One of the big challenges for the new place was figuring out the plan for watching TV. Previously in our apartment there was just a giant antenna on the roof of the building, and everyone shared the feed easily enough. Unfortunately we had to deal with this ourselves with the new house, and they didn’t have much advice to offer at the house builder’s office.
Kuniko was really opposed to putting up a giant antenna on the roof from the beginning, mainly because for her it was a cosmetic issue. Besides being big and ugly, it is a giant arrow pointing at your house saying that you are inside watching TV, and for the NHK guys walking around trying to collect money it makes their job that much easier.
We actually don’t watch much TV – most of the viewing is two or three regular shows, and I like to watch the Hanshin Tigers during baseball season. It’s not a big deal to have a lot of channels, so in the end the antenna turned out to be the best option for price and simplicity, but it would definitely end up being a do-it-yourself project, and being the one with all the free time – that meant it was my project.
Luckily Kuniko’s dad has some experience in this area, and he was really interested in helping me out. Last week he dropped off an antenna that would work, and after seeing the size of that monster Kuniko was hitting the net searching for a smaller alternative. She found something on Amazon Japan that looked good, and for 5000 yen it was shipped to our doorstep and ready for installation.
The antenna we got is pretty small – about the size of a large dinner plate. Today Kuniko’s dad showed up to help me install it, and after unloading ladders, equipment and gear from his truck we tried to figure out how it would work.
The first step was wiring it to the TV and seeing how it picked up the digital signal. We hooked it up in the living room, right next to the TV, and it worked right off the bat. All the channels came in crystal clear, and the antenna was still in the living room on the first floor. We took it upstairs to the balcony and checked again, and it was still perfect.
Then we started to get creative. We moved the antenna to the attic, and still – beautiful picture. So to make a long story short we just attached it to the rafters in the attic. The picture is great, and we didn’t have to worry about climbing around on the roof, setting anchors for bad weather, and since the wiring was already running through the attic we saved a lot of drilling and extra work. What we had estimated as a five or six hour project took 90 minutes, and the antenna is invisible – hidden in our attic. Success!
Can’t wait for Kuniko to get home – we’ll play a game of trying to find the antenna. Where could it be?
