Off the Grid

I'm going to try something new for the next year or two. We ditched Co*cast two weeks ago and signed up for RCN Broadband Internet (Hooray for 10Mbps download speeds) for about $24.99/month. There's absolutely no free/cheap option for cable television available from RCN, so we decided to "Rabbit Ears" it.

Last time I had to use an antenna to get television reception was while I was living in Cambridge *before* I was dating Jen. Also, this was while I wasn't even subscribed to any Internet provider (so it was truly like living in the dark ages). As you may or may not know, during the last two years the government has regulated the Over-the-Air television industry to only broadcast "digital" signals. This was done because so-called "analog" signals waste huge amounts of the broadcast frequency spectrum, so ultimately it's a good thing that the country has upgraded.

Unfortunately, I don't have a "digital" television. Saturday morning I went to Best Buy to get a "digital" antenna. I got home and tried to set it up and learned that printing "digital" on the box doesn't mean anything. Eventually, I figured out that I had bought a second UHF/VHF antenna (meaning that there was a good possibility that I'd be able to return what I had just bought (thank goodness, because I had paid $70 for it)). I did some very brief Internet research and made the determination that all I needed was a digital tuner (i.e. Digital to Analog converter).

Long story short, Best Buy has three different types of these converters on their website, but they don't seem to carry them in their store. We tried the local Radio Shack, but they had "just sold their last one to somebody else". I assume that other people in the area are also engaging in a mass-exodus from the evil Co*cast Corporation. Eventually we dropped by the Radio Shack in Central Square where we were able to buy the converter we needed for about $60.

We set it up with my old set of rabbit ears (glad I held onto that after moving out of the Cambridge apartment) and everything works GREAT. All the normal channels comes in really nicely. It appears as though broadcasting digital signals has the added bonus of not having to point the antenna in a different direction in order to watch Fox or ABC (which is greatly appreciated). I was also successful in my quest to return my extra antenna back to Best Buy this morning, so bonus for not needing to spend that money. =)

In a semi-related note... I'm ready to return the Cable Modem that RCN has been renting to us for the past two weeks since I finally got around to giving them a call to get the Cable Modem that I own setup within their system. I do enjoy being able to save $5/month because I own the equipment that they would otherwise rent to me.