Greetings and welcome!
We have a pretty nice weekend ahead. I am looking for highs in the low 80s and lows around 60. There will be a little humidity though.
There is a chance on an isolated shower or storm today otherwise the next rain chance is for Monday and Tuesday.
We really could use some rain. My lawn hasn’t grown much and there are a few brown spots where it went dormant. I could see driving to town the other day that the corn and beans were ready for some rain. I would have to guess that we have an elevated fire danger.
The one event that I recall fr this weekend is a fundraiser for Hidden Bear Trail ATV Club..
FUNDRAISER: Our 6th Annual Hidden Bear Trail ATV Club Fundraiser will be on Saturday August 18th, 2018 at Animal’s Bear Trail Inn on the corner of Hwy 64 and Hwy T Mountain WI from Noon to 6:00 pm. We will have food, refreshments, meat raffle, 50-50 raffles, gun raffle, packer autographed football raffle and our large cash raffle drawing will be 6:00 pm. Please feel free to bring friends and families, members or non-members. This event is open to the public. All money raised from this event will go back into opening new ATV Trails and maintaining the current ATV Trails. At 11:00 am we will have our 2nd membership meeting at the same location. We will be setting up for the event starting at 9:00 am on Saturday, if you can help, please be there at 9:00 am. Hope to see you all there!!!!
Here are a couple of scenic pictures..
Kurt e-mailed me this week about getting over the air TV in Silver Cliff. I gave him a very detailed recipe for what works for me, and will share it because other people want to know this. Here goes.
Hi Kurt, > I have local TV at my house here near C & F in Silver Cliff. It isn’t easy > but it can be done in most places that don’t have big physical barriers. > > I bought the biggest deep fringe digital antenna that Fleet Farm had, it > was about $100. It is up about 15-20 feet and my elevation is just over > 1000′ above sea level. I am in a wooded area. My antenna looks exactly > like this. https://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=cm-3020 > >
I use a 36db signal booster that injects the signal up by the antenna and > has a box by the TV. Mine looks just like this but it has an injector up > on the pole too. > https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-36DB-CABLE-TV-ANTENNA-INLINE-BOOSTER-COAX-SIGNAL-AMPLIFIER-WITH-GAIN-CONTROL/302010961643 > > The box by the TV sends power up the coax to the amp on the antenna. It > amplifies the signal right off of the antenna. The box by the TV filters > out the power before sending the signal to the TV. > >
**The takeaway here is that it has to have the amplifier part up on the > antenna before the already weak signal is eaten by the coax line loss.** > We are not dealing with a strong signal and you will lose a lot (most) of > it in even 50′ of coax. I learned that the hard way. > >
I use a top quality balun matching transformer to convert it from the > antenna to the amplifier. I don’t know if it is a local issue but I burn > these out about once a year. The cheap ones don’t work well. Don’t get > cheap on coax cable either. Use high end well shielded coax cable. I > learned those lessons the hard way. > >
With that kit I get 22 digital channels out of Green Bay. I did not get > the rotor, but I have turned it manually and gotten channels out of Iron > Mountain, Wausau, and Rhinelander. Green Bay has more to offer so I leave > it pointed there. > While rare, the other night the ‘skip’ was in and signals were bouncing > crazy. I was only getting some Green Bay channels but I was getting > Milwaukee channels wall to wall. That was unusual atmospheric conditions. > Ham and CB radio guy know about that. > >
I don’t recall the exact degrees that I pointed the antenna, but it was a > little farther east than I expected. > >
I have a friend that has one of these goofy looking all in one > antenna/booster/rotator in one unit. It is up on a high phone pole. When > it works, it works ok. Mine works way way better. He is also on his 3rd > one. One was lightning, one was probably the bal-un, but he just replaced > the whole kit. This is just an example of one. They vary a lot. > https://www.ebay.com/itm/Indoor-Outdoor-TV-Antenna-HD-Digital-360-UV-Dual-band-Amplified-Booster/283078720610 > >
One last thought is to make sure that the antenna is level. You are > looking over the horizon with a thin area of signal making it past the > curvature of the earth. Having the antenna pointing up or down even a > little makes a big difference at 85 miles out. > >
This project can be done in an afternoon for most people. Properly done > you can have a great system with 22 digital HD channels for about $200 > plus whatever mount or tower that you would want. > There are exceptions around here where people are deep in a river valley > or behind a mountain. The only way around that is a tower that can see > over the horizon or satellite. > >
Sorry for the TMI. This is one project that I learned the hard way an element at a time that details matter. That and other people want to know > this. I figured as long as I writing it out I’d share it with my web friends too. > > Good luck and best wishes- > > Ray >
Time for me to get back to work. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB
