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That's very strange! Back in those days HBO would have been a satellite uplink directly to cable or to a personal satellite receiver so it's not like it would n
by deadmetheny 7y ago
That's very strange! Back in those days HBO would have been a satellite uplink directly to cable or to a personal satellite receiver so it's not like it would normally just be floating around the airwaves.
Honestly, radio as a hacker hobby is still absolutely a blast. If you're into breaking out a shortwave radio receiver or HAM equipment there's all sorts of wild stuff out there just waiting to be discovered - same with satellite wildfeeds and free OTA television, honestly. It carries a bit more magic than the Internet since it's all around us just waiting to be picked out of the air.
- larrywright 7y agoThis was before cable boxes, I think (or maybe they were only needed if you had a fancy cable package). At least around here, there was a physical RF filter that was removed at the cable box that delivered cable to your house, if you subscribed to HBO. I swear I remember hearing about people removing the filter themselves and then getting in trouble when the cable company found out. On most sets you could turn the knob to channel 2 and get a distorted picture and audio for HBO if you weren't a subscriber. I always figured that it was either leaking out from the cable, or maybe a TV or something wasn't shielded well enough. I'm out of my depth on that though, so I'd just be guessing.
- fmj 7y agoDid you have any neighbors? Maybe one of them was using some sort of wireless sound system with a low power FM transmitter.
- larrywright 7y agoPlenty of neighbors but I don't think wireless sound systems were available in the mid-80s. Maybe they were though.