Attic Antenna Install 2020 - Nanaimo OTA ( Over the Air ) TV

 Aaron's Attic TV Antenna Install 2020 Nanaimo BC

I've been interested in OTA ( Over the Air ) TV in Nanaimo Since 2013. Earlier, I think sometime in 2011 I had heard about how you'd no longer be able to pick up TV with an antenna and decided to finally look into it. 

Turns out they were shutting down the analogue transmitters and switching to digital. So... There was still going to be OTA TV just that you'd likely need a different antenna to pick up the new digital VHF/UHF signals. From Nanaimo there is no VHF stations available. I am still learning about how it all works, but that's my sort of good enough understanding of it for now.  

I started out with a custom set up at my old house which you can read about in this old post: http://www.aaronbrunt.com/2016/02/over-air-hdtv.html

Then, we moved to a new place and I had that antenna with the coat hangers in the living room of the new place. We had a baby coming a few years later and that antenna was too scary for a baby, but it worked well. I decided to get something safer. I got the RCA Flat Antenna with the amplifier and put it up on the window. It worked sometimes... Which lead to the motivation for the attic antenna.  

Here's the antenna in the attic! 

I chose this antenna because it's a directional antenna that performs well for a longer range for it's size. I needed something inexpensive, small yet effective. So this antenna has UHF features as well it has a long VHF thing if you have VHF stations in your area, which I don't. Knowing this now I might have got just the UHF featured antenna like this thing:

Xtreme Signal Long Range Yagi Style

We only have UHF Stations in my area. You can tell from the rabbit ears info report and all the numbers are above 12 which is the VHF stations. I remember as a kid on our bunny ears we only had the VHF stations I suppose, because I remember only going the first 12 stations. Anyway... So this antenna also seems to have a bunch of VHF stuff but that's fine because they might have some sometime. 

Rabbit Ears Website Results are important to look up. Here is my link. 

https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php?request=result&study_id=178438

I've taken a sample of the first 3 channels I get to talk about the results. 

For the Channel column you'll notice there is a couple of numbers there. For the KVOS channel 12-1, it's UHF station is actually 14 which is in the brackets 

In order to point the antenna towards Mt. Seymour towers I used this website which will draw lines from your location to the towers!  https://www.overtheairdigitaltv.com/tv-station-locator-tool/

But after I did that I found that rabbitears.info site and they have an option that looks even better where you can see the results and it puts lines on the map towards the towers. 

See tower paths

So I mark a path and remember a location to aim at for the next step. For me I choose a landmark close to the towers which I could located on the Signal Finder app. 

Look for this below the map! 

Then, I placed my phone on the antenna and using the "TERK Signal Finder" App which will cast a beam on the map based on where your phones pointing and then I can position the antenna that way!

If you found this post - please comment to let me know your OTA TV set up! I'd love to chat with anyone who uses TV Antennas! 

Wired House for Ethernet - Cat5e Cabling

Wired House for Ethernet

*Note: I found this post in my drafts since 2016. Completed and Posted! 

I always wanted to wire in our xbox and TV with Ethernet ( Cat5) cable. I finally got that chance. Here's how I did it: 

First I decided what I needed to buy. I needed: 

- 100 Foot of Cat 5e Cable
- RJ45 Wall Plate with Keystone Jack
- RJ45 Connectors
- Crimpers for RJ45 Cable. These were expensive, but a one time investment. 
- 4 port switch. 
- Cable Ties and Clips ( to fasten to walls ) 

Things I needed but already had:

- Drywall Knife ( any sharp knife will work ) 
- Drill with Various Drill bits. 
- Permission for the project from my Wife. ( Note this process starts many months before the project begins. I will outline the process in a future blog post, but as a hint, it ends with her saying "If I approve this project, you promise I never have to hear about it again?" hahaha )  

Second thing I did was - make a plan on where the cable would go. I decided to go down the wall in the office to the basement then through the basement to the furnace room and use the existing hole in the floor to bring the cable up to the living room. I could do another run up and make a wall plate behind the TV but that's not necessary but it would be much cleaner. For now we will use the hole in the floor.  

I found a spot in the basement just below office where the modem is that I could put the cable. Lucky for me we has an old oil input pipe coming in from the outside that I could use to measure from to the edge of the window of the room with the modem . Then inside the room I measured the same distance from the window and drilled a small hole down in the floor as close to the wall as I could. Back in the basement I measured the distance to the wall from the hole I made. In my case the drill bit broke off in the floor so it was still in the floor. So there goes that drill bit, it's part of the house now. 

I was then confident to drill the main hole I cut out a piece of the drywall using a small sharp knife and using this drill bit tried to drill down. It didn't work because my bit was not long enough to get to the floor - so I went down to the basement and drilled up. Then I tested if the wire could make it up though and into the hole. 

 RJ45 Wall Plate

Wire Up Through Floor

*UPDATE* November 1 2020

Over The Air TV in Nanaimo, BC

A few years ago I cancelled my cable and just watched Netflix and other streaming services. 

I missed watching the news and watching whatever was on. I wanted some TV. We used to use the "bunny ears" back in the day and I heard something about making an antenna to pick up the digital hdtv signals. So I did some Internet searching and found this guy's website

https://johnbollwitt.com/2009/01/20/getting-over-the-air-ota-digital-television-dtv-in-vancouver/

I went to the hardware store and bought package metal coat hangers, a dozen metal washers, and a converter thing like we used to use to hook up cable to a TV. I found an old piece of wood in my shed and I created the masterpiece you can see in my post. That website I linked to has a video that explains how to make one.

Then I bought this https://www.amazon.ca/Mediasonic-HW-150PVR-HomeWorx-Converter-Recording/dp/B00I2ZBD1U

And hooked it up! I was amazed that It worked! Perfect quality HDTV! 

I live in nanaimo bc. I get

CBC (2)
Chek (6)
Global  (8)
City (10)
CTV Two (17)
CTV (32)

Plus some old tv show channel and an old movie channel.

I use this website to find the schedule

https://mtvl.zap2it.com/tvl?md=chooseProviders&aid=tvschedule

Also there is an app called Peel smart remote that has an ok schedule.

And finally I used this website to find the best way to point the antenna. https://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

For now the antenna just sits in my living room.Eventually I'd like to put an antenna on my roof.

Hope someone finds this info helpful

Garden in Nanaimo 2015

Garden 2015

Here's some photos of some of the garden this year. First year of garden. It turned out pretty good except the peppers didn't really grow. Going to try them in a different location next year. One of our best crops was our pumpkins. We carved 3 of them at Halloween. Next best was the potatoes. There was lots of tomatoes as well.
I think next year i will grow less tomatoes. This year I had to many tomatoes. The morning glory and the English ivy are a constant battle! There is some blackberries invading as well. I'm hoping out compost works out. I have a couple photos.

Jalapeños 

Potatoes - Onions at Harvest time.

Tomatillos

Tomatoes

Pepper Garden!

Peas, Tomatoes and Hot Pokers!

Kale!

Pumpkin

Seasons Greetings!

Seasons Greetings Everyone! I found this animated gif on a website about how to create snowfall animations using Mathematica. Thanks for the gif - it's fantastic work.

Happy Birthday

Birthday.

For my birthday this year, work gave me a totally awesome animated gif! Keeping with the goal of this website I've posted it here for all to enjoy. It was a great birthday. Thank you to everyone - especially Melissa.

 

Why do I have this blog?

It's the thick of summer here in BC - It's like 30 Degrees Celsius. Too hot for us BC people. Today I was thinking that I should let people know why I have this blog as recently I was asked this question you see. So here it is in a nice list thing:

1. Fun. It's for fun.
2. Because I wanted to have a domain name that is my name. Cause it's cool / geeky thing to do.
3. I had no where to re-post animated GIFS on the internet - I like ones that spin ( See Above )
4. That's it, nothing really else. So have try to have fun ok!?