Remember when - TV was free and phone service was cheap? I live in a well-populated 'dead zone' and haven't been able to use a TV for years.

Em in Ohio

Em in Ohio

Senior Member
Location
OH HI OH
Remember when - TV was free and phone service was cheap? I live in a well-populated 'dead zone' and haven't been able to use a TV for years.
 

Relatively speaking, phone service was never as cheap as it is now. When I was a kid if someone moved 100 miles away it was too expensive to call them. Cross country? You'd write a few letters and the friendship would lapse after a while. Another country? Not a chance.

Remember when long-distance got cheaper after ATT lost its monopoly grip? We were all calling after 7:00 pm or on Sundays and holidays.

We have a tv in our guest room with a DVD player but no cable hookup. It gets several channels.
 

Apologies - this wasn't meant to be a new thread... it was supposed to be a post elsewhere. Ho hum... maybe I should eat something to bring my blood sugar up and my brain into focus.
 
I'm not sure what you mean by "dead zone". Empty, you live in Ohio? Ohio isn't exactly a frontier wilderness, anymore. There are over 60 TV stations spread throughout the state. Why do I have a funny feeling you have an out dated, older TV? Today's TVs worked with other frequencies, and digital formats than those older ones.
 
Can't really compare those services back then to the services now. There isn't really "phone" service any longer. It's computer service. All the communication devices are merging and intermingling. TV, computer, phone are integrated now.

It's a way different world now technologically speaking than back then. Sometimes I miss the simplicity of the old days.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I'm not sure what you mean by "dead zone". Empty, you live in Ohio? Ohio isn't exactly a frontier wilderness, anymore. There are over 60 TV stations spread throughout the state. Why do I have a funny feeling you have an out dated, older TV? Today's TVs worked with other frequencies, and digital formats than those older ones.
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Well - I don't understand it either, but my daughter lives one block away (big, suburban block) and she has the same issue - My tv is a small flat screen that should pull in analog and digital signals - it doesn't (with the exception, occasionally, of picking up the Spanish language channel). It might be trees or hills - we do have lots of those...or some kind of electronic interference? Really don't know. Daughter even tried satellite dish - no signal. /-;
 
mike4lorie said:
Do You have the Internet... then Please read this about Firestick...

Read this about the Amazon Firestick TV...
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My friend recently gave me her old "Roku stick." I have yet to get that working, but that is because it requires keying in a long line of alternating letters and numbers and I am really, really bad at texting. It may eventually work - She will come over, when social distancing is over, and set it up for me. Both my daughter and I are dependent on wifi internet - it is a major expense for me, but one that I can't afford to give up without losing my mind.
 
Rosemarie said:
I remember when very few people had a tv and only the rich had telephones. If you needed to make a phone call, you used the phone box.
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WOW - have to admit that, as a fan of Dr. Who, I would so love a phone box! My parents bought a tv in 1957? They were lower middle class. Phones in my lifetime could be purchased for less that $10 and monthly bills were about the same. We had party lines up until... hmmm - not sure anymore. At first, they were 4 party lines, then 2 party for a couple years. (Eavesdropping was so entirely possible - scary!)
 
Empty said:
Well - I don't understand it either, but my daughter lives one block away (big, suburban block) and she has the same issue - My tv is a small flat screen that should pull in analog and digital signals - it doesn't (with the exception, occasionally, of picking up the Spanish language channel). It might be trees or hills - we do have lots of those...or some kind of electronic interference? Really don't know. Daughter even tried satellite dish - no signal. /-;
Click to expand...
Do you have a converter box for your antenna?
 
JaniceM said:
Do you have a converter box for your antenna?
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There is currently no antenna and the TV should pull in both analog and digital channels on its own. I bought the most expensive indoor antenna for it to try and get the local channels - it might catch a signal momentarily, but wouldn't hold it. When my daughter and I found this house, there was a huge old fashioned antenna precariously strapped to the chimney, with the wires hanging. I have to guess that the previous owners had the same problem and that this bent-up monstrosity was their attempt to resolve the issue. I had it removed when I got the house re-roofed. Seriously, it spanned a large portion of the house. I'd rather live without TV than resort to anything that big and ugly again. And, if I can't get the Roku to work, I may have to!
 
Empty said:
There is currently no antenna and the TV should pull in both analog and digital channels on its own. I bought the most expensive indoor antenna for it to try and get the local channels - it might catch a signal momentarily, but wouldn't hold it. When my daughter and I found this house, there was a huge old fashioned antenna precariously strapped to the chimney, with the wires hanging. I have to guess that the previous owners had the same problem and that this bent-up monstrosity was their attempt to resolve the issue. I had it removed when I got the house re-roofed. Seriously, it spanned a large portion of the house. I'd rather live without TV than resort to anything that big and ugly again. And, if I can't get the Roku to work, I may have to!
Click to expand...
You could get a converter box and an antenna (the "rabbit-ears" type) and see if that works.
 

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