Are we having fun yet Jasen?

May 30 16:42 04, Jasen Betts wrote to Paul Westell:


 JB> "PL 259"?

     :)

 JB> Were you using a signal strength meter or are you judging by the throughput?

Nothing fancy, just the pretty little utility provided by the manufacturer
for windows (the linux box will soon be undergoing a major refit, including
case, video, drive and kernel, when it will also get the wireless - there
were _issues_ between the Belkin [Broadcom chipset] and linux). The windows
utility gives me a fairly good array of useful stats, but as to accuracy I
have no way to tell. It measures signal to noise by simply subtracting the
noise from the signal strength, although I understand there are several
ways to calculate. I also ping through from the linux box to get another
estimate. While this may not be at all accurate, it at least gives me a
base for comparison. Sometimes we wait for a good day, transfer a large
file, and get smug comparing the transfer speed to that of DSL.

 PW>> Is this indeed the cause, or am I just contending with the
 PW>> overabundance of maple leaves that appeared with spring.

 JB> could be the leaves.

I have already gone back to the 75 ohm as we speak, and things have pretty
much returned to normal (or what passes for it here). Last week though we
had several days of fairly heavy rain. When I could not maintain a
connection I really started looking at the Maple leaves - by the millions;
green, pointy, and insidious. Large and flat, they hold water in sheets.
Worst of all, no matter what size, each leaf has several ribs which just
happen to be between 4.5 - 5". This is not a good thing.

 JB> you've got a harsh environmnet there, freezing temperatures and
salt spray. a liberal coating of penetrol (or other 
 JB> non-metallic anti-corrosioan paint) may help maintain the
perfoprmance of the antenna,

I didn't mean to leave quite such a strong impression as that, but winter
can be one long cold rainfall (I once went 6 weeks without seeing the sun
more than five minutes at a time), interrupted by about a month of cold
clear weather. In a warm year it might not get below freezing for much more
than a week or so at a time, and snow is a novelty. In fact, to encourage
their marketing as a retirement community, some 15 or 20 miles north of
here the mayor planted a half dozen palm trees. For the first 10 years the
city works crews dutifully boxed them up every october and uncrated them
come spring They haven't bothered with that for a few years now and the
Palms seem to be doing passably well. When the palms didn't die, they had
another planting. With great pomp and ceremony, complete with tuxedos,
miscellaneous dignitaries, ribbons and shears, the reporters from two (2)
newspapers and a crowd of what must have been all of three (3) citizens
(the park was pretty crowded as it is basically just a broad strip beside
the road of perhaps 100' by 20). They planted one (1) orange bush. I'm sure
its supposed to be a tree by now, but after ten years it doesn't seem to
have grown that much. Now that I think about it, I can't ever remember
seeing any leaves on it.

Salt-spray is not so much a problem as just the salt-air, a winter storm
puts lots of salt up, and I'm so close it hasn't really dissipated. That in
combination with the constant dampness can cause real problems with
corrosion and electrolysis. Although I may be needlessly concerned, I just
have misgivings about anything that thinks like aluminium if left
inaccessable and exposed, especially if it requires a clean conductive
surface. So, threaded fittings, paint, liquid electrical tape, electrically
conductive grease (? if such exists), ...

 JB> any cardboard parts ...
,.',,'.','.'',.,','.'',.,'
',,.'',.',''.',',.''',''.,
You mean that brown paste?


... It could be worse ...
Paul

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.1