Thumb and Hammer Blog

The installers for our fixed wireless internet access came by on Thursday.  One gentleman remained in the truck taking the signal readings while the other went up on the roof of the addition with the receiver. They were able to determine that we would be able to receive the signal, which is the best possible news.  The receiver will be mounted on a five foot tripod on the roof of the main house.  Everything could have been installed on Thursday if it wasn’t for the steep pitch of our roof.

Steep roof

I cannot complain at all, because I’m chicken-bleep on any roof.  The roof on the old part of the house is 45 degrees at the peak (whatever that pitch is), and there are very few people who would be willing to climb up there without any kind of safety equipment. The back dormer has a low slope, but to reach it requires a longer ladder than the 24 footer that the installers had with them.  So they will be returning tomorrow for the actual installation.

While the comparison may be unfair, I couldn’t help but remember the salesman from the roofing company who climbed up on our roof to give us an estimate just after we moved into the house three years ago.  He climbed onto the roof of he addition which has a lower slope, and from there, he hopped up onto the main roof and ran up to the peak like the roof was flat.  He walked back and forth along the peak surveying the condition of the shingles before coming back down. I guess everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to climbing up on roofs.

All wired up and ready to go

I spent a few days organizing the multitude of cat 5 wires and coax cables that I ran to the basement from the bedrooms on the second floor. I ran new wires to the computer room in the addition, so that our PC will have a wired connection. I installed new phone and cat 5 jacks in the master bedroom and kitchen as well.

Tedious work

The Leviton Quickport jacks are not difficult to work with at all. However, the thin cat 5 wires are rather tedious to line up properly. Once lined up, terminating the wires is simple and installation is very straight-forward. That, of course, assumes that there is enough room to work.  Wedging myself between the computer desk and the wall to install the jacks was awkward to say the least.  But I got it done, and everything is ready to go.

This time tomorrow….

We should be surfing the net at about 25 times the speed we do currently.  Assuming that the installer brings a long enough ladder this time….