Archive for December, 2007

The Hoopty DTV Antenna

Dec 15th

Posted by mstroud in General

If someone ever wanted to know what lengths I would go to in order to get high def TV programming, this is it.  With a large helping of PVC pipe, fittings, caps, a half mile of coax, an indoor FM antenna, a UHF/VHF combiner, some bolts, wing nuts, washers and a bonafide real antenna (DB2) I have produced this monster eyesore on my patio deck.

It points toward Sutro Tower where most of the Bay Area’s HDTV transmission antennas are located and it doesn’t do half bad, considering I’m more than 50 miles away.  It’s reasonably weatherproof and it doesn’t cost More >

Grape bar goodness

Dec 2nd

Posted by mstroud in General

Since I always seem to be writing about flying, I thought that I’d deliberately throw in one post that has nothing to do with that.  I have determined that my life is not complete without a Dreyer’s natural grape fruit bar.  Sure, I’ve written about it before, but I now now that I really badly need to have a box of these goodies in the freezer at all times.

It is made of grapes, so it has to be healthy, right?

More Power is Always Good

Dec 2nd

Posted by mstroud in Flying

I’ve recently flown a version of the Citabria with nearly 180 horsepower.  The standard version I fly is down around 115.  The extra bump doesn’t seem like much on paper, but man, it really gets the plane moving in a hurry.  I can climb far faster than I’m used to, stay at altitude, and cruise at max speed no matter what.  And before you ask, no it doesn’t burn much more avgas than the standard version.

The downsides of this new plane are: it’s more expensive to rent and I am now “behind the airplane” a lot more than I used More >