Tag Archives: DB8e OTA TV Antenna (Antennas Direct)

2015/07/10 (F) Eye of the Beholder

I was up at 7 AM and made coffee.  This usually wakes Linda up, but not this morning.  After waiting a reasonable amount of time I went ahead and started drinking.  If someone tells you that 7:30 is too early in the morning to be drinking don’t believe it, and if someone tells you that you should never drink alone don’t believe that either.

Linda eventually got up but looked really tired.  Unbeknownst to me she had awoken in the middle of the night and not been able to get back to sleep.  Neither of us were hungry after the large meals we had last night for dinner so we just had a little juice to wash down our little pills (vitamins and an allergy pill for me).

I’ve been looking for a system to wall-mount multiple flat-panel LCD monitors above/behind the desks in the ham radio shack portion of the downstairs office.  Linda was helping search for products and found AFC Industries in New York.  Their website had a large variety of very serious looking products.  The ones that caught my eye were a 72″ wall mount track with four articulated monitor mounts and a 48″ track with three mounts.  They had an 800 number and the website said to call for pricing.  That’s usually a bad sign but they appeared to have exactly what I needed so I decided to call them later.

I had planned to work on the custom desk design all day but Linda had other ideas.  She had become frustrated with the clutter in the library and the inability to really clean that room and decided that today was the day to do something about it.  Point acknowledged.  Some of the clutter (but not all) is artwork and she thought the place for us to start was to get some of it hung on the walls.  Again, point well taken and agreed.  Doing this correctly is a slow process, however, so I knew my plans for the whole day had just changed.  Sometimes you have go along to get along.

We have artwork that is not currently displayed which ranges in size from 8″ x 10″ to 2′ x 5′.  Some of it is framed and ready for hanging and some of it is not.  It is mostly paintings but there is some photography, a few poster prints, and some textile pieces.  We went through every piece looking primarily for oil paintings that we liked and that would fit the spaces we had available to hang them.  Before we were finished with this project for the day we had hung eight paintings.  We also found four paintings that we liked but lacked frames, or ways to hang them, and set them aside for now.  Most of the paintings were done by Ann Metzger, my late great Aunt, but one was done by my late mother.  We had also moved a few items out of the library into the driveway to be donated to the Salvation Army.  I tend to use drywall screws with large fender washers as hangers as they are strong and very secure.  We ran out of stainless steel fender washers so that created a natural stopping point for our task.

For a change of pace I decided to climb the tower to measure the center sleeve inside diameter so I could determine what outside diameter mast to get.  I got out Mike’s climbing harness, set up the step ladder, put on the harness, climbed up onto the roof, connected the waist strap around the tower, and started climbing.  I alternately attached and detached the two safety cables and made good progress until I got to the DB8e OTA TV antenna.  To go higher I would have to move from the west face to the northeast face and then undo the waist strap and reconnect it above the mounting point for the OTA TV antenna.  I did not feel like doing that today.  I was, however, able to reach the bottom of the sleeve by extending my tape measure.  The tip of the tape fit inside the bottom of the sleeve with what appeared to be about a quarter inch to spare.  I then climbed down and got off the roof, got out of the climbing harness, and put it away.

Back in the house the tip of the tape measured approximately 1-1/8″ across thus it appears that the sleeve is sized for a 1-3/8″ outside diameter mast.  I checked Universal Towers website, since they are located in S. E. Michigan, but their selection of aluminum masts did not include this O.D.  OnlineMetals.com has 1-3/8″ O.D. 6061-T6 aluminum tube in five different wall thicknesses and a large variety of lengths so that may be the easiest way to get one.  But first I will check the usual ham radio places.

Next I called AFC Industries and was routed to Ewa who was very curious what I was going to use the multiple monitors for since I was not a company.  I tried to explain why I would need at least three monitors in an amateur (ham) radio shack but she had never heard of ham radio and I don’t think I did a very good job of explaining it.  She was paying attention to what I was describing, however, about where I wanted to position the monitors.  She could not give me pricing on the phone so I gave her my e-mail address to send a quote.  Ewa was prompt in the sending the quote but I did not see it until later as we had the leftover seitan stroganoff for lunch and then left to run errands.

Linda had loaded our donation items in the back of my car while I was on the phone.  I brought seven paintings to the car and we left.  Our first stop was the Salvation Army donation center between Brighton and Howell.  We then went to the Howell Art and Framing Center, a frame shop on the east end of downtown Howell.  The proprietor, Rick, worked with us quite a while as we selected frames for four of the seven pieces and played with his Jack Russell terrier, Rudy.  These four pieces will go in the library when they are done in about three weeks.  Our final stop was Meijer’s where we picked up fender washers, salad greens, and coffee filters.

Back at the house I went to my office to check e-mail and work on the desk design.  The quote was there from Ewa and she had already made a follow up phone call so I opened the e-mail and looked at the quote.  It was almost double what I expected which was already double what I wanted to spend.  I e-mailed her back and asked for a simpler configuration but politely explained that her numbers were way out of my price range.  The interesting thing about such experiences is that the Ziotek products I’ve been looking at on the CyberGuys website suddenly do not seem so expensive.  It’s funny how that works.

While I was working I got a TXT message from Chuck following up on the refrigerator installation.  I texted back that I had not yet checked whether we can open the fixed glass window frame but would do so immediately and call him back.  I moved the 7′ step ladder next to the bus and climbed up to inspect the stop blocks as Linda pushed the window open.  The two stop blocks on that frame were definitely contacting the drip rail immediately above them preventing the frame from opening more than about 8 to 10 inches at the bottom.  The good news was that the Zip Dee patio awning would not interfere with the opening of the window.  The bad news is that I was not able to remove the two Philips head screws that secured each block to the frame.

I called Butch to find out what the tool was that I used at his shop to work on my brakes.  He said it was a manual impact tool.  This nifty little device is a screwdriver that turns through a small angle when you strike the end of it with a hammer.  This has the unique benefit of driving the screwdriver bit into the screw head while turning.  Butch thought that any auto store would have these so I called the local O’Reilly’s but they did not have any in stock in the store.

While I was talking to Butch Linda was researching other places to buy such a tool.  It turned out that Sears would be a good choice but the closest one was at Twelve Oaks Mall over 20 miles away.  I was getting ready to drive there but called Chuck first.  It turned out that he has two of them so I will borrow one tomorrow after our ham radio club breakfast.  I spent the last couple hours of the evening working on the desk design.  I then went to bed and worked on this post.

 

2015/06/24 (W) Up The Tower

Today was the day to finally climb the tower to remove an old TV antenna, reposition an amateur radio antenna, and install two new antennas, one for OTA TV and the other for a cellular booster system.  But there were other things to do before I was ready to climb.

I was up at 7 AM and on my way to Lowe’s in Howell by 7:20 AM in search of a solution to the problem of how to mount the outdoor cellular booster antenna.  I ended up buying two 2-1/2 inch U-bolts.  Although the tower legs are 1-5/8″ in diameter the angle bracket attached to the bottom of the antenna is 2-1/4 inches wide.  Thus I needed the 2-1/2 inch spacing for the threaded ends of the U-bolt to clear the bracket.

Back at the house Linda was up and had the coffee made.  We had a quick breakfast of homemade granola.  I removed the tire pressure sensors and GPS from my car and headed to Brighton Honda to drop it off for its 100,000 mile service appointment.  Linda arrived at the dealership about 10 minutes later.  We then headed to Adams Electronics in Wixom.  While Adams Electronics primarily serves the public and business communications markets owner Scott Adams, AC8IL, is a long-time ham and a member of the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club and Novi Amateur Radio Club.  Well known in the local amateur radio community, Scotty is the local go-to guy for certain kinds of equipment.  I ordered two coaxial cables from him the other day and we were here to pick them up.

We left to return home at 10 AM so I called Mike (W8XH) to let him know we were running a little behind.  So was he, but thought he could be at our house by 11 AM.  That gave me time to drill a hole in each of the two U-bolt retaining plates and cut a short piece of 1″ square aluminum tube to use as a spacer.  That was the last fabricating I needed to do and we got busy staging all of the materials we were going to need to get the tower work done efficiently.

Setting up the tools and parts outside the "drop zone" of the 40-foot tower on the east end of the house.

Mike (W8XH) setting up the tools and parts outside the “drop zone” of the 40-foot tower on the east end of the house.  (Photo by Linda)

Linda set out a sheet near the tower but not in the “drop zone.”  We spread out materials and tools on the sheet and used it to make sure we could find things quickly and keep them from getting lost in the grass.  I also brought all of my tool boxes to the tower area.  With everything assembled it was time to climb.  I set up our 7 foot step ladder on the east end of our rear deck to provide access to the roof near the tower.  Mike helped me into his climbing harness and got it adjusted.  Once on the roof I took the harness off temporarily as my first task was to remove the 2m/70cm base station antenna.  After clipping the plastic cable ties I lowered it down to Mike while Linda took photographs.  (She helped with many aspects of the work today but was the only photographer.)

Starting up the tower from the roof of the house.  (Photo by Linda)

Starting up the tower from the roof of the house. (Photo by Linda)

I put the harness back on and Mike tossed me one of the 100 foot ropes which would eventually be used to haul materials and tools up and down the tower.  I secured the haul rope to one of the unused seat clip rings and Mike instructed me on how to secure the harness while climbing.  I put the waist strap around the tower and clipped it in.  I then put one of the two fall cables, attached to the ring at my upper back, around one of the legs above one of the cross bars above my head and clipped it into the ring at my chest.  The tower is adjacent to the east end of the house and is attached to it by two pipe assemblies just below the soffit (the house has hip roofs) so it was easy to step onto it.  After that things got tougher.

The horizontal trussing on the tower is two feet apart vertically.  That spacing was right at the limit of how high I could lift my right foot and required me to pull myself up part way until I could push with my right leg.  Once up on the next rung I attached the other fall cable, moved the first one higher, and slide the waist strap up to position myself for the next step.  I repeated this pattern with the two fall cables and the waist strap as I worked my way slowly up the tower, clipping old plastic cable (zip) ties as I went.  The tower definitely had some give but I was quickly acclimated to the amount of sway and found it to be acceptable so we decided not to guy the tower with the other three ropes, which would have slowed my ascent even more.

When I finally reached the top of the tower I untied the haul rope, looped it over one of the southeast facing horizontal bars and hauled it up allowing the free end to lower down to the ground.  Mike then tied the rope to the standoff pulley I had fabricated and hauled it up to me.  I already had cable ties, a diagonal cutter, and a pair of slip pliers with me.  I set the threaded rod on the northeast and southeast cross bars, inside and against the two legs that were parallel to the side of the house, and secured it with cable ties.  This was a three-handed job that I had to do with two hands but I got it done while only dropping one cable tie.  With the pulley rod secured I undid the rope and then undid the knot tying the two loose ends together.  I fed one end through the pulley and retied it to the other end.  We now had a way to haul materials and tools (in a bucket) up to me at any needed height while keeping it 18 inches away from the tower.

Three-quarters of the way up ad working with the haul rope.  (Photo by Linda)

Three-quarters of the way up ad working with the haul rope. (Photo by Linda)

The next task at the top of the tower was to remove the old TV antenna, mast, and rotor.  When I finally had a close up view of these old components it became apparent that my best course of action was to try and unclamp the base of the mast from the rotator, lift it off of the rotator, and toss it to the ground.

The mast clamp parts were all very rusty so Linda got the WD-40 and Mike sent it up in the bucket.  I sprayed the nuts on the mast mounts and also the rotator leg clamps.  I tried undoing the mast clamps with a slip pliers but it was no good, so Mike sent up three open/closed end wrenches.  One of them was the right size and to my surprise the rusted nuts broke loose and started backing off.  One of them did not want to come off but unscrewed the entire bolt instead.  Fine.  The bolt had a screwdriver slot in the top and was threaded into the rotor housing and I did not care how it came out as long as it did.  I got the mast clamps loose enough that I could work the bottom of the mast free from the top of the rotor.  There was a lot of rust there too.  After clipping some coax cables, rotor control wires, and plastic cable clamps I repositioned myself up one rung on the tower so I could get enough leverage to the lift the mast clear of the rotator collar and control it well enough to make sure the antenna fell to the ENE away from the house and my helpers down below.  And that is exactly what happened.

The first antenna to get mounted was the outdoor antenna for the cellular booster system.  Mike sent the antenna up in the bucket along with the various pieces I needed to secure it to the short top/center mast support tube so the entire antenna, which is omnidirectional, was above all parts of the tower.  What would have been an awkward assembly on the ground took on added difficulty 40 feet in the air but I got it secured with good access to the N-female connector on the bottom.

At the top with the pulley in place and using it to haul up a bucket with tools and parts.  Mike is controlling the haul rope on the ground.  (Photo by Linda)

At the top with the pulley in place and using it to haul up a bucket with tools and parts. Mike is controlling the haul rope on the ground. (Photo by Linda)

We decided to run the coax on the outside of one of the tower legs rather than down the inside of the tower.  Mike tied the LMR-400 coax to the rope and hauled it up to me.  In addition to the haul rope Mike tied a second control line to the bucket to keep it from swinging all over the place.  I connected the coax to the antenna feed point and then wrapped the connection with coax seal tape.  I then routed the coax down the east leg of the tower and zip tied it to take the weight off of the antenna connection.

Next up was the 2m/70cm amateur radio base station antenna, often referred to as a 2m/440 dual band antenna.  (In this nomenclature the “2m” refers to a range of wavelengths for one of the VHF ham bands and the “440” refers to a range of frequencies for one of the UHF ham radio bands, so it is a mixed units designation.). The antenna is about five feet long with three short counterpoise (ground plane) rods near the base.  It had an LMR-400 style cable connected to it but with PL-259 male connectors on each end.  The antenna feed point is an N-female connector so I had an adapter installed to make everything compatible.  Mike removed the coax and the adapter, zip tied the antenna to the haul cable at three points, put the 10mm wrench in the bucket, and hauled it up to me.

The ham radio antenna was also tricky to get mounted.  I installed it at the top of the northwest leg so that most of the antenna was above the tower and two of the three short counterpoise were parallel to the west (N-S) and northeast (NW-SE) crossbars.  The antenna by itself is light in weight but it is five feet long and mounts at the bottom nine inches, so most if it was above me with a tendency to wave around in mid-air.  With the coax connected, however, it weighed quite a bit more.  I temporarily zip tied the coax to take the weight.  I then had to hold the antenna with its base against the northwest post at my head level, push a U-bolt through the mounting bracket and past the tower leg, slip the mating clamp over the two ends of the U-bolt, and then get a small lock washer and nut on each threaded bolt end.  I then had to repeat this for the second U-bolt.  Again, a three-handed job that I had to do with only two hands.

The old OTA TV antenna and mast on the ground.  It came down by the gravity method.  (Photo by Linda)

The old OTA TV antenna and mast on the ground. It came down by the gravity method. (Photo by Linda)

The bonus to this work at the top of the tower was a commanding view of the surrounding countryside, which was mostly trees in every direction.  I even saw two towers far to the north and was kept company by a soaring vulture just to the NNE.  I was also able to determine that the tops of the large white pine trees behind the east end of our house are about 10 feet higher than the top of our tower, putting their overall height at about 55 feet as their bases are lower than the base of the tower.  We plan to put the 70 foot tower at a spot that is surrounded by these trees on three sides (W, S, and E) so the top of the tower, and any antennas mounted there, will be well above the tree tops.  That is especially important as we plan to eventually put an HF beam antenna up there on a mast attached to a rotator and it will need to be able to rotate freely for 360 degrees.

The final antenna was the hardest.  The Antennas Direct DB8e OTA UHF/digital TV antenna was very large and heavy by comparison to the other two.  In this case ‘heavy’ meant a few pounds.  It is actually two UHF antennas mounted at the end of a dual support arm structure.  The support arm mounts to a vertical pole, such as a tower leg, at its midpoint and there is a combiner box located there as part of the mount.  A short length of RG-59 (75 ohm) coax connects each antenna to the combiner box and the main coax connects there as well.

How tall the tower appears (and feels) depends on where you are standing.  (Photo by Linda)

How tall the tower appears (and feels) depends on where you are standing.  Pulley and haul rope in the upper right.  Lots of coaxial cables to be dressed (secured) on the way down.  (Photo by Linda)

RG-59 is a different kind of coaxial cable from the LMR-400 used for the first two antennas.  LMR-400 has a 50 ohm characteristic impedance and is used for receiving and transmitting RF energy with considerable power if needed.  RG-59 is much smaller in diameter, more flexible, has a 75 ohm characteristic impedance, and uses F-connectors that are the standard for OTA TV, video, and satellite cables.  But I have gotten ahead of myself.  I had to come down a few feet on the tower to install the TV antenna but before doing that I had to start securing the transmission lines to the tower legs with cable ties.

Mike rigged up the haul rope in a ‘Y’ to lift the antenna from its center of gravity while actually attaching the rope to its ends.  That allowed the haul rope to both support the weight of the antenna and keep it oriented correctly while I positioned and clamped it to the southwest tower leg with the dual support arms pointing in an east-west direction.  Because of where I had the pulley mounted, and the length of the ‘Y’ in the support rope, I had to mount the antenna a few feet lower on the tower.  Fortunately the slightly lower height was not going to affect its performance.

Like the ham radio antenna, the OTA TV antenna mounted to the tower leg at two points.  The upper assembly was a U-bolt with a retaining bracket on the back side.  The lower assembly was a pair of straight bolts that went through the combiner box past the tower leg and had a retaining bracket on the back side.  The antenna came with wing nuts instead of washers and regular nuts, which helped a little, but I really needed three hands to get the antenna into position and tighten the mounting brackets.

Mike ties off the DB8e OTA TV antenna with an inverted "Y" so it will haul up in the proper orientation.  (Photo by Linda)

Mike ties off the DB8e OTA TV antenna with an inverted “Y” so it will haul up in the proper orientation. (Photo by Linda)

Once I had the antenna sufficiently attached to the tower I was able to position the support arm close to the southeast facing side of the tower.  I then pointed the antenna on the east end of the arm ESE towards the Detroit area TV towers and tightened the two nuts on the mounting studs.  (The horizontal dual support arms are about 3 feet long so I was able to reach through the tower to get to the mounting studs and nuts.) I left the antenna on the west end of the support beam loose and turned it out of my way so I could complete other tasks.

Mike attached the end of the main RG-59 coax to the haul rope, put the amplifier and a 2-foot length of RG-59 coax in the bucket along with lots of zip ties, and pulled them up to me.  The amplifier is about 3″ wide by 2″ high and 1.5″ thick including the concave plastic backplate.  The backplate accepts two zip ties for mounting to a pole.  I positioned the amplifier about 8 inches below the antenna combiner box and cinched up the two zip ties.  I then connected the short coax to the combiner box output and put the combiner back it its protective, weather-gasketed plastic box.  I connected the other end of the short coax to the amplifier input and wrapped the connection with coax seal weatherproofing tape.

Installing the DB8e OTA TV antenna required three hands.  Note that I am installing it at the highest point possible when suspended from the pulley with the haul rope in an inverted "Y" attachment.  (Photo by Linda)

Installing the DB8e OTA TV antenna required three hands. Note that I am installing it at the highest point possible when it is suspended from the pulley with the haul rope in an inverted “Y” attachment. The yellow waist strap allowed me to lean back and work while the two red security straps would catch me if something broke. (Photo by Linda)

I attached the main RG-59 coax to the output of the amplifier, which is also the DC power input, and wrapped the connection in coax weather seal tape.  I then dressed the cable and secured it to the tower leg.  I aimed the antenna on the west end of the support arm WNW towards the East Lansing TV towers and tightened the nuts to lock it in position.

At this point I was finally done working on the antennas but had three coaxial transmission line running down the outside of the tower, one by each leg.  As I descended the tower, reversing the protocol I used going up, I secured all three cables every few feet.  I finally had my feet back on the roof at 2:20 PM, almost exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes from when I started climbing.  Projects usually take me twice as long as I think they will but this was about half as long as I thought it would take, so we were all pleased that the work had gone smoothly and relatively quickly.  My main objective was to get the old TV antenna down and the three antennas up but my secondary objective was to only climb and descend the tower once.  Mission accomplished, at least for now.

By now we were all hungry and thirsty so Linda made chickpea salad sandwiches and set out fresh sweet peppers, sliced apples, baby carrots, and cold water.  After a suitable lunch break we returned to the next phase of the work which was routing the coax cables into the cable entry box (CEB) and making the connections.

We started with the RG-59 coax from the OTA TV antenna.  I coiled the extra cable and hung it on the tower (with zip ties, of course), routed it into the CEB and connected it to the power inserter / lightning arrestor.  We purchased this cable from a Radio Shack store in Florida two winters ago to hook up our bus to the RV resort cable TV system.  Besides the coax it had a separate ground wire.  The amplifier and the power inserter both had connections for a separate ground wire so I connected it on both ends.

Routing coaxial cable into the cable entry box from the tower and the basement and making the connections.  (Photo by Linda)

Routing coaxial cable into the cable entry box from the tower and the basement and making the connections. (Photo by Linda)

We had already routed a 75 ohm video cable from our bedroom TV to the sump pump room in the basement.  I selected a suitable length of this same type of cable from our existing inventory, connected it to the other side of the power inserter, and routed it through the back of the CEB into the sump pump room where Linda guided it.  Conveniently, I had a double-ended F-female barrel connector designed to connect together two cables with F-male connectors.  I plugged in the AC power adapter for the power inserter, which was already in the sump pump room, and we went upstairs to see if we were receiving any TV stations.

We set the ‘Source’ on the TV to ‘Antenna’ and did an ‘Auto Scan’ for digital channels only.  There are very few analog TV signals still in use and the ones that are reside in the old VHF TV spectrum which our new antenna cannot even receive.  The scan found 58 signals, which obviously included the sub-channels.  Besides the main Detroit stations and the East Lansing PBS station we got other Lansing area stations and even a station from Flint.  The nice thing about digital TV is that if you get a picture at all it is very good.

There is a large TV tower at I-96 and US-127 on the southeast corner of Lansing so we were probably picking it up.  There are several TV towers SSW of Lansing about 35 miles that serve Battle Creek and may serve Lansing and Kalamazoo.  They are 50+ miles from us and I did not have the west antenna pointed in exactly that direction but it may have been close enough to pick them up.  Flint is at least 35 miles away straight north off the sides of both antennas so theoretically we should not have received any stations from that direction.  We will have to check the AntennaPoint.com website and confirm by station identifier what stations we are actually receiving.

Feeling good about our success so far we routed the coax for the cellular booster across one of the support arms that brace the tower to the house just under the east soffit.  We dropped it down next to the wall and brought it into the bottom of the CEB, replacing the hole plug with a rubber grommet.  Routing it this way kept it out of the way of future foot traffic, or lawn and garden work, in the space around/between the tower and the CEB.  I connected the cable to the lightning arrestor and coaxed it unto position inside the CEB.  LMR-400 is stiff and bending it sharply will damage it.

I connected one end of the 15-foot LMR-400 cable to the other side of the antenna arrestor and routed it into the sump pump room where Linda guided it into position.  I secured it to the ceiling, brought it down the opposite wall, put a large 180 degree bend in it, and attached it to the connector on the bottom of the cellular booster.  I turned it on and watched the lights blink for a while.  All three of us then started checking signal strength throughout both floors of the house.  All five of the ‘Alert’ lights went from blinking yellow, which means the unit is adjusting the gain on that band, to solid yellow, which is not described in the manual.  Since we had not yet registered the device with Verizon Wireless I turned off the booster.

Back out at the CEB I removed one of the hole plugs directly below the input of the Morgan VHF lightning arrestor.  We routed the coax for the 2m/440 ham antenna across the tower brace, down the wall, and around through the bottom of the box where I attached it to the lightning arrestor input.  I had an old piece of 50 ohm coax with an N-male connector on one end and a PL-259 (male) connector on the other end.  I attached the N-connector to the output of the VHF lightning arrestor and fed the other end through one of the 2″ conduits into the sump pump room where Linda routed it out into the ham shack.

We set our “Go Box” on the desk, plugged the PL-259 into the SO-239 socket on the back of the case, plugged it in to AC power, turned on the power supply, and turned on the radio.  The radio, an Icom IC-7000, came up tuned to the South Lyon (K8VJ) repeater.  I transmitted and successfully triggered the repeater, which is currently at a secondary site about 20 miles from our tower.  Mike went out to his car and used his mobile radio to verify that we could transmit to and receive from the repeater.  I had a lot of background static (white noise) so Mike switched modes and transmitted directly to our antenna.  The signal was full scale and full quieting.  I have a ground lug in the Go Box but did not have it connected.  I vaguely recalled that I had to ground the box at the previous house to eliminate a noise issue.  (The radio and power supply are grounded to the box.)

I switched the radio to UHF and it was set for the Novi repeater.  I listened but did not hear anyone transmitting so I transmitted, giving my call sign and a brief message, and then listened.  I did not get a reply even though Mike was also monitoring the Novi repeater so I switched back to the South Lyon repeater.  Mike indicated that I had, indeed, triggered the repeater and that a couple of other hams acknowledged hearing me in addition to him.  It thus appeared that I did not have something set up correctly on the receive side of the radio for the Novi repeater but the system (radio, cables, arrestor, antenna) was clearly working.

That was enough work for one day so we gathered up all of the tools and unused materials and put them away.  We offered to take Mike to dinner as a ‘Thank You’ for his assistance.  It was more than helpful to have someone on the ground who was familiar with tower operations.  We considered several dining options but opted for Olga’s in Brighton.  Linda and I had small salads, sans the Feta cheese, veggie Olga’s that were excellent, and curly fries without Tabasco sauce for the ketchup.  Warning:  As inconceivable as it may sound, Olga’s does not have any kind of hot sauce in its restaurants.  Mike had a dish with chicken in that he said was very good.

Mike headed home from the restaurant as did we.  We were tired but very pleased with what we had accomplished in the course of the day.  We celebrated our accomplishments by watching several programs on Detroit PBS, something we have not been able to do for more than two years.

 

2015/06/14 (N) WordPressing

We had yet more rain overnight.  I heard the rain around 6 AM and checked the Wundermap app on my iPad but did not get up.  Linda did not need to go to the Howell Farmers Market today as the refrigerator is quite full and the rainy weather made the prospect less appealing.  We finally got up at 9 AM and I made coffee.  Linda checked the weather forecast.  It called for a 100% chance of rain between noon and 3 PM with thunderstorms and up to 2″ of rain.  By 10:15 AM it was raining steadily again.

We deferred by one more day getting back to work on the bus.  The monthly meeting of our South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC) was this evening and we did not want to get involved in physical work today.  I wanted to do a load of laundry but deferred that as the high humidity makes it harder to get the clothes dry.

I opened the three boxes that made up the OTA TV antenna shipment from AntennasDirect.com and laid all the parts out on the floor.  As I wrote yesterday I need to determine exactly what types/lengths/connectors I need to get everything hooked up and make sure I have it on hand before I climb the 40 foot tower next to the house.  After I laid all of the parts out this morning Linda asked how I was going to get all of that stuff up the tower.

Our new Antennas Direct DB8e Over-The-Air TV antenna.

Our new Antennas Direct DB8e Over-The-Air TV antenna.

My plan is to preassemble as much stuff as possible.  I will then take a 100 foot rope with me when I climb the tower, loop it over one of the crossbars, and drop it back down to the ground where Linda can tie it to a bracket, or directly to some part, and pull it up to me.  As I describe this it occurs to me that I should probably rig up a pulley.  We also figured out that we should run the TV co-ax inside the house before I climb the tower.  That will allow Linda to scan for signals and talk to me on our portable ham radios while I am on the tower if the antennas need to be aimed.  I called Mike (W8XH) to see if he would bring his climbing harness to our ham radio club meeting this evening and he agreed.

For breakfast I had some of the Pepperidge Farm cinnamon chocolate chip bread Linda bought and we both had fresh grapefruit.  After breakfast I got cleaned up and dressed and then partially assembled the OTA TV antenna.  I then went to my office and settled in at my desk to upload blog posts.  I had not been in my e-mail for a few days so there were some things I had to respond to before working on our blog.

I got my blog posts uploaded for May 29 through June 7 and then decided to update the other three WordPress websites I work on.  Much to my dismay I was not able to log in to the FMCA Freethinkers website.  I got an error message instead and the contents looked to me like the site might have been hacked.  I notified the President of the chapter and indicated that I would contact the ISP technical support folks and see what they can tell me.  I have never opened that site up to the members of the chapter because I never quite finished it but I intended to and I have a lot of time and effort invested in its development.  Still, if the site is totally corrupted I may just delete it and abandon the whole project.

I wrapped up my work just in time for dinner.  Linda reheated the two leftover vegan cheeseburgers and served them with the remaining vegan potato salad and fresh nectarines.

Linda spent a little time during the afternoon getting the treasurer’s report ready for our SLAARC meeting.  We left at 6 PM and were at the Witch’s Hat Depot in South Lyon by 6:30 PM.  We have changed the meeting format to have social time from 6:30 to 7:00 PM, followed by a business meeting, and then a program.  I got the climbing harness from Mike (W8XH) as soon as we arrived and put it in the car.  I then had a brief chat with Scotty (AC8IL) regarding Universal Towers in Clinton Township, Michigan and LMR-400 co-ax.  Scotty stocks LMR-400 but also stocks RG-213 which he thinks is better for outdoor use.  His opinion is based on a Motorola white paper that discusses potential problems with the aluminum foil wrapped copper braid outer conductor in LMR-400 in the presence of moisture.

Tonight’s business meeting was a discussion about preparations for the upcoming ARRL Field Day lead by this year’s club field day chair Paul (KD8SNZ).  The program was a presentation by Larry (K8UT) on the N1MM Logger+ contest logging program that we will be using to log contacts on four different networked computers.  Larry is a member of the N1MM development team.  I asked Larry if I could send him the URL for my broken WordPress website and he said he would look at it.  We left at 8:45 PM.

When we got home Juniper was hunched over something in the living room and I could see immediately that she had caught another mouse.  It was very small, like the last one, and for all I know it was the same mouse.  I got her to drop the last one and it escaped into my office.  Linda grabbed one of the antenna boxes and pulled out the shipping paper that was stuffed inside.  I managed to get Juniper to drop the mouse in the box, from which it was not going to be able to escape, and then took the box outside and set it free.  If it has any sense it won’t come back in the house and it will tell all if its little mouse friends to steer clear of this place.  Juniper is a very skilled hunter and will catch anything in that house that moves that is smaller than she is.

Linda prepared some fresh strawberries and served them with some non-dairy ice cream.  She logged in to Amazon.com and ordered six live traps and a new cover for my iPad, both eligible for Amazon Prime.  We then spent a little more time reading and writing and checking the weather.  The 10-day forecast is for continued rain almost every day.  We are still expecting the new roof shingles to be delivered tomorrow but we won’t be surprised if they are not.  We are also expecting that Apex will have to push the start date of our project back due to all of the recent rain delaying other jobs that are ahead of ours.  We turned in for the night at 10:30 PM; late for Linda and early for me.  She was asleep fairly quickly but I stayed up writing and played a few games on my iPad as I do most nights.

 

2015/06/13 (S) On to Illinois

It has turned out to be a wet June so far and we had more heavy rain last night.  In spite of waking up during the night I was up at 7:30 AM and made coffee.  Everyone else got up as suited their level of rest and we sat around chatting for a while.  Ron put a load of laundry in the washing machine and then we sat down to a light breakfast.

Ron and Mary spent most of the rest of the morning repacking all of their stuff for the drive to northwest Illinois and their week-long bicycle ride.  FedEx Home Delivery delivered the Cyclo 5-Pro Mark II Dual Head Orbital Polisher I ordered along with all of the foam pads and detailing chemicals.

Ron retrieved their laundry from the dryer and after they finished packing we had a light lunch.  By 1 PM they were ready to load up the car so we helped get their bags out.  After a brief “farewell and safe travels” they were on their way.  They had a five hour drive but would gain an hour as they entered the Central Time Zone so they would be at their motel by 5 PM local time with plenty of daylight and time to eat dinner.

Linda took a short nap and then went for a walk.  I read through the manual for our SureCall Fusion5s cell phone booster and was part way through the manual for the Cyclo 5 when I decided to take a nap.  Linda returned from her walk and a little while later a USPS mail carrier delivered the OTA TV antenna I ordered from Antennas Direct.  All I am waiting for now is the cable entrance box I ordered from KF7P Metalwerks.

Once the cable entrance box arrives I will have a bit of a project.  First I will need to drill two 2″ holes through the east wall of the house and into the sump pump closet in the northeast corner of the basement, mount the box to the wall, and ground it to the outside ground rod by the tower.  I may also need to install additional ground rods.  I will then need to climb the tower by the house and do the following:

  1. take down the old OTA TV antenna and rotator;
  2. mount the new OTA TV antenna and aim it;
  3. mount the amplifier for the OTA TV antenna;
  4. attach a short piece of 75 Ohm co-ax from the antenna output to the amplifier input and weatherproof the connections;
  5. attach a longer piece of 75 Ohm co-ax to the output of the amplifier and weatherproof the connection;
  6. mount the outside antenna for the cell phone booster system;
  7. attach one end of a 50′ piece of LMR-400 or RG-213 co-ax to the cell phone antenna and weatherproof it;
  8. unmount our Diamond SG7900 2m/70cm ham radio base station antenna and remount it at the top of the tower;
  9. attach a 50-to-60 foot length of LMR-400 or RG-213 co-ax to the ham radio antenna;
  10. dress and secure all of the coaxial cables with plastic cable ties (zip ties).

Once I am done with tower work I will need to do the following to complete the installation:

  1. install the lightning arrestors in the cable entrance box for the cell phone booster and OTA TV (?) co-ax cables;
  2. route each of the co-ax cables into the bottom of the cable entrance box and attach them to appropriate lighting arrestors;
  3. attach additional co-ax cables to the lightning arrestors and feed them through the 2″ holes into the basement;
  4. mount the Surecall Fusion5s in the sump pump room and connect the co-ax for the outside antenna and the power supply;
  5. run a 50′ length of LMR-400 from the sump pump room across the basement ceiling and up through an old vertical furnace exhaust chase to the attic;
  6. drill a hole in the ceiling of the main floor hallway near the chase;
  7. mount the inside done antenna for the cell phone booster system to the ceiling with the co-ax dongle in the attic;
  8. connect the antenna dongle to the co-ax coming up from the basement;
  9. run additional co-ax from the sump pump room to the ham shack;
  10. run additional co-ax from the sump pump room to the video distribution point in the laundry room (or directly to the locations of the two TV sets);
  11. turn on the Fusion5s booster (transceiver), adjust the gain (if needed) and test it with our phones and Mi-Fi;
  12. test the TV sets (and hopefully not have to go back up the tower to reposition the antenna);
  13. connect our Icom IC-7000 amateur radio and test the antenna connection.

As I wrote out this list it occurred to me that I need to make a list of all of the co-ax types/lengths/connectors I need and that, at a minimum, I probably need to order a length of LMR-400 orRG-213 co-ax cable and the proper N-connectors to complete the ham radio antenna connections.  It also occurred to me that I might be able to do some of the inside wiring while I am waiting for the cable entrance box to arrive.  Also, once the TVs are connected Linda can scan for channels and communicate with me with our HT ham radios if I need to change the aim of the antennas on the tower.

All of this reminded me that I need to follow-up with a Bratcher Electric on running a new 100 Amp main feed from the transfer switch to the panel in the furnace room in the garage.  I also need to order some new split foam fillers from Critter-Guard and new electrical hardware for connecting the bus to the toad from EZ-Connector in California.

I must have been sleeping lightly and dreamed all of these details because I got up from my nap around 5:30 PM, finished reading the manual for the Cyclo 5, and then took a shower and got dressed for dinner.  Barb Spera had called Linda yesterday to see if we were available for dinner this evening.  They had really enjoyed our meal at La Marsa in Brighton a couple of weeks ago and wanted to go again so we agreed to meet them there at 7 PM.  We did not have to wait for a table and our waiter, Najheem (Naa-gheem), was delightful.  Barbara had the Koshary again, and Chuck had the Chicken Shwarma with tabbouleh salad, while we split an order of spicy vegetarian ghallabah with rice and a salad.  I had a mango smoothie and we all enjoyed the swarm pocket bread and garlic spread.

It was after 9 PM when we got home and we headed off to bed at 10.  We knew Ron and Mary had arrived at their destination because Ron played a Scrabble word.  Linda had also checked that our daughter and son-in-law were on their way back from Las Vegas.