How to cut the cord #1…

Alrighty! To make long story short, We want you to watch what we watch and pretty much save you some money. So, we decided to create a series that helps you do just that! Sounds fun, eh? Well, I’m pretty much a tech-head, so I’m going to walk you all through this thing because paying a million dollars a month sucks. I’ve tried to get my mother to do it but she thinks cord cutting requires a sharp object.

I guess the first thing is… DO NOT JUST TELL YOUR CABLE COMPANY TO SUCK IT!!! You still neeed them or someone like them to get internet for the house. I hate it but that’s the way things are right now. they will change in future. We’ll go over that later in the series but for now we have to deal with them.

Now the second thing that you need to know is that all these local stations have a mandate from the government to keep broadcasting their signals OVER THE AIR. FOR FREE!!! So, just like in yester-year, your tv is capable of picking up all these signal in HD!

They really don’t want this talked about but hell, we’re going to talk about it to our readers!. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself. Don your googles,and here’s an article about it. In fact its getting better!… 

https://www.aarp.org/home-family/personal-technology/info-2022/over-the-air-tv-future.html.

Yes, I found something on AARP.com cause I’m not retirement age but I’m old damnit! Here’s another, but feel free to google it for yourselves;

https://www.thefreetvproject.org/what-is-over-the-air-tv/. 

So, now that I’ve told you that all the major channels still broadcast over the air in HD, you just need to know how to get them!

When you have nothing to do and your twiddling your thumbs check out your cable bill. These suckers are charging you for local stations when they’re free and broadcasting over the air. 

This is actually one of the reasons that your bill is so dang high! Ok, so what you need first is an antenna. Now there are plenty of antennas and you’re going to have to try a few until you get the right one. However there are a few rules of thumb concerning this that work most of the time.

Basically there’s a few websites that tell you were the signals are broadcast from and how far away they are. Essentially, with these sites you’ll know which way to point or where to place your antenna. trust me folks, I get 65 channels over the air for free!

Ok, the sites are… 

https://www.antennasdirect.com/

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

https://www.channelmaster.com/pages/tv-antenna-map

Noticed the second one? FCC. The Government organization! I included this one just so you guys know that I’m not kidding you! And besides, it’s a good one to boot.

The government doesn’t often give us stuff for free but in this case they do. Well, they do take it out of your taxes. Now, there are many more sites out there. These are just a few. Just google them if you want more! With these sites you can see where your shows are broadcast from and where you should point and place your antenna.

Now as a rule, if your not going to mount your antenna outside (which I did not do) You’ll need to keep your antenna upstairs, at the top of the house or in the attic (which I did do). We do this because the less obstructions, the better!

Now, you can just attach your antenna to the back of your tv ( most of them just screw right in. Easy peasy) but you can do what I did and set it up so that you only need one antenna for all your tv’s. Basically, you can set up the antenna in the best location for all the channels you want and all your tv’s (in the house) will use that one antenna.

Hey, we’re going to be as efficient as possible. When I first started out a few years ago, I had more than one antenna and cords running all over the house! I’m going to spare you that nonsense if I can! Before we go into all of that let’s get you an antenna! So, in my case I’m in New York City, so signals are pretty pretty easy to come by. 

You, on the other hand might be in a rural area, surrounded by trees and mountains, where you get little or no signal at all. So, let’s figure out what situation you’re in. This is why I gave you those websites so that you can see where these stations are and where they’re broadcasting from.

Now, the first thing I want you to do before you go to these sites require the most basic tools in the world. A pen and paper! I want you to really think to yourself, what do I really watch and what can’t I live without? I want you to list these programs and next to them what stations these programs are on. 

List everything. This is your cord cutting hit list. Make sure you list everything! We’re going to make sure you can still watch everything on this list. 

This should take you a while. List sports, local news, dramas, etc. Go ahead and when you’re finished come back to this site next week for the second installment in this series and we’ll get started. 

Go to it and I’ll see ya on the Flipside!

Lawrence Christmas