Fairfax County General :
Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Casual Observer14
()
Date: February 05, 2016 01:18PM
When did Fairfax County / NOVA first get cable TV? Who was the provider? What was it like? Just TV, right?
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
ThePrincipal
()
Date: February 05, 2016 01:23PM
Is this a homework project?
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Cableguy
()
Date: February 05, 2016 01:34PM
Casual Observer14 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When did Fairfax County / NOVA first get cable TV?
> Who was the provider? What was it like? Just TV,
> right?
It was 1892. It only cost $1.99/year. Unfortunately, there wasn't much on.
-------------------------------------------------------
> When did Fairfax County / NOVA first get cable TV?
> Who was the provider? What was it like? Just TV,
> right?
It was 1892. It only cost $1.99/year. Unfortunately, there wasn't much on.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Liver Here Forever
()
Date: February 05, 2016 01:41PM
Media General once they won the cable franchise for Fairfax County against Fairfax Telecommunications in 1982. Installation began in 1983. MTV and HBO were available by then as well as a number of other channels carried over satellite.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19820727&id=uWNRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_4oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2695,3403614&hl=en
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1982/10/06/after-four-years-cable-tv-is-finally-coming/fc6a6ea4-a31b-4713-8e97-5e375df76b62/
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19820727&id=uWNRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_4oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2695,3403614&hl=en
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1982/10/06/after-four-years-cable-tv-is-finally-coming/fc6a6ea4-a31b-4713-8e97-5e375df76b62/
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Batter up
()
Date: February 05, 2016 01:42PM
Casual Observer14 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When did Fairfax County / NOVA first get cable TV? Who
> was the provider? What was it like? Just TV, right?
In September 1982 Fairfax County granted a limited monopoly to Media General (now Cox Communications) to wire the county for cable TV. It was a big deal when you finally got it, because there were so many more cable channels than over-the-air stations. This was huge for instance for baseball fans, because you could suddenly get programs from three super-stations, including Cubs games on WGN, Mets games on WOR, and Braves games on WTBS. Say hallelujah!
-------------------------------------------------------
> When did Fairfax County / NOVA first get cable TV? Who
> was the provider? What was it like? Just TV, right?
In September 1982 Fairfax County granted a limited monopoly to Media General (now Cox Communications) to wire the county for cable TV. It was a big deal when you finally got it, because there were so many more cable channels than over-the-air stations. This was huge for instance for baseball fans, because you could suddenly get programs from three super-stations, including Cubs games on WGN, Mets games on WOR, and Braves games on WTBS. Say hallelujah!
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Cox_11
()
Date: February 05, 2016 04:43PM
And over the years Cox has provided the same shitty service quality while still incremental upping their cable rates.
FIOS vs Cox's HD is night and day, they use such shitty compression the quality blows. Glad I have FIOS now, dread the day I need to call their support for a problem though.
FIOS vs Cox's HD is night and day, they use such shitty compression the quality blows. Glad I have FIOS now, dread the day I need to call their support for a problem though.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Nice Guy Eddie
()
Date: February 05, 2016 06:17PM
The worst part about Media General is that TWO cables came out of the wall and went into the cable box so it fucked up your VCR. The VCR was always set on channel 3 and you had to have the box on the right channel to record but forget about recording one channel at one hour and another channel at another hour unless you were there to change the channel on the cable box. Complete cluster fuck.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
oldguy
()
Date: February 05, 2016 07:20PM
Cox_11 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And over the years Cox has provided the same
> shitty service quality while still incremental
> upping their cable rates.
>
> FIOS vs Cox's HD is night and day, they use such
> shitty compression the quality blows. Glad I have
> FIOS now, dread the day I need to call their
> support for a problem though.
Maybe I am the lucky one, but the few times I have had to call FIOS customer service I have always gotten good service and the right answer. And they were all native English speakers. Really, their service has been so good for me that maybe I have had to call customer service only two or three times, and once was about a billing issue that was resolved in my favor. What I don't like is that after their service they always try to upsell to more premium channels or faster speed or the like. But then everyone does that, just business. I have had FIOS since it was first put into my neighborhood, maybe 9 years ago or so, and I have no complaints at all. Before FIOS I just used the antenna, and I still do for two of the 4 TVs in my house.
-------------------------------------------------------
> And over the years Cox has provided the same
> shitty service quality while still incremental
> upping their cable rates.
>
> FIOS vs Cox's HD is night and day, they use such
> shitty compression the quality blows. Glad I have
> FIOS now, dread the day I need to call their
> support for a problem though.
Maybe I am the lucky one, but the few times I have had to call FIOS customer service I have always gotten good service and the right answer. And they were all native English speakers. Really, their service has been so good for me that maybe I have had to call customer service only two or three times, and once was about a billing issue that was resolved in my favor. What I don't like is that after their service they always try to upsell to more premium channels or faster speed or the like. But then everyone does that, just business. I have had FIOS since it was first put into my neighborhood, maybe 9 years ago or so, and I have no complaints at all. Before FIOS I just used the antenna, and I still do for two of the 4 TVs in my house.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Greybeard
()
Date: February 05, 2016 08:01PM
Nice Guy Eddie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The worst part about Media General is that TWO
> cables came out of the wall and went into the
> cable box so it fucked up your VCR. The VCR was
> always set on channel 3 and you had to have the
> box on the right channel to record but forget
> about recording one channel at one hour and
> another channel at another hour unless you were
> there to change the channel on the cable box.
> Complete cluster fuck.
Yep. So about half the time, you'd set upt he VCR and then between the time you set it and the time of the program, somebody would change the channel. Invariably, of course, this was a program the wife really wanted to see!
Nowadays we whine if the DVR programming is off and we're forced to watch the show on On Demand and put up with the commercials! "First World Problems"...
-------------------------------------------------------
> The worst part about Media General is that TWO
> cables came out of the wall and went into the
> cable box so it fucked up your VCR. The VCR was
> always set on channel 3 and you had to have the
> box on the right channel to record but forget
> about recording one channel at one hour and
> another channel at another hour unless you were
> there to change the channel on the cable box.
> Complete cluster fuck.
Yep. So about half the time, you'd set upt he VCR and then between the time you set it and the time of the program, somebody would change the channel. Invariably, of course, this was a program the wife really wanted to see!
Nowadays we whine if the DVR programming is off and we're forced to watch the show on On Demand and put up with the commercials! "First World Problems"...
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
craptastic cable
()
Date: February 05, 2016 08:56PM
I remember back in the early to mid 80s when I had that craptastic Media General cable. The signal went out every single time it rained for more than 5 minutes.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Ying Ko
()
Date: February 05, 2016 09:09PM
I remember having cable in Reston around '68'or 69. The same movie 6 times a day for a month.The rest of the time was walking around Reston for nature shows.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
NVvdL
()
Date: February 05, 2016 09:33PM
I know one of the guys that built out the Media General system. I have been into both Headends and to many of the Remote tower sites back in the day.
The overall configuration was:
2 main Headends. Merrifield next to what is now the Mosaic District (used to be next to the movie theaters that are now long gone and West Ox next to the FCPS Bus parking lot and the Transfer station. A number of 9 meter dishes and a 7 meter Simulasat antenna at each Headend. The Merrifield Headend captured most of the Off Air stations from out of DC, Maryland and Arlington.
The 2 large 300 foot freestanding towers then distributed the CATV signals via Hughes Analog Microwave links where the 54-450 MHz feed was directly up converted to terrestrial microwave transmitters to approximately 6-8 smaller remote towers. Once the remote sites received the analog microwave feed, it was downconverted back to a 54-450 cable band and then directly feed into the first distribution Amp as the signal left the remote tower location to then be sent finally through many miles of cable, many amplifies and splitters then to the indvidual dwelling.
I recall a remove tower at Fox Mill right near the fire station in Reston, Manassas, Herndon, Springfield and a few other sites I do not recall.
The cable plant started out as a single 450 MHz cable plant, then as it grew they went to the Siamese coax or twin 450 MHz cable plant because the technology was not cost effective for a 1 GHz single cable plant.
As I recall you did not want to cascade more than 32 line amplifiers before the noise and distortion became unbearable.
The bi-directional cable plant was a major headache. Few of the techs understood how the bi-directional plant worked and how to balance and tune the system for the return channel for Pay-per View and other things.
I also recall when Media General decided to scramble all the channels and anyone that had a TV connected without a Set Top Box was screwed. This brought on a firestorm of complaints, even at the Congressional level and I recall Media General had to back off of scrambling ALL channels and had to at least allow the local and PEG's to be in the clear.
Lots has changed since the mid to late 80's. All the analog microwave horns have been removed from all the of the primary and remote receive sites. This connection was all replaced by a fiber network, but the analog microwave was left in place for many years.
The Merrifield and West Ox 300 foot towers are a bit naked compared to when they were in their heyday.
The overall configuration was:
2 main Headends. Merrifield next to what is now the Mosaic District (used to be next to the movie theaters that are now long gone and West Ox next to the FCPS Bus parking lot and the Transfer station. A number of 9 meter dishes and a 7 meter Simulasat antenna at each Headend. The Merrifield Headend captured most of the Off Air stations from out of DC, Maryland and Arlington.
The 2 large 300 foot freestanding towers then distributed the CATV signals via Hughes Analog Microwave links where the 54-450 MHz feed was directly up converted to terrestrial microwave transmitters to approximately 6-8 smaller remote towers. Once the remote sites received the analog microwave feed, it was downconverted back to a 54-450 cable band and then directly feed into the first distribution Amp as the signal left the remote tower location to then be sent finally through many miles of cable, many amplifies and splitters then to the indvidual dwelling.
I recall a remove tower at Fox Mill right near the fire station in Reston, Manassas, Herndon, Springfield and a few other sites I do not recall.
The cable plant started out as a single 450 MHz cable plant, then as it grew they went to the Siamese coax or twin 450 MHz cable plant because the technology was not cost effective for a 1 GHz single cable plant.
As I recall you did not want to cascade more than 32 line amplifiers before the noise and distortion became unbearable.
The bi-directional cable plant was a major headache. Few of the techs understood how the bi-directional plant worked and how to balance and tune the system for the return channel for Pay-per View and other things.
I also recall when Media General decided to scramble all the channels and anyone that had a TV connected without a Set Top Box was screwed. This brought on a firestorm of complaints, even at the Congressional level and I recall Media General had to back off of scrambling ALL channels and had to at least allow the local and PEG's to be in the clear.
Lots has changed since the mid to late 80's. All the analog microwave horns have been removed from all the of the primary and remote receive sites. This connection was all replaced by a fiber network, but the analog microwave was left in place for many years.
The Merrifield and West Ox 300 foot towers are a bit naked compared to when they were in their heyday.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
GPpUY
()
Date: February 05, 2016 09:38PM
I had a kit of components that mounted on the back of a coffee can that when into some PVC pipe with a long threaded rod and a bunch of washers to make a 2-3 foot Yagi antenna that allowed me to receive SuperTV. SuperTV was broadcast from the channel 26 tower in the Potomac/Bethesda area and only supplied the single HBO channel of the day.
This was a subscription based service that was broadcast to homes and apartments. But the service was broadcast in the clear and with a kit like I had, I cold watch HBO for free. I probably did this for 3-4 years back in the late 70's and into the very early 80's.
Fun how a kit of components, a small circuit board, a coffee can and some PVC pipe, threaded rod, washers and an small indoor power supply/tuner would allow you to have HBO for free!!
Those were the days.
This was a subscription based service that was broadcast to homes and apartments. But the service was broadcast in the clear and with a kit like I had, I cold watch HBO for free. I probably did this for 3-4 years back in the late 70's and into the very early 80's.
Fun how a kit of components, a small circuit board, a coffee can and some PVC pipe, threaded rod, washers and an small indoor power supply/tuner would allow you to have HBO for free!!
Those were the days.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Raven23
()
Date: February 06, 2016 01:20AM
What about Super TV?
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
so true
()
Date: February 06, 2016 09:12AM
craptastic cable Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember back in the early to mid 80s when I had
> that craptastic Media General cable. The signal
> went out every single time it rained for more than
> 5 minutes.
---------
ha! i too remember the shitastic service. was so bad, when rain or snow was predicted signal went out. to this day i still swear i would see a poltergiest like middle finger, giving me the bird, from inside the snow on the tv screen.
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember back in the early to mid 80s when I had
> that craptastic Media General cable. The signal
> went out every single time it rained for more than
> 5 minutes.
---------
ha! i too remember the shitastic service. was so bad, when rain or snow was predicted signal went out. to this day i still swear i would see a poltergiest like middle finger, giving me the bird, from inside the snow on the tv screen.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Tech is as tech does
()
Date: February 06, 2016 10:10AM
Nice Guy Eddie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The worst part about Media General is that TWO
> cables came out of the wall and went into the
> cable box so it fucked up your VCR. The VCR was
> always set on channel 3 and you had to have the
> box on the right channel to record but forget
> about recording one channel at one hour and
> another channel at another hour unless you were
> there to change the channel on the cable box.
> Complete cluster fuck.
All that was cutting edge stuff at the time. Cell phones were the size of a shoe box back then too.
-------------------------------------------------------
> The worst part about Media General is that TWO
> cables came out of the wall and went into the
> cable box so it fucked up your VCR. The VCR was
> always set on channel 3 and you had to have the
> box on the right channel to record but forget
> about recording one channel at one hour and
> another channel at another hour unless you were
> there to change the channel on the cable box.
> Complete cluster fuck.
All that was cutting edge stuff at the time. Cell phones were the size of a shoe box back then too.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Go soak your head
()
Date: February 06, 2016 10:13AM
craptastic cable Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember back in the early to mid 80s when I had
> that craptastic Media General cable. The signal
> went out every single time it rained for more than
> 5 minutes.
Maybe if you weren't living in a tent at the time...
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember back in the early to mid 80s when I had
> that craptastic Media General cable. The signal
> went out every single time it rained for more than
> 5 minutes.
Maybe if you weren't living in a tent at the time...
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
2LyLi
()
Date: August 19, 2016 12:58AM
To GPpUY:
I think you have your signals crossed -
Super TV was a pay TV service which utilized two UHF TV stations (WCQR-DC channel 50, WNUV-Baltimore channel 54),
and to receive them you needed to use a decoder box.
The contraption which you assembled was pretty much a home-brew microwave antenna which was required to receive HBO sent through an MDS station operating in the DC metro area.
I think you have your signals crossed -
Super TV was a pay TV service which utilized two UHF TV stations (WCQR-DC channel 50, WNUV-Baltimore channel 54),
and to receive them you needed to use a decoder box.
The contraption which you assembled was pretty much a home-brew microwave antenna which was required to receive HBO sent through an MDS station operating in the DC metro area.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
hey massengill
()
Date: August 19, 2016 04:22AM
Go soak your head Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> craptastic cable Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I remember back in the early to mid 80s when I
> had
> > that craptastic Media General cable. The signal
> > went out every single time it rained for more
> than
> > 5 minutes.
>
> Maybe if you weren't living in a tent at the
> time...
i wasnt living in a tent back then, but i too recall how MGC went out every time it rained.
hell, when the wind was blowing too hard the signal went out.
-------------------------------------------------------
> craptastic cable Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I remember back in the early to mid 80s when I
> had
> > that craptastic Media General cable. The signal
> > went out every single time it rained for more
> than
> > 5 minutes.
>
> Maybe if you weren't living in a tent at the
> time...
i wasnt living in a tent back then, but i too recall how MGC went out every time it rained.
hell, when the wind was blowing too hard the signal went out.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
$1.98 Beauty Contest.
()
Date: August 19, 2016 12:22PM
2LyLi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To GPpUY:
>
>
> I think you have your signals crossed -
>
> Super TV was a pay TV service which utilized two
> UHF TV stations (WCQR-DC channel 50,
> WNUV-Baltimore channel 54),
> and to receive them you needed to use a decoder
> box.
>
> The contraption which you assembled was pretty
> much a home-brew microwave antenna which was
> required to receive HBO sent through an MDS
> station operating in the DC metro area.
I still have the Super TV antenna in my attic. Some day I'll sell it for big bucks.
-------------------------------------------------------
> To GPpUY:
>
>
> I think you have your signals crossed -
>
> Super TV was a pay TV service which utilized two
> UHF TV stations (WCQR-DC channel 50,
> WNUV-Baltimore channel 54),
> and to receive them you needed to use a decoder
> box.
>
> The contraption which you assembled was pretty
> much a home-brew microwave antenna which was
> required to receive HBO sent through an MDS
> station operating in the DC metro area.
I still have the Super TV antenna in my attic. Some day I'll sell it for big bucks.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
NipNotSignedIn
()
Date: August 19, 2016 01:08PM
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
BillyBob11
()
Date: August 19, 2016 01:30PM
Media General sucked. I went to the Board of Supervisors to complain....They eventually offered me a free year...but, I had already switched to DTV.
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
all we had
()
Date: August 19, 2016 05:58PM
4,5,7,9,20,26
Re: Fairfax County 1st Cable TV Provider
Posted by:
Lord Kairos
()
Date: August 19, 2016 08:08PM
GPpUY Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fun how a kit of components, a small circuit
> board, a coffee can and some PVC pipe, threaded
> rod, washers and an small indoor power
> supply/tuner would allow you to have HBO for
> free!!
>
> Those were the days.
Nowadays, as long as you already have a fast broadband service, you can buy a small circuit board, ( Raspberry Pi), between $5 and $25, and with some research on the internet to program it, you can watch live TV from all over the world, as well as free on-demand programming, ( legal issues may or may not prevent this).
My current favorites are the British line up of several BBC channels, several ITV channels, and for fun a few Russian Channels.
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fun how a kit of components, a small circuit
> board, a coffee can and some PVC pipe, threaded
> rod, washers and an small indoor power
> supply/tuner would allow you to have HBO for
> free!!
>
> Those were the days.
Nowadays, as long as you already have a fast broadband service, you can buy a small circuit board, ( Raspberry Pi), between $5 and $25, and with some research on the internet to program it, you can watch live TV from all over the world, as well as free on-demand programming, ( legal issues may or may not prevent this).
My current favorites are the British line up of several BBC channels, several ITV channels, and for fun a few Russian Channels.