Revival of an old thread!
I remembered reading through this discussion long ago and now I have some contributions to make. We have been aggravated with our cable service for several years now, the monthly rate seems to grow legs and walk on its own. Last year at this time we called and complained and they did drop the rate back to where it was reasonable and gave us several more channels to add to the list that we did not watch. About 7 or 8 months went by and soon the price was on the move again. I was already provoked and then when my wife called to tell them that they must “either set the rate back or we are out”, the lady on the customer service line acted rather ignorant and short with her.
The time had arrived to part company, yes.
I used an aerial antenna at the previous house for a few years when it was still analog signal, but reception was sort of poor if I recall, and the only channels available were 6 and 10. Channel 6 was NBC out of Johnstown and 10 was CBS in Altoona. For whatever reason we went to cable before the arrival of the DTV signal.
My cousin runs the local barbershop and has an aerial installed and while getting my haircut I was very impressed with the picture quality and he could get quite a handful of channels too. When Brittany and I cut the cord, she ordered an Amazon Firestick to get some free programs for the boys but I still wanted my local news so I began to look at antennas online. We are on track to save over $1,500 a year with this little maneuver and basically any antenna I would need could pay for itself in a month or two.
After some texting back and forth one evening with Rob R. , he recommended an antenna that should not only perform well, but one that was not real big and gaudy looking too. I figured if I could pickup Altoona and Johnstown again I would be well satisfied. I ordered the said antenna from Amazon and when it arrived I ran the coax out the front door and set the antenna upright in the shrubs just to see what may happen. Right away there were 3 channels from Altoona so I couldn’t wait to get it out on the roof. In the morning on Memorial Day, Scott brought the ladder truck over and we did the install... my roof is VERY high and I did not wish to gamble my life with an extension ladder.
The results are nothing short of amazing — 13 channels total!! For free!! I get 4 channels out of Johnstown, 4 from Altoona, ABC and Fox, and a couple other generic channels. One channel is called Grit, and it is all classic Western movies... I greatly enjoy it. This is all very remarkable to me as we literally live in a hole at the bottom of the Alleghenies.
Lastly, it was a priceless moment when we dropped our cable box off at the broadband company. The lady behind the counter asked “Oh, are you guys going to Dish?” My wife replied “No we are not”. The lady says “Ok, if you were we could give you a better price and some more channels”.
Brittany rolled her eyes and replied “You people are ridiculous!”