Getting tied down

- Bobcat in the chicken pens -

It's been almost a year since I ditched Dish TV, in an attempt to cut the cord and save myself hundreds of dollars.

Here's what happened. I bought a small desktop digital antenna that picked up five or six channels (we'll never be able to watch Andy Griffith again, it was on all the time), but the signal was easily interrupted by walking near the antenna, or by using anything with an electrical ignition, such as a lighter or the stove top burners.

So, I tried the old antenna on a pole. It picked up the same channels, but not consistently, only for a few minutes at a time. Then I bought another digital antenna, this time one that mounted on the old antenna pole. It picked up twelve to sixteen channels, but also inconsistently. The 9 channels (9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4 - yeah, I thought the decimal format was weird) only seemed to work well 7-11 p.m., the signal was as easily interrupted as the desktop antenna, and constant rescanning and turning of the antenna pole was necessary to receive a signal.

Also, no money was saved. In fact, much more money was spent than before. The expense of the antennas and the expense for more data on my phone plan so I could use it as a wifi hotspot to watch netflix, Hulu and other streaming channels on my Roku is greater than anything spent for Dish.

I signed up for Direct TV this time, the very cheapest package, which affords us many more channels than we've had in the past year. I still have the outside digital antenna hooked up, because satellite tv is not reliable during thunderstorms or snowstorms. I am enjoying the consistency of the channels, but I don't like the format of Direct TV as much as I did Dish. Recording programs and setting the guide to where you only see channels you get is confusing. Dish is much more customer friendly, but Direct is definitely an improvement over the last year of digital viewing.

Next, the challenge of finding truly unlimited satellite internet. It's doesn't make sense to me that phone plans measure by data but satellite plans measure by mbps uploaded and downloaded. If satellite happens to speak of data, then it defines between hard and soft data, again, a term I've never encountered regarding phone data plans. I do know that even 25 gigs of data is still very little to have for watching netflix and such. I really don't want to have to miss the next season of The Ranch and the kids would come visit us more if they knew they could play video games when they visit (haha!).

(The bobcat photo is for amusement only and doesn't pertain to any subject in this article!)