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I just realized my FB thread has become a negative space for me. Between cute animal videos, critical Trump posts were increasing ... and it was like heroin. Ate it up.
Also had a sucky attitude.
Imma go one full month. I can't believe I'm that into it. Like a gottam mental casino, hoping to get 'likes.'
I replaced the outdoor 3â pole for mounting with a piece of metal pipe from Ace thatâs maybe 10â tall, as well as being mounted on my roof. And mounting on that, as well as pointing based on AntennaWebâs recs, gets me a lot more reception. Also, some folks buy powered preamps. Never tried.
My old house had a powered preamp that I think was needed for the weak analog signal. Not sure if it made any difference when we went digital. Not sure what there is at my new place, but it annoyingly picks up a usually broken signal from a city a couple of hours away. Then the tv randomly adds all those channels back in and I have to figure out which to delete.
Most people here have gone to streaming. We only sign up when there is show we particularly want to watch (As an aside, fuck you BBC for moving Dr. Who to netflix or amazon or whoever). Most of the streaming I do is from the local stations free on demand streaming.
But my internet is fixed wireless now since I live too far from town. It's slower than the fibre to the home I just got before my move, but I'm not a big gamer so it's fine. Well, it was fine until we lost our wireless tower and all the radio transmitters in a bushfire.
Location: At the dude ranch / above the sea Gender:
Posted:
Aug 19, 2026 - 11:38am
Proclivities wrote:
I have a digital antenna - I think it cost about $20.00 - it gets most local channels in addition to the horrible shopping networks, but I don't get CBS or Comet - even though they are listed it tries but does not connect. I guess if I bought a more expensive one or lived in a different location I would get more channels. It has come in handy when the cable or internet is down though.
I replaced the outdoor 3â pole for mounting with a piece of metal pipe from Ace thatâs maybe 10â tall, as well as being mounted on my roof. And mounting on that, as well as pointing based on AntennaWebâs recs, gets me a lot more reception. Also, some folks buy powered preamps. Never tried.
An OTA antenna, depending on where you live, can be extremely cheap. I have one that I stuck on my window in Pittsburgh and, when the internet goes down during a storm, I just hook the TV to my little battery backup and get the latest news/weather as needed. Canât do that with cable.
Folks use AntennaWeb to see what works for them. It tells me âUp to 143 channels from 23 over-the-air stations may be received at this location.â
There are, in some areas, hundreds of stations available - although most of them are foreign language (âStupid white people pay for cable!â) or just noise (âAll Cops all the time!â). So it would require one or two big players to make any cultural shift.
I have a digital antenna - I think it cost about $20.00 - it gets most local channels in addition to the horrible shopping networks, but I don't get CBS or Comet - even though they are listed it tries but does not connect. I guess if I bought a more expensive one or lived in a different location I would get more channels. It has come in handy when the cable or internet is down though.
An OTA antenna, depending on where you live, can be extremely cheap. I have one that I stuck on my window in Pittsburgh and, when the internet goes down during a storm, I just hook the TV to my little battery backup and get the latest news/weather as needed. Canât do that with cable.
Location: At the dude ranch / above the sea Gender:
Posted:
Aug 19, 2026 - 11:17am
rgio wrote:
You mean like Amazon, Netflix, and all of the other "with ad" services?
Exactly. The theory behind cable at the beginning was that these were prepaid, so no ads. That lasted about 1/10 of a second. Now even NPR is âthis program sponsored byâ¦â So ads in OTA shows arenât a big step.
The issue is that 90% of US households are now set up to stream via cable. OTA requires additional broadcasting and receiver hardware that isn't necessary if you're "piggy-backing" your entertainment off of your internet.
My daughters live in Philly, and both use digital antennae to OTA local news, sports, and PBS. It works really well, but I can't see it ever being mainstream.
To your point though....what if everything was wifi? What if all of your streaming was wifi without cable? I mean OTA from a giant antenna like it used to be, not just wireless. Cable comes to the home, goes to a box, and then thereâs optional eventual translation to a WiFi signal to your phone or TV, but thatâs still cable or internet broadcasting. You gotta pay Verizon or someone to make it come to your home and then thereâs the cable box, etc. OTA just needs an adequate antenna.
An OTA antenna, depending on where you live, can be extremely cheap. I have one that I stuck on my window in Pittsburgh and, when the internet goes down during a storm, I just hook the TV to my little battery backup and get the latest news/weather as needed. Canât do that with cable.
Folks use AntennaWeb to see what works for them. It tells me âUp to 143 channels from 23 over-the-air stations may be received at this location.â
There are, in some areas, hundreds of stations available - although most of them are foreign language (âStupid white people pay for cable!â) or just noise (âAll Cops all the time!â). So it would require one or two big players to make any cultural shift - which is the point of my original post. Right now, OTA is trash, but I predict that things will shift. </Karnak>
(Imagine if Apple or a YouTube spinoff created a real TV station with ads.)
You mean like Amazon, Netflix, and all of the other "with ad" services?
The issue is that 90% of US households are now set up to stream via cable. OTA requires additional broadcasting and receiver hardware that isn't necessary if you're "piggy-backing" your entertainment off of your internet.
My daughters live in Philly, and both use digital antennae to OTA local news, sports, and PBS. It works really well, but I can't see it ever being mainstream.
To your point though....what if everything was wifi? What if all of your streaming was wifi without cable?
In the near future, there will be a shift from cable/internet broadcasting back to OTA broadcasting like it used to be. OTA broadcasting isnât compressed like cable feeds are, and limiting to internet broadcasting means you miss out on people who canât afford it.
(Current OTA is a horrible annoying culture-free wasteland. Imagine if Apple or a YouTube spinoff created a real TV station with ads.)
"Local" stations here are required by law to have an OTA system available; our county still funds the translator towers but they talk about doing away with it. Some people would definitely howl but our house has never gotten a good signal. But yeah if ESPN or someone like that was on there, I'd look into getting a decent antenna again.
In the near future, there will be a shift from cable/internet broadcasting back to OTA broadcasting like it used to be. OTA broadcasting isnât compressed like cable feeds are, and limiting to internet broadcasting means you miss out on people who canât afford it.
(Current OTA is a horrible annoying culture-free wasteland. Imagine if Apple or a YouTube spinoff created a real TV station with ads.)
We don't have cable TV; just cable interwebs. We use an antenna for local news stations - and occasional baseball games.
Location: At the dude ranch / above the sea Gender:
Posted:
Aug 19, 2026 - 11:03am
Prediction:
In the near future, there will be a shift from cable/internet broadcasting back to OTA broadcasting like it used to be. OTA broadcasting isnât compressed like cable feeds are, and limiting to internet broadcasting means you miss out on people who canât afford it.
(Current OTA is a horrible annoying culture-free wasteland. Imagine if Apple or a YouTube spinoff created a real TV station with ads.)
I've long said that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot force them to drink.
The enlightened will know why before trying. Cuz they'll kick the shit out of you ...
"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
