New Antenna

Above, the new antenna mounted on the wall (with the white coaxial cable) and the old
one sitting a couple of feet above (left, top) the television set. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Since my old television digital antenna appears to have crapped out, I picked up a One For All Suburbs Line Pro ultra-thin antenna. I was watching the "Godzilla Marathon" last weekend on Comet TV when it died.

It is rated to be able to receive on-air television broadcast signals at a 50-mile range, which is more than enough as the broadcasting towers are about 10 miles away (or less).

It received signals for 19 stations when I programmed the television set. That's more than enough for me. So far, so good!

I absolutely refuse to pay a satellite company over $100 a month for channels loaded with commercials and uninteresting (to me) programming. I don't watch television that much anyway. There is an old satellite dish mounted in back of the house. If there is something I do want to see on a pay channel, I can always check into a hotel in Gallup that has free satellite service.

I remember when we first got cable service in Hawthorne, California through Jack Barry Cable back around 1982. The service was around $25/month and it included HBO and Cinemax. Ages ago, when companies were promoting cable service (it was called "pay TV"), one of the selling points was "no commercials". Well, that didn't last long and channels are now loaded with commercials. American Movie Classics (AMC) was one such channel ruined by commercials.