My coupons have been mailed!!

[swangdb]

That's what www.dtv2009.gov tells me. Yesterday it told me they were
being prepared (or something similar).

I am about 50 miles from two different cities with transmitters plus
there are a few low-powered stations nearby. I used to have a decent
Radio Shack antenna on my roof. It was okay but not fantastic.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed it. I didn't bother to replace it because
I used to get networks from my DISH system, but now I only get CBS and
FOX. Dish gave me a free antenna but it was a ridiculous Winegard
about the size you'd put on an RV or something. It was free and they
connected it to my deck. Using the old amplifier from my previous
antenna, I receive one clear analog channel (NBC), two pretty good
good analog channels (FOX and a religious channel), a few fuzzy barely
watchable channels and some very fuzzy non-watchable channels.

When my coupons arrive, I will buy one receiver (probably the Zenith)
and see how many digital channels I receive. If I receive none or a
few as I suspect, THEN I will get a better antenna (probably a Channel
Master). I'll start with it on the deck too and try rotating it
toward each city and see at which position I receive the most
channels. There is a large hill between my house and one city
(Columbus, GA) and a lot of trees between the house and the other city
(Montgomery, AL).

Coupons!

[Hu Ru]

When my coupons arrive, I will buy one receiver (probably the Zenith)

and see how many digital channels I receive....

My brother and I have a total of 4 of the Zenith tuners - we are real happy
with them. The remote gives you TV power on/off and volume control.
Keep track of expiration date of coupon (card) - they expire 3 months after
date mailed.

[TJ]

swangdb wrote:
> That's what www.dtv2009.gov tells me. Yesterday it told me they were
> being prepared (or something similar).
>

> When my coupons arrive, I will buy one receiver (probably the Zenith)
> and see how many digital channels I receive. If I receive none or a
> few as I suspect, THEN I will get a better antenna (probably a Channel
> Master). I'll start with it on the deck too and try rotating it
> toward each city and see at which position I receive the most
> channels. There is a large hill between my house and one city
> (Columbus, GA) and a lot of trees between the house and the other city
> (Montgomery, AL).
>

Same thing for me yesterday on the coupons. Last week I'd been approved,
yesterday they'd been mailed.

I already bought a Magnavox on Ebay because I was going to need more
than two converters and I wanted an idea of how things were going to
work. I can get all the local digital channels with amplified rabbit
ears just fine. There is one I'm still wondering about, as they won't be
broadcasting in digital until July, but they SHOULD work OK. I'm not so
happy with the Magnavox for other reasons, though. I don't care for the
remote, mostly. The channel up/down buttons are too small for my taste,
and you need to be too precise with your aiming. I can control my TV by
bouncing the remote signal off the wall if I want. Not so with the
converter.

I expect to go to Radio Shack or Best Buy and buy a couple of the
Zenith/Insignia boxes with my coupons. For the rest of the converters
I'll need, I think I'll be patient and wait for the Echostar. I've heard
it will have a timer to work better with recorders. There's another I
might look into, too, the Microgem I think, that runs off a 12V DC power
supply. That one should be adaptable to work with my little SONY AC/DC
set when the power goes out.

TJ