Putting up a Big Antenna

On July 3rd, 1995, Joe Metzger and Stehpen Elbert spent the afternoon taking down a 6' antenna and replacing it with a 12' one. Reason being: our wireless ethernet connection wasn't holding up its reputation as fast and powerful...in fact, nothing was getting through at all. Since this kind of setup is relatively new in Ames, Iowa, we weren't altogether sure what was causing the loss of transmission. We reasoned that there was probably too much foliage blocking the transmission between our house and the receiving antenna at Ames Lab, and the fact that we live low in a valley doesn't really help. However, the larger antenna, which is about 10 feet higher than the previous one, helped significantly! I don't know how much fun it was putting the monstrous thing up, as I stayed safely on the ground pretty much the whole time, but I certainly had fun taking pictures with our new Apple QuickTake 150 digital camera! And here you can see what I ended up with, as well as the dramatic happenings that took place that day. :-)

First, compare with the old 6' antenna. . .

The day we put up the new one. . .