Enjoying an antenna

For years after I cut cable, I did without local TV. Well, not entirely, but off and on for years. It's complicated.

After dropping cable in early 2011, I did without local TV. Eventually, I put up an antenna. It was actually my mother-in-law that prompted that. She wanted to save money on cable, and when the possibility of putting up an antenna was floated, she was skeptical at first.

Oh, sure, she knew all about TV antennae and watching local channels that way. But she thought the technology had changed and that old TV antennae didn't work any more. She was half right. Technology certainly had changed, but the old antennae still worked.

She didn't have an old antenna, so we got her one, and my brother-in-law and I put it up for her. She found her local channels -- mostly the station that carried MeTV -- and was happy.

After putting up her antenna, I decided to put one up on our roof. That was an easy enough process, and I tied the antenna lead into the old cables that were used for watching cable TV. I had to re-do some of the connections, as by then, the cable company was now the Internet Service Provider. So, isolating the cable run for the Internet from the other cable runs was easy enough, and watching TV over the air was once again doable.

After moving, I was back into a situation of not having an antenna, so I just did without. When Comcast ran a special where you could get Internet and cable cheaper than Internet alone, I went that route, and was able to watch local channels again. However, after a year, that special went away and I dropped back to Internet only, and did without.

A couple of years ago, I put up an antenna at my mother's old house, which is still in the family. I put both a Tablo and Air TV setup at that house, with the Air TV integrating into the Sling TV app, making it more convenient for the people living there (they subscribe to Sling TV). I set up Tablo Connect on the Tablo system and use the Fire TV device to watch TV from the antenna. I paid for that antenna setup, and I'm gonna use it.

I have an antenna to set up at my house, but haven't bothered to put it up. The Tablo Connect setup works, so I'm using it. I'll eventually put up the antenna here, but not today. Or even this week. But one day. Probably.

I'm able to do without local channels, as I've done exactly that for some time. I don't subscribe to any of the expensive live TV services that carry local channels, because if I really want to watch local channels, I have Tablo Connect. I've really enjoyed having a TV antenna back in my Streaming Life.