Webb Family Blog

This past Monday had me at my parent’s house again, in Waterford. My parents don’t watch a lot of TV and they do not want to pay monthly fees for DirecTV or DISH Network. As they live out in the country, where there is no cable television, their only hope to get local TV is the traditional way… put up an antenna. They are greater than 60 miles from either the Sacramento television stations or the Fresno television stations, so we need a good antenna. I did quite a bit of research prior to Monday and had purchased many things needed for the job. Other than the over-the-air (OTA) antenna, my parents also have an Adventist Satellite system that gives them channels such as The Hope Channel, 3ABN and Loma Linda Broadcasting Network; religious programming. My job was to make it easy to watch these channels and local news.

First off, the antenna; my father purchased a Radio Shack VU-190XR VHF/UHF 160″ boom antenna. During my research, I argued debated with a local TV installer about what I needed. He insisted that using a smaller antenna and the strongest powered amplifier was the way to go. I felt that having a better antenna was better. I view it much the same way I view digital cameras: optical zoom is better than digital zoom… in both cases, you can only boost what you truly have. If you amplify a very poor “iffy” signal… you will have a stronger “iffy” signal. If you digitally zoom a wide shot, you are only magnifying the details you already have. Anyway, I felt the larger antenna important. I also wanted to install a rotator, especially since a bigger antenna is more directional than a smaller one. I chose the Channel Master 9521A digitally controlled rotator, as it is both strong, simple to use and pre-sets can be set. Since I had previously had a pull-string in a wall, it was easy for me to run the rotator control cable. I had also previously placed coax cable for the purpose of an OTA antenna and ran both out a vent, onto the roof of the house. I chose a mount with guy wires for stability. I placed the antenna mount about 10 feet from the west edge of the roof, at the peak. I placed eyebolts low on the eaves of the northwest and southwest corners, as well as about 10 feet east of the antenna mount. Securing the guy wires was probably the most difficult part of the job. For the lower mast, we used a 1″ galvanized pipe with an outside diameter just over 1.25″… the “just over” bit was an issue, as the mounting hardware was designed for a 1.25″ outside diameter. We had to modify the guy wire ring to get it to fit over the pipe. I believe we made that pipe 7-feet long. We had no issue placing the rotator on the pipe. The antenna was thankfully easy for me to install; lucky for me being over 6 foot tall. Since my parent’s house is a two-story house at the top of a hill and the tallest thing in the area, I was worried that it would be at risk for lightning and static electricity build-up, so I wanted to ground it well. We purchased an 8-foot copper-clad steel grounding rod and rammed it 7+ feet in the ground. We ran 6-gauge bare copper wire from the antenna, down a guy wire, and down to the northwest corner of the house, where I pounded in the grounding rod. The wind really picked up about the time we finished the job and I was happy to note that the antenna did not move much at all, despite the wind. My biggest worry with the install is the 3^rd eyebolt installed on the roof… I’m worried that it may have too much pull against the threads. I’m thinking that replacing the wood-screw type eyebolt with a machine eyebolt with a big fat washer and nut on either side of the roof sheathing. I think that would relieve my worry that it may pull out.

Once everything on the roof was installed and grounded, I turned my attention to inside. I had purchased a ChannelPlus DA-550BID distribution amplifier, which makes up for loss in signal through the wires. The amplifier also mixes in RF modulator signals. An RF modulator takes a (usually) composite video signal with audio from a device like a satellite receiver or DVD player and outputs it onto a channel that can be tuned in by a television. I also purchased a ChannelPlus 5545 4-channel RF modulator, which allows for up to 4 devices to be inserted onto blank UHF channels. After hooking up a television to a jack, I scanned the channels to see what I could find. I had aimed the rotator towards Sacramento and pulled in all of the Sacramento channels perfectly. I then rotated the antenna towards Fresno and pulled in all the Fresno stations perfectly too, in addition to channels from Visalia and Merced. I then connected two satellite receivers to output on channels 28 and 36. Everything works exactly as I had hoped. I was quite relieved.

My parents are now looking to purchase a new TV, they currently only have a borrowed television. At this time, it appears that they will be going for a 32″ LCD TV. One of the nice features about these televisions are they include an ATSC digital tuner, opening up more channels my parents will be able to receive. Two examples of additional channels are KCRA broadcasts a sub-channel of NBC Weather Plus or KXTV’s AccuWx TV weather channels. Other sub-channels include The Worship Channel, ION, ION Life, and qubo. While the initial investment is inevitable, at least there are no subscription fees.

Ron has been after me forever to post on our website, which has really turned into his blog……so I am going to start my own. Hopefully this will keep family and friends informed to my going on’s and events. Life has been extremely busy with school, taking a new position at work, weight loss, and just life in general. I have been neglecting my friends, household duties and poor bear couldn’t tell you when the last time I took him for a walk. Hopfully I will find more time and there will be posts to follow this one.

I am writing this entry from the Southwest Airlines terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, NV. We have had a busy long weekend. On Saturday morning, we drove a rental minivan (Dollar Rent-a-Car), from Sacramento to the Santa Cruz area. We picked up Leslie in Sacramento… her friend did not come. We then proceeded to Stockton, where Katie was staying with her boyfriend. We arrived to the Best Western in Scotts Valley, and then continued to Santa Cruz. We dropped Leslie off at Uncle Steve’s house and went to where I grew up… Monterey Bay Academy. We enjoyed the bare-foot walk on the beach.

On Sunday, I wanted to watch the Raider game, but “the girls” (Donna, Kellie and Katie) wanted to go shopping. I looked up the Capitola Mall information and saw there was a Chili’s Grill & Bar in the mall, as well as a Macy’s (a favorite for the girls). I called Chili’s to see if they had TVs for watching the game. They confirmed that they did, BUT they didn’t open until 11am when the game started at 10am. The manager I talked to said to come to the closed grate and the bar tender would let us in early. The game was delayed due to lightening in Miami, FL which worked out perfectly, since we didn’t arrive until 10:30. We sat down just in time for kick-off. It was the best game in several years for the Raiders. Daunte Culpepper started the game for the Raiders. He threw two touchdown passes to Jerry Porter and ran for three other touchdowns himself. The Raiders beat the Dolphins 35-17. Once the game was over, Phil and I met back with “the girls” and we went to Cousin Amelia’s wedding.

The wedding was nice. Being a guy, I really don’t have much to say about it. After the wedding, we headed for the Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport where we turned in our rental vehicle and caught a flight for Las Vegas. We arrived around 11:30pm. We took a taxi to the WorldMark Resort, south of “The Strip.”

Monday morning began late for us, as we got in late the night before. Kellie and I headed down some stairs to go to the office when Kellie fell on the last step before a landing. I’m not sure if it is a sprain or a fracture, she will have it checked tomorrow, but it causes a great deal of pain for her. That put a different spin on what we were going to do. We had planned on taking shuttles and walking the majority of the stay, but not with Kellie and an injured foot. Upon finding that many previously free shuttles cost several dollars each and Kellie’s injured foot, we decided to rent a minivan. I made reservations online with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Phil and I took a taxi to the airport car rental facility and found it quite painless in picking up the vehicle. We came back to the resort and picked up “the girls” and headed up to Harrah’s, where Donna’s Aunt Audrey and Uncle Joe were staying. We took them up to North Las Vegas to meet up with more relatives. We went out to eat and had a good time. After returning Aunt Audrey and Uncle Joe to their hotel, we returned to our resort. We enjoyed the Lazy River and spas before retreating for the night.

Today hasn’t been the greatest. After checking out from the resort, we met with Aunt Audrey and Uncle Joe again for a late breakfast, which was good. After this breakfast, we wasted time for a few hours. I noticed that Las Vegas has really gone downhill since the last time I’d been here. The side of Luxor is now just a big billboard. There are trucks that serve no other purpose than to drive billboards up and down “The Strip”, as well as double-decker busses with huge advertisements plastering them all over causing major traffic problems. I can deal with advertisements, but this was quite tacky. Everywhere I looked, it appeared that Las Vegas is becoming a run-down town. Many things that used to be free are costing quite a bit of money now. The slightly useful monorail that runs behind the strip from the MGM to the Convention Center costs $9 each for a day. Again, the monorail has been wrapped in advertising, adding to the visual pollution of this once great destination.

We decided to return the minivan to the rental place and head to the airport at 2:45pm. Upon turning in the minivan, one of the guys from Enterprise noticed a small dent to the bottom of the passenger-side bumper cover. It was something I had not noticed earlier, but there was damage that had been noticed on the same side prior to receiving the vehicle. This required me to fill out a form saying how it occurred, which I had no way of knowing, as it did not occur while I was with the vehicle. We finally caught the shuttle over to the airport, where we checked in at about 3:30pm, for our 6:45pm Southwest Airlines flight. At 5:50pm, we were informed that our flight to Sacramento was canceled. I visited the Southwest people and they changed us to a later flight, 7:35pm. They tell us it will be on time.

I’m sure that fatigue has affected all of our attitudes today, but I know I will be happy to get home and return to normal life.