Who uses TV antennas anymore?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Who uses regular television antennas these days, anyway?

ME!

I dumped satellite TV in December 2005 after they replaced Music Choice with simulcast satellite radio (yuck!) among other reasons to cancel it. Lets see, I have saved over US$3,200.00 since then.

Cable TV? Not only "no", but "H*** no!".

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

ME!

I dumped satellite TV in December 2005 after they replaced Music Choice with simulcast satellite radio (yuck!) among other reasons to cancel it. Lets see, I have saved over US$3,200.00 since then.

Cable TV? Not only "no", but "H*** no!".

I don't know where Hayward, California is, but if it's anything like the wide spot in the road in which I live, I am amazed you get any kind of analog TV reception at all without cable or satellite. After June 12, you're going to need one or the other if you don't want to wind up with just one channel good enough to watch, as is the case (using an antenna) in my area.

What is wrong with "simulcast satellite radio" on your satellite service? I'm sure Music Choice must get its programming as well via satellite, so there shouldn't be any difference at all between the two services.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I don't know where Hayward, California is, but if it's anything like the wide spot in the road in which I live, I am amazed you get any kind of analog TV reception at all without cable or satellite. After June 12, you're going to need one or the other if you don't want to wind up with just one channel good enough to watch, as is the case (using an antenna) in my area.

What is wrong with "simulcast satellite radio" on your satellite service? I'm sure Music Choice must get its programming as well via satellite, so there shouldn't be any difference at all between the two services.

Jeff-

Hayward is in the middle of the San Francisco Bay Area, with S.F. and San Jose about 30 miles away each, in different directions. NTSC reception is quite good with a roof antenna on my house, but not from both cities at once. (I didn't care enough about the S.J. stations to install a rotator.) With an indoor antenna, reception is mediocre as it has been on most channels everywhere I have lived in the past 30+ years since I got my first TV.

Digital (ATSC) reception, that is another story. I found a position to point a small roof antenna Channel Master Stealthtenna halfway between both cities and get all the digital stations nicely, in HD with Dolby sound and all. Later, when I got a couple of the new digital converter boxes (Zenith and Channel Master), I decided to try some 60's rabbit ears with the box, sitting on top of my RCA CTC-16 combo console. I get every Bay Area digital station with rabbit ears!, with only a bit of rotation of the antenna base to clear up a couple of stations that otherwise break up on screen somewhat. I sympathize with people who have little choice but to have to accept cable TV; I simply have big problems with the business practices and service quality of the cable-TV industry. Satellite TV is not much better.

Regarding music from a satellite-TV company, the big difference was that Music Choice was a multi-channel service that just played music in 30 or more formats, with nothing but music for audio. The song and performer names appeared on screen (or on the front panel of some DirecTV receivers). It was replaced with XM Radio in late 2005. XM, like Sirius, emulates actual radio stations (but without commercials, other than for the service itself). That means it has jingles and announcements, and some channels even have disk jockeys and so on. I hated that stuff. Music Choice is/was pure music, like an endless stack of records playing (or a portable MP3-type music player). I enjoyed MC so much, I was considering getting one of the vehicle satellite-TV dishes to receive it.