We've been getting marginal television reception for the past year. However, since we did get Channel 20 (Kiku) which is Mom's Japanese station, Brian Williams and Diane Sawyer, we were content enough. We couldn't get Fox most of the time so I wasn't able to watch House, but that was OK.
And then it occurred to Art that when Sunetrics was putting on the solar panels last year, they may have accidentally moved the antennae that we have pointing as perfectly as possible in the right direction up in the attic crawl space.
Now here's the problem.
Art can move the antennae, but he can't know how well the TV reception is around the house.
While Art was moving the antennae in the hot attic, I was in my room (sitting on my Stressless chair with my feet up) checking out which channels were coming in clearly or not at all.
Then we discovered that what might be coming in upstairs was NOT coming in downstairs in the kitchen. Sheesh!
So I asked mom to watch TV downstairs and yell up numbers 1-5 for the quality she was getting. 5 for crystal clear, 3 for breaking up, 1 for nothing/blank screen. I hope the neighbors didn't think we were nuts as Mom on the 1st floor called out "Channel 4 is 3." Then I'd relay the message from the 2nd floor landing to Art in the attic yelling, "Mom says 4 is 3!"
This went on for a couple of hours because if Brian Williams came in, Diane Sawyer was gone. And at one point we almost lost Mom's Japanese channel. Yikes! The problem here on Oahu is that the broadcasting towers are located in two different directions and we live in the middle.
Then I remembered once when we used to have rabbit ear antennae that didn't work a long time ago, I would sometimes attach a wire to the ears and then drape it up to a metal shelving unit or some other crazy thing. Sometimes it worked.
I suggested Art do this.
"It won't work," the engineer said. The length of the antennae rods determine which channel comes in. You can't just stick something metal on it and think it'll work." (I think that's what he said. I can't remember. I'm sure he'll say I misquoted him.)
After my 4th or 5th time of saying, "Try attaching a piece of foil to it. How about my metal crutch? (Remember when I broke my foot?) Can't we stick some metal pole to it? How about a hanger?"
Finally, just to quiet me down he found a piece of scrap aluminum folding door guide and stuck it to the antennae. He thought he could then pull it through to shorten or lengthen it.
And guess what? It worked! Now we get all the channels and more! And it's FREE TV. Don't we make a great team? Eventually?
And then it occurred to Art that when Sunetrics was putting on the solar panels last year, they may have accidentally moved the antennae that we have pointing as perfectly as possible in the right direction up in the attic crawl space.
Now here's the problem.
Art can move the antennae, but he can't know how well the TV reception is around the house.
While Art was moving the antennae in the hot attic, I was in my room (sitting on my Stressless chair with my feet up) checking out which channels were coming in clearly or not at all.
Then we discovered that what might be coming in upstairs was NOT coming in downstairs in the kitchen. Sheesh!
So I asked mom to watch TV downstairs and yell up numbers 1-5 for the quality she was getting. 5 for crystal clear, 3 for breaking up, 1 for nothing/blank screen. I hope the neighbors didn't think we were nuts as Mom on the 1st floor called out "Channel 4 is 3." Then I'd relay the message from the 2nd floor landing to Art in the attic yelling, "Mom says 4 is 3!"
This went on for a couple of hours because if Brian Williams came in, Diane Sawyer was gone. And at one point we almost lost Mom's Japanese channel. Yikes! The problem here on Oahu is that the broadcasting towers are located in two different directions and we live in the middle.
Then I remembered once when we used to have rabbit ear antennae that didn't work a long time ago, I would sometimes attach a wire to the ears and then drape it up to a metal shelving unit or some other crazy thing. Sometimes it worked.
I suggested Art do this.
"It won't work," the engineer said. The length of the antennae rods determine which channel comes in. You can't just stick something metal on it and think it'll work." (I think that's what he said. I can't remember. I'm sure he'll say I misquoted him.)
After my 4th or 5th time of saying, "Try attaching a piece of foil to it. How about my metal crutch? (Remember when I broke my foot?) Can't we stick some metal pole to it? How about a hanger?"
And guess what? It worked! Now we get all the channels and more! And it's FREE TV. Don't we make a great team? Eventually?
