We recently helped a local farm near Leesburg, Virginia, setup a Wineguard HD 8200U High Defintion Platinum VHF/UHF/FM Antenna
Line for Apple Store in Arlington Selling iPhone 3GS
Because Apple and AT&T allowed people to pre-order for delivery, the line for the new iPhone 3GS at 7am today at the Clarendon Apple store in Arlington, Virginia, was about 10% of what we saw for the original iPhone and 3G.
In many ways, this was a less significant upgrade than the upgrade to the 3G. Key selling points of the 3GS include: faster speed (network and phone), video recording, better battery life, compass, and higher quality camera.
Several other upgrades are available to the previous iPhone through the recently released iPhone 3.0 OS. The new software includes cut and paste, photo messaging (available later when AT&T enables it), universal search, and a voice memo app.
I’ll probably buy the 3GS in several months when I qualify for the cheaper upgrade price.
Best TV Antenna For DC Metro
At Tech DC we have helped many people set up their TVs with antennas for digital over-the-air TV. This is a great way to get high quality digital programming without a cable or satellite bill.
Channels Available
Washington DC is mainly in the UHF spectrum, but channel 7 (ABC) is in VHF so an antenna should work for both UHF and VHF. This is a channel list for Washington DC from antennaweb.org, a great site for determining what kind of channels you receive and how far and what direction the towers are located.
Try An Old Antenna
We have experimented with many different types of antennas. If you have an old antenna, definitely give that a try before buying something new. Generally, you want an antenna to have as good a line-of-sight to the towers as possible, meaning that placement near a window can help. Rooftop or attic antennas are great. Old antennas capture the same spectrum (UHF & VHF) as is needed for digital TV, so don’t be fooled into thinking that you need a digital antenna. The antennas the same.
Digital TV Requires A Good Signal
The tuning difference between digital and analog is only that digital is less forgiving if you have a poor signal. With a poor analog signal, the image is snowy but still viewable. Digital signals will become jaggy and then quickly black out to nothing. This means that sometimes a better antenna is needed for a stronger signal in order for digital to work.
Best Antenna for DC Metro
Our favorite TV antenna for people in the DC metro area is the Winegard SS-3000 Amplified Indoor UHF/VHF Antenna
Cheap WiFi Antenna Boost
We recently setup a wireless antenna and bridge for a customer in Occoquan, Virginia that needed WiFi to be transmitted across a large building and through floors. While the setup worked, the signal was poor. This caused lows speeds and even occasional lost connections. Therefore we setup a cheap directional antenna to point the signal directly where it needed to go. This fixed the problem by increasing the signal strength by about 40%.
How To Build The Antenna
Go to freeantennas.com’s Ez-12 page to download the image at the bottom of the page. Then resize the image as needed, print it, use business-card strength paper, glue on the aluminum foil, and put it together. Patrick Norton explains this simple project on his old DL.tv show.
New iPood?
I saw this new “iPOOd” trowel at a Virginia REI store. Like an actual iPod, it is lightweight and has very few buttons. Unlike an iPod, it is good for digging.
