jsebean

This, there's no harm as long as you're not decrypting it without permission. Doesn't matter if it's the worst encryption you've ever seen, if it's scrambled, it's off limits, otherwise have at er -- it's all public spectrum.

This is all assuming you don't live in a totalitarian country like North Korea xd.. of course people should check the laws of their area.

Due to the lack of TV broadcasts in the Maritimes (Nova Scotia) I often would pick up stations with a simple rooftop yagi UHF antenna (can't remember the exact model now). Most is the time they would come from Boston during tropo season, but generally just all around New England.

The furthest away was New York WCBS, but oddly, I had a hard time receiving stations from Maine or New Brunswick which is sort of sad since I used to receive those in the analog days with just rabbit ears. Anyway, I never got into dxing too deeply but I've always played with it a bit.

So anyway, back on track with ama, curious question have you ever done any playing around with (legal, not pirate) FTA satellite reception and the fun with all that?

I'm told the power levels for the stations on Maine (mpbn was the common one I recieved before on Channel 13) have been reduced. I have received the global and CTV broadcast (also both vhf-hi) from NB on occasion but so unreliable I've found it hardly worth trying. I've yet to see Maine at all though since the DTV transition. One of the issues is where I'm located there's Digby neck and the Annapolis Valley mountains that act as a roadblock unlike with pointing South -- which is just clear sailing open water. Several of those Boston stations, and to a lesser extent a couple from Rhode Island come in fairly reliably during those clear, hot spells in the summer.

That said we took the antenna down when we shingled a couple years ago and I haven't been bothered to put it back up, especially since the only two local TV stations left in my area are shutting down due to the 600mhz repack -- there's just no interest in broadcasters investing in even fairly urban areas of Canada unless it's the GTA, instead opting to become paid specialty channels only.

Anyhow, regarding satellite, don't think there's no challenge to it haha. There may be some easy to receive signals but you'd soon find cband more of a challenge.... Especially if you try to do it on a small dish since good 12 footers are hard to find (and hard to convince family it's a good idea to have on the lawn lol). The fun part with it though is not so much the constant broadcasts (most of those are religious quackery or propaganda from totalitarian regimes -- especially on the easy ones to recieve) but the feeds that popup. You can scan for those for hours and always find something new and unique to watch (or listen to). 10/10 would recommend if you ever find the time.

Here's a good explanation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation

Essentially it lets the signal refract rather than go off to space.

Net neutrality aside, is there really anything wrong with the US' broadcast environment? It seems to be pretty healthy in regards to the amount of choice available (like subchannels on ota)

I'd say there's far worse from a regulatory point of view in Canada (mostly with the crtc that licenses content not so much ISED that licenses spectrum) compared to the US.