Winding Down: Reducing Our Cost of living

My wife Nancy and I are edging toward retirement and a fixed income, and have been steadily trying to reduce our operating costs. The purpose of this column is to share those savings so others can also reduce costs. I hope that others will feel free to send me their ideas, so we can share them also.

Being from New England with Scottish roots, I find that paying for TV runs against the grain, so for many years we had an antenna, getting the local San Diego stations for free.

When they switched to digital broadcasting from analog, we lost our ability to receive those signals as Ramona is right on the fringe of acceptable signal strength. Rather than pursue new antenna equipment, we went with satellite TV, paying $75 per month. After a couple of years however, we were still watching the local broadcasts, and silly shows that detail spoiled people purchasing homes at extraordinary cost, something we would never do.

So we decided to see if a small investment in hardware would work again. Knowing that Ramona was on the broadcast signal fringe, it was a risk, because it was possible that it would not work. So I purchased a 100mi antenna for $120, a 30db in-line amplifier for $70 and a wall mount bracket, $16. Total investment — approximately $225, the same as three months satellite TV payments.

Being handy and having enough junk around, including a pole to mount the antenna on, I hooked up the new antenna and nothing, no signals at all! Then I connected the 30db amp and — hallelujah — 45 stations came in! Most of the stations are from Mexico, but with the antenna pointed due South, we can now watch all San Diego broadcasts in HD for free. That’s $675 savings per year and much gloating on my part.

My neighbor installed an 80mi antenna and the same amp, and now receives 40 some stations, where he had been paying cable for 22 stations. He receives all the San Diego broadcast stations except channel 10. My neighbor’s experience and mine indicate that receiving digital broadcast TV from San Diego is a hit-or-miss prospect, and likely not to work at all for many. However, for some of us where it does work, this idea provides another way to reduce costs as we wind down toward retirement.

For more information, or if you have savings to share with others, contact longtime Ramona resident Dave Patterson at dpatterson998@yahoo.com.