Posted on Sunday, 25th January 2009 by Patrick Dorwin
I finally picked up a DTV converter box & antenna today, just hooked it up and WOW. The picture quality is clearly better, but I didn’t expect all the extra channels, Right now I am watching M*A*S*H* (Ch 55.5 - ion television). I went from 10 channels to 29, including a channel from Kenosha (from the N/W side of Milwaukee), and if I mess with the antenna, there is a chance I may get more. If you don’t have cable/satellite and haven’t yet made the DTV switch, go for it! Set up was only about 10 minutes including the channel scan.
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19 Responses to “Made the DTV switch”
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January 25th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Moved the antenna and now have 31 channels.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Yeah, Digital is great for over the air, with all the subchannels.
January 25th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
You didn’t really need to do this until June 11th, 2009, you know. Hope and Change.
Since I don’t have cable or satellite up at the fort, I did this (and installed the amplified external antenna) a few months ago, in preparation for the February (I’m such an idiot) changeover.
Still only two over-the-air channels in Black River Falls, even with the new converter box and antenna. WEAU out of Eau Claire comes in great, not that there’s anything on NBC I’d ever want to watch on a weekend.
January 25th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Bruce, I remember many nights with nothing but Ch. 8 & 13 with all the farm reports anyone could possibly use. Still, you should be able to get a few more channels these days. I’ll check with my parents and see what over the air channels they get now without the dish.
January 25th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Just think…at one point in time, there were only 3 channels….anywhere…..period. And it was ALL in black and white. Heh.
January 25th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
One of my earliest memories is watching 12 O’clock High on that big ol’ clunky white Black & White TV…
January 25th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Growing up in Milwaukee, my black and white memories were of watching the Honeymooners and Alfred Hitchcock on Friday nights on WTMJ-TV.
Does anyone else remember that? God, I’m old.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:33 am
Completely off topic, I commented on your post about how much the Tooth Fairy needed to give out per tooth. The very next day my daughter lost her first tooth, and I announced that I’d blog about it. Naturally my oldest had a crying fit about how I ‘never blogged about her tooth’. I didn’t at the time, but pointed out my comment on this site, which referenced her tooth, to quiet her down. So thanks
http://slapinions.blogspot.com/2009/01/lulu-loses-her-first-tooth.html
January 26th, 2009 at 6:06 am
Patrick, what type of antenna do you have?
January 26th, 2009 at 7:35 am
I thought I only needed the box. Now I need the antenna too?
January 26th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Bruce, my parents get 2 channels with rabbit ears, & 6 with an external antenna.
Phel & Soel, yes, you need a digital antenna, you can get the equivalent of rabbit ears for digital starting at about $15. I opted for this RCA model, it is sort of a mid-grade antenna. It is a little smaller than a record album (remember those? LOL) and you can hang it on the wall or lay it flat.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:23 am
BTW, I paid about 25 bucks for that antenna.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:44 am
You’re not old unless you remember a time when your entertainment came from the upright radio/78 record player combo with its prominent place in the living room. Popular shows were Amos and Andy (which wouldn’t be PC today), Billy the Brownie, soap operas like Portia faces Life.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
link’s not workin!
January 26th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Be thankful you’re near the antenna farm in and around Estabrook Park, which includes the “Kenosha” WPXE (the analog signal is broadcast from mid-Racine County) and the “Racine” WBME (the analog signal comes from near the Oak Creek power plant). I needed a boosted antenna to get anything at the bunker in Oak Creek over the air, and the only one that comes in reliably is WITI. Oh well; that TV needs to be replaced anyway; the panel is starting to tear.
As for the antenna, every digital signal in the Milwaukee market except WMVS-DT (“Channel 10″) and WMLW-DT (“Channel 41″) is in the UHF band (and those two are in the high-VHF band), so take that into account when shopping. “Rabbit ears” don’t do anything for that signal, but if you have a UHF loop antenna, you’re in decent shape.
Speaking of WMLW, the digital signal is currently low-powered because of an analog Channel 13 station across the lake. That will go to full power once the analog signals go away. That’s probably the signal you found when you moved the antenna.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Try this link Phel.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
aha! Thanks!
January 27th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Just a quick update, I installed the bedroom DTV converter box, this time I went with the cheap ($14) RCA ANT 1050. This is not an amplified antenna, so I wasn’t really expecting much, but I rarely watch TV on that one anyway, but just like the more expensive unit in the living room, I get a total of 29 stations from this wafer thin antenna. It is hard to judge from the picture, but it is very thin plastic, sort of like the stuff a credit card is made of, with the actual antenna embedded into this plastic.
I can’t guarantee these results for everyone, but for me on the N/W side of Milwaukee, this antenna works just fine.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:12 am
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