On Mon, 2 Dec 2013 00:00:37 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
Trivia: Cable leakage has changed over the last few years. The sync
buzz of the analog TV era has been replaced by digital hiss. Put a
temporary antenna on your cable connection and listen on a suitable
receiver. Some cable systems still carry FM broadcast stations, so he
might also be hearing those coming from a cable leak. Locally,
everything was moved to digital channels in 2005.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Comcast-to-restore-30-FM-radio-stations-Some-2625920.php

I guess it depends on where you are Jeff. Around where I live there about
100 channels that are still analog. Still starting at the old channel 2.

Comcast is now all digital in the People's Republic of Santa Cruz CA.
Of course Comcast has a new scam. You get up to two "free" DTA boxes:
http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?seoid=What-is-a-digital-adapter
for listening to FM and viewing non-HD channels. It was originally
announced that it was "free" for 2 years, but Comcast started adding
$5/month per box to some peoples bills in about June.

One problem is that the DTA box somehow manages to produce worse than
analog quality TV pictures. Digital in, garbage out. I don't know
how they managed it, but the "free" box produces some of the worst
looking pictures I have ever seen since the introduction of color TV.
The Comcast solution is to rent a similar box, that produces HD video,
and amazingly produces decent looking non-HD video for $10/month.
That's $120/year per TV set for what used to be free:
http://bgr.com/2013/10/16/comcast-digital-adapter-criticism/
https://www.google.com/search?q=comcast+dta&tbm=isch
Oddly, both types of DTA boxes use the same digital data for non-HD
stations, so it's not Comcast that's sending garbage video. It's the
DTA box.

Both types of boxes will play some local FM stations, but I've only
tried it on the HD version. Works fine but will vary by area. For
Santa Cruz, we get about 30 stations.

The state I live in is still way behind times.

That may not be such a bad thing.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558