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You Know You're An OTA Addict When...

60K views 242 replies 119 participants last post by  dheian 
#1 ·
Your perfect reception is never good enough.

You terrify pedestrians because you are always looking at rooftops as you drive through the neighbourhood.

You spell ATSC, ERP, PSIP, RG6, and 8VSB in your alphabet soup.

You stay up all night scanning for tropo and then try to explain it to the boss at work as you nod off all day.

You haven't used Rogers, Shaw, Bell, or the others in months yet you still complain about them because you miss doing that.
 
#32 ·
You Know You're An OTA Addict When... you visit digitalhome more than once per Hour.

You purchase a new antenna or make a new one every month.

You have at least 3 CECB boxes for tests.

You upgrade you entire coax just for tests.

You thought about putting RG-11 everywhere in the house.

You check the internet everyday on new OTA channels in your area like WNMN.

You read Fybush.com religiously every Monday morning.
 
#35 ·
....when

...you search for and browse in material supplier/scrap/recycle yards more than in big box stores

...you cut whole trees down in your yard to see if reception improves a little when the wind comes up

...you actually consider rewiring your house to eliminate electrical noise which you think might be slighlty affecting reception on some channel

...you receive comments nearly every day from neighbors saying "...why dont you just get satellite like me..."

...you exchange e-mails/PM's with otherwise strangers more than your friends or collegues, just to arrange an exchange, rental, borrowing, or whatever of OTA gear that might help you or the other

....you look for not only A/B switches, but A/B/C/D...switches for the most effecient comparison of multiple set-ups

...90% of your internet downloading over limit is concentrated on OTA
 
#36 ·
See the Antenna?

You point out antennas to others when you see them within movies/TV shows, e.g., Simpsons, King of Queens, and the classic Flintstones.

Remember the episode when Fred and Barney knocked down every antenna in town (rodeo style with a lasso snagging the antennas- Yee-Haw!) to stop some show from being broadcasted, and then had to put them back up again?

Cheers! :cool:

P.S. Yes, I posted twice in this thread- so yes, I definitely need help.
 
#38 ·
....when your friends are due any minute to whisk you away for a 3 day camping trip, but you insist on dragging your antenna over top of camping gear and sticking it outside the front door to pull in enough signal on Syracuse's WSYR to get a few pics of the station before leaving. (As my friend puts it, I was worried I'd be in "Syracuse withdrawal" that weekend.....three days without my usual tropo!)
 
#42 ·
when..... while on vacation in Europe

You are in complete Awe of all the antenna's on roof tops.

When you wife asks you if you like the architecture of the buildings you are taking pictures of.. and you lie... yes.... when really it is just picturecs of how the cables run down the walls.

In each country you visit you ask about their conversion to digital.

You start trouble shooting reception issues for someone in a dffierent country that you are visiting.

You explain how to properly ground an antenna to someone in a foregin country when he complains about how a lightening strike fried the tuner in his tv.
 
#43 ·
You know You're an OTA Addict when...

Aliens in UFOs visit your house just to check out and admire your immense collection of various TV antennas.

You help customers in Fry's electronics pick out a better antenna than the one they were looking at, while explaining the difference between analog ERP and digital ERP, and why VHF-Hi is a major DTV issue!

You put up an outside antenna just to start a fight with your Home Owners Association, knowing they will lose outright!

You can look at an antenna on the roof and quote the manufacturer, model, and gain specs.

You seriously consider building a QBGH because you can get maybe 1 more dBi of gain, and you care less what the neighbors might think.

You have actually used "ladder twin lead" in order to get the lowest dB loss per foot!

You can remember when UHF in the USA included channel 83.

You can remember the first TV you had was black and white, full of vacuum tubes, and only received channels 2 through 13 VHF. And...if the President was on TV, then all you had left to watch was PBS!

You know all of your current local stations call letters, assigned frequency, and ERPs for DTV, and you can quote from memory what the old analog frequency and ERP was!

The signal strength button for your DTV receiver box will no longer work due to repeated pushing.

You hear someone say something about "Earl" and you think about an ariel.
 
#45 ·
You put your 4nec2 antenna simulation studies on hold to check on the wildfire threat to Mt Wilson,
including downloading MODIS IR "hot spot" detection reports for GoogleEarth overlay, searching
higher and yon for meaningful, believable status reports and continuing to track progress of
Hurricane Jemina due to hit Cabo San Lucas (S tip of Baja Calif) tomorrow, cuz we need the rain
to snuff out the fires....
 
#46 ·
...when you think nothing of shouting at your assistant (wife, child, neighbour, stranger, etc.) through a walkie-talkie or cell phone to hold your new antenna ever higher and higher while they stand on one foot and turn blue from not breathing as you demand that they bend their right knee just a bit more because the signal is just a smidgen below a digital lock...
 
#51 ·
When your wear out the shingles on a new house.. When you consider a hatch on the roof or some kind of weird roof addition.. When the highest point in your subdivision during a lightning storm is usually you. Most the conversations you have with your neighbors are now from the roof. haha

OTA = Obsessive Tweaking Addiction :D
 
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