TV Fool and FM Fool

A while ago, I mentioned TVFool.com It's an absolutely amazing, accurate and technical reception prediction engine that will tell you everything you need to know about the TV channels you'll be able to pick up at a given location. This is really an indispensable took.

After much work, they've released FM Fool. Finally, you can get all the same technical information on FM stations that you can on TV stations. Check it out: FMFool.com

Some Cool DIY Audio Projects

Editor's Note:I haven't built any of these yet, but I've sure heard good things about them.

The hobby of building one's own electronics is certainly a dwindling one. All the same, electronics is a field that just keeps getting better. Particularly, audio electronics. Their one field that can still be built by hand. Infact, some of the coolest low-distortion gear can be made by hand.

I found a wonderful resource of really cool, audiophile quality projects for just about any application. Check out: http://sound.westhost.com/projects.htm

Make Firefox 3 Even Faster

Mozilla Firefox version 3, which I mentioned in a previous post, is an incredible browser! The UI is much improved on the already slick Firefox 2. The biggest benefit of FF 3 is it's speed. Many people are reporting that benchmarks and real use confirm it's the fastest browser ever. No joke.

Now, here's the really cool thing. You can make it even faster. That's right. Basically, you need to go into the about:config (open a new tab and enter about:config into the address bar).

You can do a google on about:config tweaks, and come up a bunch of different websites all talking about different changes you can make. I looked at several different sites and condensed all the speed tweaks into a single list. Here it is. Note: The first number is the default, the second is the value which you should change it to.

Here's that list:

1. Non speed related tweaks
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth 100 to 75
layout.spellcheckDefault 1 to 2 (enables spellcheck for one line fields)
extensions.checkCompatibility (right click and create a new Boolean) false

2. Speed tweaks
network.http.pipelining false to true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 30 to 8
network.http.max-connections 30 to 96
network.http.max-connections-per-server 15 to 32
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 6 to 8
network.http.pipelining.ssl false to true
network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true

DIY TV Antennas

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted, but I've been overloaded (to the point of clipping and distortion) with school work and studying for the SAT (I take it tomorrow).

One of my technical obsessions is TV & FM antennas, more specifically, DIY antennas.

In the last year or so, the DIY antenna scene has exploded from just a few nuts to a gazillion nuts.

What could be better? You bring home a fancy new HDTV, and within 1/2hr, for under $10, you can put together a nice down and dirty "4-bay" UHF antenna that will let you get most local stations: all in HD quality.

There are also some more advanced designs, and if built right, could be installed outside and last you a few decades.

So, here's the grandiose list of antenna plans.

First is the basic 4-bay antenna. http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/ Has a pretty good set of plans.

DIYers made a significant breakthrough sometime last year. They took an old, obscure UHF antenna, the Hooverman, patented in the late 1950s and used some computer modeling to tweak the performance. The end result: practically the best bay-type UHF antenna ever made. People have done side by side comparisons with previous top performers, the Channel Master 4221 and 4228, and it's grossly outperformed them. Plus, some modelers are working on an even better version.
Here's the main link: The Gray-Hoverman For UHF Television Reception.
The thread for the original thread is here:Generation I Gray-Hoverman Antenna (SBGH & DBGH)
The thread for the new improved design is here:Generation II Gray-Hoverman Antenna (SBGH2 & DBGH2)
There also a bunch of people trying old designs and coming up with new ones.

Here are a couple of "free for all" Antenna design threads.
Modeling Software for OTA Antenna Design & Creation
How to build a UHF antenna...
and finally:
DIY HDTV antenna Lumenlab
For this one, you'll need a user name and password. Thanks to Bugmenot.com, you have one:
username: surreydistrict36
password: surreygirls

If your looking old obscure antennas, Google Patents is you friend.

I was looking for plans for the mother of all VHF antennas, The deep fringe model of the Channel Master Crossfire, and found exactly what I was looking for:on Google Patents

As far as old designs go, this guy has some good stuff on his Photobucket.

The Worldwide TV FM DX Association also has a good collection of stuff on their site.