'How could they be so dumb?'
The Beastmaster Presents, a MINDLESS MAYHEM release,
the bullshit behind the bullshit of:
CHICAGO CABLE TV, a TCI Communications Company
Originally idea and base by AR-KANE (are you out there?)
MAJOR restructuring and additions by THE BEASTMASTER 1/91
*Re-Release with updates 6/24/91
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THE AUTHOR TAKES NO
RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LEGAL/ILLEGAL ACTIONS TO BENEFIT ONES
VIEWING CAPABILITIES ON CATV.
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Section I: Listing of premium channels (screwed).
15 is The Movie Channel (TMC)
16 is Cinemax (MAX) {Filter encoding}
17 is Home Box Office (HBO)
18 is Showtime (SHOW)
22 is Disney (DIS)
24-is Cinemax (MAX) {gated-sync scrambled}
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Section II: Rundown of each premium channel.
15, TMC: The Movie Channel. Your average run of the mill movie channel. Just
movies, not much else. This channel is JAMMED; you need a filter to view it.
16, MAX: Cinemax. Mostly movies. Cinemax is currently being sent thought this
channel and channel 24. This channel is JAMMED, you need a filter to view it,
while 24 is scrambled with GATED-SYNC. You may wonder why they're sending
this through two channels. Well, to cut costs, they a SLOWLY phasing out
gated-sync, because those little filters are MUCH cheaper. In large
quantity, they are much less than a buck. Too bad no one will sell them to
you legitimatly unless you are Ma Cable. So in the mean time, they have it
on two channels. So 24 will probably be some new shopping channel soon, eh?
17, HBO: Home Box Office. Movies, lame shows, etc. This channel is currently
TRAPPED, however, they are planning to change it to be JAMMED, for use with
a filter. While being TRAPPED, you are not really receiving a signal, as the
signal for that channel/frequency is blocked at the pole, that's why you
should (hehe) have just snow on your screen. To get this free, you have to
climb the pole and remove the trap, which is a small cylinder. I would
suggest grabbing yours and another. Take the other, remove the shit inside,
and run a wire connecting the middle of the F connectors to either end. This
will be a 'dummy' cylinder. Put this back in place of the one you took out of
your outlet on the pole, to keep Ma Cable minding her own. I would suggest
getting a friend or two together to do this one. Have one go up the pole and
do the work, one lookout, and one handling the ladder. You only need a small
ladder, as there are rungs on the telephone poles to climb on.
18, SHOW: Showtime. Same everything as HBO. See Above.
22, DIS: The Disney Channel. Lame shit for the kiddies, no nudity, etc. Why do
you want this channel? Hehe. It's trapped, you need a filter. See notes on
TMC.
24, MAX: Cinemax. See channel 16.
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Section III: Tricks and Shortcuts.
Quick and dirty way out of stealing filters.
If you don't care about picture quality and want a quick, cheap alternative
to view any JAMMED channels, do the following:
Examine the back of the TV set and find the VHF antenna terminals. Get a
piece of antenna wire (thin flat brown stuff NOT THE SUPER INSULATED TYPE,
Radio Shack 15-004 is the good enough) and attach a three foot length to
the VHF terminals (do not disconnect the matching transformer which the
CATV cable is connected to.) Tune into one of the filtered channels and
adjust the fine tuner until you get the clearest picture. Cut off about
1/4" of the antenna wire and adjust the fine tuner again. Continue to do
this until you get a good picture. (YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO CUT OFF MORE
THAN 6" OF THE ANTENNA WIRE.) Get a piece of aluminum foil about
1" square and wrap it around the antenna wire and slide it up and down
until you have a pretty good picture. This may take awhile to get
perfect.
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FM Stereo Outlet:
If you have a stereo TV, you probably already know that not all the good
channels are in stereo (MTV!) Or maybe you have a Gold Star 9" black and
white TV because you're Jewish, and don't have stereo, but would like to
hear your fav channels in stereo. Build the following FM stereo outlet, turn
your TV volume down, and crank your radio up LOUD.
Obtain the following parts from your local obnoxious Radio Shit salesman:
15-1141 Hybrid Splitter ($3.95)
15-1140 Matching transformer ($2.79)
appropriate lengths of coax cable, one short, one long
After getting the materials, set up as seen in the diagram:
attach these to ends to the FM
antenna screws on the back of
your fm receiver. (300 ohm inputs)
NOTE 1: Do not connect antenna wire AND cable wire at same time to back
of FM receiver, or this will result in very fuzzy reception for the cable
frequencies and normal radio freq.'s.
NOTE 2: If you are already paying for the FM service, you can cancel it
and do the above to re-attach it. They will explain to you that if they
send one of their highly qualified techs out to disconnect it, it will
cost you $25 for the service call. If you ask them if you can do it
yourself, they will tell you yes and to disconnect the 75-300 ohm
transformer from the radio and bring it into the office on Western Ave.
Since you are leaving the 2 way coupler and coax cable, on the way back
from the office drop by Radio Shack and pick up a new transformer. You
won't need anything else.
Here are the frequencies to tune into with the FM outlet hookup:
HBO 88.9FM
SHOW 89.5FM
MTV 90.1FM
VH1 90.9FM
USA 92.1FM
TNN 93.5FM
DIS 94.9FM
TMC 95.9FM
NOTE 3: You can receive the sound on FM for any premium services you may
not otherwise have a picture for.
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$500 a day? Fuck this noise...
I wouldn't lose any sleep over this one. They say if you're caught with
illegal cable service, you can get fines in excess of $500 a day. Well, do all
your work (i.e. adding filters, etc.) INSIDE THE HOUSE. Do not put these on
the outside of your house, apt. where it comes into the dwelling. You DO NOT
have to let them into your house IF YOU DON'T WANT TO, provided they don't
have a search warrant, and you'd have to give them alot of a tip for them to
go though the courts for that! I'd blow this one off if I were you.
The best way is to know someone who can get them for you (me) or you should
climb the pole and steal them from your neighbor's outlets on the pole
(usually all wires go into a green box on the pole. I guess they're getting
cheap, as I hear they are no longer using the boxes in new neighborhood
wiring). For a short time, I have filters availible for $25 each. I have them
for all channels. This is only for a short time, If you can contact me, I MAY
be able to get them for you.
Yes, while they are switching all these channels around and what not, you
probably have free service on channels you are not paying for. At the time
this file was written, TMC is free on 15, HBO on 65, SHOW on 66. This may not
last long though. Enjoy them until they go out.
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Section IV: What the fuck?
For those of you a little more advanced and have your own idea's
here is some important info. you will need.
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Section V: Authors mumblings which you must read.
All this information was tried with the Hamlin convertor box, which is
most widely used by Chicago Cable. If you have a Scientific Atlanta or
another convertor, some of the above applications may vary or may not
work; please leave me info on them so I can add to this file as I get more
info. Additional information will be added to THIS file as collected.
If you have info for me to add to this or have found something to be
incorrect, please contact me, The Beastmaster, on DESTINY KNIGHTS, home of
all fine Mindless Mayhem releases, monster tfile bases managed by your's
truly at (708) 307-3768 {NUP: Fourth Dimension} or catch me on another
board. Tell the sysop you got the # from this file.
I did not receive much feed back on my last release, I guess because
everyone is watching TV now. The more feedback, good or bad, the better I
can make future releases. Chicago Cable TV is still switching stuff around
here and there at the time of this release, and another update will be
released after more information is obtained. I hope to add a section on
building filters for each of the channels. Anyone who can help me with
building filters, PLEASE CONTACT ME. lates...
