Today’s Business: 2010-05-28
Friday, May 28th, 2010Today’s Activities
- Shower. DONE.
- Cat duty. DONE.
Log
07:30 AM: I’m up. Starting off fully sunny. However, there’s rain in the forecast for later today.
08:30 AM: Heading out the door for shopping now.
01:30 PM: On the way home from shopping, we went by sister Jojo’s house to see the new puppies. It turned out that they were experiencing problems with their cable TV reception, and the cable guy just happened to arrive just after we did. We found that the Channel Plus DA-500 booster amplifier that I installed back in 1994 had stopped working. This became immediately apparent upon touching the amplifier, which, when operating normally, should have felt lukewarm. However this unit was cool to the touch, indicating that the circuits inside were no longer functioning. The 12-volt power supply that feeds the amp was still humming, but showed some discoloration on the top. Overheating was indicated by this as well as a faint, smokey smell I noted from the supply itself. Subsequent inspection of the supply’sinterior revealed further darkening of the circuit board, close to the bridge rectifier diodes. The supply thus, defenitely encountered some trouble. So I’m hopeful that only the power supply went bad and that the amplifier is still okay. If that’s the case, I can get this thing working again easily, simply by changing the power adapter. Otherwise, the amplifier might have to be scrapped. I’ll figure this out sometime soon.
Once the amp was determined to be malfunctioning, the cable guy bypassed it in the system, and fairly good reception returned to all televisions in the house. He then went around, checking all connections and replacing all the old-style crimp F fittings with the newer, more reliable compression fittings. He also discovered a frayed cable; probably from Jojo’s rabbit chewing it. He replaced this and a few dated splitters, and improved reception was noted on all sets afterwards. In fact, picture clarity improved enough that a booster amplifier is no longer needed at Jojo’s.
After he finished, the cable technician and I had an enlightening conversation, and he gave me lots of great information about our cable system, including the following:
- They no longer offer FM radio service in this community. A few years ago, he said, the supporting equipment was deemed too expensive and antiquated to maintain. Besides, they needed the FM radio spectrum space for additional TV channels.
- Maximum residential Internet speed: 8 mbps down and 512 kbps up; though higher speeds with special arrangements could be made available.
- They use fiber optic lines to carry the the cable signals from Altoona to the various communities around Blair county, and then convert it to RF for distribution within those communities.
- On our entire cable system, there are only two channels allocated for Internet data transfers; there’s potential for many more, particularly once the analog channels are phased out in favor of digital ones.
- They use RG-11 cable for short runs. The preferred distribution cable from a fiber hub is RG-500. Older residential cable installations employ RG-59 coaxial cable. But all new drops are run with RG-6.
- An underground cable can become more lossy over time, as the elements slowly work their way inside its outer jacket. Rocks can nick the insulation, allowing water and dirt to get into the dielectric.
03:00 PM: We’re back home again.
03:15 PM: All groceries are now put away.
03:45 PM: The Bountiful WiFi BWRG1000 I ordered earlier this week arrived today. This duplicates the one I already have. I’ll configure it to mirror the network names and other settings that the original has so that in the event of a WAP (WiFi access point) failure, I can quickly substitute the new one for the faulty one.
04:00 PM: Tested the new (used actually) BWRG1000 briefly. The iPod Touch picks it up just fine; though I’ve not yet connected it to the Internet for a full test. It first must be reconfigured for that.
09:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless on the DVR. Adam may not be dead, and another fellow may have died in his place. Abby steals Victoria and Billy’s wedding video, and secretly records a party with high gossip potential. Finally, Emily avoided losing her medical license for the sins that Patty committed in her name.
12:00 AM: Watched tonight’s episode of CNN’s AC 360. The president visited the oil spill zone earlier and much of the coverage focused on the merits and criticisms of his trip to the gulf.
3:15 AM: Facebooked, looking for new friends. Up to 234 friends now, including pop singer Susan Jacks (Which Way You Going Billy, That’s Where I Went Wrong, Where Evil Grows, Etc.), a boyhood favorite of mine as the 1970s began. Finding her and being able to thank her for the tunes was a unanticipated yet thrilling treasure. In fact, when she accepted my friend request, I wrote her a heartfelt letter to do just that. See it here. Facebook is great!
03:30 AM: Time to shut down for the night. So have a good one, and I’ll chat at you some more tomorrow. Take care.
Received Mail and Shipments
- Offer for higher education classes at YTI Career Institute. Not at this time, thanks.
- Summary of Mom’s medicine expenses so far this year.
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I love that phrase.