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Month: September 2017

Cutting the cord 2 years into it.

Posted by: hvincent@gmail.com Posted on: September 22, 2017

Well it’s been now 2 solid years into our cord cutting process and I can’t thank myself enough for taking this action plan to reality.

Being a little scared at first with the fact of losing out on the local sports broadcasts, being a big Habs “Montreal Canadiens” fan, cutting the cord did represent going in the dark for some games.  Luckily Sportsnet aka Rogers  ehanced the Over the air experience by adding games on the Local Citytv broadcast.  Happy to say that I havent missed many games thus far and the playoffs are just around the corner.

 

Having developed a real passion for OTA “Over the air” television mainly for the savings and not being dependent on anyone telling me what I need as a viewer.  I reached out to Antennas direct to put one of their antennas to a Real world test in Quebec.  Running a quick test you can see that all local stations have emitters for OTA that are roughly 16km’s away from the test location and US stations as: NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox are much further 138km’s away.

The review environment of the ClearStream 1 Convertible with a VHF Retrofit Kit.

The Clearstream 1 is directly connect with a 4ft Coax to a HD-homerun 3 made by Silicon Dust.  I did do Outdoors and Indoor tests with the unit as this is a Outdoor/Indoor antenna.

Below you will see exactly the results from the unit showing 3 important figures.  Signal level, Signal Quality, Symbol quality.  The result are pretty interesting for a one time 69$ purchase. No additional monthly fees.  Yes Free once you buy the antenna.

Indoor Results Outdoor Results
Real RF channel Miles From emitter Signal Strength Signal Quality Symbol quality Signal Strength Signal Quality Symbol quality
29 9.3 40 0 0 54 72 100
47 10.1 49 46 85 64 89 100
10 10.3 81 0 0 97 100 100
12 10.3 89 65 100 96 100 100
35 10.3 63 0 0 82 100 100
15 10.3 73 77 100 87 100 100
49 10.3 43 0 0 70 95 100
26 11.4 74 63 100 86 100 100
38 59.9 35 0 0 42 – –
22 85.9 41 0 0 44 43 –
14 85.9 41 0 0 57 55 100
32 85.9 33 0 0 36 – –
43 85.9 25 0 0 27 – –
13 85.9 60 0 0 49 – –

To the untrained Eye this wont mean much but here is the easy version.

Although the Clearstream 1 can be used inside the results thrive when hooked up outdoors.  In total, outdoors the Clearstream 1 was able to pull in 19 Channels for free.  Radio-Canada, CBS, CBC, TVA, CTV, global tv, ABC, NBC, Tele-quebec, PBS, fox and City.  I do need to mention the US stations come in and out possibly better positioning and using an amplifier would solve this.

The image quality on the strong local channels is unsurpassed by any of the Cable co’s or Satellite / Fiber offerings.  This is TRUE HD, non compressed.

This being said the Antennas Direct Clearstream 1(In Canada the item # is C1C-CA) is more than a viable solution for anyone looking to fetch local channels from 30-40 km’s away, this is by using it straight out of the box.

Hook up, Scan and enjoy Free HD TV.

Zak Reaches out to All 31 NHL teams (completed)

Posted by: hvincent@gmail.com Posted on: September 22, 2017 ,

It’s been a year now,  My youngest son has been on a quest.  Something fairly simple but in the end turning out to be quite a venture.

Being a hockey fan, He endeavored to gather a piece of memorabilia representing all 30 NHL teams.  He’s a young fighter, having ADHD makes his every school day all the more tough.  We started this little project to set him a goal.  Any parent with a child diagnosed with ADHD will understand that we make Huge strides to help our kids build self confidence, Every little victory is huge.  It’s extremely encouraging for him to get these in the mail items.  I did, on my own, manage to gather some other teams, hopefully this post makes it`s way to influent folks in the league.  We we’re all kids at one point and trying impossible things is in essence what makes us believe in ourselves going forward.  With the Hockey Season just underway, I’m convinced many teams have leftover PR material that would fit his mission.

All your help and support on his project is much appreciated, as a dad I’m leading him to enjoy the Game of hockey in itself, not only the local team but the Game.

This journey has been quite interesting to say the least, as of this month (aug 2016), he decided to start playing the game and lace up the skates.  His journey as an amateur player is now underway, Peewee level.

Let`s keep the passion for the game going.

As of May 10th 2017 We can say Mission Accomplished – Zak Managed to get responses from all 31 NHL teams.

My son is very enthousiaste at this project and we have been slowly getting some response from the teams, As of November 2016 we are at 29/32 (32 because of the NHL itself).

  • Arizona Coyotes – Responded – Received (Jan 2017)
  • Boston Bruins – Responded – Received (nov 2016)
  • Buffalo Sabres – Rensponded – Received (dec 2016)
  • Calgary Flames – Responded – Received
  • Carolina Hurricanes – Responded – Received
  • Chicago Blackhawks – Covered by Reebok (oct 2016)
  • Colorado Avalanche – Responded  – Received
  • Columbus Blue Jackets -Responded- Received
  • Dallas Stars – covered by Reebok (october 2016)
  • Detroit Red Wings – Covered by Reebok(oct 2016)
  • Edmonton Oilers – Foundation responded fanpack request  made – Received (jan 2017)
  • Florida Panthers – Responded – Received – Covered by Reebok(oct 2016)
  • Los Angeles Kings – Responded – Received
  • Minnesota Wild – Responded- Received- And from Reebok (oct 2016)
  • Montreal Canadiens  – Responded  – Received
  • Nashville Predators – Covered by Reebok(oct 2016)
  • New Jersey Devils – Responded – Received (huge Kudos for the accompanying letter)
  • New York Islanders – Responded – Received
  • New York Rangers – Responded – Received
  • Philadelphia Flyers – Responded – Received
  • Pittsburgh Penguins – Responded – Received
  • Ottawa Senators –  Responded – Interview from them… wow.!! – Received
  • San Jose Sharks – Responded – Received
  • St Louis Blues – Responded – Received
  • Tampa Bay Lightning – Responded – Received
  • Toronto Maple Leafs – responded – received
  • Vancouver Canucks – Responded – Received
  • Washington Capitals – Covered by Reebok (oct 2016)
  • Winnipeg Jets – Responded – Received
  • NHL (head office) – Responded – Received
  • Vegas Golden Knights – Responded – Received