WEEK 30 2012
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Saturday - Painted some trim, with tan and base coat. It takes a while, when you are trying not
to also paint the stucco at the same time. Tomorrow I'll work on the
green trim I guess. At some point I need to get the all those pavers in
as well. And varnish that new archway trellis. And...
Warm weather things: I was up in the back bedroom and smelled
something. After a fruitless search for cat "accidents" I realized that
the warm weather had dried out the water in the small bath's p-traps.
Yuck. A little running water took care of that!
My brother is thinking of selling the old boat. I'm not sure when we
bought it, 1996 probably (the earliest digital pictures I can find are
from about 2000). He says he doesn't sail much any more - I know the
feeling. It was launched in the early 1960's, so I'm guessing he's not
going to get much for it.
Shadows and Shrouds.
Friday
- Caulked around the frame of the French doors in back. I need to paint
there, and paint/varnish the doors as well. I can't find my sawhorses
though - I wonder if I left them in Martinez? I seem to recall my
brother saying that he'd made a small table downstairs using some
sawhorses - it didn't occur to me at the time that they were my sawhorses...
Still just getting KHIZ, even through the upstairs windows. I've tried
pointing it in various directions, without much luck. I get KHIZ to the
south-east, and to the southwest, but nothing to the south, north-east,
or due west.
KHIZ main appears to be an English shopping channel, KHIZ-2 is a Chinese shopping channel...
Thursday 26 July 2012
Thursday
- I fiddled around a bit, found some plans for a UHF antenna online,
and built it. So far all I've gotten is KHIZ, a foreign language
station out of Victorville. I think they may be re-transmitting from
Palmdale as well. But the antenna was down at ground level, and since
UHF is line-of-site I probably need to set it up high - one of the
bedroom windows or on a pole next to the chimney, if I want to see the
hills over my neighbors houses. KHIZ is listed as 1edge, rather than
LOS.
Rear view, showing aluminum foil reflector back and cat scratching post support.
The front, showing the eight receiving elements and the balun connection.
I didn't spend much on the construction, using some old pegboard and
aluminum foil for the reflector, coat hangar wire for the antenna
elements, old welding wire for the connections. I did buy the little
balun for the 300 --> 75 ohm connection to the coax cable, and 50'
of coax (at Home Depot).
Note that doubling the receiving area will increase the gain by 3dB, so
I'd need another eight elements to get 3dB, then I'd have to double all of that to
get another 3dB, or gain of 6dB over the antenna shown! It's possible
to buy UHF amplifiers to get 10dB or more - the best spot would be on
the antenna, but most I've seen are "indoor" types. And of course the
S/N ratio isn't improved by an amplifier, unlike increasing antenna
size.
I've been battling ants for the past couple of weeks. So far they are still winning.
Wednesday 25 July 2012
Wednesday - Hmmm. Where does the
time go? The outside work was fairly limited today - just a matter of
sanding down some trim, in order to put more paint on it. Inside there
was wash needing doing - about three weeks worth of laundry, including
some from the vacation rental, in bags that I'd tossed in a corner and
forgotten about. Also some dishes that needed to be washed.
Still, that doesn't seem like much, but when friends called at 11:30 suggesting lunch I was ready to go.
After lunch I picked up an antenna balun at Radio Shack - I'm going to
try to make an HD antenna. The idea of getting a better signal, for
free, has it's appeal. As I mentioned, I set up this at a friend's
place in San Diego a few months ago, using their existing antenna, but
just haven't gotten around to trying it in Lancaster. Of course we have fewer, and weaker, signals.
I don't think there is a local HD antenna at all, the nearest is
apparently on Mt. Wilson, about 40 miles as the crow flies, then there
are some in Victorville and Bakersfield, even farther away.
After that I had the oil changed in the Explorer, drove it to Rosamond
and back to make sure everything (including the catalytic converter)
was warm, then took it to the Westside Smog Test Only Station and had
it smogged. It passed OK; looked at the report it was about half the
legal limit for NO, which I would be happy about - except that it is
about four times what the AVERAGE for vehicles passing was. Is that
vehicles in it's class (worrisome) or all vehicles, including newer
smaller cars (no worries mate)?
So, about $150 for a stamp sized sticker. Yay.
From the cover of The Cruel Sea, the HMS Compass Rose:
Note the mast in front of the bridge, which is how it is described
being, early in the book. This outraged the true navy types in the
Senior Service, and the masts were moved back behind the bridge later
in the war. Partially the nautical outrage, but also (I seem to recall)
because the newly installed anti-submarine radar had it's room
in back of the bridge and a short run was advantageous for signal
strength.
Tuesday
- Working away in the yard again. I trimmed off some of the shoots
coming from the base of the fruit trees, and weed whacked around the
tomato beds. The big thing was trim paint - I applied new paint to the
windbreaks on the south planter and to the somewhat faded trim on the
west side of the house. This took until after lunch.
Then I worked on iPad stuff in the afternoon.
Nicholas Monsarrat is most famous for the book, The Cruel Sea, about
convoy escorts in the second world war. In the first half of the book
the protagonist is aboard a 'Flower Class Corvette', the (fictional) HMS Compass Rose. After it is sunk he becomes first officer aboard a 'River Class' frigate, the (fictional) HMS Saltash. This mirrors, to an extent, Monsarrat's own experience (except he didn't get sunk).
His first escort ship was the HMS Campanula, a Flower Class Corvette:
Note the open bridge, miserable in North Atlantic winters, and the mast stepped aft, unlike the early versions.
He was then first officer on board the HMS Guillemot, a Kingfisher class corvette:
These were built to pre-war naval standards, and too expensive to produce in quantity.
And finally commanded the HMS Shearwater, another Kingfisher class corvette:
Monsarrat wrote Three Corvette's while the war was actually going on, so for secrecy's sake in the book he gave the ship's pseudonym's:
- HMS Campanula ---> HMS Flower
- HMS Guillemot ---> HMS Dipper
- HMS Shearwater ---> HMS Winger
Monday 23 July 2012
Monday
- Trying to get back on the Ipad programming thing still, but still
spent the morning doing chores - mowing the back yard in this case. I
really need to put in some borders and architectural follies to reduce
the grass (and water, and sweat!) footprint.
Went down with some friends to visit their parents in Ojai, had a nice
trip and a wonderful lunch at Agave
Maria.
Sunday 22
July 2012
Sunday
- Working in the front yard, weeding. Despite the weedblock and new
landscape rocks a fair amount of stuff has popped up in the last couple
of months, so I pulled
and cut that out. Also trimmed the deadheads off the rose bushes.
It was hot and remarkably humid. Mark, across the street working in his yard was sweating as much as me!
In the late afternoon went over to some friends for a nice Indian style
dinner, then we also trooped over to some other friends and took a nice
evening dip in the pool, until about 10:00pm. Lancaster evenings can be
very nice.
