Discovery Channel TV & More.

This new show on the Discovery channel might be worth a long look.

The Big Brain Theory.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/the-big-brain-theory/videos/the-big-brain-theory-supertease.htm

I find that most TV is just a big waste of time.
Speaking of time wasting, check out this link.

http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html

Here's a few from the list.

Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes.
Number of murders seen on TV by the time average child finishes elementary school: 8,000.
Number of 30 second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000.
Number of 30 second TV commercials seen by the average person by age 65: 2 million.

Wow - Now where did I put that TV remote??

Roku Review

A few weeks ago I purchased a RoKU on sale at Radio Shack.

For those not familiar with Roku, it is a small box that lets you stream video from the Internet to your TV. It comes with a few basic channels and includes a channel store to add your own. Most of the channels are free and the offering is very large depending on you interests. Hookup takes a few minutes and is very simple.

 

Two are my favorites are Ham Nation and AmateurLogicTV. Watching these on the TV beats the small screen of the computer any day. If your a fan of old B type movies Roku offers a large selection also at no additional cost. Even caught one of The Bowery Boys movies last Sunday, classic TV. Trying out my free Netflix subscription for a month and the family seems to enjoy it.

The only thing it does not include is any live free stream major sports. The various NHL, MLB, NBA, packages are available but your local teams would be blacked out.  It seems like streaming video is the wave of the future. Cable TV and Verizon Fios reports large numbers of customer cutting the cord. In my house the majority of TV viewing is on the major networks, CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, WOR, and WPIX. I am a big Rangers hockey fan but with the strike my sports viewing is very low now. My Fios offers a few 100 channels but if your not watching them its a waste of money.

The Verizon Internet is extremely fast, no complaints with the speed. In the new year I want to pick up a antenna and experiment and see what free TV has to offer in my area. Between free antenna TV, Roku, and Netflix, this will offer more than enough content to watch and hopefully save a few bucks in the long run.

Real Big Brother Stuff

Just read Verizon went in for a patented DVR that can watch and listen to everything in your living room. This sounds like the ultimate spy tool.

http://sourcefednews.com/big-brother-is-coming/

Cameras everywhere now they want to come inside your house.
I am sure there would even be an extra charge for the box.

Time to cut the cable cord one of these days.

Its getting out of hand!

A Day Late!

On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to leave his place of residence, that request came from his wife!!

A classic show!!!

Nat Geo Preppers Show

Over the weekend I watched a few episodes of Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic channel. An very interesting show which offers the viewer a few solid ideas for surviving a disaster or worse case scenario.

Some of the prepping was over the top but if anything ever does happen on a large scale these people will be in pretty good shape. I witnessed first hand 3-4 females on a gas line wanting to fight each other last week, so things can get out of hand fairly quickly. In this day and age, adult females no less fighting over gasoline, who would have ever thought you would see that. Maybe this show is on the money with being ready.

Besides the usually supplies I was happy to see one guy mentioned ham radio as a useful tool of communication when the lines go down. Guns and bullets were big on the show. One of my work customers mentioned to me he has stocked up on bullets to be used for protection or to trade for food.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/galleries/meet-the-preppers/#megan-hurwitt-the-young-urban-prepper-42386

The new season begins tonight on Nat Geo channel, should be interesting.

WNEW Channel 5 New York

Memories of WNEW Channel 5 New York!!

Watching this video makes me wonder what happened to the great TV shows we all watched as kids. No comparison to what is on the tube now.

Classic good family shows.

Enjoy!

Verizon Home Monitoring

While watching Hockey Night in Canada last night one commercial (out of what seems like hundreds these days) caught my eye, the Verizon Home Monitoring and Control. If you are a Verizon Fios customer this system lets you control the lights, heat, doors, etc.

It is amazing what electronic type gadgets are available these days if you want to spend the money, $9.95 a month. I have been a Fios customer for the past 3+ years for my Internet, TV, & phone, it's wonderful. It's amazing what they can do over fiber. My former cable TV provided kept taking away channels but not cutting my bill, that is a post for another day.

Yesterday was a very nice warm sunny 67F day for the end of November. Cut the lawn one last time and did a general clean up of the yard which means picking up the leafs. Even had time to put up the Christmas lights outside. My sons soccer season ended last Sunday so this will free up more time this afternoon to play some radio. It looks like another nice day so maybe an outside radio setup in the yard.

I want to take advantage of these warm days before the freezing cold winter is here.

This is a Test of The Emergency Broadcast System!

This Wednesday at 2 PM Eastern time radio and TV stations will stop regular programming and conduct a 60 second test of the national Emergency Alert System. I am sure most of you heard these tests growing up, they go back to 1951.

I did hear the alert system once on the car radio while driving up the NJ Turnpike to North Jersey, it was for a major snow storm due to hit the following day, back in the early ninety's. The car was a Mazda RX-7, loved that car!



Above videos are past tests from WPIX and WCBS TV stations.



These TV tests remind me of simpler times growing up, a handful of TV channels, and great Saturday morning cartoons.

Old Mags

In the basement I keep a box or two of my old CQ, QST, and World Radio magazines. This weekend during the night time TV hours I went through a small stack of World Radios, neat to get some new ideas and read a few articles.

Came across a cool loop antenna using zip cord, going to do some more research on this one but might be on the future build list.

On the tube they are promoting the new shows for the fall season, Hawaii Five-O, Law & Order LA. When I was a kid in the summer I use to hate that because it meant school was right around the corner.

"Book'em Danno"