Post by MetspitzerOn the subject of looking at neighbor's houses, I walk through a
subdivision near my house (when the temperatures are not freezing)
There are no overhead lines, so every house has a power transformer
and a phone junction box in the front yard. Most houses also have a
satellite dish. Unless I am just missing something, I do not think
there are any boxes for CATV (I don't really know what they would
look like). I haven't asked anyone yet, but I may. I am thinking
that having underground CATV may have a high initial cost so there
might not be CATV available in the entire sub division.
I haven't been looking for them, but I don't remember seeing any OTA
antennas. You would think if CATV wasn't available, at least a few of
the houses would do OTA.
I live in Silicon Valley so YMMV!
The HOA where I live was built ~ 1968 and Power, Telephone and CABLE all are
underground. That's forty years ago.
I used the dual 75 ohm cable pre-wired for my OTA antenna feed to downstairs
for DTV and driving the stereo speakers. (How did he do that, that requires
five wires?)
I cut the dual 75 ohm cable flush with the wall when I left my last
apartment, it was so bad a service and used that from the attic to the
second story level and then the pre-installed cable in the walls to
downstairs.
I know the Cable works because Pacific Gas and Electric called the cable
company after finding their cable eight feet below my sidewalk (Dug down by
hand).
Just as Jay Leno walked out at 11:35 PM there was a series of load bangs and
the lights went out. I called 911 and opened my front door where some of the
neighbors were and after smelling gas I said lets get across the street.
The electric power cables shorted and heated up the ground to the point the
gas line melted as well as the cable service.
The cable man hooked up his tester to the fiber optic cable and said it was
just fine and they did not care about the old lines.
Yes there are boxes above ground installed when they put the fiber optic
lines in, but if the subdivision was built not too many years ago it might
be all below ground. The below ground boxes are all labeled, look down as
you are walking. It might be the old dual 75 ohm service.
Another option is the horrible AT&T U-verse which is a fiber to a box nearby
and then to my unit using the 40+ years old copper. But that would be a big
surprise.
Looking at your TVFool I thought that it looked bad but not impossible for
OTA. A CM4228HD like mine with an amp might work but the experts might have
a better antenna.
Of the 245 HOA units about six have OTA antennas and about the same number
Sat dishes.
That's a lot of units using cable or have no TV.
The cable company and AT&T U-verse have about twelve mailings to me each
month, straight to recycle. They make so much money and keep raising rates.
So putting the cable underground is not out of the question when the power,
telephone and water were being installed at the same time. Oh and the honey
pipes.
I was surprised that the power, gas and cable were so far underground my
sidewalk.
SHF
Sorry for the length, I always say too much.