In article ,
"Ralph Mowery" wrote:

"Rich Grise" wrote in message
news
My current UHF antenna is a 14" Radio Shack clip lead clipped from the
center of my coax to the venetian blind. I have to hand-adjust it
for the channel, weather conditions, phase of the moon, etc. I can
do this because I can _see_ an indication of signal strength.

Well, with this new Fascist "No More Free TV" crap, I'm gonna need
a real UHF antenna. My budget is exceedingly limited, but I have
a supply of materials (GTAW filler rod, with some coppery-colored
coating, so it solders like a dream, and is as stiff as piano wire)
to build an antenna with.

It may not take too much antenna. I picked up one of the converter boxes
and hooked it to a 432 mhz beam at 70 feet and got 21 stations on the auto
tune. Then to a 9 element M2 2 meter bem and it picked up 29 stations.
This was at the end of about 130 feet of low loss rg-8 size coax and then 25
feet of rg-6.
Several of the stations were the same transmitter,but differant chanels on
the TV.

no more free tv?? where do you live?

here in the usa over the air tv is , was and shall remain free

in feb it will switch to digital however shall still be free

ml wrote:
In article ,
"Ralph Mowery" wrote:

"Rich Grise" wrote in message
news
My current UHF antenna is a 14" Radio Shack clip lead clipped from the
center of my coax to the venetian blind. I have to hand-adjust it
for the channel, weather conditions, phase of the moon, etc. I can
do this because I can _see_ an indication of signal strength.

Well, with this new Fascist "No More Free TV" crap, I'm gonna need
a real UHF antenna. My budget is exceedingly limited, but I have
a supply of materials (GTAW filler rod, with some coppery-colored
coating, so it solders like a dream, and is as stiff as piano wire)
to build an antenna with.

It may not take too much antenna. I picked up one of the converter boxes
and hooked it to a 432 mhz beam at 70 feet and got 21 stations on the auto
tune. Then to a 9 element M2 2 meter bem and it picked up 29 stations.
This was at the end of about 130 feet of low loss rg-8 size coax and then 25
feet of rg-6.
Several of the stations were the same transmitter,but differant chanels on
the TV.

no more free tv?? where do you live?

here in the usa over the air tv is , was and shall remain free

in feb it will switch to digital however shall still be free

Digital is a major step toward "conditional access".

"Dave" wrote in message
...

Digital is a major step toward "conditional access".

So is analog. If you don't have the proper reciever, you can't pick it up.
Just a different format.

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:26:28 -0800, CW wrote:
"Dave" wrote in message

Digital is a major step toward "conditional access".

So is analog. If you don't have the proper reciever, you can't pick it up.
Just a different format.

Even they used to be free, if you knew where to dumpster-dive. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

CW wrote:
"Dave" wrote in message
...
Digital is a major step toward "conditional access".

So is analog. If you don't have the proper reciever, you can't pick it up.
Just a different format.


That's not what conditional access means.

"Dave" wrote in message
...
CW wrote:
"Dave" wrote in message
...
Digital is a major step toward "conditional access".

So is analog. If you don't have the proper reciever, you can't pick it
up.
Just a different format.


That's not what conditional access means.

Conditional access has been done with analog -- but not well. I sucessfully
defeated analog scrambling with two different home-brew devices but I never
tried digital. Too hard.

It's much easier to hard-code C/A with digital.

Just my two cents.

TV has never been 'free'. you pay for it with every product you purchase
that is advertised on tv. and of course you pay for it in taxes, and also
in product purchases from sponsors, for 'public' tv channels. tanstaafl!

"Dave" wrote in message
...
TV has never been 'free'. you pay for it with every product you purchase
that is advertised on tv. and of course you pay for it in taxes, and also
in product purchases from sponsors, for 'public' tv channels. tanstaafl!

My squawk with "pay" TV is that you pay to get it, and then have to
additionally watch commercials.

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:51:24 +0000, Dave wrote:


Digital is a major step toward "conditional access".

And the 80 year old method of modulation, a combination of pulse, FM,
and analog was just as much a restriction to specialized equipment. If
you tried to get TV on your XTAL radio, it would be like listening to
an encrypted secure network.

If you stood out in a field and tried to listen to AM radio waves
(without even the boon of that XTAL radio), you would still suffer
"conditional access."

So, what is the big deal?

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:17:44 -0800, Richard Clark wrote:

So, what is the big deal?

Being required to turn over my hard-earned cash to further enrich the
rich fat white executives.

Thanks,
Rich