TV Anyone?

For someone who doesn’t spend much time watching TV its amazing what I’ve gone through to get my second-hand 14 inch TV to work.

(An interesting aside: out of curiosity I measured my TV screen and it is exactly the same size as my computer screen).

The reason for needing a TV is that when my kids are home from boarding school they use my computer to watch movies, which means I can’t work when they’re home. Solution: Buy a cheap TV and DVD player and have child-free work time!

When I first moved in the “electrician” who was here said he could install my TV antenna. He worked on wiring it for three hours and then said he would come back tomorrow to put it up. He came back with the caretaker the next day. They attached the antenna to my balcony and when it didn’t work they told me I needed a booster. So I bought a booster, he put it on and I still didn’t have reception. He said he would be back and never turned up again. I mentioned this to Sam, the landlord’s son, he said he could fix it. After two weeks of starts and stops with Sam, yesterday he showed up with his cousin, Alex, who is a professional (which means I had to pay him labor). He fixed it in about an hour without using the booster! I can’t return the booster, I tried that last week when Sam told me that it was a knock-off. So Sam said we could go back to the shop together and trade it for something I needed. I can’t think of a thing I need at an electrical shop, but we'll have a go anyway.

So now there is a wire that goes through a window on my 2nd floor balcony and up to my antenna that Sam mounted on the roof. Progress?

I get great reception on about 4 channels and a couple where it's iffy and then another two that are pretty snowy, but the sound is good. Yeap, that's progress!

TIA (This is Africa). I have long since given up my American standards for professionalism, time efficiency and quality of work. There’s nothing I can do about it so why blow a gasket. Besides, then I’d just have to find someone to fix said gasket.