Cutting the cord cheaply
Tired of your cable bill?
500 channels, and nothing you want to watch?
Internet costs $45/mo. from my phone company, is easily 12x faster at downloading and definitely more reliable.
500 channels, and nothing you want to watch?
When my $80/mo. cable TV obligation ended, I had it turned off.
Internet costs $45/mo. from my phone company, is easily 12x faster at downloading and definitely more reliable.
I could even do without that and use my phone as a WiFi hotspot, if need be.
Here's my solution's details:
1. Call your cable TV provider and find when your contract is up, and put that date in your calendar.google.com or other calendar system.
4. Buy these parts:
4a. The coax cable, above.
1. Call your cable TV provider and find when your contract is up, and put that date in your calendar.google.com or other calendar system.
2. Where to put the antenna? Find where your TV stations are. Then, look at your windows, and see which window is best to use. You want the window that's closest to a right-angle line, or perpendicular to, the line between you and the TV station.
3. Today, make an antenna. Measure the distance from your TV to a window, measuring from the TV to the ceiling then along the wall to the window, and add 10' in case you need to move the TV. Buy, or scrounge, that much cable TV coax cable; I used white cable, so it looked less conspicuous.
4. Buy these parts:
4a. The coax cable, above.
4b. 75 ohm to 300 ohm 'balun' (balanced-unbalanced matching transformer) such as https://frys.com/product/5168986 or https://www.radioshack.com/collections/antennas-accessories/products/radioshack-matching-transformer
4c. 10' or less of 12-22 ga solid copper wire such as www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=23438556. Stranded won't hold a shape when you bend it. Thicker wire is better because it will not only hold a shape better, but also has greater tolerance for differences in frequencies.
4d. A roll of blue painters tape such as http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=13267290, which leaves no residue when removed.
4e. Self adhesive hooks to hold the cable in place.
4f. (Optional) A piece of poster board or foam core board, if your window is not perpendicular to the line between you and your TV stations.
5. Attach the coax cable to your TV or DVR, and string the other end to where the antenna will be.
6. Cut two pieces of wire, 14" long. Bend them in the middle to a 60 degree angle, and (carefully!) cut the insulation off in the middle. See the blue lines in the diagram, below.
7. Wrap the bare terminals of the balun (red) around the bare wire at the corners and crimp down with pliers.
8. Is your window is on a line perpendicular to the line between you and the TV station?
If so, tape the >|< antenna to the window and skip to step 9. If not:
If so, tape the >|< antenna to the window and skip to step 9. If not:
8a. Cut the board in half the long way.
8b. Bend one inch vertical tabs on the left and right edges of poster board or foam core board.
8c. Flip the board over on the long axis, and fold the board down in the center. Flip the board back over.
8d. Tape one side's tab to the widow, leaving the other side free.
8e. Tent the board up, and slide the free tab towards the other, until the side of the board where you will tape the antenna in place, is perpendicular to the line between you and your TV stations.Tape the free tab in place to hold the tent in place.
8f. Tape the >|< antenna to the perpendicular side of the tented board.
9. Attach the coaxial cable to the screw end of the balun.
10. Switch your TV from the cable TV input to the Over-the-Air input, and set up for the over-the-air channels.
The Portland-Salem (Oregon) metro area has eight primary channels, but each has two or more sub-channels, so I end up with 24 channels (once I strip off Spanish language, religious channels, and shopping channels) I can stand to watch I was paying for before, to wit:
2-1 KATU ABC
2-2 KATU-SD
2-3 COMET SF & Horror
6-1 KOIN CBS
6-2 getTV
6-3 Decades Reruns, reruns, reruns.
8-1 KGW NBC
8-4 Quest Adventure & Militaria
10-1 KOPB PBS
10-2 OPB+ Other public TV stuff
10-3 OPBkids Commercial free TV for kids
10-4 OPB FM NPR. Yep, radio on TV.
12-1 KPTV FOX
12-2 COZI
12-3 LAFF
22-1 ION
32-1 KCRW CW (iZOMBiE !)
32-2 AntennaTV
32-3 ThisTV
49-1 KPTV
49-2 ESCAPE
49-3 Bounce
49-4 GRIT Westerns, but really low resolution, can't stand to watch
If that isn't enough to watch, well, then buy Hulu.com for $8/mo., or look at other streaming services such as Netflix.com .
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