# We Have The LAST TV Antenna In The Neighborhood! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 6, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225 "2012-12-06T20:23:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/21 "2012-12-08T19:29:49Z")
We have an antenna. It was here when we moved in. We don’t have cable or even watch local channels so it never gets used. We uninstalled the control that moves it because it was still hooked up when we bought the place and it was just sitting on the living room floor looking lonely. We also have a hard-wired rotary phone. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/22 "2012-12-08T20:06:30Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Not a lot in English to choose from. There are TV station feeds to their transmitters. > W5 has CBand programming. Question: when you intercept a commercial-free “feed”-what happens when the commercials are sceduled? Does the screen go blank? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/23 "2012-12-08T20:43:13Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Question: when you intercept a commercial-free “feed”-what happens when the commercials are sceduled? Does the screen go blank? There was a ten second long black out with analog C Band. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/24 "2012-12-08T21:11:52Z")
I left mine up. It’s a nice backup for when the cable goes out (and it will). ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/25 "2012-12-09T00:14:18Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > I have a rooftop antenna and use it. I can see paying for HBO (no commercials except for HBO between shows), and I am OK with free TV with commercials (though I often record shows and then skip commericals when viewing), but to both pay money AND deal with commericals bothers me. > > Brian when cable started it was commercial free subscriber tv. ---
**Author:** ![foxtrot3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47c2d/32.png) [@foxtrot3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxtrot3)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/26 "2013-01-30T00:24:39Z")
If you google **coat hanger antenna** , there’s a great video about how to make your own tv antenna from old wire coat hangers. I made one two years ago and it works great to this day. Also there’s [Some good info here](http://www.squidoo.com/tv-antennas-for-digital-tv) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/27 "2013-01-30T02:34:17Z")
One of my favorite movie Fun Facts: When raiders of the lost ark was being filmed, 300 of what were removed to make a scene? Television antennas. All the houses in Kairouan (doubling for Cairo) had TV antennas on the roofs. To get an overhead [rooftop] shot of the city, they had to get the locals to take down their TV antennas, because the movie takes place before TV was invented. Here’s a pic: [“For filming the scenes on Sallah’s terrace, 350 television antennas had to be removed from local buildings to present a 1930s skyline.”](http://indianajones.wikia.com/wiki/Cairo?file=Cairo1.jpg) eta: We love our antenna. Too cheap for cable, and this way, TV isn’t _too_ fun. ---
**Author:** ![InsomniaMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@InsomniaMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InsomniaMama)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/28 "2013-01-30T03:32:18Z")
We bought a Leaf antenna ($39 on Amazon, I think), stuck it on the wall and get great network reception. Death before cable! ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/29 "2013-01-30T11:35:16Z")
Most houses on our street have attic antennae; **Fridgemagnet** just installed an external antenna (after assembling a two-story scaffolding by himself. He asked me if I’d gone inside to get the camera to record his accomplishment, but I’d gone inside to set the phone’s speed dial for 999!) The attic antenna is hogging up about 1/4 of space we need for other things, hence the new one. He likes to go outside and admire it. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225/30 "2013-01-30T22:44:27Z")
I have an antenna in case the cable goes out. Of course, it’s on a 100 foot tower, so we gets a good signal! There’s also a couple of other antennas and goodies up there as well.😉 I like to chat with my friends in Europe. And Africa. And Australia. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-the-last-tv-antenna-in-the-neighborhood/643225.md?page=1)