BTW: Stay tuned for a major overhaul of this site. There will be a layout change as well as content change.

My resolution this year is to not make resolutions. If you want to make a change in your life, just do it. Don’t wait for the new year to start, and don’t make up something just for the sake of having something on January 1st.

The Couch Surfing Project never ceases to amaze me. I don’t know of a community you can join that exposes you to a more diverse group of cultures. It’s always so interesting – learning about the places other people live, their culture, their interests…their lives. I’ve never met anyone from Jordan before, much less heard them talk about what it’s like to live there.

This is the first post.

I googled “Antique Store near McKinney TX” and drove to the closest one. It took a while to find, but I finally found one. Just call me Bogey.

This could be fun.

I live in McKinney, TX and I was looking for an antenna that would get good reception of all the over-the-air digital and HD channels in Dallas/Ft Worth. I live 46 miles from DFW’s antenna farm in Cedar Hill, so it’s quite a distance. I found a lot of antennas that were rated “up to” 50 miles, but I didn’t want to take the chance. I also wanted to put it in my attic since the roof isn’t an option for me, so I wanted something with a higher rating. I ended up buying the Clearstream 4 (CS4) Antenna, which is rated for 65 miles, from indoorhdantenna.com.

When I first hooked it up, i wasn’t getting reception on some of the channels. I read that a lot of people had problems when they used coax cables longer than 50 feet, and I was definitely over that. I only had one spare cable to run from the antenna to the splitter in the attic, and it was 50 feet right there. Then the signal had to go from the splitter down to each room, adding another 20-30 feet. I bought a 8 ft cable as a replacement and added an amplified splitter on top of that and now everything works great. I get all of the channels with perfect reception.

A few notes:

• ABC is the only channel in DFW that does not broadcast on UHF. They are VHF only. The CS4 is a UHF antenna, but it works.
• I’m in SOUTH McKinney. Look up how far your line-of-sight distance is for you before buying an antenna. You can do this at antennaweb.org (just put in your address, you don’t need to give your email or phone), then click on “Show Digital Stations Only” since they’re about to make the transition.
• Mounting the antenna is best outside, but it will work in the attic. Just make sure you get it as southwest as possible and away from any metal like air ducts.

Helpful websites:

• http://www.antennaweb.org – channel listing with frequency, distance, and compass heading.
• http://www.indoorhdantenna.com – antenna recommendations and advice. I recommend buying your antenna from them as well.

In a nutshell, I made the right choice. I’m not watching as much TV and I don’t miss it one bit. When I do watch TV, it’s usually a free podcast downloaded from the internet. I downloaded the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica off of iTunes (great series, btw), and switched to over-the-air for LOST. A few weeks ago my dad was in town and he helped me install an over-the-air antenna I bought online to get better reception of my local channels. I set up my TiVo to download old episodes of Frasier and Seinfeld for those times I just want to veg-out, and that seems to be enough.

We’re only 4 weeks into the MLS season, but I’m not going to miss anything. $20 bought the entire season for all the games on my computer, and they now have 800k streams which is right about standard-def TV quality. I just hook up my laptop to the TV and it looks great. For any other sports that aren’t on TV, I can just walk down the street to McKinney Tavern.

It turns out I’m saving about $80 a month.