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Showing posts from October, 2008

A prediction

There has been some discussion on the various forums and among the so-called "experts" that some people will lose television reception after February 17, 2009. The reason? The "wall effect." Analog stations are viewable over great distances, but with a degradation in quality as the signal weakens. Digital stations, for their part, are "all or nothing at all." If the signal isn't strong enough to generate picture or sound, you get nothing. And this worries a lot of people. The wall effect can be avoided or at least minimized, in my experience, by building as good an antenna as you can, or by buying a really good one. Of course, some people on the fringe of any particular station might not be able to receive it, but I think once everything shakes out in February, you'll not hear many complaints. And that's just my two cents.

Not much new ...

... but I figured I would check in anyway. I've been toying with the idea of shutting down or revamping my blog, since no one seems to comment at all or even show that they've been reading it. There's little sense putting something on the web that no one will read, anyway. This is about the seventh or eighth different thing I've tried on the internet. I had a good deal of success five years ago starting up a website featuring my license plate collection . That one went over so well that the state of Indiana even used some of my plates on their Bureau of Motor Vehicles' website. Thousands of collectors have visited, enjoyed and conversed with me about the site and my collection. I figured I'd have similar success with DTV, especially since many people are un- or under-informed about it. I figured if I came at it from a layman's perspective, didn't get too technical, injected a little fun, well, maybe it'd go over. But - at least so far - it hasn&#

Something new ...

I like the nifty Windows Sidebar gadgets that Windows Vista has. I'm proud to admit that. I can keep tabs on the weather, how my computer is running, and now blog right here from my desktop, without even opening IE. Pretty cool, huh? I think so. Anyway, there's nothing new, just another presidential debate. Glad this is the last one, that's for sure ...

Want to know when you have the best chance of getting far-off DTV stations?

Then check here: www.dxinfocentre.com . You'll see that, at least this week, there are going to be several good opportunities for nighttime distant TV watching. My antenna is turned pretty much on a NW-to-SE orientation, and I managed to get Evansville, Louisville, Bowling Green AND Nashville stations, all without touching that thing even once. If you have any neat DTV resources you'd like to share, please feel free to leave them in the Comments. I'll compile a list and add to it monthly.

What's next for Raycom's former "Tube" subchannels? (And some other notes, too)

Just a little over a year ago, "The Tube," an all-music video channel mainly seen on digital subchannels, went out of business. Ever since, at least in the Evansville market, Raycom's WFIE 14 has shown a still screen on 14-3 with their logo at the top, and the following message below it: "Due to circumstances beyond our control, The Tube Music Network will no longer be available. For more information go to www.thetubetv.com ." The thing is, since TT has gone under, so has their website. WFIE's not alone, either. Raycom's other nearby stations (Cape Girardeau, Missouri's KFVS and Louisville, Kentucky's WAVE ) also have the same message, or a similarly-worded one. The good news is, WFIE, KFVS and WAVE all continue to broadcast 24/7 weather on their second subchannel (their main programming, of course, is on the first), but why leave the same message about a dead offering up for a whole year? I believe those who would want to know already do

Time Warner Cable's false generosity

If you live in an area served by Time Warner Cable's Owensboro office, you may have noticed lately that they are now offering an extremely limited "Limited Basic" lineup of channels at $14.95 (before all their fees and taxes are added on) to lure new customers who seem to think their TVs will be worthless come February 17, 2009. Here's the lineup: 2 - TV Guide Channel 3 - WTSN (MyNetworkTV) Evansville 4 - WFIE (NBC) Evansville 5 - WGN America 6 - QVC 7 - WTVW (FOX) Evansville 8 - Around Owensboro 9 - WNIN (PBS) Evansville 10 - WEVV (CBS) Evansville 11 - WEHT (ABC) Evansville 12 - WKOH (KET) Owensboro 13 - WAZE (CW) Madisonville 70 - WDRB (FOX) Louisville 71 - Owensboro Community College 72 - Career Connection 73 - Owensboro Public Schools 74 - Daviess County Schools 75 - Local Access 98 - C-Span 99 - C-Span 2 Note that NONE of the stations' digital subchannels are included; no RTN from WEHT, no weather from WFIE, and no KETs other than KET1. I do appreciate the s

I've been busy ...

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After a year, I finally finished painting my old Ford pickup this morning. I'm pretty proud of the old tub ... I got it 13 months ago for $400, and a box or two of Wal-Mart spray paint gave its all to revive the thing. I added silver paint to the hood, top and lower body for contrast. My dad located the matched set of Ford wheelcovers, which I painted and added. All told, I've got less than $40 in the entire redo. I can't really beat that, and the results are, in a word, awesome. The first picture below is the "now" shot. The second picture is as it was a year ago.