Now admittedly, it is a bit over the top.

We currently get reception from three different vectors: a big tower north of town (about 2/3 of the local stations), another south-east of town (the other 1/3 of the locals), and a very distant station far south-south-east of here (USA PBS station).

So this gizmo has a pair of 3:1 pushbutton switches (one for each analog tuner in the PVR), and six solenoid actuators to press the buttons. An FT232RL USB-serial breakout board provides control (in "bitbang" mode), and a ULN2003A darlington array drives the solenoid coils.

For added complexity, there's a small relay to cut DC power from the solenoid circuitry when idle (for paranoia). But it's kinda redundant now, since I later added a second, solid-state relay to power down the entire AC PSU (a brick which provides +27VDC@600mA) when idle (saves watts since the thing is only rarely active, and only then for brief instants).

It was a fun build!