Tree Fishing or Adventures in Geekdom

Now for some comic relief. Here's a story that partly explains why my roof is in such bad shape (the other part is the flat roofs are a pain and natural wear and tear).

It took a long time for me to come to terms with the fact that I couldn't get over the air HDTV reception at my house. It took even longer for my cable operator to provide HDTV over their cable network. In my futile quest for over the air HDTV reception, I even developed a freakish sort of sport that I called tree fishing. This is provided solely for comic relief. Please DON'T do this at home. Here's what I did:

Climb on your roof. Attach a weight to the end of some high test fishing line and throw it over the end of a high, thick tree branch. After successfully hooking the tree (meaning the weight has slipped over the tree branch and is tugging the fishing line towards the ground) let out enough line so that the weight drops to the ground. Tie the fishing line to something. Climb down off the roof. Now tie the end of a spool of coaxial (Cable TV) cable to the fishing line. Wrap the place where they connect with lots and lots of electrical tape. Climb up on the roof and use the fishing line to pull the coax over the tree branch and to you. Once you get the coax to you, tie it to something sturdy on the roof.

Now climb down from the roof. Measure out how much cable you'll need and cut that much off the spool. Crimp a connector onto that end of the cable and connect it an omni directional antenna (which looks like a 3" thick white plastic pizza). Climb back onto the roof and pull the antenna up off the ground until it comes very close to the branch you originally hooked. Bring the cable into your house and connect it to your HDTV receiver.

Yes, I really did this. Yes, I do feel silly. And please, please, please, don't try this at home. I think I am exceptionally fortunate that there wasn't a lightning storm while this contraption was in place. It probably would have somehow started a fusion reaction in my house and turned the whole thing into a tiny thermonuclear device destroying everything within 5 miles. Or maybe it would have destroyed all my home audio and video equipment and set my house on fire. Either way, don't try this at home.

The funny thing is that I could get TV reception for stations that were literally static on the ground. A good example would be Howard University TV (Ch. 32 in the DC area). With an antenna on the ground there was no sound and no picture. With the antenna in the trees I could get a perfect picture. But still I couldn't get HDTV.

Most people can get great HDTV reception (even through concrete walls in a basement) using a Silver Sensor -- an antenna originally made by Antiference (a UK company). Antiference has since licensed the design to Zenith. For more information on HDTV reception a good resource is Keohi HDTV