2505 Suckerrrrrrrzz!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Dorothy Nevill: "The real art of conversation
is not only to say the right thing at the right place
but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

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I have an antenna on the roof. I got about eight perfectly sufficient analog TV channels from the Albany and Schenectady area. Everything was fine.

Then when we were in the analog-to-digital transition period, I got both analog and digital channels, both clear and dependable, and with a good TV set it was difficult to tell the difference.

As time wore on and the digital-only time drew near, I noticed that the analog channels were getting fuzzier. I thought that was odd. Like maybe they were trying to shut us up by convincing us that digital was better, by fuzzing up the analog. The analog signal really was getting weaker and weaker. That couldn't have been by accident.

So, now we're fully digital, and I'm getting about 15 digital channels on the rooftop antenna.

And the oddest thing is happening [that "odd" is sarcasm, in case you didn't notice]. Even though digital was just fine for the first few months, nice strong signal, it is now getting iffy, gradually getting worse. The picture "locks". Or it breaks up. Or I get a frequent but brief message on a blank screen that the signal is encrypted, or that there's no signal. It's driving me batty.

Am I paranoid? I'm beginning to think that someone is trying to force us all to cable.