to Antenna TV: Love in the Air(waves)I have to sit back and chuckle at the irony of "rediscovering" OTA TV. Many people, like the author of this piece, make it seem like receiving TV over the air is some newfangled frontier (like the internet once was). Yes, it's different now that it's digital, but we, as a country, have been doing it since the days of Howdy-Doody and Ozzie and Harriet. We just took a bit of a detour for the last 20 years, when it became cooler to have 150 channels of junk coming in through a cable that you pay for each month. I guess for those out there who are younger than 35, they may have never known the fun of rabbit ears, vertical rolls, ghosts, snow, black and white only, and a limited number of channels that you had to actually get up out of your seat to change. It's like the old saying "Everything old is new again". Since I enjoyed it the first time around, I can certainly partake in it the second time. And to think, it was only a small handful of years ago when the pundits were predicting the eventual demise of terrestrial broadcast radio and TV at the hands of new technologies.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 4, 2015 11:58:09 GMT -5
...And to think, it was only a small handful of years ago when the pundits were predicting the eventual demise of terrestrial broadcast radio and TV at the hands of new technologies. www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2470378,00.asp
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 4, 2015 20:22:04 GMT -5
...And to think, it was only a small handful of years ago when the pundits were predicting the eventual demise of terrestrial broadcast radio and TV at the hands of new technologies. www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2470378,00.asp Yea, and at some point it may happen. But before it can, the internet needs to "grow up" a bit, and become far more robust and reliable. You can't stream all this high definition video content without taking up gobs of bandwidth, which the average end user does not have at the moment. They also have to find some way to be able to "broadcast" to mobile stations. So to me, you are only replacing one type of broadcasting with a different form. And wonder upon wonder, terrestrial broadcasting is experiencing a resurgence. Newfangled technology can be great, but I also believe in the old saying "Not everything new is better, and not everything old is obsolete". Some people just prefer to hold a newspaper (or book) in their hands and turn the pages, rather than reading something on a screen. It's more a matter of personal preference than of technical superiority. So here's to many more years of Gilligan's Island reruns on OTA TV.........
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 5, 2015 9:58:06 GMT -5
Yea, and at some point it may happen. But before it can, the internet needs to "grow up" a bit, and become far more robust and reliable. You can't stream all this high definition video content without taking up gobs of bandwidth, which the average end user does not have at the moment. They also have to find some way to be able to "broadcast" to mobile stations. So to me, you are only replacing one type of broadcasting with a different form. And wonder upon wonder, terrestrial broadcasting is experiencing a resurgence. Newfangled technology can be great, but I also believe in the old saying "Not everything new is better, and not everything old is obsolete". Some people just prefer to hold a newspaper (or book) in their hands and turn the pages, rather than reading something on a screen. It's more a matter of personal preference than of technical superiority. So here's to many more years of Gilligan's Island reruns on OTA TV......... Amen. I couldn't agree more.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 12, 2015 9:32:40 GMT -5
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Post by BBB on Jun 12, 2015 18:03:02 GMT -5
Notice if you will, the unique classical photographic advertising of the The Keracolor Sphere, designed by Arthur Bracegirdle, 1968-1977 listed there. I saw some cool looking TV sets at the Kutztown Antique Radio fest a few weeks ago. I always thought the "floating picture tube" concept was neat looking. There were photos on their web site showing they had a bonfire one night that was a big pile of old wooden console TV's and radios, sans the tube and electronics. My latest TV is Samsung 32" @ 1080p resolution unit I'm using as a Shack monitor. Most 32" sets are 780p. I Tab Cast from Chrome (beta) on the laptop to the Chrome Cast dongle in the HDMI port of the set. Surprisingly the resolution of schematics, and the like, show up really well. When I not using it to show particular items, Google casts a photo slide show of exotic and interesting places. So it looks like a painting that changes every couple of minutes. www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-32-class-31-1-2-diag--led-1080p-hdtv-black/4833556.p?id=1218538976873&skuId=4833556
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 28, 2015 8:32:07 GMT -5
So, after a weeks vacation I returned home on the 20th to find the signal on channel 2 degraded a bit. Since nothing changed I'm going to assume it has something to do with the trees finally being in full bloom, specifically the one in my back yard 40 ft away from the antenna which it points directly into. No biggie, this just reinforces the need for a larger antenna. On a side note, we had 100 channels for the week while we were on vaca and I cannot imagine going back and having to actually pay for all that garbage. Pure rubbish.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jul 23, 2015 8:47:34 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jul 29, 2015 12:27:17 GMT -5
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Jul 29, 2015 12:53:53 GMT -5
Someone should probably put the author of this article in contact with the guy who wrote about the "comeback" of OTA TV.... It's no big deal to transmit data at any frequency. Coverage depends on terrain, transmitter power, antenna gain and path loss (not much different than CB right? ). I would imagine that they would need to utilize two UHF "channels" though. One for downstream data, and a 2nd for return data. Given a 6 Mhz bandwidth per standard TV channel, and a 256 QAM modulation, you can get nearly a 43 Megabit/s data rate. Not too shabby.....
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jul 29, 2015 13:40:36 GMT -5
Someone should probably put the author of this article in contact with the guy who wrote about the "comeback" of OTA TV.... That's exactly what I thought. I like the concept too. And I doubt it could be any less reliable than my lousy Verizon DSL service.
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Post by BBB on Jul 30, 2015 8:59:45 GMT -5
Someone should probably put the author of this article in contact with the guy who wrote about the "comeback" of OTA TV.... It's no big deal to transmit data at any frequency. Coverage depends on terrain, transmitter power, antenna gain and path loss (not much different than CB right? ). I would imagine that they would need to utilize two UHF "channels" though. One for downstream data, and a 2nd for return data. Given a 6 Mhz bandwidth per standard TV channel, and a 256 QAM modulation, you can get nearly a 43 Megabit/s data rate. Not too shabby..... Saw something about the FCC allocating more bandwidth on 30 MHz for satellite data transfer. There's a bunch of stuff around 27 MHz besides us. Here's the whole list. It's a bit long, but still kinda interesting: transition.fcc.gov/oet/spectrum/table/fcctable.pdf
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Post by Sandbagger on Jul 30, 2015 16:22:43 GMT -5
Someone should probably put the author of this article in contact with the guy who wrote about the "comeback" of OTA TV.... It's no big deal to transmit data at any frequency. Coverage depends on terrain, transmitter power, antenna gain and path loss (not much different than CB right? ). I would imagine that they would need to utilize two UHF "channels" though. One for downstream data, and a 2nd for return data. Given a 6 Mhz bandwidth per standard TV channel, and a 256 QAM modulation, you can get nearly a 43 Megabit/s data rate. Not too shabby..... Saw something about the FCC allocating more bandwidth on 30 MHz for satellite data transfer. There's a bunch of stuff around 27 MHz besides us. Here's the whole list. It's a bit long, but still kinda interesting: transition.fcc.gov/oet/spectrum/table/fcctable.pdfI've always said that if the FCC really wanted to get rid of the CB problem once and for all, all they would have to do is reallocate the band to a bunch of noise generating data services. The power stations would not give up without a fight. But eventually, even the biggest die-hards would be driven crazy by the high noise levels. Data is automated and relentless. If interference blocks out a transmission, it will retry until it finally goes through. It would take a continual and equally relentless desire to blast those data services off the band to make any real affect on throughput.
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Post by BBB on Jul 30, 2015 16:59:46 GMT -5
Saw something about the FCC allocating more bandwidth on 30 MHz for satellite data transfer. There's a bunch of stuff around 27 MHz besides us. Here's the whole list. It's a bit long, but still kinda interesting: transition.fcc.gov/oet/spectrum/table/fcctable.pdfI've always said that if the FCC really wanted to get rid of the CB problem once and for all, all they would have to do is reallocate the band to a bunch of noise generating data services. The all-knobs-to-the-right power stations would not give up without a fight. But eventually, even the biggest die-hards would be driven crazy by the high noise levels. Data is automated and relentless. If interference blocks out a transmission, it will retry until it finally goes through. It would take a continual and equally relentless desire to blast those data services off the band to make any real affect on throughput. Ah that reminds me, operator Jason up near Quakertown, said he used to work at AR (Amplifier Research) in Franconia and that the reason their RF amplifiers are sooooo darn expensive is that they are built to military specs for use in continuous duty "Jamming" operations...and I don't mean the Bob Marley kind of jamming
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 7, 2015 18:57:09 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 9, 2015 20:24:00 GMT -5
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Post by Sandbagger on Aug 10, 2015 9:11:55 GMT -5
This could eventually be bad news for me. Hopefully, it takes more than 10 years to really get bad......
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 10, 2015 10:16:39 GMT -5
This could eventually be bad news for me. Hopefully, it takes more than 10 years to really get bad...... I'll hire you to help sell and install TV antennas. You're not afraid of heights, are you?
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Aug 10, 2015 12:09:36 GMT -5
This could eventually be bad news for me. Hopefully, it takes more than 10 years to really get bad...... I'll hire you to help sell and install TV antennas. You're not afraid of heights, are you? I'm not afraid of heights, but the older I get, the more fearful I have become of climbing ladders...... I'll just have to steal someone's bucket truck....
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 10, 2015 13:29:32 GMT -5
I'm not afraid of heights, but the older I get, the more fearful I have become of climbing ladders...... I'll just have to steal someone's bucket truck.... Well good, because I don't like heights. You're hired, but we'll have to deduct the cost of the bucket truck out of your pay. Better get humpin'.
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Aug 10, 2015 16:13:46 GMT -5
I'm not afraid of heights, but the older I get, the more fearful I have become of climbing ladders...... I'll just have to steal someone's bucket truck.... Well good, because I don't like heights. You're hired, but we'll have to deduct the cost of the bucket truck out of your pay. Better get humpin'. What part of "steal someone's bucket truck", did you not understand? I will have to pay for the paint cans to disguise it though.....
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 10, 2015 16:18:13 GMT -5
Well good, because I don't like heights. You're hired, but we'll have to deduct the cost of the bucket truck out of your pay. Better get humpin'. What part of "steal someone's bucket truck", did you not understand? I will have to pay for the paint cans to disguise it though..... Steal? I can't have a thief working for me. Too much potential liability for a fledgling upstart. I know a guy in Florida who may need some help, though.
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Post by Sandbagger on Aug 10, 2015 19:32:27 GMT -5
What part of "steal someone's bucket truck", did you not understand? I will have to pay for the paint cans to disguise it though..... Steal? I can't have a thief working for me. Too much potential liability for a fledgling upstart. I know a guy in Florida who may need some help, though. He might be able to make me a bucket truck out of a Hummer and some left over boat parts.......
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 12, 2015 13:35:19 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 13, 2015 8:10:19 GMT -5
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Post by BBB on Aug 13, 2015 9:56:12 GMT -5
We watched OTA TV for the week we were camping at the Delaware seashore. No pain no strain. Got about 15 channels including abc and cbs. Most were public TV channels with a few others like "Me TV" and "Antenna TV" with the good old shows. All were in the UHF spectrum and most were HD. Don't discount the TV antennas used on RV's for home use also. The Winegard unit on my camper is amplified (12 VDC) and rotatable. www.winegard.com/sensar
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 13, 2015 11:03:38 GMT -5
We watched OTA TV for the week we were camping at the Delaware seashore. No pain no strain. Got about 15 channels including abc and cbs. Most were public TV channels with a few others like "Me TV" and "Antenna TV" with the good old shows. All were in the UHF spectrum and most were HD. Don't discount the TV antennas used on RV's for home use also. The Winegard unit on my camper is amplified (12 VDC) and rotatable. www.winegard.com/sensarUncompressed HD, best part about it. Well, next to free of course. Off topic: Mind if I ask whereabouts in Delaware? Friends of ours have a house at Broadkill Beach, and another used to have a place a little further down, off Rt. 24 on the Rehoboth Bay. I've really taken a liking to the area.
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Aug 13, 2015 13:40:49 GMT -5
We watched OTA TV for the week we were camping at the Delaware seashore. No pain no strain. Got about 15 channels including abc and cbs. Most were public TV channels with a few others like "Me TV" and "Antenna TV" with the good old shows. All were in the UHF spectrum and most were HD. Don't discount the TV antennas used on RV's for home use also. The Winegard unit on my camper is amplified (12 VDC) and rotatable. www.winegard.com/sensarI have a very similar amplified rotatable antenna on my trailer, but where I am up at the lake, I get nothing over the air, so I ended up signing up for very basic cable for the season.
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Post by BBB on Aug 13, 2015 18:41:55 GMT -5
We watched OTA TV for the week we were camping at the Delaware seashore. No pain no strain. Got about 15 channels including abc and cbs. Most were public TV channels with a few others like "Me TV" and "Antenna TV" with the good old shows. All were in the UHF spectrum and most were HD. Don't discount the TV antennas used on RV's for home use also. The Winegard unit on my camper is amplified (12 VDC) and rotatable. www.winegard.com/sensarUncompressed HD, best part about it. Well, next to free of course. Off topic: Mind if I ask whereabouts in Delaware? Friends of ours have a house at Broadkill Beach, and another used to have a place a little further down, off Rt. 24 on the Rehoboth Bay. I've really taken a liking to the area. We always stay at the Delaware Seashore State Park at the Indian River Inlet just south of Dewey Beach and just north of Bethany Beach. They just added about 40 more brand new full hookup camp sites on the northern side of the inlet that includes a full Marina with shops and a fun bar called Hammer Heads were you can get hammered and walk back to the campsite. The campground is about a 4 minute walk to the beach. Yes, I said 4 minutes I really like that southern part of Delaware. The seafood is abundant, the peeps are super southern nice and they still have WaWa's.
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