'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. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ 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} _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ 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. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- 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. _________________________________________________________________ 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: 旼컴커 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � out쳐커 ________________� � 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 旼캑 쳐켸 � Cable Box � cable from wall쳐� 쿶n� � � � 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 읕캑 쳐커 _____ � � � out쳐켸 \ � � 읕컴켸 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 hybrid splitter � � � � 旼� 憫컨� � � � � 75-300 ohm matching � � transformer � � � � 읕컴� / \ / \ / \ / \ 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. _________________________________________________________________ $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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Obtaining Filters. 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Free Channels? 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. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ 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. Cable Channel Frequencies. Chn No. Freq. Range Video Color Audio ------------------------------------------------------- 2 54-60 55.25 58.83 59.75 3 60-66 61.25 64.83 65.75 4 66-72 67.25 70.83 71.75 5 76-82 77.25 80.83 81.75 6 82-88 83.25 86.83 87.75 7 174-180 175.83 178.83 179.75 8 180-186 181.25 184.83 185.75 9 186-192 187.25 190.83 191.73 10 192-198 193.25 196.83 197.75 11 198-204 199.25 202.83 203.75 12 204-210 205.25 208.83 209.75 13 210-216 211.25 214.83 215.75 14 120-126 121.25 124.83 125.75 15 126-132 127.25 130.83 131.75 16 132-138 133.25 136.83 137.75 17 138-144 139.25 142.83 143.75 18 144-150 145.25 148.83 149.75 19 150-156 151.25 154.83 155.75 20 156-162 157.25 160.83 161.75 21 162-168 163.25 166.83 167.75 22 168-174 169.25 172.83 173.75 23 216-222 217.25 220.83 221.75 24 222-228 223.25 226.83 227.75 25 228-234 229.25 232.83 233.75 26 234-240 235.25 238.83 239.75 27 240-246 241.25 244.83 245.75 28 246-252 247.25 250.83 251.75 29 252-258 253.25 256.83 257.75 30 258-264 259.25 262.83 263.75 31 264-270 265.25 268.83 269.75 32 270-276 271.25 274.83 275.75 33 276-282 277.25 280.83 281.75 34 282-288 283.25 286.83 287.75 35 288-294 289.25 292.83 293.75 36 294-300 295.25 298.83 299.75 37 300-306 301.25 304.83 305.75 38 306-312 307.25 310.83 311.75 39 312-318 313.25 316.83 317.75 40 318-324 319.25 322.83 323.75 41 324-330 325.25 328.83 329.75 42 330-336 331.25 334.83 335.75 43 336-342 337.25 340.83 341.75 44 342-348 343.25 346.25 347.46 45 348-354 349.25 352.83 353.75 46 354-360 355.25 358.83 359.75 47 360-366 361.25 364.83 365.75 48 366-372 367.25 370.83 371.75 49 372-378 373.25 376.83 377.75 50 378-384 379.25 382.83 383.75 51 384-390 385.25 388.83 389.75 52 390-396 391.25 394.83 395.75 53 396-402 397.25 400.83 402.75 54 72-78 73.25 76.83 77.75 55 78-84 79.25 82.83 83.75 56 84-90 85.25 88.93 89.73 57 90-96 91.46 94.47 95.48 58 96-102 97.25 100.83 101.75 59 102-108 103.25 106.83 107.75 60 108-114 109.25 112.83 113.75 61 114-120 115.25 118.83 119.75 _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ 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... -The Beastmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EOF