antenna cable replaced

Buster’s spot Holly Springs, North Carolina - Monday, August 26, 2019
Morning 65 Degrees, Wind E at 1 to 3 Mph, Humidity 93%, partly cloudy.
Afternoon 77 Degrees, Wind S at 1 to 3 Mph, Humidity 52%, cloudy.

It seems like the high heat has broken as it is cooler today. There was rain on Saturday and a cool frond has come making it nicer outside. It also was overcast this afternoon 
John was home early from work and it is time to change the coax cable on the Satellite antenna.

The television has been working as advertised, not dropping out and not having to be reset. These were our problems and are time consuming to fix. Lately we have had a different problem, not recording scheduled programs but that is something else.

The replacement coax cable has color coded ends but the antenna turret connections are numbered. The other difference are the coax cable end fittings are smaller on the new coax cable (I think this is good for clearance).

In the following picture the antenna is parked (in the travel position) replaced coax cable is in the center left of the picture

Antenna down and parked

Close up of coax cables (3) connected to turret base

On the old coax cable you can see in the picture tape, I had John put on the chaffed spots that were warn thru. On the new cable I has put plastic over these to provide more protection to the coax cable just beyond the fitting up to the sleeve that the three coax cables are in to route up to the LNB’S going thru the square support tube. Both the old and new coax cables are different than coax cable we have used or seen before.

Removed coax cable

Nuclear plant tour

Buster’s spot Holly Springs, North Carolina - Saturday, August 10, 2019
Morning 70 Degrees, Wind N at 1 to 2 Mph, Humidity 89%, sunny.
Afternoon 91 Degrees, sunny.

Shearon Harris Nuclear plant, operated by Duke Energy, tour. We were able to tour the plant today, a lot of walking and a lot of safety rules. In addition Security is tight there and always under review for improvement. This started a couple of weeks ago when my daughter (who works for a contractor there) offered to take my wife and I along with her son and husband. The tours are not available very often so we took advantage of the opportunity.

We had to fill out forms for a back round check that had to be completed before we could enter. We arrived early and attended a safety and information briefing before starting our tour. We were given hard hats safety glasses and ear plugs to use during the tour. We took an elevator to the top where the electric generator and steam turbine are located. From there we were taken into the control room after another short briefing, keeping quit and to not touch anything as the plan was on line (making money). From there we saw a lot of pumps and heat exchanger’s, that is where all the noise is needing ear plugs. We were able to see the “switch yard” and transformers for the electric power going out. There are three diesel generators for backup power to operate the plant. Just operating the water pumps requires a lot of electric and the water cooling of the nuclear reactor is a constant operation.

Cooling Tower & Switch Yard

There could have been more walking but we bailed and went to the administration building where my daughter works after checking out of the secure area and turning in our hard hats and safety glasses. Back in the car we toured around and then visited the cooling tower whet the steam is converted back to water.

Cooling Tower

wikipedia.org/wiki/Shearon_Harris_Nuclear_Power_Plant 

two projects

Buster’s spot Holly Springs, North Carolina - Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Morning 70 Degrees, Wind NE at 1 to 2 Mph, Humidity 93%, partly cloudy, light fog.

I got two projects done today, No progress Pictures there are after completion pictures, it never came to mind to take pictures. The first project was the electric cord for the tow had dragged on the road and warn thru a couple of wires . I cut out that section and spliced the two remaining sections together. It was easy just connect the colored wires, white to white, red to red and so on. I covered the splices with plastic tubing and then wrapped that with electrical tape.
 
The next project was on Tan Jan the left head light was looking fogged over. A couple of years ago I had the dealer clean them both up and they were good. This past winter the right headlight assembly was replaced as the light linkage had failed. Then the right looked new and the left looked thru a fogged lens. My wife had viewed a you tube video on cleaning the lenses and than had me view that also. Easy to do job and
all I needed to do was purchase the polish, tape and buffer pads. I did wait until the area was in the shade, both the light assembly and where I would be standing.
I taped off the painted fender and put a buffer pad in the drill motor and polish on the lens and buffed, looks good. 

Electric cable (repaired) used when towing

Now the completed project pictures. The cable has two sections of plastic tubing but one with tape over the plastic tubing that is where the splices are.

Left headlight after polishing

New right headlight today

satellite television update

Morning 75 Degrees, Wind N at 1 to 2 Mph, Humidity 92%, mostly cloudy.

Well I got an email off yesterday (Sunday) to Winegard antenna (satellite television) explaining our problem and what we did with their test suggestion and what we found on the roof, (chafed coax cable and another weathered cable). So far since Saturday night everything has been working correctly and I have not had to “reset the box”.
 
I received an email back, early (today Monday morning), and then called Winegard antenna customer service to order a coax cable assembly. I think that it is a problem with chafed cables as there was a part number on the assembly.

As of Saturday night the satellite television has been working as advertised, no problems viewing or recording programs.

satellite antenna

Myrtle Beach State Park Myrtle Beach, South Carolina - Sunday, July 28, 2019
Morning 80 Degrees, Wind NE at 1 to 2 Mph, Humidity 72%, sunny.

We are booked here till tomorrow morning. So we are having a rest day before traveling back to Holly Springs.


Myrtle Beach State Park Myrtle Beach, South Carolina - Monday, July 29, 2019
Morning 73 Degrees, Wind W at 2 to 3 Mph, Humidity 82%, sunny.

We were out of the site just before ten-thirty and hooked up Tan Jan for the travel back to North Carolina. Very busy traffic driving out of Myrtle Beach this morning. About twenty miles out the traffic calmed down until we arrived at interstate ninety-five. When we arrived at the interstate Buster filled his diesel fuel tank. The tank was three quarters full but topped it off so we will start our next trip with a almost full tank of fuel.

Buster’s spot Holly Springs, North Carolina
Afternoon 85 Degrees, Wind E at calm, Humidity 85%, partly sunny.

We were at Busters spot about two thirty, then backed him and leveled out and setup things.


Buster’s spot Holly Springs, North Carolina - Saturday, August 3, 2019
Morning 71 Degrees, Wind N at 1 to 2 Mph, Humidity 92%, cloudy.
Afternoon 84 Degrees, Wind W at 3 to 4 Mph, Humidity 49%, mostly sunny.

We have been having problems with out satellite television, recording programs and receiving channels. There are issues between Dish and the Winegard antenna. Dish will not do any work on the antenna. While we were at the state park we did not have live television as there were too many trees too close to Buster to receive a satellite signal.

satellite

Here there are trees (high) but far enough away for a signal. Another issue is resetting the cable box is time consuming and stops any program or recording while that is being done. At times we could get and record a channel and not receive or record another channel. If we reset the “box” the channel would come in, that’s why I wanted dish to come and check their equipment this morning.  Normally we can receive or record three channels and watch a recorded program, at the same time. We were able to watch recordings while parked at the Myrtle Beach state park and when not receiving a satellite signal.

The coax on the left has been chafed

After the sun started behind the trees my son-in-law got up on the roof to look at the antenna. We were going to switch coax cables that Winegard had told me to try to see if it corrected the problem. It seams like it worked and he noticed that the cable was chafed. I sent off an email to Winegard seeing if they sell replacement cables for the LNB.