Where is the Random Thread of Randomness stuff that doesn't belong in other threads thread?

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

I can no longer pick up all the digital channels, I think a falling tree limb bent my antenna or something. I can't even pick up DABL now (or all the religious channels).

Could it be that your area upgraded to ATSC 3.0 standard and your antenna is outdated now? It's the latest trick that broadcasters are trying to pull to make free TV less free...

 

[Cassie]

Channels are still required to broadcast in ATSC 1.0 but most of the local channels do have ATSC 3.0 broadcasts, too. I stopped being able to pick up a whole bunch of channels last year. It is very annoying. ALSO, my coax is way too long, so I'm sure I lose signal.

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

I bought a couple of fancy digital antennae from Amazon this year, but I live on the ground floor of an apt building in a busy city that's sea level at best, so I get JACK SHITE in terms of channels on both my living room and bedroom TVs.

 

[Volpone]

There is a sweet spot in promoting an event on social media. If you don't make enough posts hyping it, people won't be interested or have any reason to come. If you make too many posts, people will think you're desperate and trying too hard and get scared off.

 

[Cassie]

https://www.youtube.com/c/AntennaMan

This guy is my favorite ota antenna nerd. If you can pick up a signal he will tell you the best antenna and which ones are scammy. He also complains about ATSC3.0 all the time.

 

[Volpone]

First observed while taking my family to...the Minnesota Renaissance Faire(?) but observed even more recently: If you're used to how a car handles, it handles significantly differently with 300-500 extra pounds in it. A 1990 Plymouth Horizon corners a lot differently on a freeway entrance ramp and a 2009 Ford Mustang does everything differently with five 5 gallon buckets of gravel loaded in it.

 

[Volpone]

https://www.youtube.com/c/AntennaMan

This guy is my favorite ota antenna nerd. If you can pick up a signal he will tell you the best antenna and which ones are scammy. He also complains about ATSC3.0 all the time.

When I moved...OK, first, when I bought a house in Portland and the introductory deal on Spectrum ran out, I went down to...Lowe's? for an antenna. House already had a mast for it. I can't remember how I got the cable inside. Patch into existing cable TV wiring? Probably. When I moved to Louisville I bought another antenna. This house didn't have an external mount so I just used some cord to hang it in the attic. Brick house with gable vents so I ran the co-ax out the gable vent and...I think directly to the place I wanted my TV. I seem to remember there being a random co-ax sticking out of the wall at that point so I either pulled it out and pushed my antenna cable through before caulking it or I spliced in with a male to male connector. I left the antenna in that house because I foolishly thought renters would appreciate having free TV (they don't and it didn't take long before a cable installer snipped off the antenna cable). I couldn't find a good antenna for my current house so, while it was a pain to get the assembled antenna out of the old attic, I grabbed it in the 11th hour. It's going to be an even bigger pain to get it in the current attic so at present it sits in the basement until I get around to installing it. My go-to antenna tuning source is this:

Antenna Signal Prediction

Which broadcast channels can you receive for free? It's time you cut the cord!

www.antennaweb.org

I used to actually orient it with a compass, but lately I just do dead-reckoning. (I look at the compass heading and my house's orientation on a map and align the compass based on the map.) Mostly because my compass went wonky.

 

[Dr Dave]

 

[CaptainWacky]

(or all the religious channels).

Phone up your local stations and tell them you need it fixed because you've got to get RIGHT WITH THE LORD and one of them will fix it for you.

 

[Cassie]

The crazy thing is that the channels that I should have a strong signal for I can't get, and the ones that are just fair I can get (but not all of them). I really think I need a new antenna, mine is maybe 10yrs old. It's not even a very big antenna, maybe next time I should get the SUPER MEGA CHANNEL MASTER, and also brand new coax cable. It's been hanging out there in the rain for even longer than I had an antenna, it is the same one I used for directv.

 

[Volpone]

I wish I understood lawnmower carburetors. I mean, I don't REALLY understand care carbs either, but I at least get the concept: There's a linkage to the fuel line and the throttle so when you step on the gas pedal, more fuel-air mix gets sprayed into the cylinders and the engine revs up. Push lawnmowers have one speed: on. But there's definitely a carb and a throttle. I guess it must be engineered in some way to give the cylinder more fuel-air when the engine is working harder, but who knows how that works. There's a linkage you can see if you take off the air filter. And a light spring that holds it in an open position but it's all very strange.

I mention this because the verdamnt engine is back to doing this low rpm thing. Lately I've gotten it back to normal rpms by tilting the front wheels all the way up in the air and holding it that way until the rpms pick up. No idea how or why, but it worked--until today. Added wrinkle is, it seems to run fine if I run it all the way out of gas--or if the engine dies from hitting a heavy patch of grass or something--but it I'm done mowing in one spot and let go of the deadman switch to kill the engine, when I restart it it does the weird low idle: Brrm....brrrm....brrrmmm...bbrrrmmm....putputputput....brrm...

 

[Volpone]

It's so trippy, watching a documentary from the Plague Years:
VOICEOVER: Next we'll be going to Daimler's Dearborn facility to see how Freightliner trucks are made.
[factory floor]
HOST [with diaper covering bottom 2/3 of his face]: "Mmmph, mmph, mmmmph, mmmph mmmph."
FACTORY FOREMAN [with diaper covering bottom 2/3 of his face]: "Mmmph, mmph, mmmmph, mmmph mmmph."