I redid the track and ballast in front of the station. It was bugging me for years. Would post a pic but it seems the pic upload system is toast !
I totally get it...like on Playa Desnuda, I have cherry-picked Pacific Electric/Southern Pacific structures (usually CA, one AZ)
The project is really looking good! It must be about 5:00AM as the streets are empty--(probably easier on the wallet that way)..
Thinking outside the box....AGAIN !! So we had a building that used to be the old school...outside of town...at the end of the road just past J&J Horse Ranch. One building and lots of grassy area behind it. What to make out of the place now...Hmmmmmmm. So I got a bright idea Every town has cable. Cable TV...internet cable etc.. The signal comes down from a satelite to these big dishes at the cable company. The satelite signal is fed to racks of servers inside the building and sent out via 'cable' to the consumers. "Ok...this sounds like a plan." I told myself. Havent seen any layouts with a 'Cable Company' modeled...especially with the satelite dishes out back. How to make BIG N Scale satelite dishes? Hmmmmmm ???? Tried to find concave steel or aluminum washers online. My fingers hurt from Googling.... I told THE WIFE I was going to ACE Hardware to scout around for something to use. She chimes in "Why not use suction cups?" I hunted for about a half hour. Didnt find anything else that would fit the bill. Bought a couple of packages of different sized suction cups. "Whatcha got to lose George?" I told myself. Brought them home...white rattle can white and straighened the suppiled hooks to make mounts and.... B A M !!! Cable company satelite dishes !!!! Ok....I need more Or a few Jack and Cokes...
I did find one pic online that illustrates my thought process..... http://www.jacksonvideo.com/images/Comcast/satfarm final1.jpg
Nice signs George! The cable company satellite dish farm came out really cool. Neat idea using suction cups.
George, what a great idea and a great start. Satellite Dish sizes are based on the frequency of the transmission, they range from 30 foot diameter down to 10 foot diameter. In each case they are using a Cassegrain feed. The actual feed (Receiver) is a tripod mounted to focus at the center of the dish. The larger the dish, the farther away from the feed it sits. It might be easy with some left over plastic part trees to cut small sections to be the feed, and spray paint some toothpicks to construct the tripod.
The dish diameter is relatively unimportant at the range of frequencies used by satellites. The dish diameter determines the antenna gain (like a telescope, how big a bucket to catch the RF). Frequency does play a part in whether the dish is solid or mesh (higher frequencies need a finer mesh or solid reflector to focus the RF on the feed horn.) Modern satellites have higher power transmitters, and modern receivers have more sensitive front ends, both requiring less gain from the dish size. Also, modern satellites more accurately beam-form their transmit footprint, allowing them to more efficiently target their RF transmission power to the region of interest on earth, thus reducing the dish size required for reception. However, higher frequencies tend to be absorbed by condensed water (clouds) in the atmosphere, which is why the lower frequency satellite dishes of old seldom had problems with weather (except wind affecting their pointing), but small modern (Dish, DirecTV, etc.) receivers do. Also, a Cassegrainian feed requires a secondary, convex reflector above the dish, redirecting the RF, reflected from the dish, through a hole in the dish center to a receiver behind it. Almost all terrestrial dish receiving antennas are direct focus (similar to a Newtonian telescope without the diagonal mirror at the top), not Cassegrainian.
Yea..... Dont know much about HOW satelite dishes work. Not 100% sure what the real thing looks like or how they are constructed. I just know that if you walk into THERR RV and spot those suction cups that LOOK like satelight dishes out back and the building out front...I'm pretty sure you would think "Cable Company"... *Now that there is a sign on the building that says "Chris Cable" I am 100% sure you would think "Cable Company"... .