Still have OTA's

[funk101]

The last thing I heard was that the STB's might go dark for OTA's today. I still have them. Hope it is not temporary.

 

[bobhaze]

Why would they? What's the motivation? Just curious.

 

[DarrellP]

I unplugged mine for a couple of days and it lost the time and date, so if anyone is worried about a date bomb, just unplug it for a few days.

 

[funk101]

Why would they? What's the motivation? Just curious.

Like DarrellP mentioned, there was some concern that the STB's needed a monthly time stamping signal from the satellite in order to keep the OTA's functioning.

Apparently it can be avoided by unplugging it a couple of days.

Where would the time/date show up? I checked the "Voom" menu and there is nothing there.

 

[RPacion]

I lost the date & time just by rebooting. No need to unplug it.

 

[Tvlman]

If you are using the stb only for OTA that means you only need to have the antenna connected. You don't need to have the Voom dish connected any longer. Why not just disconnect the dish cable (where any signal would be sent) and continue with the antenna cable? That's what I did until I got DISH.

 

[Ilya]

The last thing I heard was that the STB's might go dark for OTA's today. I still have them. Hope it is not temporary.

I posted this many times before: There is no timebomb in the STB! (For OTA, anyway). This is coming from VOOM engineers who are supposed to know this stuff.

The rumor about STBs going dark in June comes from CSRs who are told that all accounts are in the process of deactivation. Yes, in the past account deactivation would trigger the kill signal (sent via satellite). Today, the satellite is dead for all practical purposes, so the kill signal cannot be sent (and there is really no need to). If you still have some worries, disconnect from the dish if you haven't done that yet.

 

[funk101]

Thanks Ilya, for clearing this up for me.

 

[DarrellP]

I disconnected the second the signal went black, I didn't want to take any chances on losing my OTA.