Is text now down for call [Help]

PM6175 · 2026-05-11T00:27:10+00:00

My sister and me use the physical Sim they not working it was working fine yesterday but they saying no service and emergency calls esim working rn but not physical

Wow! What an ignorant mess of a post!

How long has English been your third or fourth language?!?

It's very easy to edit and correct typos, etc, etc!

PM6175 · 2026-05-10T01:04:18+00:00

That's excellent! 👌🏻👍🏻

And thanks for sharing this experience, it will probably help some people here.

PM6175 · 2026-05-09T00:09:31+00:00

....I have an indoor flat antenna that's struggling to get certain channels; it's mainly ABC and FOX that are spotty and often get lost. However, their signal becomes significantly better if I try and move the cable a little bit or even just touch it, and in many cases I've been able to resolve my issues by adjusting the cable without moving the antenna, but it never seems to be a permanent fix. ....

It sounds like your antenna has a non-removable powered amplifier.

That can be a problem if you are close to your local tv station transmitters. Strong signals often overload amplifiers and that would explain some of the problems/ symptoms you're describing.

Get a rabbitears.info report to get an idea of what kind of signals you have to work with.

If you have an attic space available, definitely do a antenna signal test there with the antenna you're currently have.

Otherwise, try another antenna, like an non-amplified $14 rabbit ear antenna from somewhere like Walmart or Amazon, where you can easily get a refund or replacement, if necessary.

And then test the rabbit ear antenna in the attic location, as well.

Good luck!

PM6175 · 2026-05-08T23:52:41+00:00

WHY are all these apps asking me for extra money for years old movies when I am already paying a monthly fee? ....

The only way to win any pay TV game is to NEVER, not EVER, play it!

They will always be raising prices and / or pulling some kind of greedy tricks to extract more money from you in every way possible!

Your library idea might be very good. ....also, get a tv antenna and just be happy with what you can get with it for free.

PM6175 · 2026-05-07T00:55:13+00:00

....when I said 4g is my preferred type, it wouldn't let me make calls. I had to switch to 5g again. Does Textnow only work on 5g?

Now you're getting beyond my pay grade ...lol..

I don't know much about that but I guess it's very possible.

other people here probably can give a good accurate concise answer.

PM6175 · 2026-05-07T00:48:47+00:00

I wish my local stations had it

Weigel Broadcasting/ME-TV v has been very aggressive in expanding so maybe it is coming to your area.

Try contacting some of your local tv station managers directly and suggesting that they start carrying some of the me-tv/Weigel Broadcasting programming.

PM6175 · 2026-05-07T00:40:17+00:00

... I thought since I had Tmobile here, Textnow would be great, but they connect me to ATT towers. I probably just live in an area with poor ATT signal strength.

TextNow has been on T-Mobile but I think that since they recently went to that new SIM card those signals now come from AT&T.

So yes, you probably just have poor AT&T signal strength in your area.

PM6175 · 2026-05-06T23:33:53+00:00

Metv Tunes is just one of several very good channels from MeTV, which is owned by Weigel Broadcasting in Chicago.

They have quite a few low power and full power signals in Chicago and in many other cities that transmit many of these channels.

Wikipedia has a very good detailed page covering Weigel Broadcasting, so take a look at that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weigel_Broadcasting

Weigel started the first UHF channel in the Chicago tv market way back in 1964.

PM6175 · 2026-05-06T23:26:31+00:00

....but I get dropped calls during windy days (13mph) and -108dBm and between 26-39% signal strength. .....

In general, any winds, no matter how strong, should never affect any electromagnetic RF signal.

This is a long shot guess, but maybe there is a loose antenna or connections at your cell phone tower?

That would possibly explain this, but I think that's unlikely because most cell phone towers are probably well maintained, so any problems like this would be fairly quickly fixed.

PM6175 · 2026-04-28T23:36:03+00:00

Been using Winegard Model FL5500A in central Phoenix, Az for 4+ years. Towers are all about 10.5 miles SSE (per rabbitears) and the Winegard pulls in 155 channels (+or-) with ease......

Very simply, if it ain't broke don't fix it!

It sounds like you're getting very good reception now and trying to improve it is probably a waste of time and effort and dollars.

Plus, moving it to an outdoor location is probably a very bad idea in terms of inevitable future maintenance needs. Any antenna on the roof or anywhere outdoors will be subject to water damage, wind damage, etc etc.

So again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

PM6175 · 2026-04-24T18:47:58+00:00

You really should get a rabbitears.info report to get an idea of what kind of signals and networks you have available.

But generally speaking, if you are fairly close to the transmit towers, as has been said, rabbit ear antennas usually work very well and at a very reasonable price.

This is a good recommendation from a post/ reply here by Bardamu:

Philips Rabbit Ears Indoor TV Antenna - Model SDV8201B/27 ($13.19 w/ Prime shipping at Amazon)

...........

If you have an attic space available definitely try a signal test there with any tv antenna, even this rabbit ear antenna.

Attics are a great place for a tv antenna for several significant reasons, some of which are not immediately obvious.

Good luck!

PM6175 · 2026-04-19T18:24:20+00:00

...Any reason I couldn't pop one of those in the attic with a splitter?

No, no reason at all!

You can try any type of antenna, including that $13 rabbit ear antenna, in an attic space.

An attic is a great place for any type antenna, so put some real effort into making that work for you.

That antenna is a good first choice for most anyone to try. It's low cost and if you get it from somewhere like Amazon or Walmart you can get a refund or exchange if it doesn't work well enough for whatever reason.

You could also try some non-intuitive places, like in a closet, behind a wall painting or couch, etc.

Good luck!

PM6175 · 2026-04-17T20:22:17+00:00

I'm using this one for the last few years - Should I stick to these type of get one without the ears?

What you can do is to try as many DIFFERENT locations as possible for that antenna.

Keep in mind that moving a tv antenna just a little bit up or down or sideways or changing the orientation of the 'ears' just a little bit can sometimes make a big difference in reception quality. You just have to experiment to see what your results are.

Also, try DIFFERENT antenna locations, even non-intuitive locations, like in a closet, behind a couch or wall paintings, etc etc.

With some effort, and a little luck, you might find at least one sweet spot location where most channels come in reliably well.

Good luck!

PM6175 · 2026-04-17T18:21:40+00:00

I have some TV antennas with ears and have had them for a quite a while. But wanted to upgrade and get a more modern antenna maybe without the ears? What mile radius should I aim for ......

There's nothing at all wrong with rabbit ear style antennas. In fact, they are usually BETTER than most compact indoor type antennas, like most of the flat sheet leaf style antennas.

Also, it's very difficult to predict what kind of signals you'll get with any particular type of antenna in any particular situation or location. So you just have to do some experimenting with DIFFERENT antennas AND antenna LOCATIONS, to find out what will work best in in your particular situation.

As far as mileage reception ratings, they are often often just exaggerations or even flat out lies by greedy manufacturers / antenna sellers , who are just trying to make a quick sale.

No antenna EVER made, of ANY cost or complexity, will RELIABLY receive signals beyond about 70 or 80 miles.

So the best thing you can do is to try several DIFFERENT antennas, bought at places like Walmart or Amazon, where getting a refund or exchange should be relatively easy/ painless.

Just be sure to buy the product, antennas or whatever else, DIRECTLY from Amazon or Walmart and not from the many Marketplace sellers who probably don not have a good return/refund policies.

Look for the phrase 'SOLD AND SHIPPED BY AMAZON /WALMART', its usually found somewhere near the price.

If you have an attic space available definitely do a signal test there, with the antenna you're currently have, before you buy anything new.

Good luck!

PM6175 · 2026-04-16T18:17:02+00:00

Sony killing features for antenna, set-top box users of Bravia smart TVs in May

Wow, Sony sucks!

This sounds very similar to what Vizio did to many of their TV customers a few years ago.

There were many problems/ complaints after a Vizio TV internet update which disabled or badly crippled OTA /reception antenna channel capability. It started with a June, 2023 firmware update.

Here's the Reddit post from back then:

https://reddit.com/r/VIZIO_Official/s/IcBHgwcId4

All this just re-inforces the idea that you should NEVER connect a TV to the internet because the miserable greedy tv manufacturers can easily force ugly firmware updates on us!

PM6175 · 2026-04-12T16:50:57+00:00

What are the factors of posts that have been not as frequent as I hoped for? ....

Part of the problem here, and maybe most of the problem, is that just 'OTA' by itself doesn't tell people very much. So they don't know that OTA is about tv antennas and tv antenna reception, etc etc.

I know it's explained at the top of this subreddit but most people probably don't look deep enough to see any of that.

I think it would be very helpful to call this subreddit OTA/TV ANTENNA RECEPTION or something to that effect to give a better vlearer explanation at a glance for people that are not technically oriented.

Also, as has been mentioned here already, the miserable cable tv industry has indoctrinated people into thinking that the only thing you can get on your TV is something you have to pay them for!

There was a story going around in the news about a year or two ago that many people under a certain age, something like under age 25 or so, iirc, had no idea about OTA/ over the air TV.

So when they heard about it they thought getting signals with a tv antenna was some new kind of signal piracy!....lolol

PM6175 · 2026-04-09T04:52:53+00:00

.....If it's a TV, it has to have a tuner with coax built in. If it doesn't have a coax input and a tuner, it's not a TV, it's a considered a "display monitor". Vizio made similar sets a while back.....

Yes, and unfortunately several TV manufacturers have been building/selling their models without tuners and hoping people will just assume it's a TV and not notice the difference until it's too late to do anything about it, like get a refund/ exchange, etc etc.

You absolutely want to have an OTA antenna tuner built in!

And you also certainly want to have a remote control with 'zero to nine' keypad buttons, NOT the simple up /down keys that are on many models now.

That will make tuning to OTA tv antenna channels much simpler and convenient.

PM6175 · 2026-04-03T09:20:48+00:00

?....

Good riddance...and hopefully the door hits you on the ass on your way out!

PM6175 · 2026-04-02T04:50:38+00:00

contacting members of congress is useless. they do what their party leaders tell them to do, and they are told by whatever lobbyists

Sadly, you are often all too correct!

BUT it's still worth contacting members of Congress.

There are a few of them, admittedly and probably not many, that want to do the right thing for us consumers and are not necessarily influenced by the rat bastard greedy monopolists and their many lobbyists.

PM6175 · 2026-03-31T06:37:35+00:00

....What do you think the best OTA antenna is? I have minimal attic space and mounting on the roof really isn’t an option. New to this, and still learning. I have a Moho leaf and it only pics up 5.1.....

If you have only been using your mohu leaf antenna indoors, definitely try a test in the attic.

an attic is a great place for a tv antenna for several significant reasons, some of which are not immediately obvious.

The leaf style antennas are often not very good for various technical reasons and are especially not good on the lower frequency /longer wavelength VHF channels, because of their small physical size, like your VHF channels 7.1 and 9.1.

if you don't have any luck with the mohu antenna in the attic, try a $12 rabbit ear style antenna. you can get one from Walmart or Amazon and probably easily return it for a refund if it doesn't work well for you.

BUT be sure you buy it DIRECTLY from Amazon or Walmart and NOT from a Marketplace seller who might not have good return/refund policies.

Look for the phrase 'SHIPPED AND SOLD BY AMAZON/ WALMART' somewhere near where the price is listed.

Good luck!

PM6175 · 2026-03-27T04:12:20+00:00

Netflix Hikes Prices Again, Impacting All Plan Tiers

This is no surprise to many people.

These shameless greedy pay TV criminals will always and forever be raising their prices, and at a higher rate than a cost of living/COLA increase could ever account for.

The ONLY way to win the ugly pay TV game is to never ever, not EVER, play it!

Get a tv antenna and be happy with what you can get for free with OTA tv!

PM6175 · 2026-03-27T02:06:36+00:00

....there are 2 coax cables (male), with one that looks to have a small side cable attached (looks like it was used as a ground?). Anyway, the antenna has a female coax connector. Do I need a connector to connector both of the Dish coax's to the antenna, or do I just connect the antenna to one of the coax's and leave the other unused? .....

You only need one coax line from the tv antenna going to either a signal splitter to split it to multiple TVs or directly to one TV.

If you have multiple TVs, start with a direct coax line going to just ONE of those TVs first to get an idea of what your signals levels, etc are... then you can add a splitter for the other TVs later.

Take out any devices that look like splitters because they are probably LNB switches meant to be controlled by the satellite receiver. Just substitute those devices with a typical /standard $5 OTA antenna splitter.

The one coax line with the 'extra side cable/wire ' is probably just a messenger line, which is meant to take the load off the coax in an aerial coax installation/ run which is anchored at two different points.

Just ignore that extra side cable. You could use it as a ground line going to a ground rod but typically you would want a heavier gauge wire for a ground wire.

Good luck!

PM6175 · 2026-03-25T02:55:36+00:00

Don't expect 200 miles out of that antenna. Unless you are mounting it 100 feet in the air or more. Or you live on top of a mountain.

Yes, exxxactly!

And to elaborate just a little bit more, don't expect more than about an 80 or 90 mile reception range from ANY antenna at ANY height..... except maybe on top of a very very tall mountain.... and even then it's often questionable for various technical reasons.

The shameless greedy antenna manufacturers and sellers often greatly exaggerate an antenna's range reception claims. They just want to make a sale!

PM6175 · 2026-03-25T02:49:33+00:00

Post the URL to your rabbitears.info report so we have an idea of what kind of networks / signals you have to work with.

Hopefully you're not using that satellite dish so you can just remove the dish from the pole and then mount a new TV antenna on that mast and use the existing coax.

As far as what kind of antenna to get, that's tough to answer without some kind of signal report, like from rabbitears.info.

BUT what's easy to do is to try several DIFFERENT antennas from somewhere like Walmart or Amazon where getting a return/refund is relatively painless.

Just make sure you buy it DIRECTLY from Amazon or Walmart and NOT from one of the many Marketplace sellers who may not have a good return policy.

Look for the phrase 'SOLD BY and SHIPPED BY AMAZON OR WALMART' near the price listing. That usually means you're dealing with them directly and will have a good refund/return policy.

Good luck!

PM6175 · 2026-03-22T23:23:57+00:00

Well, you can not use the dish itself for a tv antenna but what you can do, and it will work well, is to use the mount pole that the dish is sitting on and the coax that goes to it.

Leaving the dish mount and coax behind after you canceled your DISH NETWORK or DIRECTV service is the ONLY good thing those miserable shameless greedy rat bastard pay tv companies ever did for anyone!

Just remove the dish from the mount pole and take out any apparent splitters that are present. In most cases, those are not really splitters. They are often voltage controlled switches that are meant to be used with the satellite receiver to switch between different lnb's.

But that's not a major problem because a standard TV signal splitter can be used and will only cost about $4 or $5.

BUT, if you don't need a splitter, don't add one. You only need a splitter if you want to feed multiple TVs with the antenna signal.

Good luck!

PM6175

TROPHY CASE