Hi Mike,

     About "89.3 FM" of July 4:

MR> ...UHF dx from Burlington Vt. to Montreal...  ...excellent in winter
MR> time but is very degraded in summer...  ...returns at night.
MS> I'll confess my expertise in fields like electromagnetic dispersion
MS> is rather limited...  That's as much as i can share...
MR> ...the high UHF band approaches the low end of microwave radar
MR> frequencies and if you know how your microwave oven operates you
MR> will realize why there is substantial absorption of the high UHF...

     I bet a good proportion of electronic hobyists can hardly miss some
story as that related to a worker who once left his chocolate bar nearby
as he fooled around an antenna.  It's not too clear in my mind if i seen
it for the 1st time when i got thru the IEEE collection, or perhaps thru
the sort of user manual which comes with most microwave oven these days,
though.  In any case, vapour, water or ice it all impacts to some level.

     I'm thinking of reception on a lake, for example.  So yes, i agree.

                                   :)

MR> ...in my experience any weather deterioration will severely affect
MR> the signal quality due to the extreme length of the signal path.

     That certainly was the case during the last rainy night, CHOM could
not be received at all on my pocket receiver - weather is a lady...  :-)

MS> ..."Taming The Strong FM Station"/"TV Receiver
Overload"...
MR> ...slightly beyond the scope of a simple chicken fencing and...

     I tried the chicken fencing stuff before so i thought more inspired
material should compensate for a wire attached to one's curtains pole...

     As i wrote, i didn't pay much attention to what Joe wrote about his
hobbies and since i didn't have a clear idea of what he actually needed,
euh...  it seemed appropriate to cover a larger spectrum.  He'll decide.

MR> No doubt a very professional alternative...

     If this is worth a few hundred dollars in the eye of a small cable-
distribution company perhaps it could be fun to read about it but what i
posted is very limited and i couldn't find the equivalent to their books
on the ~WEB~ site, a shame in my own opinion:  they want people to call,
the digital business might very well be killing their own as we speak!!!

     It was nothing like building balanced quadrature networks ourselves
though, all that's needed is defining appropriate parameters and budget.

MR> ...there is still wiggle room for a little science.

     Yes, the "phasing out" procedure wouldn't work at all without some.

MS> It didn't cost me much...
MR> Sometimes the simpler solution will trump a thousand dollar project.

     Agreed.  A TV filter, for example, can be built from HardWare which
awaits on Canadian Tire shelves;  ferrite or other powder toroidal cores
are a bit harder to locate and the result may not justify the trouble in
the end.  It appears to me that i missed an opportunity when it comes to
antennas but lets not regret it, we get good days and a few lesser ones!

     I didn't have too many successful hobby projects in my life, i made
the transition toward BBSing and computing since cost was lower and this
wasn't as hard on my health as electronics used to be.  Few regrets.  :)

MR> ...the big advantage of antenna gain over preamp gain is that
MR> antenna gain doesn't have amplified circuit noise.

     Certainly is and i'm confident MFCo didn't mean cheaper antennas...

MR> A couple of antennas have fascinated me but don't seem practical to
MR> build.  One type has no metal elements at all...

     Fascinating describes the whole RF hobby only too well.  I was just
looking for optimized inductors then ended up with transmission lines in
days when i wondered if certain channels shouldn't simply be re-inserted
for the subscriber's convenience and i didn't have a clue how.  I worked
on a prototype which finally shown that it could be done indeed but life
keeps changing and those days are long gone.  It no longer matters.  %-)

MR> Another intriguing comment about indoor antennas is that signal
MR> strength inside a room may sometimes be stronger than outdoors
MR> because of resonnant cavity effects of the metal structures...

     Perhaps that applies to bridges as well and they would form natural
resonator networks with the surrounding buildings?!  Lets imagine a sci-
fi book starting from this one:  it was an unusually dry night and a man
who didn't suspect the cruel destiny he was about to meet suddenly fried
after he walked a last step, to the dismay of his beloved wife and child
who seen his fate sealed in a split second as that of a moskito in a bug
killer lantern, consequence of the most unfortunate miscalculation ever!

                                   :)

                                                           Salutations,

                                                           Michel Samson
                                                           a/s Bicephale


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