ai8o
Brachiating Tetrapod
I recently spent several days in the "oil patch" of SE New Mexico; Roswell, Artesia, Carlsbad, Brantley Dam, and Loving County Texas.
Didn't see any UFOs or pick up any strange signals.
I saw lots of those cell phone extender antennae that look like black ,oversize, bass drum sticks, on various work trucks.
The cell phone extender antennae consisted of a black thick black plastic can at the top, supported by a thin fiberglass shaft about 36 inched tall.
You just don't see these east of the Mississippi.
Most of the trucks carrying these were large pickups caarying lots of tools; C20s, F450, F550.
Along side some of the trucks I saw, my F250 looked like a baby.
I saw all sorts of different mountings for the cell phone extender antennae.
Most of the antennae were mounted on the metal frame of the screen at the front of the truck bed that protects the glass at the rear of the cab from getting hit and broken.
One truck had the antenna mounted on a 6 inch ball and spring arrangement like you would use for 1/4 wave CB antenna.
I also saw several multiple magnet bases, like you would use for af HF mobile antenna.
From what I saw, there appeared to be three brands of antennae.
All had black colored plastic cans at the top.
One brand had an all black shaft and plastic can.
Another had a white ring on the shaft where the antenna parts screwed together.
The third had a white shaft and was mounted on a mag mount.
On the web, I have seen these cell phone extender kits at around $500 USD.
Do these cell phone extender antennae kits work as well as advertised?
For that amount of money, Iwould want to see major improvement in my cell phone reception.
I also saw quite a few CB antennae that didn't appear to be used as antennae.
They were fiberglass shaft, helically wound, CB antennae, mounted on a truck with a red flag a the top of the shaft and yellow/ lime green X on the flag.
Almost every pickup truck had flag, even if it also had a cell phone extender antenna.
I guess these guys really want to be seen.
I also saw an antenna about nine or ten feet tall, that consisted of two smooth white plastic sections that screwed together in the middle of the shaft.
It had the almost obligatory red flag at the top.
It also had a solid yellow plastic flap shaped like a flag about halfway up the shaft, that had "EpiCor" printed in dark blue on it.
The whole red flag, yellow flag, plastic pipe assembly, was on a mount that fitted into the trailer hitch ball assembly.
It seemed to me this configuration was intended to make mounting and dismounting the antenna quick and easy.
What is EpiCor?
I went to the VLA near Socorro
The VLA folks are really "Hard Core DXers".
They consider any radio source within 17 megaparsecs to be local.
I don't thnk they will be using JT8 any time soon, not when your xmsn turn around times are measured in millenia.
The VLA antenna system is massive.
I mean they have some seriously big antennae.
They are so big that the VLA needs a 17 mile long railroad system just to change the configuration.
On my way from Socorro to Carlsbad, I went thru Artesia.
I don't know what they were cooking at the refinery, but he whole town's smell reminded me of fresh coax.
You know, that smell that hits you when you open a bag with a section 9913 in it.
Passing thru Roswell, I saw the statue of BOB the alien.
Still didn't see any aliens.
Leaving the area, I went south on US285 to Pecos Texas.
I also got caught in a traffic jam that would make the 405 in LA look like child's play.
In Loving County (the least populated county in the USA) at Orla TX, TX State Route 652 intersects US 285.
Four lanes of traffic on 285 get merged into one lane in each direction, then meet two lanes of Rt 652 traffic.
TX DOT installed traffic lights, but failed to turn on the electric to make them work.
I spent two hours trying to get thru this intersection.
The last 100 yards were the worst, it took me over an hour to go the last 100 yards to get thru the intersection.
While waiting to clear this intersection, I heard the most amount of activity, I have ever heard on 2m.
I heard lots of interesting conversations on 2m.
If you charged 25cents for every bad word on the radio, some of the truckers would have run up $5 tabs in just one transmission.
Didn't see any UFOs or pick up any strange signals.
I saw lots of those cell phone extender antennae that look like black ,oversize, bass drum sticks, on various work trucks.
The cell phone extender antennae consisted of a black thick black plastic can at the top, supported by a thin fiberglass shaft about 36 inched tall.
You just don't see these east of the Mississippi.
Most of the trucks carrying these were large pickups caarying lots of tools; C20s, F450, F550.
Along side some of the trucks I saw, my F250 looked like a baby.
I saw all sorts of different mountings for the cell phone extender antennae.
Most of the antennae were mounted on the metal frame of the screen at the front of the truck bed that protects the glass at the rear of the cab from getting hit and broken.
One truck had the antenna mounted on a 6 inch ball and spring arrangement like you would use for 1/4 wave CB antenna.
I also saw several multiple magnet bases, like you would use for af HF mobile antenna.
From what I saw, there appeared to be three brands of antennae.
All had black colored plastic cans at the top.
One brand had an all black shaft and plastic can.
Another had a white ring on the shaft where the antenna parts screwed together.
The third had a white shaft and was mounted on a mag mount.
On the web, I have seen these cell phone extender kits at around $500 USD.
Do these cell phone extender antennae kits work as well as advertised?
For that amount of money, Iwould want to see major improvement in my cell phone reception.
I also saw quite a few CB antennae that didn't appear to be used as antennae.
They were fiberglass shaft, helically wound, CB antennae, mounted on a truck with a red flag a the top of the shaft and yellow/ lime green X on the flag.
Almost every pickup truck had flag, even if it also had a cell phone extender antenna.
I guess these guys really want to be seen.
I also saw an antenna about nine or ten feet tall, that consisted of two smooth white plastic sections that screwed together in the middle of the shaft.
It had the almost obligatory red flag at the top.
It also had a solid yellow plastic flap shaped like a flag about halfway up the shaft, that had "EpiCor" printed in dark blue on it.
The whole red flag, yellow flag, plastic pipe assembly, was on a mount that fitted into the trailer hitch ball assembly.
It seemed to me this configuration was intended to make mounting and dismounting the antenna quick and easy.
What is EpiCor?
I went to the VLA near Socorro
The VLA folks are really "Hard Core DXers".
They consider any radio source within 17 megaparsecs to be local.
I don't thnk they will be using JT8 any time soon, not when your xmsn turn around times are measured in millenia.
The VLA antenna system is massive.
I mean they have some seriously big antennae.
They are so big that the VLA needs a 17 mile long railroad system just to change the configuration.
On my way from Socorro to Carlsbad, I went thru Artesia.
I don't know what they were cooking at the refinery, but he whole town's smell reminded me of fresh coax.
You know, that smell that hits you when you open a bag with a section 9913 in it.
Passing thru Roswell, I saw the statue of BOB the alien.
Still didn't see any aliens.
Leaving the area, I went south on US285 to Pecos Texas.
I also got caught in a traffic jam that would make the 405 in LA look like child's play.
In Loving County (the least populated county in the USA) at Orla TX, TX State Route 652 intersects US 285.
Four lanes of traffic on 285 get merged into one lane in each direction, then meet two lanes of Rt 652 traffic.
TX DOT installed traffic lights, but failed to turn on the electric to make them work.
I spent two hours trying to get thru this intersection.
The last 100 yards were the worst, it took me over an hour to go the last 100 yards to get thru the intersection.
While waiting to clear this intersection, I heard the most amount of activity, I have ever heard on 2m.
I heard lots of interesting conversations on 2m.
If you charged 25cents for every bad word on the radio, some of the truckers would have run up $5 tabs in just one transmission.
