I Want My Antenna TV

This was originally published on an old blog back in 2014, I've decided to re-post it here.

I’d like to preface that this isn’t a things where better when I was a kid or a “back in my day” type of blog entry.  No, this is just a reminiscence of time gone by.  So without further ado,

Back in my day, capturing a television signal with an antenna was better.  I recall getting my first television for my bedroom, a 13” Symphonic complete with coaxial cable and UHF connection.  What a beauty! I mean that sum-bitch was cable ready!  I didn’t have cable in my room though.  Which is odd because I was living in Litchfield at the time and when we lived in Gardiner prior to that my brother and I had cable in our rooms.

So, technically the Symphonic wasn’t my first television.  We lived in Gardiner from like 1983 – 1987 and I clearly remember having a TV in my room, it had the dual dials one for VHF and one for UHF.  Then in February 1987 we moved to Litchfield and not only did we now not have TV’s in our room, but Litchfield didn’t even have Cable!

Moving on.

Back then you could plug in the TV, hook up the rabbit ears, and bam you had 5, 6, 8, 10, 13 & 51 just like that! Sure you had to move the rabbit ears around a bit to get 5 to come in, but that didn’t really matter much. Even if the picture was a little fuzzy you could still see and hear it. 

Then the digital conversion happened, June 12, 2009.  Now all television broadcast signals must be sent out digitally.  It has its advantages, a clearer crisper picture; more channels can fit in the same spectrum of data, i.e. Channel 6, 6.1 and ect. 

But it has its disadvantages as well; a weaker signal, as in the data can only be broadcast so far from the tower before it breaks down and the equipment can’t decode the data to present a picture.  The digital signal lacks the feedback that the analog signal provided so you can adjust the antenna to clear the picture.  What this means, for those that remember, when you put it on Channel 5 and the picture is fuzzy as you move the antenna around the picture either got better or worse letting you know where to position the antenna, with digital the picture is on or it’s off, there is no in between.  A signal meter does help with this issue.  

Now in my apartment when I first hooked up the rabbit ears I got channels 10, 10.1, 10.2, & 10.3 and 23.  That’s it, and most of the time Fox 23 just didn’t work because I couldn’t remember exactly where I had the antenna when I got it to come in.   I put the antenna away a few months back because we just didn’t use it, we don’t have cable just internet, Netflix and HULU Plus.  The other day I put it back out and hit the auto program button and not a single channel appeared.  I tried moving the antenna around to get channel 10 to come in.  After several minutes of nothing I just decided to put it away. 

When I was a kid I used to like hitting the auto program button, let the television run the channels and then see what it gave me when it was done.  I always had 5, 6, 8, 10, 13 & 51.  For a while though I got 26, another PBS channel and a religious channel that I didn’t bother with. 

One stormy night I accidentally hit the auto program button and was shocked to discover that I was somehow getting Channel 4 an NBC station out of Boston!  So on stormy nights I would hit the auto program button and see what signals the storms would bring me.  I would get Channels 2 & 7 from Bangor regularly, and occasionally channels from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  Granted these pictures weren’t very clear and sometimes barely tolerable, but it was neat all the same. 

When I moved to Pittston I was setting the Symphonic up down in the basement and using the rabbit ears just for shiggles I ran the auto program and my friends 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, & 51 where there along with 35 & 23! 

The digital conversion made a lot of electronics obsolete.  The old school battery powered handheld and portable televisions no longer function because you need a digital tuner or a digital converter box.  Even with Time Warner Cable you can’t just plug the coaxial cable into the back of the TV anymore.  You have to have one of their mini digital converter boxes, no matter what kind of TV you have, even it has a digital tuner built into it.  Of course Time Warner charges you a monthly fee for those little boxes. 

I can’t see me ever getting cable again, and sadly the days of rabbit ears have gone by.  As long as I have internet and services like Netflix and HULU Plus I’ll make due.  Sure this fall I’ll probably try to get Fox to come in again so I can watch Football, but it won’t kill me if I can’t.

  For those of you that missed it, the post title is a spin on a line from the Dire Straits song Money For Nothing.

Until Next Time!

UPDATE!!

In 2016 we moved to house I'm currently living in and I bought a new TV last fall, a Roku TV and the digital receiver is much better, with my rabbit ears sitting on top of a book shelf on a clear day or night I can get channels 6, 8, 10, 13, 23, & 51 and with all there sub-channels that's 21 channels total.  I really want to get an antenna on the roof because during storms or windy days 6, 8, & 51 have broken reception.