DIGITAL TV IS NO TV!!!
I went and got a brand new DIGITAL CONVERTER BOX and an indoor, UHF and VHF ANTENNA (it's combined in one,) and I thought myself READY FOR ANTENNA TV. But ABC will NOT COME IN no matter how I walk that aerial around the room! Nor do a dozen other local tv stations ( I use ZAP2IT.COM online guide or TITAN TV online guide. See channels that I cannot receive, local, too. ANTENNA TV CHANNELS/ STATIONS. But LA's air is too thick or my antenna too weak. And I could scream at that useless clock dial on base of antenna that does nothing! I'm smack in the middle of my city, L.A! Imagine a station as important as ABC being WEAK IN THE BEAM!! As a senior, living alone, four children in other states, no car, no job, I need my TV. I feel that THIS CONVERSION-TO-DIGITAL PRANK was created by the HUGE CABLE CORPORATIONS WHO WANT TO DRIVE us Low-income or NO-income viewers INTO PAYING 40$ to 100$ a month for PAY TV! If so, the GOV was in serious collusion with the cable stations.
Have we been SOLD OUT by our own representatives in the GOVERNMENT? Was there some under-the-table-handshake between Cable giants like TIME WARNER and THE POLITICIANS perhaps? Or do cable stations own some TV STATIONS TOO and have these skunks arranged for ALL TV STATIONS to just transmit some funky, low beam so that we're herded like buffalo over the cliffs to our deaths? (Injun method of getting meat.)
The ABC/ FOX CBS, NBC DIGITAL FEED IS way too skinny to be picked up by my brand new VHF /UHF aerial, and in the CENTER OF LOS ANGELES!! Was this deliberate? If ever there's a cui bonum, you can expect the dirty act was deliberate. Like Murder. There has to be a cui bonum or 'the guy who profits, and his motive!' THE VILLAIN. Money is the motive. That's cui bonum in my book!
Do the OLIGARCHS who own FOX, ABC and NBC also own CABLE CORPS & do they WANT TO DRIVE us away from free tv? Don't they care about ad revenues? I wrote every big advertising agency telling them 75% of the population can no longer receive network TV! Once this gets out that nobody can watch tv any more, it should send all the advertising money to cable, no? Hey, I'm not PAYING for CABLE, the gov just took all Social Security recipients down 15%! I now get 305$ a month for rent, food and utilities. Unless I can sleep with the Cable Guy, I'm going cable free!
But my point is: those PHONY, hugely COSTLY CONVERTER BOXES give NO reception at all in windy or rainy weather and very BAD RECEPTION on most channels in good weather. My TV looks as if a giant, shimmering puzzle glows and twitches at the other end of the room, no sound, just gurgles and I'm in LOS ANGELES! I'm NOT IN THE BOONIES!
Free TV is over with and hey this converter box and arial were not free! They are just badly made, a dishonest deal as most RADIO SHAFT equipment is... MADE IN CHINA etc. JUST THINK, Congress, the networks, ad agencies and CABLE STATIONS made us buy this crap electronics with the promise we could watch FREE, ANTENNA TV .. dozens of free stations and hapily surf the AIRWAVES they rode in on. But mostly little old senior me, locked in a single room can get CBS and NBC and a few syndication channels.
We seniors HAVE this DIGITAL CONVERTER BOX NOW and IT IS USELESS! AND IT and the UHF/ VHF AERIAL COST A BUNDLE! DEVASTATING INTERFERENCE EQUALS NO FOX, NO ABC and none of those under-powered stations with syndicated vintage shows. I'm devastated.
My point is this, fellow Americans: DIGITAL TV is HOAX TV, as DIGITAL TV CONVERTER BOXES do not work. All those costly converter boxes and costly UHF/VHF ANTENNAS were a USELESS waste of my food MONEY! I'm mad as HELL-- so tell me, what can I do about it? The POLITICIANS LISTENED TO CABLE COMPANIES AND DID THIS TO US? They sure aren't going to listen to the citizenry. THEY sold US OUT, plain and clear. FOX, CBS, NBC and ABC TV send so scandalously weak a beam stream that in the middle of LOS ANGELES you can't get it with a brand new UHF VHF Aerial ! I'm climbing on beds, chairs, holding the aerial high in the air, hanging it off hooks from the ceiling. Closest I ever got to a signal was wrapping the aerial cord around my body. I'm afraid my family is gonna find me hanging like DAVID CARRADINE! Isn't there a way the cash rich networks could double their BEAM and prevent my family finding my body hoist by my own petard? Mom in the grip of some hunger other than for TV?
Lately, in a world where every politician and bank official has turned into a Mexican Customs agent, I suspect that THESE "weak-beam" networks with defunct translator stations surely must be colluding with the Time Warner set to get us to SWITCH away from FREE TEVEE To 100$ a month CABLE. Tell me, do you know exactly which TV stations are actually owned by CABLE companies or have CABLE CORPS as serious ADVERTISERS producing huge enough revenue streams to screw the viewer in this manner? If there are fiduciary ties, then citizens should stamp out this COLLUSION! Join me in banning this under the table wink and handshake, the vested interest, this MONOPOLY! Imagine how mad folks in the rural plains, mountains outside the big city ARE RIGHT NOW.
The Only bright spot on the whole SPECTRUM of 70 channels is "THIS TV" channel, MGM re-runs of their B MOVIES. I DELIGHT IN IT! But with only 4,000 movies in their hold down in Culver City, won't this senior run out of B movie fun before senility hits? Or should I just welcome the big A? signed, Anita Sands in Hell-A!
My mountain man chum wrote::" Digital wasn't thought out too well. It works if you're close to a transmitter. Thing is, it take four times the power to almost go as far as it did in analog. (Ahh, and the stations are too cheap? Is that it?) He goes on: I live in the Sierra Nevada. I used to get San Francisco channels here a 150 miles away but now I'm lucky to get local channels 40 miles away. They went from 250,000 watts to 1 million watts. The local signals are 40 miles away 50 miles tops. With a good antenna and good weather conditions, a cold winter night with no moisture it works okay. Heat inversion will stop the signal travel. Rain, snow, wind, heat, trees, hills, a leaf, a twig, ants blowing their nose will break up the signal. So far, I'm not impressed with digital. VHF goes so much further then UHF digital. All you need to have it drop --is one breeze and the whole signal goes to crap and it stays at crap for several seconds. Digital is nice when it works. It's too bad they only gave out coupons for a converter box and not Basic Cable."
So to understand beams, waves, I went Googling around & I found that an ENGINEER I found this article by James H. Quello - It seems to have pertinence to the air wave mess issue. BACK IN 2007 he SPOTTED a SERIOUS “Foul-up” Waiting To Happen with THIS DIGITAL TV THING. HE SAYS THAT Using “white space” could cause devastating TV interference! NO DUHHHH!
"For a World War II veteran who survived seven amphibious landings, military lingo is a natural part of my lexicon. And as a longtime FCC commissioner and former broadcaster, I sense a “fubar” from a long way off. In case you don't know, “fubar” is a military expression meaning “Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition” (in the cleaned-up version). Exactly what is causing this turmoil?~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~The alarming communications issue is the current proposal requiring the FCC to authorize all varieties of unlicensed devices, from wireless laptops to radio-controlled toys, on spectrum that was once reserved for television.
In case you've missed this highly technical argument, the FCC is proposing to open up the spectrum space between TV channels—that is, the “white space”—for use by next-generation wireless devices. This debate is not going to make headlines in newspapers, but I believe it will certainly cause headaches for broadcasters if it happens.
The unlicensed approach was originally intended to make spectrum available for new rural broadband services. Certainly, rural America deserves a choice in such services, and wireless broadband will help reach remote areas. But there is spectrum available in rural areas that, with proper planning, can be utilized for broadband services without harming consumers' digital reception.
Unfortunately, the proponents of unlicensed devices have ventured way beyond providing rural broadband services. They propose to use the unlicensed approach for “in-home” personal and portable consumer products in large and middle-size markets. That will cause, well, television fubar. Digital-TV reception and broadcast's conversion to digital will be threatened.
I respect the technical expertise of Silicon Valley, but I would require definite substantiation of their claim that they can place unlicensed transmitting devices on vacant TV frequencies without causing interference to TV sets.
A key problem is the location of these unlicensed devices relative to a consumer's TV set. Even a low-power device can interfere with a TV set if it is located close enough: A neighbor in the next apartment or down the street may cause your new digital TV set or subsidized converter box to freeze up.
Unlike the old analog system, in which interference was just some wavy lines, interference to digital signals makes the picture totally unwatchable. It locks up, and the sound goes off. People using these unlicensed devices will not realize they are causing a problem. TV watchers suddenly deprived of television will wonder why the government's new digital converter box doesn't work.
Astute House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) registered his warning about the potential impediments to overall digital-TV transaction. He was quoted in the press: “I think careful oversight is going to be very much needed, because I have great apprehension that a fine mess lies before us.”
I agree. In a more perfect, logical world, the government should first finalize the DTV transition before activating auctions or before validating unlicensed devices.
There is a great burden of proof on industries seeking free spectrum and proposing unlicensed devices in larger and midsize markets throughout the nation. Why not consider requiring that these devices go through pre-testing. In fact, why not license them?
Over the next few years, consumers will spend billions of dollars on new digital TV sets. Congress has allocated $1.5 billion to subsidize new digital-to-analog converter boxes. Unfortunately, the interference by this white-space problem could create a fiasco.
The DTV transition will probably be the most difficult consumer challenge since the beginning of television. It should be finalized before the TV band is opened to potentially devastating interference.
Final note: The most vital usage of information spectrum for consumers remains two of the very first wireless communication entities: radio in the 1920s and television later. Broadcasters remain the prime and often exclusive originators and providers of emergency warnings, local news, information and community civic integration. Let's not lose the picture. The digital transition doesn't have to end up as the FCC's coast-to-coast fubar.
Author Information - Quello, 91, was an FCC commissioner for 23½ years and a broadcaster for 27 years. He is chairman/founder of the Quello Telecommunications Center for Management and Law at Michigan State University. He is also an independent contractor for Washington communications-law firm Wiley Rein LLP.
MEANWHILE USE THIS CONVERTER BOX RESCAN METHOD I heard ON THE EVENING NEWS. Took notes.
FIX for the DIGITAL CONVERTER BOX! A double digital rescan IS NECESSARY if
channels are missing. I am missing ABC, KTTV AND KCOP after doing a
perfect ten point landing of a scan. Then I found out that THE FIX For
the CHANNELS MISSING is a total RECOFIGURATION from scratch, called a
DOUBLE RESCAN! Got this off my local NEWS ANCHOR!
1.) to start, BETTER MAKE sure it's a VHF /UHF antenna. There have been
other kinds sold...
2.) DISCONNECT ANTENNA from converter box
3.) RESCAN BOX with no ANTENNA
4.) UNPLUG Dig tv CONVERTER box and leave off for l minute
5.) RECONNECT antenna.
6.) RESCAN digital tv converter box.
NOW YOU WILL HAVE ALL CHANNELS, I am assured. Let me know
anita or astrology@earthlink.net
PS. As I can't get any channels, I have to walk around the room with aerial in hand just to find one station, and often the BEAM is found high in the ceiling area! I can't stand there a senior with an aerial in my hand! But worse, walking around yanking cord pulled the converter box off mirror-slick top of tv and it hit the floor & broke! Now, nothing, no signal, just grainy screen. Gonna go online look for coupons again. Give them my stage name or something.
PSS. Yahoo lister dumped their cable, too costly but complained there are no more digital coupons available from gov. True. But CRAIGS LIST has 'em by the dozen. See, millions of people who bought digital converter boxes and rabbit ears found they had to stand on a chair holding the ariel to watch any TV. The moving around of ariel seeking a 'beam' frequently caused china items on shelves to crash onto the floor. Worse, seniors who had to stand and hold something high over their head for an entire movie began to have heart attacks from keeping arms in air so long. Whatever substance those shows are beamed out over the air waves happens to be SUPER FEEBLE. You might find one spot in a room up at ceiling height that could get the odd channels. ABC was the worst for me, in the CITY OF L.A. mind you where they have their transmitter! So end result: you can buy the whole box and ears from somebody who decided that cable wasn't so bad after all. Or you can get basic cable, or a ROKU box. They tell me you can watch stuff online, but that requires a newer computer than mine, which was built in 1995. And a tekkie temperament.
LETTER CAME IN: Having worked in a TV shop I might have an answer to your Hoax TV problem.Digital TV converter boxes don't work by themselves: You need a digital antenna to make one of those things work. (THAT IS WHAT I HAVE, I'm not dumb. Radio Shaft sold it to me with the converter box.) The old rabbit ears style antenna might give you one badly received station, it's better than nothing, but it's still not the right tool. They make el cheapo floppy flat digital ones for $10 but they're not worth the money. I think those are made by RCA. They look like a stick with thin white wings.
Get a Terk brand one if you can spare the cash. It's silver colored, has a flat forked part sticking out of it, and you have to assemble it when you get it by sticking that fork into the base until it clicks. Those work the best. They are around $35. Which way you point it will get you more stations from that direction. I have one of these and I get stations from 150 miles away in all directions. I get 4 or 5 kinds of PBS, for example.
Second best is the RCA brand one that looks like the bottom (flat) part of a paper cutter - it's like a 12 inch white plastic square with a grid molded into it. Those are $29.
Someone even makes an antenna that looks like a picture frame, and then you can put a picture in it and hang it over the TV on the wall. I imagine it would look dumb with the cord hanging down off it though.
That should solve your digital reception problem. Unless you are in some kind of dead-reception area. Sometimes if you're down in a valley this can be the case. The higher up you can put your antenna the better (if your TV is in the kitchen, stash it on top of your cupboards, for instance). DREAM ON. WHO WATCHES TUBE IN GREASY KITCHEN> I watch in BED. No cupboards high up.
They do make rooftop ones, they're more expensive and then of course you need to get on your roof to install them. One of the indoor ones ought to be sufficient."
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by Anita Sands Hernandez- homespun journalist, mother of 4 and career astrologer. Visit THE CONSPIRACY INDEX PAGE, also from the HOW TO SURVIVE THE FUTURE INDEX PAGE, and the WHAT IS THE FUTURE? for Americans and the MELTDOWN for Dummies ARCHIVE, and THE POLITICAL TRUTHS which NO Newspaper will ever report COLLECTION ... and if you go thru those portals, you'll find dozens of other Anita Sands websites if not hundreds or thousands. Get natal horoscope made, 30$ hr. talking to me on phone, I email you the CIRCLE so we can both read it.
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