Category Archives: Home QTH

2015/06/22 (M) Cable Me This

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We turned the air-conditioning off last night and enjoyed the fresh air, pleasant temperature, and lower humidity.  The overnight low was 58 which made for good sleeping.  We awoke to blue skies and what we thought would be a picture perfect Michigan summer day until Linda checked the morning news (iPad).  There was a story about a storm that moved through the upper plains yesterday and had a bead on Michigan for later today and this evening.  What had been a 10% chance of rain for today had been replaced by a forecast for strong-to-severe thunderstorms with the possibility of strong winds, large hail, and tornadoes.  Ahhhh, summer in Michigan.

Not ones to sit around and wait for the apocalypse we did what any sensible couple would do, I made coffee while Linda reheated the last of the Baked French Toast from yesterday’s brunch.  We had breakfast and then sat on the deck enjoying our coffee and contemplating the end of the world, or at least the possible destruction of our brand new roof.  But it’s insured, so “no worries, maan” as they say in Jamaica.  More coffee please.

We have a whole house generator that runs on natural gas so as long as a storm doesn’t damage it we can survive for a very long time without electric utility power.  Losing our AT&T Internet connection, however, would be a genuine hardship as that would require us to use our Verizon Mi-Fi (without the benefit of the new Fusion5s cellular booster which I plan to install on Wednesday) or go to Panera, McDonalds, or one of the libraries to get online.

Keith showed up around 10 AM to cut the grass.  We were hoping he would make it as we have not had too much rain this past week and the last few days in particular have been dry.  I think this is the first time this season he has been able to cut our grass without it being wet.  It looked nice when he was done.

I got a call from Phil Jarrell.  He had been successful in reaching Mike Fearer of Bid Rite Concrete on Mike’s cell phone.  Based on Phil’s description Mike was interested in looking at our tower foundation project and was expecting me to call so I did, using my cell phone, and this time I was able to reach him.  It turned out that the information about his business on the Internet is out of date.  He is no longer in Whitmore Lake but now operates from near M-59 and Latson Road, not far from us.  We agreed that he would stop by tomorrow at the end of the work day to look at our project.

I did not want to do a lot of heavy work today, as I was still a bit tired and sore, but I needed to mount two lightning arrestors in the cable entry box and mount the cellular booster in the sump pump room so I could figure out what coax cable lengths I needed and go get them from Scott Adams (AC8IL) at Adams Electronics in Wixom.  But first I called Mike (W8XH) to let him know I was planning on Wednesday for the tower work, assuming he was still available and the tower was still standing.

Cable entry box showing copper ground plane with Morgan lightning arrestors (lower left), control line arrestor (center top), and cellular and OTA TV arrestors (center).

Cable entry box showing copper ground plane with Morgan lightning arrestors (lower left), control line arrestor (center top), and cellular and OTA TV arrestors (center).

I determined that I needed two coaxial cables and ordered them from Scott by phone rather than take the time today to drive to his place of business.  They will both be LMR-400 with N-connectors on both ends.  One will be 50 feet long, for our 2m/70cm Diamond X50-N VHF/UHF base station antenna, and the other will be 15 feet long, to get from the cellular booster lightning arrestor in the cable entry box to the repeater (amplifier) in the sump pump room.  I will pick them up early Wednesday morning and install them.

One of the lightning arrestors was for the SureCall Fusion5s cellular booster system.  It has N-connectors on both ends, one of which is intended for bulkhead mounting.  It came with an angle bracket that fit over the bulkhead end and I used that to mount it.  I used the 2′ length of LMR-400 that came with the booster installation kit to position the lightning arrestor so the cable from the repeater could exit one of the 2″ conduits and bend around and connect to it.  LMR-400 is a low loss, 50 ohm impedance, coaxial cable that can handle high RF transmit power.  The cellular booster only has a 1 Watt transmitter but is operating at frequencies where energy losses in coax cables become significant.  To do what it does LMR-400 is just under 1/2″ in diameter.  It is fairly stiff and does not make sharp bends so cable runs and connections have to be carefully planned.

The other lightning arrestor was for the Antennas Direct DB8e OTA TV antenna and serves a dual purpose as the power insertion device for the tower mounted amplifier.  The coax cable for OTA TV signals is typically 75 ohm impedance RG-6 with F-connectors.  It is half the diameter of LMR-400 and much more flexible.  It is also typically used to receive low power signals and convey them in one direction; from the antenna to the TV.  Because we are 25 miles from the nearest TV tower and some of the towers are 50+ miles away, I ordered a signal amplifier to go with the antenna.

Ideally you want to amplify an OTA TV signal as soon as it comes out of the antenna and this amplifier does just that.  It will mount on the same tower leg as the antenna about two feet below the antenna feed point.  However, being an active electronic device it needs electrical power to operate.  There are two basic ways that could be done.

One way would be to have power wires, such as +5 VDC and DC Ground that are separate from the coaxial cable that carries the radio frequency (RF) energy.  The two OTA TV antennas on our bus are set up this way with three wires to supply power and control the enclosed rotor.

The other way is to provide DC power through the coaxial cable itself, which is how this amplifier is set up.  The nice thing about this arrangement is that the amplifier only has two connections and they are both coax connectors that can be weather sealed.  To get the DC power into the coax cable, however, requires a special device called a power inserter.  The power inserter, in turn, requires the coax to be split into two segments so there end up being four connections instead of two.  The power inserter for this amplifier very conveniently acts as a lightning arrestor as well, which is why I mounted it to the copper back plane in the cable entrance box.

By boosting what I presume will be weak signals from distant towers the amplified signal should be strong enough to survive the trip through the coax cable to the power inserter, from there to a 1-in/2-out signal splitter, and then through additional lengths of coax to the two TV sets.

After getting the two lightning arrestors mounted in the cable entry box I took a break for lunch and then went to Lowe’s for some supplies.  When I got back home I turned my attention to mounting the SureCall Fusion5s cellular booster (repeater amplifier) in the sump pump room.  The sump pump is in the northeast corner of the basement, which is also the northeast corner of our ham shack and office.  (The ham shack occupies the north wall and my desks occupy the east wall.  Most of the rest of the room is storage.)

I gutted and rebuilt this space, with the help of long-time friend John Rauch, before we moved in and created the large closet (small room) around the sump with insulated walls to contain sounds.  I installed an electrical sub-panel in this room to provide power to the office and ham shack desks and to an RV outlet by the pull-through driveway.  I fed the power for the RV outlet through the bond on the east wall just above the concrete block foundation and ran it underground to the far side of the driveway.  It was my intention from the beginning to mount a cable entrance box next to the power feed and have all of the coax cables and control wires for outside devices enter the sump pump room in the same manner as the power.

The ham shack/office walls are finished with T-111 exterior plywood with 4″ groove spacing and I finished the interior of the closet the same way as I knew I would eventually want to mount things to the walls.  I mounted the SureCall Fusion5s booster on the west wall of the closet about a foot inside the door and just below my eye level so I could see all of the connectors, switches, and indicator lights on the top and front of the unit.  It had four mounting tabs, two top and two bottom, that attached easily to the wall with short wood screws.

There is a duplex AC electrical outlet on that wall and one on the opposite (east) wall.  The power supplies for the cellular booster and OTA TV antennas will plug in to these along with the sump pump and the charger/controller for the battery powered backup sump pump.  One of the things I bought at Lowe’s were two outlet expanders which I installed in these two duplex outlets.  I also bought a switch with a pilot light to replace a single pole Decora switch that will eventually control the light in the closet.  I installed the switch but did not complete the wiring as I have to tie it in to the light fixture which requires me to cut the power to that circuit.   I would also like to replace the bare bulb fixture while I am at it but have not yet purchased a replacement.

Although it was late afternoon I decided to install the inside antenna for the cellular booster system and run the coaxial cable that connects it to the booster.  The antenna is designed to mount to a flat ceiling and provide a hemispherical coverage area below the plane of the ceiling.  I had previously figured out that if I mounted this antenna in the main floor hallway near the midpoint of the house I could connect it to the cellular amplifier using a 50 foot length of coax cable that came with the system.

The desired mounting location was opposite the door to the hall closet and the access to the attic is through the ceiling of that closet, so that was very convenient.  We emptied the closet, removed the clothes rod, and setup our six foot step ladder.  I removed the piece of foam insulation we currently use to seal the attic access opening and climbed up, flashlight in hand to check out what was on the other side of the ceiling.

Our desired location for the antenna was free of problems on the back side so I drilled a 3/4″ hole for the mounting stud and used a piece of rebar to poke a hole through the insulation for the coax cable that came out of the stud.  Linda fed the coax and stud through the hole and I put the retaining nut on the stud from the attic side of the ceiling.  The antenna is shaped like a coffee filter, is about six inches in diameter at the ceiling, and tapers down to about four inches in diameter about four inches from the ceiling.  The housing is white plastic and blends in well with the ceiling paint.

About four feet from where we installed the antenna is a chase that runs from the attic to the furnace room in the basement.  It appears that once upon a time something having to do with the furnace ran through this chase, such as the combustion air intake.  The combustion air is now drawn through the back wall under the deck and the exhaust goes out through the east wall of the basement via a double wall stainless steel flue pipe.  The chase is no longer used for furnace or other utilities although there are electrical cables to switches mounted in the bathroom walls and it still contained a piece of 4″ plastic pipe.

I positioned myself near the chase and guided one end of a 50 foot length of LMR-400 coax down through the pipe and through the hole into the furnace room while Linda held the roll of coax near the top of the ladder and unrolled it.  At one point the coax bunched up and Linda had to go to the furnace room and untangle it.  At another point the 4″ plastic pipe slipped through the bottom hole into the furnace room which caught me by surprise.  Once the cable was mostly fed through I routed it to the location of the antenna, connected it to the pigtail coax from the antenna, wrapped the connection in weather seal tape to keep moisture out, and secured it with a cable tie.

With the antenna installed Linda started preparing dinner while I dealt with the 37 feet of coax in the furnace room.  The furnace room does not have a finished ceiling so I had access to the areas above the suspended ceilings in all of the adjacent rooms.  In particular I was able to feed the free end of the coax above the ceiling in the office and into the sump pump room.  I secured the cable with plastic cable ties at two points in the furnace room to keep it away from the flue and various hot water pipes.  I had about 8 extra feet of cable so I made a large coil with two loops such that the free end came off the loop straight down into the connector on top of the booster.  I hung the coil on the wall above and to the right of the booster making for a very neat installation.

I took a shower to try and get rid of some of the fiberglass itch while Linda finished the dish she was making for dinner.  It was a complex Indian style dish with Basmati rice, garbanzo beans, Swiss chard, onions, and shallots, seasoned with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin seeds, garam masala, fresh lemon (zest and juice), and fresh dill that Linda grew herself.  The house was filled with the aromas of all these ingredients for a couple of hours as they were prepared and combined into the final dish.  It tasted as good as it smelled with many flavor layers.

Our beautiful blue sky gave way to high, thin clouds through the morning and then to lower, thicker clouds during the early afternoon.  By 2 PM the clouds to the west were dark as I drove to Lowe’s in Howell and the first, heavy rains came as I got to the parking lot.  I waited a few minutes and they stopped so I got into the store without getting wet.  I had the same good fortune on my way back to the car.  The sustained rains came later in the evening along with a tornado watch.  We went to bed before 10 AM but did not go to sleep.  It took me a long time to write this post and we kept a watchful eye on the weather radar.  Although thunderstorms were forecast as a certainty from 1 to 5 AM with the possibility that they might be severe, we finally turned the lights out around 12:45 AM and tried to get some sleep.

 

2015/06/21 (N) Father’s Day

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Today was Father’s Day and also the summer solstice, which is the official start of the summer season.  Climatologically and culturally, at least in this part of Michigan, summer is more closely aligned with the period from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.  The summer solstice is, of course, the day with the most hours of daylight but it is not the day with the earliest sunrise nor the day with latest sunset.  Regardless of that detail, one of the things I like about this time of year is that the evening twilight lasts for a long time and fades to the blackness of night very slowly.  By contrast, the sun seems to set quickly in the winter and it gets dark very quickly after that.

Linda arranged for our son and daughter, and their families, to come over for brunch today.  It was a combination Father’s Day and happy birthday gathering as our daughter was out of town last week on her 34th birthday.  Linda spent last evening cooking, which minimized the amount of work required today.  I requested pie for Father’s Day and she found an excellent recipe for a vegan apple pie with a crumb topping.  She also made a dozen small chocolate birthday cupcakes.  The star of the show, however, was a Baked French Toast made with French bread and topped with streusel of ground pecans, cinnamon, brown sugar, and nutmeg with vegan “butter.”  It soaked overnight and all she had to do this morning was bake it.  She made a large bowl of fresh berries (strawberries, blueberries, and black and red raspberries) and sliced up some cantaloupe.

Company was due at 10 AM so I made a full pot of our Cafe Europe half-caff blend coffee.  We each had a cup and Linda transferred the rest of it to our insulated dispenser.  I was brewing a second pot when Meghan and Chris arrived around 9:45 AM followed by Brendan, Shawna, and Madeline around 10 AM.  Birthday and Father’s Day cards were exchanged but Madeline was the center of attention.  She pulled out her toy box and built a Lego tower with her aunt Meghan.  We walked around outside a bit, looked at the new roof and the cable entrance box, and played hide and seek in the backyard with Madeline doing the seeking, assisted by her mom.  I was hiding behind our gas grill, which had a cover on it.  Madeline saw my reflection in the rear door walls of the library, walked right past me towards the reflected image, turned away from my location, and was walking back towards Shawna before she spotted me.  Reflections are one of those things that we have to learn about.

The French Toast was done baking at 11 AM and we sat down to a fabulous brunch that included Prosecco and orange juice.  The Baked French Toast was outstanding and everyone had more than one piece.  By 12:30 PM no one was hungry for dessert so Linda packaged up four cupcakes for Meghan and Chris and four cupcakes for Brendan, Shawna, and Madeline along with a quarter of the pie for each group.  By 1 PM Madeline was showing signs of being tired, that being her normal nap time, so everyone gathered up their things and made their way to their cars.

After everyone had left we had some pie.  It was also outstanding, as good as any non-vegan pie I have ever had and, frankly, better than most.  Linda went for a walk while I settled in to finish the draft of yesterday’s blog post and start writing this one.  When Linda got back from her walk she read for a little while and then took a well-deserved nap.  By 4 PM I could not keep my eyes open and took a nap that lasted until 6 PM.  I have never been into “Hallmark Holidays” but I like Father’s Day.  🙂

For dinner Linda made a salad and reheated the last of the angel hair pasta and black beans and rice.  We each had one of the vegan cupcakes for dessert.

Today was my dad’s 90th birthday so after dinner I called to wish him a combined happy birthday and Father’s Day.  He did not answer, which is not unusual as without his hearing aids he doesn’t hear the phone ring.  I left him a voice message.

I have been busy enough with things the last two years that I have not read any of the magazines we receive as part of our various organizational memberships.  Tonight I went through the July 2015 issue of QST, the monthly publication of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).  Although my main focus this summer is the remodeling of the interior of our motorcoach, I am trying to get ham radio antennas up and useable.  We are also trying to get a base built for the 70 foot tower we bought last summer, get the tower assembled and erected, and at least get some sort of HF wire antenna attached to it.

Linda was tired by 10 PM and trundled off to bed.  As a result of my nap I was not sleepy and stayed up using my iPad until well after midnight.

 

2015/06/20 (S) Cable Entry Box

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We had not been to our local ham radio club breakfast the last two Saturdays because of the GLAMARAMA rally and a visit from Linda’s brother, Ron, and his wife, Mary.  The club was conducting VE testing today, rather than the usual 4th Saturday of the month, because the ARRL Field Day event is next weekend.  When we got to breakfast at 8 AM there were already a lot of people there and seven more came in after us.  We did not take a head count but it was somewhere between 25 and 30 people.  We also did not have our usual waitress but the substitute very efficiently got everyone’s order taken and delivered.

The 40 foot tower on the east end of the house with the old OTA TV antenna on top.

The 40 foot tower on the east end of the house with the old OTA TV antenna on top.

I checked with Mike (W8XH) and he is available to help us get the antennas mounted on the small tower on Monday or Wednesday, assuming I have the cable entry box (CEB) installed and all of the necessary coaxial cable on hand.  Getting the CEB mounted was my main goal for today, but not the first thing I had to do.  I called Chuck as we were leaving breakfast at 9:15 AM.  He was at home and suggested we stop by there and pick up a key to his shop.  He was working on landscaping when we arrived so we did not stay long and we were back home by 10 AM.  Linda finalized her shopping list and headed off to gather the things she needed to prepare tomorrow’s brunch.  I changed into my work clothes, gathered up the laundry, put a load in the washer, and got to work on the CEB.

The CEB is designed to mount on the outside of the house, allowing wiring to pass between the inside and outside of the house in a way that is weather tight and animal proof.  Coaxial RF cables and control lines enter through the bottom, connect to lightning arrestors in the CEB that provide a path to ground if/when needed, and then continue through the wall of the house and thence to various devices.  Those devices might include cellular phone signal boosters, Wi-Fi systems, TV sets, satellite receivers, personal weather stations, or amateur radio gear such as radios, remote antenna switches, and antenna rotators.

The general area on the east end of the house at the base of he 40' tower where the CEB will be mounted.

The general area on the east end of the house at the base of he 40′ tower where the CEB will be mounted.

Superficially the installation looked simple.  With the copper back plane removed there were four mounting holes, one near each corner, and two large holes in the back.  All we had to do was hold the box against the wall, mark the locations of the four mounting holes and the big cable entry holes, set the box aside, drill the holes, put the box back up and secure it.  Right.  Sort of, but not exactly.  Mounting the box took seven hours to complete.

The first step was to remove the copper back plane with the three lightning arrestors installed on it.  I took care of that yesterday.  The next issue was that the house has shiplap siding, i.e., the east wall where I needed to mount the CEB was not a flat surface.  I decided to use 1″ square aluminum tube, installed vertically along the back of the box at the outside edges, to span multiple siding boards, ensuring that the CEB would be plumb.  I also decided to leave the tube long enough to go all the way to the ground and use it to support some the weight, in effect creating legs for the CEB.  That was Linda’s idea.  She’s a smart girl and a licensed amateur radio operator.

The back of the CEB with one of the vertical mounting bars.

The back of the CEB with one of the vertical mounting bars.

We had some surplus pavers and garden blocks and I found one that was just wide enough to catch the bottom of the legs.  I also had some left over paver base material, which meant I did not need to make a trip to the store.  The paver base material was from a project long, long ago (in a place far, far away) and I used it to create a base for the foundation paver, which was approximately 18″ x 12″.  I leveled the base side-to-side and pitched it away from the house for drainage.

Yesterday I purchased a 3′ long aluminum tube at Lowe’s and a 4′ long tube at The Home Depot.  Three feet turned out to be a good length, so I cut a foot off of the 4′ tube.  Things then got trickier.  The positioning of the CEB was critical as the two large holes in the back were for adapters for 2″ plastic conduit.  I was going to have to cut 3″ diameter holes through the bond that would come out above the plate on top of the concrete block foundation.  In the chosen mounting location the bottom corner holes in the CEB would be below the siding.  The lower right leg would be at least an inch away from the concrete block foundation and the lower left hole would be in front of a basement window opening so neither of these were going to be screwed into anything.

The CEB in position on the east end of the house with the door open. The copper backplane has been removed.

The CEB in position on the east end of the house with the door open. The copper backplane has been removed.

I wanted the CEB anchored at more than two points so I decided to drill two additional holes in the back, one on each side, approximately half way between the existing top and bottom holes.  I measured the spacing between the top and bottom holes as carefully as I could.  I measured down from the top end of each leg a distance for the top holes that was just sufficient to make sure the door of the CEB was below the 2″ iron gas pipe that runs horizontally along the outside of the house.  I measured down from there for the new middle hole and the bottom hole.  I then drilled the three holes through each leg by drilling opposing sides.  I had to use a powered hand drill for this work as my drill press was stored behind a large pile of RV furniture that we took out of the bus and was inaccessible.

I attached one of the legs to the back of the box using two short bolts through the top and bottom holes.  I then used the middle hole in the leg as a guide and drilled through the back of the CEB.  I repeated this procedure for the other leg.  I drilled the holes in the legs as accurately as I could but they did not quite line up so I had to enlarge them slightly by using the drill bit like a router bit.  Not ideal, to be sure, but aluminum is relatively soft and it worked.

The east end of the house with two 2" holes for the conduit.

The east end of the house with two 2″ holes for the conduit.

I attached each leg to the back of the CEB using 1.5″ 1/4-20 bolts through the bottom corner holes.  I snugged these up but left them loose enough that we could move the legs.  The top and middle holes were located in positions that would allow lag screws to be screwed into the siding and underlying plywood.  We had to tilt the legs to get them under the 2″ iron gas pipe and then straighten them and set them on the foundation paver.  We had to do this multiple times but it was easy once we figured out how to do it the first time.

With the CEB in position I marked the location of the holes for four 3″ 1/4-20 lag screws.  We removed the CEB so I could drill the holes for the lag screws and then put it back in position and screwed it to the wall.  I marked the locations of the two holes for the conduit as best I could and then unscrewed the box and removed it again.  I used our 1/2″ Craftsmen corded drill for the 3″ hole saw.  I bought this drill in 1978, along with a lot of other Craftsmen tools, when we moved into our house in Farmington Hills.  I still have almost all of those tools and they all still work.

The CEB in position with both pieces of conduit through the back.

The CEB in position with both pieces of conduit through the back.

With the conduit holes drilled I cut one of the 18″ lengths of conduit in half, inserted the pieces into the adapters, and placed them in the holes.  We then put the CEB into position, got the adapters through the holes in the back of the CED, and tried to line up the holes in the legs.  The conduit was being forced up as it went through the bond, especially the one on the left, and would not allow the holes in the CEB to line up with the holes in the legs.  We took the retaining rings off of the adapters and removed the CEB, again.

I shortened the conduit pieces to approximately 5″ and checked the fit in the holes.  We wrapped two bands of adhesive backed foam weather-stripping around each piece of conduit and placed them back in the holes.  I then applied a bead of adhesive caulk all the way around each adapter at the wall.  We put the CEB in position for the final time, got the conduit adapters through the holes, snugged up the retaining rings, and put the four lag screws in.  After tightening the four lag screws I tightened the two bolts in the lower corners.  I then tightened the adapter retain rings and put the open end caps on.  The conduit ended up getting pulled back out of the wall a bit so I used the thin end of a 10″‘wood shim to try and force the caulk back into the gap around the conduit adapter.  It did not go back in very well so I will have to figure out something else to seal around the conduit.

The CEB was finally installed and very solidly anchored.  I got the copper base plate and remounted it to the five studs (four corners and one center) using some antioxidant/anti-seize compound on the stud threads.  The last step (for today) was to install the snap in covers for the 16 cable entrance holes in the bottom of CEB.  I also ordered 16 grommets and will remove the caps and replace them with grommets as I install devices and run their cables and wires into the CEB.

The CEB with the copper backplane installed and the three Morgan lightning arrestors mounted (two lower left, one top center).

The CEB with the copper backplane installed and the three Morgan lightning arrestors mounted (two lower left, one top center).

The two pieces of conduit open into the sump pump room (large closet) in the northeast corner of the basement just above the wood plate that sits on top of the concrete block foundation.  I plan to install the SureCall Fusion5s 5-band cellular booster (amplifier) in this room to keep it close to the CEB and because there is AC power available there.  I bought an installation kit for the Fusion5s that includes a lightning arrestor which will get mounted in the CEB.  I also bought an amplifier for the OTA TV antenna that will mount on the tower a few feet below the antenna.  The amplifier will get its power through the coax from a power inserter that doubles as a lightning arrestor and will be installed in the CEB with the AC power supply (wall wart) in the sump pump room.

I did not get these two additional lightning arrestors installed today.  By the time we got the CEB installed we were tired.  The high temperature was OK (near 80?) but the relative humidity was very high.  I was also very sore the whole time, especially my left knee, undoubtedly the lingering after effect of using the power chisel earlier in the week to remove thinset and mastic from the floor of the bus.  Getting down and up at least 50 times during the afternoon did not improve matters, but we got it done.

Even though she was also tired, once we reached a point where I could finish up alone Linda got busy making several food items for tomorrow.  In the midst of all that she heated some Amy’s Lentil Soup and made grilled cheese sandwiches with Diaya cheese or dinner.  Diaya makes an excellent non-dairy cheese that works well cold or cooked into dishes.

After dinner I returned a call from Butch to find out more about their new property and buildings, and discuss bus and ham radio projects.  One of the things Linda made was an apple pie so we stayed up until it was cool enough to wrap up.  That turned out to be 10 PM, by which time we ready to turn in for the night.

 

2015/06/19 (F) Roof Box

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The Apex roofers were back again this morning just before 8 AM and we were up and ready for them.  I made coffee but we deferred breakfast until after we settled the bill with owner Pat Davidson.  By 9 AM he knew what the added costs were over and above the base quote.  The major one was the 32 sheets of plywood they used to repair/replace bad areas of the roof deck.  He left around 10 AM and took half the crew with him to start another job.  The other four guys stayed behind and finished roofing the garage and cleaning up the job site.  The job was pretty much wrapped up by noon.  Sergio (the foreman) did the final walk-around and cleanup and left around 1 PM.  There is very little evidence that they had been here except for an attractive new roof and two skylights in the living room that light up the space in a nice way.

I spent the morning inventorying coaxial cables.  We have quite an assortment of 50 and 75 ohm cables in lengths from 1 to 100 feet.  I need to have all the necessary cables on hand when I climb the tower next week to remove and install antennas.  If we already had appropriate cables I wanted to use those instead of buying new ones.

The custom cable entry box from Chris at KF7P Metalwerks arrived today.  I opened it after lunch, which consisted of fresh apples and leftover black beans and rice.  We both agreed that the beans and rice dish was even better than when it was fresh.  We unpacked all of the parts that were stored inside the cable entry box and checked them off against the spreadsheet I used to order them.  Everything was there but I was initially concerned because the box was turned 90 degrees from what I ordered.  I specified a 16″ wide by 20″ tall box but got a 20″ wide by 16″ tall instead.  I suspect that Chris buys the boxes with the door/hinge already attached but it would have been nice to know that ahead of time.

We took the box outside and held it in place to see if it would be usable.  The lower left corner will hang down in front of the basement window in the sump pump room but that will be OK.  The horizontal orientation of the box will actually make it easier to get coaxial cables through the access holes in the bottom.

There were two a Morgan Lightning arrestors mounted on the copper back plane for amateur radio use; one for HF and one for VHF/UHF.  The UHF arrestor was upside down so I unscrewed it, rotated it 180 degrees, and screwed it back down.  The box also had a Morgan M-348 lightning arrestor.  I ordered an M-348B, which is the 12-wire version, but the installed arrestor had 12 terminals on top (3 strips of 4 each) plus one on each side.  There were no instructions, however, on how to wire it up so I sent Chris an e-mail regarding the anomalies and missing information.

While I was working on that e-mail, and a couple from Josh at Coach Supply Direct, we got a call from Curtis Coleman of RVillage.  The development team had launched some new features and he wanted to walk me through them.  He had just been to Prevost in Nashville for some repairs on his tag axle brakes and was headed back to Cleveland, Ohio.  He thought he might be headed in our general direction after that.

I spent some time thinking about how to mount the cable entry box on the east wall of the house which is sided in a shiplap fashion, i.e., the horizontal siding boards are angled (not plumb) and overlapped.  I needed a hole saw and arbor for my 1/2″ drill to drill the holes for the two 2″ conduits that will pass from the box through the bond into the sump pump room in the basement.  I probably already have one but I cannot get to most of the stuff in the garage and can’t afford to delay getting this box mounted; there are too many other things that need to get done that require this box to be in place first.

I was suffering from a decided lack of patience which is not the proper frame of mind for working on scale drawings of custom furniture so I went to Lowe’s to get a hole saw.  The fitting measured 2-3/4″ OD and I decided to get a 3″ hole saw just to make sure the hole would be big enough.  While I was at the store I considered how I might use different materials to mount the box.  I ended up buying a 36″ length of 1″ square aluminum tube and some stainless steel lag screws, bolts, washers, and Nylok nuts. My plan was to cut the tube into two 18″ pieces and use them in a vertical orientation between the box and the house.  They would span multiple boards, creating a plumb mounting surface, and provide support for the lower left corner which would otherwise be unsupported.

When I got back to the house I took the tube out to see how it would work.  The idea was a good one but the 18″ lengths would be too short.  I bought the only piece of 1″ tube that Lowe’s had so I knew I would have to find another one somewhere else.  Linda suggested that we try the Lowe’s in New Hudson after breakfast tomorrow but I was still feeling impatient about the whole thing.

I had a long chat with Michele Henry from Phoenix Paint.  I then relaxed with a small glass of Moscato, a nice pre-meal wine, while Linda prepared a wonderful dish for dinner of roasted red potatoes with onions, garlic, rosemary, and power greens.  It was a simple dish but so delicious and hearty.

The meal concluded and the table cleared I went to The Home Depot in Howell where I found a 48″ length of 1″ square aluminum tube.  If 24 inches turns out to be long enough to support the box the way I want I will cut the 48″ piece in half and return the 36″ piece to Lowe’s.  I called Chuck on the drive home to follow up on a text message I sent him yesterday regarding the delivery of our new refrigerator to his bus garage in Novi.

Feeling like I had finally accomplished something today we relaxed for an hour and then settled in to watch a movie.  Linda had borrowed the DVD of Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon, from the Howell Library earlier in the week and we reserved this evening as movie night.

My goal for tomorrow is to get the cable entry box installed.  That sets the stage for climbing the tower and installing three antennas once I have the proper coax cables and some rope to temporarily guy the tower.  But those details will wait until Monday as family is coming to brunch on Sunday for Father’s Day and a belated birthday celebration for our daughter.