Al's Blog-o-Sphere

… when Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.

No, sorry. It was forty years ago today that Astronauts set foot on the moon. Not only was it an astounding feat at the time, it was televised. Yes, shown nearly-live on TV. We’d been enjoying real-time news for quite a while. Olympic coverage. Coverage of the VietNam War. Mostly by undersea cables, but more and more by some newfangled satellites. But to me the Apollo landing on the moon epitomizes the move to instant gratification with the news.

Everyone has their story of where they were and how old they were when it happened. I’m not going to disappoint you. My observation of the moon landing was extra special to me as I was in Washington DC. when it happened. How much more patriotic can you get? I was in our nation’s capital during this moment of national pride. Continue Reading…

What’s with McDonalds, trying to be some kind of trendy coffee house, instead of what they are, a burger joint? Who do they think they are, anyway? And what is up with this adding “é” to everything in sight? It sounds, well, stupid.

Besides, haven’t they noticed, even Starbucks is closing shops around here. The coffee fad has peaked and the winner is, not Mickey D’s, not Starbucks, not even Spot Coffee, it’s good old Tim Hortons.

So this commercial is all the more hilarious and pointless, pathetic and lame. L – A – M – E. Continue Reading…

I decided not to build a high-gain UHF TV antenna. I looked into it and while it’s an interesting project and something I may still do, the materials would have cost me more than buying a new antenna, if I did it the way I want to do. That says something for the principle of cost reduction due to mass production.

This is what I ended up with. The top antenna, a Antennas Direct DB4, is pointed nearly south to pick up the Buffalo stations in the southern hills. The stations in Grand Island are only 12 miles away and come in with a rock-crushing signal no matter where you point the antenna. You might be able to get a null off the side if you needed to cut them out, but it would take some careful aiming.

The antenna below that, a multi-element corner-reflector yagi from Radio Shack, purchased in the 70’s, but never used outdoors, is aimed at Toronto. Specifically at the CN Tower. Almost every TV station in Toronto is located on the tower, or within a mile of it. That’s just about line-of-sight. I’m sure if they cut down every tree between my house and the escarpment, about a mile away, I could see the CN Tower from my roof. I know it can be seen from an overlook at a park in town on the edge of the escarpment.

Continue Reading…

One of the things I’m considering with the advent of Digital TV is improving my antenna situation. I’ve had a TV antenna on a rotator for many years inside my attic. It was more than adequate for my needs, and I could reliably get stations from Buffalo, Hamilton and Toronto with little effort.

But the new DTV signals are a little more demanding, at least so far. I get digital signals from all the Buffalo stations, but even when the antenna is aimed right at some of the stations, we on occasion have the picture drop out. DTV signals are all-or-nothing, there is no snow, there is just nothing unless it’s perfect.

So what should I do? The antenna in my attic is only a few feet lower than where one might be if I put it on my rooftop. It’s a VHF/UHF combination antenna of medium size, as big as I could get and still turn inside the attic crawlspace.

I’ve been researching this on the interwebs and combined with my knowledge of electronics and radio communications (35 years as an Amateur Radio Operator) I can weed out the misinformation. But it’s still not totally clear-cut. Continue Reading…