Rabbit Silly

Beware the countdown to Global Digital Domination!  I wanted to have my shit together a little bit ahead of the 17 million Americans like me who are either cable service refusniks or in the lower socio-economic quarter who utilize Old School Rabbit Ears to catch the news, Gossip Girl, Access Hollywood, PBS, Fox, Montel and our "stories".
I planned it pretty well, ordering my government discount coupon two months ago, finally recieving it last week. It looked more like a debit card, pretty sophisticated I guess. I'm also guessing the government can now confirm that I'm a cheap asshole. I sat through an online tutorial that explained how easy this was going to be once I purchased and installed my converter box. How I'd suddenly get a bunch of channels I didn't even know I could get. They also mentioned the converter boxes were between $40-$70. In my naivete I figured since my coupon was worth forty bucks that I could ostensibly find a free deal. The truth was, the government's caveat was that I was only allowed to shop three vendors with the coupon and their cheapest boxes were $60 plus tax on the whole amount. So twenty-five dollars later I had my unit. Once I got home, I found out that this sleek little box had nearly a half dozen outputs that needed to be connected to my T.V. which, thank you very much, where almost all being utilized for things like my dvd and vhs players. I'd also suddenly discovered that I must've become catatonic at a key point during the online tutorial because -- no friggin' way -- I STILL NEEDED RABBIT EARS! Once I got everything up and sort-of running, I'm still fucking around with antennae trying to re-animate Katie Couric and get the cubes out her mouth during the CBS Evening News. Forget NBC - The Office and all that crap. I now no longer have that station or their local affiliates despite the appearance of The Magik Box and having my hands Reynolds Wrapped. I expect the typical "you shouldn't be watching that brain rot" and "go read a book" comments dear readers, and evidently I'm not really having my civil rights violated because it pretty much works, but I do feel just a little less fabulous about the transition than I thought I would.

Comments

[Krys O.]

Pseu, you can get a really good RCA antenna on Amazon or eBay for about $25-$30. Our TV in the bedroom is not hooked up to cabl. I got the antenna about three years ago and it improved reception tremendously. It was even ready before the converter to pick up HD signals, if I had an HD TV....

I still shake my fist in the air a la Basil Fawlty at Congress for selling the UHF band.

Now, how about that Sue Simmons? Didja hear the F-bomb? I heard it live and it was glorius. You can see a clip at this link: Sue Simmons F-bomb

[bartleby]

The frame of the high rise I live in acts as a faraday cage and blocks RF transmissions, except for WFMU, literally. Well, WFME as well. Last I remember Discovery Channel was basically re-hashing Nova and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom and there was some movie about college on Comedy Central. I'm waiting for the complimentary ovaltine and backrubs cable plan before I get back into TV.

[andy]

i don't know about your box but mine (zenith) has an antenna connection that lets you ignore the red, white, and yellow connections being taken up by your dvd player or whatever. the only diff is sound is not in stereo, and you should check off that's its mono in the onscreen setup or the sound will suck. and yes, it's nice knowing that if reception wavers, you don't lose momentary picture quality, you lose actual lines of dialogue. i only watch 3 shows (30 rocl, office, and lost), so i'd be wicked pissed if i didn't get nbc--which i only do if i pick the antenna off the tv and put it on the floor behind the tv. maybe something like that is the issue?

[Listener David]

Krys!! Thanks soooo much for alerting me to Sue Simmons going off. That was hysterical!! I loved it.

[Dale Hazelton]

If you live near the city this will be a gold mine -- BUT YOU NEED A GOOD UHF ANTENNNA. The rabbit ears only work on VHF (2-12) and FM radio. Just about all digital is UHF, 13 and up. I live 65 miles north of the city and have an outdoor antenna on the roof and a signal amplifier (Channel Master UHF) for my upstairs set. 3 PBS feeds or 5 NJN feeds for free is pretty cool. PBS digital is totally different programming than analog, by the way. Pseu, if you have one of those 99 cent bowtie antennas, that may be all you need (it WILL work better than rabbit ears, guaranteed). Beg, borrow or steal UHF antennas to try first. Start cheap and work your way up (you may need a Balun (3 or 4 dollars) from Radio Shack if the antenna you try just has the two wires at the end.

If you're cheap like me, this indoor antenna works, as gay as it seems all you need is cardboard or plywood, tinfoil, coat hangers and some screws, washers and wire and some coaxial cable (fun FMU project).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw

Or go buy the Zenith antenna. I'd buy it locally in case it doesn't work that great for you, you can return it.

The Telecom act of 1996 says you can put any antenna you want on the roof of your building too, so if you live in an apartment they legally can't stop you from putting one up. Again, you want a UHF specific antenna.

Look at TitanTV.com to see what you should receive. TVFool.com also tells you how far you are from broadcast towers and what your signal strength should be. Forget Antennaweb.com, it showed me getting about three channels but I get more like 20.

When the transition is final broadcasters should move the UHF digital signal to their main transmitters at full power (right now they are broadcasting two separate signals, one for VHF, one for digital) so the signal strength should improve. Higher is always better when it comes to an antenna. I have the homemade antenna referenced on Youtube on my downstairs TV that is losing stations as the tree in front of my house comes into leaf. Every time a car goes by it degrades for a second, too, so getting a clear line of site is important.

Pseu, Email me if you need help.

[Krys O.]

I bought my decoder box this weekend with my discount card. Easy enough to set up and connect to my RCA indoor UHF/VHF/HD antenna but it wouldn't pickup channel 13. Couldn't read the signal. Dale, how do you connect the signal amplifier?

Cheers,
Krys O.

[Dale Hazelton]

This is the amp (I got mine off ebay for about $65 with free shipping from a vendor in the Buffalo area):

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=ANC7777

I did ALOT of searching, joining webgroups etc to get this info. This unit is the absolute best for UHF amplification. The gray box goes as close to the antenna as possible (I opened it up and turned off the FM amplifying function). The beige part that plugs in to the wall goes by the set. Get familiar with making your own coax connections (it's pretty simple, just need a razor or xacto and some pliers to crimp). I couldn't get 4, 11 or 13 before adding this. 13 can still be choppy depending on the weather and 4 usually disappears during the day, they just aren't pumping out a strong signal. I also got 25 but they stopped broadcasting recently on digital. Go to that TVfool site and put your zip code in to see what you should be able to get. It even tells you how high a broadcaster's tower is.

You can shop around the SolidSignal site for UHF antennas. You can put an antenna in the attic, too. Won't be as good as out in the daylight, though.

The FCC screwed this up bigtime. They didn't inform us in any way that we'd have to jump through hoops to get a signal. But after all is said and done, I really don't know why people PAY for programming. If you get an HD set with the built in ATSC (digital) tuner, NOVA will blow your mind. I was told by a technology writer from the NYTimes that broadcasters will shift the digital signal to their primary transmitters when they shut down analog, so this SHOULD get easier.

Anybody can email me. But please, use it for good, not evil.

[email protected]

[Dale Hazelton]

Oh, and this is the Classic, the Studebaker of indoor UHF antennas, and I'll bet they show up on ebay. Forget rabbit ears with a tiny UHF loop, the rabbit ear portion will be useless come next Feb anyway. Search for "Radio Shack double bowtie" on ebay or even amazon. It's funky looking, but I had one for years in Brooklyn and it works great.

http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/photos/MVC-838S.JPG

You will also need a balun that converts a twinlead to coax. They only come with a male end, so you need a female adapter to go to the coax (I don't know why they make it so hard).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tvbalun.jpg