Free Off-the-Air TV

Started by Administrator, December 11, 2021, 11:51:51 PM

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Administrator

OFF-THE-AIR TV RECEPTION IN EDEN ISLES

    In 2009 the FCC forced us to move to the new standard of modulation for the off-air broadcast stations. The reason they did this is because the new modulation technique is vastly superior. Almost all of the transmitter locations for New Orleans are in the Chalmette area so you really can get about 35 channels of free off-air broadcast stations perfectly here in Eden Isles by pointing your antenna in that direction. I personally have been using free broadcast television only since 2009 and I am completely satisfied with it. Twilight Zone comes on ever night on channel 6-2 at 10PM and the main broadcast channels, i. e.; 4-1, 6-1, 8-1, 12-1, 26-1, 38-1, and 54-1 all broadcast in High Def and these are free, advertiser supported channels.

    My antenna is located in the attic of my home. Most houses in Eden Isles have those large open attics and there is enough signal in Eden Isles so that this will work fine here but you have to use a special amplified antenna. Do not look for this type of antenna at Radio Shack or Home Depot, they will not know what you are talking about. They do not have the amplified kind that you need. To get the correct antenna that you need, you must order it from Ebay. You have to put in three search words: ( amplified tv antenna ). This will pull up the kind of antenna that you need. Usually they only cost about $35 including shipping. (See the picture)  This is the only kind of antenna that will work here in Eden Isles. The other kind that is un-amplified will continually drop out and become very annoying.

    Our government offered us coupons back in 2009 to buy the Digital TV adapter boxes and these work good and are still available if you have the older style of televisions in your house. From the back of the adapter box there are stereo RCA type connectors to get surround sound to go with the excellent picture but to get the beautiful 1080 pixel over-air high definition video you will need a modern TV.

     There is a free online TV guide at tvlistings.aol.com  To use this you put in 70458 for the zip code and then put "Over the Air, NorthShore" and this will show you what is available. There is so much free TV that I seem to get all that I want. I understand now why it was that we needed to go this new method. Most of us were angry that this was forced on us but now I understand that it was for our own betterment. The problem now is that many people do not understand that there is free quality television because we all abandoned antennas years ago because of poor performance.

... Bill Northup,
    Eden Isles Resident

posted via forum administrator

Administrator

Here is some more info ...

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html   fcc ruling on homeowner association covenants

http://www.antennapoint.com  mapping & channel list for local TV broadcasts

http://www.tvfool.com  channel locator and signal strength estimator

Antennas are frequency selective, and each TV channel is transmitted on a different frequency.  The bow tie antenna is designed to work on a broader range of frequencies and has been around for at least 50 years.  You can "google" bow tie antenna for a lot of extra information.

Some do it yourself bow tie antennas:

http://www.diytvantennas.com/bowtie.php

http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com

A ready made antenna inside an enclosure with a built in booster:
http://www.antennahub.com/television-antenna.aspx?gclid=CNbGwbnQkLUCFQeDnQodBmwABQ   

YouTube video on above antenna: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkmKVVa5xeg&feature=youtu.be