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Post by MonkeyMan on Apr 9, 2015 19:56:45 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Apr 8, 2015 13:16:09 GMT -5
That gold Cobra 2000 made me throw up in my mouth a little. Gaudy at best.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Apr 6, 2015 17:12:34 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Apr 2, 2015 9:44:18 GMT -5
I need to pick up a new coffee maker(s) until I find one that doesn't cause any interference. Interference aside, I'm not very fond of this one anyway.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Apr 2, 2015 7:58:35 GMT -5
So last night I notice channels 2 and 12 weren't coming in, then later when we attempted to watch an earlier recording off of channel 6, it was broken up and pixelated. Hmmm, now what? This morning when I got up I realized that the coffee maker was still plugged in....
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Post by MonkeyMan on Apr 1, 2015 10:37:42 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 30, 2015 18:43:23 GMT -5
Forgot to mention, after canceling my Dish account I'm still receiving a bunch of channels at no charge. Most are of no interest to us, but we saved a few to our guide and they're F-R-E-E. They didn't want my equipment back because they deemed it "obsolete", so my guess is that they leave me with some service while they bombard me with offers to come back and if I bite they just turn it back on.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 30, 2015 8:52:12 GMT -5
It most definitely has been a learning experience for me, even with all the homework I did. First I purchased a UHF only antenna, then once I realized what I had done I bought a VHF/UHF combo. WHOOPS, it was only VHF hi band so I replaced that with the Antennacraft 5884. A few other things I learned was that the LED bulbs I had on my back porch and cellar steps were killing my reception when they were on. I also found that our cheap-ass Walmart/made in China coffee maker was hosing up VHF lo reception by simply just being plugged in. So now we only plug it in when we want to brew, then unplug it but I'm on the hunt for a new one. If those devices that you mentioned were disrupting your TV reception, just think of the noise level they are probably throwing out on your CB..... Surprisingly none were an issue with the CB. I did have an LED bulb in the master suite where the radio is located that caused a little noise, nothing major but I swapped it out for a good ol' fashioned incandescent bulb.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 28, 2015 13:43:31 GMT -5
Something else to consider when contemplating a move back to OTA reception, the rules and frequency allocations were in flux for a period of time, and the result of that uncertainty caused problems for receive antennas. When the DTV standards were first proposed, the idea was to completely vacate the VHF band and move all TV stations to UHF. So there were a great many antennas made (and accompanied by slick advertizing) that were "optimized" for DTV, which really meant "UHF only". The problem is that when DTV finally became reality, instead of moving everyone to UHF, they lopped off and re-allocated the frequencies above channel 52 and had to "re-allocate" the VHF spectrum so there would be room for all TV stations. So as a result, we have WPVI still transmitting on VHF channel 6 and WHYY still on channel 12. If you went out and bought one of those "DTV Optimized" UHF-only antennas, you might have problems receiving those two stations. You would be far better off installing an "old school" VHF/UHF TV antenna. Here's is a list of Phila area TV stations. The actual RF channel is listed in parenthesis under the virtual channel number if it differs from the actual channel frequency: www.stationindex.com/tv/markets/philadelphiaIt most definitely has been a learning experience for me, even with all the homework I did. First I purchased a UHF only antenna, then once I realized what I had done I bought a VHF/UHF combo. WHOOPS, it was only VHF hi band so I replaced that with the Antennacraft 5884. A few other things I learned was that the LED bulbs I had on my back porch and cellar steps were killing my reception when they were on. I also found that our cheap-ass Walmart/made in China coffee maker was hosing up VHF lo reception by simply just being plugged in. So now we only plug it in when we want to brew, then unplug it but I'm on the hunt for a new one.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 28, 2015 8:30:43 GMT -5
RD #3 is (was) in the East Coventry area if I remember correctly, and the Brownback name is synonymous with it. Brownback's or Brumbach's were some of the first settlers in the late 17th century and they even have a church named after them. By the 20th century they were well off and a well known family name in local business. Not surprised one of them had a ham rig in those early days... www.ebay.com/itm/QSL-1926-Pottstown-PA-radio-card-/371290807064?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5672a81b18I'm going to check some old maps to see if I can find the home of said Brownback.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 27, 2015 13:48:29 GMT -5
One odd thing I have noticed with my install, and I'm sure someone here may have some insight. The antenna farm at Roxborough is about 26-27 miles Southeast of me in a direct straight line off the back of my house, although the cooling towers at Limerick are DIRECTLY in the path at about 6 miles out... Cooling towers are actually 3.6 miles out from my place and the red line in the pic is line-of-sight from my antenna to the tower at Roxborough that channel 2 is located on...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 27, 2015 10:40:28 GMT -5
No addiction to DVR here... what is that? I'm lucky I have time to watch the news... Recording shows is great, but in my opinion THE best feature of a DVR is the pause and rewind of live TV. Got to take a leak? Pause. What the heck did they just say? Rewind. Then skip through the commercials to catch up. The greatest invention since the light bulb. Well maybe not, but...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 27, 2015 10:35:46 GMT -5
The only other potential issue would be the loss of the ESPN's and other sports channels, which carries college softball, which my daughter loves to watch. Don't know if I could find an internet source for those. I'll have to check. While not quite "cord cutting", this may be a cheaper alternative to what you have now with access to ESPN... www.sling.com/
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 27, 2015 8:13:52 GMT -5
One odd thing I have noticed with my install, and I'm sure someone here may have some insight. The antenna farm at Roxborough is about 26-27 miles Southeast of me in a direct straight line off the back of my house, although the cooling towers at Limerick are DIRECTLY in the path at about 6 miles out. I was having trouble VHF RF channel 2 where I was getting a very strong signal level, but very low to no signal quality with the antenna pointed directly at Roxborough towers. I resolved (mostly) the issue by turning the antenna about 30 degrees Northward away from the towers, that's when the signal quality jumped up with little effect on the signal level. I also saw an improvement on RF channels 6 and 12. My guess is it has something to do with the Limerick cooling towers. In the 80's my grandparents lived adjacent to the power plant in a literal hole, but they got fantastic TV reception from channels that were nowhere close to being in line-of-site, channel 8 from Lancaster was one of them. My poppy swore it was because of the cooling towers and the signals bouncing off of them.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 14:49:11 GMT -5
I remember it all like it was yesterday. I didn't even have a color TV until the late 70's....... I do as well. I remember as a pre-teen/teen trying to pull in a music video program, I think was on channel 17 on Friday and/or Saturday nights. I had to unhook the UHF leads from the splitter and hook up a set of rabbit ears which I slid out the window. This was every week. Then of course the skip during the summer when channel 2 from D.C./Baltimore would come in and wipe out channel 3. Lets not forget being yelled at for turning the channel selector too fast.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 10:22:28 GMT -5
One thing I can say is you get a great picture better because it is direct feed so HD blows you away! And it's all free you can't beat free! I have a large Windguard antenna myself and a signal booster,maybe a little to big. But someone gave it to me. I didn't realize how crappy the SD picture Dish gave me was until I hooked up the antenna. I'm currently running an Antennacraft VHF/UHF combo and a separate 8 bay UHF antenna into an RCA mast mount amplifier. I'm still not completely satisfied with reception of PBS and a couple independent stations which are all on VHF, so I may still upgrade
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 9:33:50 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 7:56:53 GMT -5
Well 5 years ago that's what I did dropped Directv. And 56 channels later couldn't be happier. That God for Netflix streaming 8 dollars is sure better than $56.00 dollars a month and that's for nothing. That takes care of what we cannot get OTA. And my wife loves Antenna Tv which we get free OTA. It sure isn't like in the analog days picture is better than cable ever was and it's free. We're doing Netflix too, and I picked up a Roku last year which allows me to get tons of "programming" off the web.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 7:38:21 GMT -5
Over the last year as I was doing my homework the biggest thing that held me back from finally canceling my Dish account was the DVR feature, which we rely on heavily and I refused to give up. First I tried a fairly well reviewed Mediasonic HW-150PVR I picked up on Amazon for around $40. It requires an external hard drive, which is no big deal, but the Mediasonic interface was "clunky" and not very user friendly. I looked at Tivo, but they charge a monthly fee or a BIG upfront lifetime fee. What I settled on is the Channel Master DVR+ and I love it. It works just like a cable or satellite box/DVR and there's no monthly fee. It requires an external drive, but I chose the 16GB version because it was cheaper to buy it and a TB hard drive separately, and I can disconnect the hard drive and plug it into the Mediasonic box which we're using in our room upstairs and watch recorded content there. More later...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 25, 2015 19:42:11 GMT -5
I "cut the cord" (and the cheese ) 3 weeks ago and for the first time since 1992 I don't have a cable or satellite TV bill. Mind you I didn't jump into this blindly and spent a year experimenting and nailing things down but I'm damn glad I did it. Not one complaint from the family either despite several warnings of mutiny from my children and I learned a lot in the process too. One of these days I'll put up a detailed post about "what I'm running", but for now I wondered if anyone has noticed any TV antennas going up in their area? cjonline.com/news/2015-02-14/television-antennas-making-comeback
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 25, 2015 19:17:56 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 21, 2015 14:20:13 GMT -5
Fuzzy antennas can lead to...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 20, 2015 13:59:27 GMT -5
... religion and politics.. Here we go with the religion and politics.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 19, 2015 13:00:54 GMT -5
I like reading too, but if there's nothing new to read...... Eventually people stop checking in as often if activity slows down. And that only makes the problem worse. I guess these "old fashioned" forums are being pushed out in favor of different style format social media outlets like Facebook. There are a ton of radio groups on there, but I find that the Facebook format is tough to follow and does not allow for subgrouping. But I'm sure it has some effect. Agreed, 100%. One of the Nissan forums I'm a member of took a massive hit over the last year or so after a group page was started on Facebook. And Facebook is horrible compared to a traditional forum. Topics come and go so fast and it's almost impossible to search for specific topics. That said, I was up on the roof today making some final adjustments and I'll be posting about my "cord cutting" adventure soon...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 18, 2015 12:04:42 GMT -5
I've been noticing a slow but steady decline in activity on the forum, and even in the number of people checking in on a daily basis. Which seems weird considering the amount of new people who seem to sign up on a weekly basis (but then never seem to post anything) and all the likes I see on the Grumpy's Facebook page. Many of the old regulars seem to have fallen off the radar, and I guess it's becoming a snowball effect. People stop posting, so fewer people check in. With fewer people checking in, fewer posts are created.... Rinse and repeat. I promised Scott (Grumpy) that I'd do my best to keep the forum going after his passing, so I'd hate to see it crash and burn not even 2 years after his departure. So I guess I'm soliciting input. Why do you spend less time here? Not enough posts on topics you're interested in? Don't like the "new" forum layout? Don't like the personalities of some of us (Me?). Want to see other topics discussed? Here's a chance for all of those lurkers out there to post something. If you're too nervous about letting it all out in public, then drop me a PM. I'd love to see other topics discussed. Off topic, I was going to post about my experiences putting up a couple of TV antennas and canceling my Dish Network service. Seems that "cord cutting" is becoming somewhat mainstream these days, and OTA TV is like a cousin to CB radio. Then there's you Bagger. I don't think people like you.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 18, 2015 11:57:43 GMT -5
Better late than never...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Feb 24, 2015 21:08:35 GMT -5
The last find of the day was somewhat underwhelming, and probably a later entry in time, as this antenna didn't come out until 1979. It's the Radio Shack blue "Crossbow" fiberglass stick. And since I know you can burn them out with 75 watts, It's a pretty safe bet that this operator wasn't running much power. But the antenna appears to be in really good shape. But without much wind area, it should be able to survive most of what mother nature throws at it. There is a blue fiberglass Crossbow 1/4 wave a couple blocks East of me, it's been there for at least 17 years. I was given one of these along with some other unused junk back in the early 90's. I kept it and ran it here for a short time in the late 90's, then ditched it for an A99. I would have kept it but it didn't survive the throw. I'll try to get a pic. From the 1985 RS catalog...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Feb 9, 2015 17:16:31 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Feb 8, 2015 10:33:01 GMT -5
I wonder if this means the value of my vintage TRS-80 MC-10 will shoot through the roof.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Feb 4, 2015 14:22:31 GMT -5
Today I made what might be my last stop at RS to pick up a 75 To 300 OHM balun. RIP.
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