Has anyone heard of picking up cable or satellite channels thru nothing more than rabbit ears? I live in low rent and rent assisted apt, close to an airport. Not sure if that has anything to do with it or not. I have two neighbors picking up alot of channels with nothing more than rabbit ears. I am trying to understand how and of course get mine to do the same thing. So far no luck for me. Is this stealing and how in the world can it happen. No dish or receiver, I swear!!
picking up satellite signal thru rabbit ears??
- Thread starter Kmoser
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You can use rabbit ear antennas to pick up Over The Air channels (OTA) and those are free. Your TV must have an OTA tuner to be able to do this.
How do I know if my T.V. has that? I have two T.V.'s, both pretty old. RCA Colortrak and a Zenith. One neighbor had to route it thru her VCR. Would it behoove me to purchase a more expensive set of rabbit ears? Also, I found two Dish receivers in the trash, but without power cords. One has a card in it. Would it help to hook that up? Would that be stealing if it was found in the trash? I do not want to do anything illegal, but I cannot afford cable for my kids and I. It is not something we have to have but would be nice. Thanks for any help or direction you can provide.
If they're old tvs I doubt that they have an ATSC tuner. An HD Dish Network receiver will have an ATSC tuner but I doubt that's what you found in the trash, so those receivers will not help you. Your TV probably has an NTSC tuner for analog channels you could try and see if you get anything but starting Feb, 2009 analog signals will be switched to digital.
You may want to read more on this here:
What is an ATSC Tuner?
BTW, there's nothing illegal about this. How old are your kids? PBS kids is free on digital signals.
You may want to read more on this here:
What is an ATSC Tuner?
BTW, there's nothing illegal about this. How old are your kids? PBS kids is free on digital signals.
The two boxes I found state on them that they are Direct TV receivers model D10. Well actually only one does, but they both have similar features. One had a card in it the other did not. The only thing missing is power cords. I think I could find them at a local T.V. repair shop. Should I purchase a cord for them for approx $5-20.00 dollars or invest in a new ATSC antennea? I am just trying to save money. My girls are teenagers and of course love MTV and disney, cartoon channels. Thanks again for any help.
The D10 Directv receivers are for Standard Definition and don't have ATSC tuners. I wouldn't waste any money on those boxes. A newer antenna won't do you any good if you don't have the ATSC tuner.
OTA channels are mostly local channels, ABC, NBC, PBS, etc... You will not get Disney, MTV or Cartoon channels OTA.
Look for a OTA tuner or ATSC tuner in your local Craigslist, you may find a cheap one and then you can try and see what channels you get. It all depends in the area you live.
OTA channels are mostly local channels, ABC, NBC, PBS, etc... You will not get Disney, MTV or Cartoon channels OTA.
Look for a OTA tuner or ATSC tuner in your local Craigslist, you may find a cheap one and then you can try and see what channels you get. It all depends in the area you live.
How and or why are my neighbors picking up those channels? Is it because of the area we live in? Will the OTA ATSC tuner help me get what they are getting? I swear to you that their cable is not hooked up and there is no dish on our building. They are getting A&E, Court TV, TLC, Discovery, MTV, Lifetime and many more. Some not as clear as others. I just can't figure it out unless they are OTA channels. It has to be that, right? Oh, I am also not crazy, well not anymore. Hee Hee. Thanks again for your help!
"They are getting A&E, Court TV, TLC, Discovery, MTV, Lifetime and many more."
I have no idea why they're getting those channels. OTA is usually just the local channels. Might be time to make friends with the neighbors.
I have no idea why they're getting those channels. OTA is usually just the local channels. Might be time to make friends with the neighbors.
Well they are my friends, but signal only comes in thru their bedroom window and....we are not THAT friendly. What is an E* dish and what if any equipment will help me get that signal? Still the ATSC tuner? My local repair store has some good used ones. He is baffled by this too though.
E* = Dish Network
D* = Directv
Never heard of that and satellite signals and OTA signals are in different frequencies so I don't know how that can be possible. Can your neighbors change the channel they're receiving?
It just occurs to me that someone could be broadcasting the TV2 signal to the neighborhood. Dish Network has dual tuners receivers that can feed two TVs. If TV2 signal is combined with an antenna, the antenna is broadcasting the what's on TV2.
D* = Directv
Never heard of that and satellite signals and OTA signals are in different frequencies so I don't know how that can be possible. Can your neighbors change the channel they're receiving?
It just occurs to me that someone could be broadcasting the TV2 signal to the neighborhood.
Dish Network has dual tuners receivers that can feed two TVs. If TV2 signal is combined with an antenna, the antenna is broadcasting the what's on TV2.
I have my doubts that it is a satellite signal, because if someone has a "leaky" box, it should only be leaking/transmitting the signal that the box is tuned to. That's the reason for the question as to whether Kmoser's friends can change channels, or if they can only get what the person who is the source of the signal is receiving.
I think it is much more likely that it is a cable signal, and that somewhere there is a piece of equipment or cable that is leaking the signal. They are picking up the lower analog channels on their rabbit ears, instead of needing a cable for the antenna input. Think about it, with a satellite signal you must have a converter box, and the signal is changed in the box and sent to the tv. With most cable systems, you don't need a converter box for the basic analog channels. You just hook the cable up to the antenna input and with the tv tuner you can access any of the analog channels. It would be interesting to know if they have their tv's set to "cable" or "antenna", if they have that capability.
Kmoser, if you can get any signal like they are getting, a better antenna might help you improve the signal, and a powered set of rabbit ears might improve the signal. However, if you can't get anything now, I don't think I would spend the money. Tell your friends to enjoy the signal while they can, because sooner or later the cable company will find the leak and fix it. The problem really should be reported, because the leak is causing interference, and could be causing reception problems for those using other signal sources, like people who actually have satellite dishes. The FCC requires such sources of interference to be fixed. In another city our cable company had a van that regularly cruised the streets looking for problems like this. But I won't tell.
I think it is much more likely that it is a cable signal, and that somewhere there is a piece of equipment or cable that is leaking the signal. They are picking up the lower analog channels on their rabbit ears, instead of needing a cable for the antenna input. Think about it, with a satellite signal you must have a converter box, and the signal is changed in the box and sent to the tv. With most cable systems, you don't need a converter box for the basic analog channels. You just hook the cable up to the antenna input and with the tv tuner you can access any of the analog channels. It would be interesting to know if they have their tv's set to "cable" or "antenna", if they have that capability.
Kmoser, if you can get any signal like they are getting, a better antenna might help you improve the signal, and a powered set of rabbit ears might improve the signal. However, if you can't get anything now, I don't think I would spend the money. Tell your friends to enjoy the signal while they can, because sooner or later the cable company will find the leak and fix it. The problem really should be reported, because the leak is causing interference, and could be causing reception problems for those using other signal sources, like people who actually have satellite dishes. The FCC requires such sources of interference to be fixed. In another city our cable company had a van that regularly cruised the streets looking for problems like this. But I won't tell.
Maybe someone has a cable connection wired into an antenna and is broadcasting the cable signal? If someone miswired they might be able to pick it up.
Some man who rides the medical bus that I drive was telling me somthing like this about a couple of neighbors in his apartment building doing this, he was telling me that Wal Mart was going to put cable and Satellite out of business as people purchased those rabit ears, I thought he was nuts. The explination from Bogy and mike123abc must be the explination.
it could be someone is accidently or puposely broadcasting those vai an antenna (maybe it's the airport) so they can easily have tvs in the area getting certain channels.. I know i've accidently had my system back feed into my community cable.. I've seen others who have directv back feed into it as well.. we usually do it so it remains local for us (all tvs in the house can see any receiver).. but if you hook it up to an ota antenna I'm sure people within a close distance of yourself would start picking up you're channels..
I did an dish network install in october 02 for a customer in Fergus Falls Minnesota, guy was living in a nice log cabin home on a small hill top surrounded by tree's and very very few people, his closest neighbor was a 10 min walk away. Customer had a tower with an antenna below the tops of the tree's and he was picking up various cable channels on various ota channels. Havent seen it since but it happens, only thing I can figure is a tap must have been bleeding some serious signal in the imediate area.
If it's from cable, that's is some serious bleeding. If the neighbors can change the channel then it must be from cable.
With my experience of this the customer had a top end antenna with an amp so he could get stations out of fargo and the twins, with the op's I'd bet that the leak was probably on the side of the house or someone is using those wireless rabbit ears to transmit to another tv in the house maybe?
