Blue Sky Cable

Productive Saturday

2009-05-31T20:15:00.002-05:00

You may laugh when you hear that only just this weekend did I actually meet Mary Piper in person. I know, right? I’ve talked to her on the phone, but never had an occasion to be in the same place at the same time... and, I had the good fortune of the location of our meeting to be her Washington Street Emporium – an interesting place, even before Mary told me the story of the infamous bank robbery of 1930.

It’s fascinating to try grasping just how much times have changed.

Infrastructure – wiring, plumbing, construction, and things of that nature – of days-gone-by is an interest of mine and the Emporium was a trove of details that got my curiosity going. The “panic alarm” accessible to the cashiers at the old bank (I’ll save the details so you can check it out for yourself) is a classic example that elicits the response of, “well, I guess it gets the job done!” Unless, of course, it’s lunchtime... sorry, no more details from me – I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Go check it out.

I also met powerful, influential regional media figure Dori Weber in person for the first time after numerous e-mails.

Oh, and I had a run-in with local law enforcement. No... not really... just a quick check to see what the guy rolling into town at 1:30 in the morning with out-of-state license plates was up to. Nah, I’m embellishing again... Either he’s seen me before, or I have an honest face... and probably the former.

So it was a good time, but I haven’t even gotten to the part about actually getting something done – which we did!

I’ll be careful, now, in the use of the word “we” because my handy installation contractor Ron was the one doing most of the work that “we” accomplished. All I did was plan the job, buy the materials, climb a ladder a couple of times to poke at a wire with a broomstick, and go for lunch (guess where?)... Ron was the workhorse.

You can tell it’s not me on the ladder because the ladder isn’t wobbling.

We (see? There I go with that “we” stuff again) managed to install over 3,000 feet of new aerial cable… in a day… a hot day… not bad.

The new cables serve two purposes…

More Internet Reliability

As I mentioned in a previous entry, we’re going to sectionalize Marquette’s Internet in to two TDMA upstream domains with as many as three discrete carriers on each section – compared to the one domain, one carrier that was here when I arrived, and the one domain, two (or three, depending on the day) carriers we have now.

The end result of this will be happiness and joy for all who surf the Internet via the Blue Sky Cable network, because it will improve the network’s resiliency, because physical problems on the cable line will be far less likely to cause trouble for people on the opposite side of town. The existing infrastructure has more-than-enough bandwidth to go around, but the topology of cable Internet is known as a “tree” topology – it even has a “trunk” – the implication of this is that trouble on one part of the “trunk” can impact distant branches. Now, Marquette will have two instead of one, operating independently.

The new cable isn’t live yet, but I did connect it up and run some end-to-end tests on the first 1,000 feet and it performs exceptionally well. Bottom line, it’s a good thing.

That’s one cable. Hopefully within another weekend or two, it will be all the way to Washington and we can hook ‘er up and git ‘r done.

So, what’s the other cable?

The Overlay Network

The other cable is something I call the “Overlay Network.”

This network opens up the door for some new and exciting possibilities – not the least of which is the ability for us to originate live television programming from anywhere in town within the footprint of the Overlay, and make it available to our subscribers. If you happened to watch Access Marquette during the recent bike rally, you saw that I had some video from the park and from downtown – and it was good – but it was on tape.

But now (once the overlay is ready, give me a couple of weeks)... whether at Marquette City Park, or downtown, or at one of the churches (all part of the first phases of the overlay network), or other places in the city, live, full-quality video and audio can be transmitted back to my head-end facility... and from there it can be placed on Channel 2 and transmitted directly to your living room.

This is a capability that doesn’t exist in many larger towns, or, of the capability exists, it doesn’t get a lot of use or attention, because it is an expensive proposition. Sure, in the big city the television stations and their microwave and satellite trucks can bring in live video from just about anywhere – but the difference here is that we’re not talking about a multi-million dollar affair, which changes the viability of all this – we can use the network for community programming without many of the cost-prohibitive trappings of big city media.

I hope you are getting the idea that I am committed to being a part of this community.

The inaugural event will be Marquette’s 135th Anniversary Celebration on August 1.

If all goes according to plan, we’ll be live in the park all day bringing a sample of the day’s activity to your living room. Mind you, it won’t be the same as being there – when you turn on the TV and see how much fun everybody’s having, you’ll want to come join us. Then, after the sun goes down and everything is packed away, we’ll bring you a rebroadcast of the day’s events. For those who can’t stay out in the heat all day, I think it will be a nice way to stay connected to the community… and ultimately, “community” is what this project is all about. That, and having fun. If you don’t enjoy what you do for a living, well, you know what they say.

Some time between now and then, you’ll probably see me, or some other live video, on Channel 2, for no particular reason – just making sure it all works according to plan.

The overlay network also opens up the potential for future technologies, services, applications, and capabilities that we haven’t even thought of yet. Oh… If anyone asks, plans are underway for live video capabilities in Bentley, too.

Month of May News and Notes

2009-05-25T19:00:00.001-05:00

It’s Memorial Day as I sit at home in Oklahoma writing this.

I do love holidays. I’m not specifically referring to “the holidays” as some refer to the Christmas season – I come from a small family and we historically have small holidays... no, I’m afraid I mean holidays from the normal 8-5.

Perhaps it’s not for the most noble of reasons, I confess, but it's nice to have a break from the usual... and a change of schedule, a chance to catch up, and a moment even to smell the roses, perhaps.

A couple of weekends ago I was in Marquette, working at the head-end facility. I just about always have some kind of “background” on – and usually, I’m listening to ABN’s Old Time Radio programming on Access “2” Marquette. This time, I had the television on JCTV, and there was a guy on there reminding me not to focus exclusively on the destination – but to experience and enjoy the journey.

That’s good advice that I’d be well-advised to take to heart. And incidentally, when it comes to the programming from Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN, JCTV, and Smile of a Child), I don’t find that I personally agree with everything they have to say – not at all, so I don’t want anyone to have the idea that I’m a “TBN apologist” who thinks them infallible, but my philosophy on this is to take everything for what it seems to be worth – if it’s uplifting and encouraging, go with it! If it prompts you to think or contemplate a bit of philosophy or theology that you haven’t given much thought to – or much thought to, recently – then again, go with it.

Incidentally, TBN has sent me some “gifts” to share with their viewers. I have “Ten Commandments” key rings, cross necklaces, some CDs and DVDs and a few of the “Sword of the Spirit” letter opener – my personal favorite. I also have a few of the small tabletop “nativity” displays, featuring actual frankincense, actual myrrh, and simulated gold. If you would like to have one or more of these items, please contact me.. and no, I won’t give them your name and address. No catch, no obligation.

Back on the topic of the holiday, and this one specifically, it’s important not to overlook the reason underlying this holiday: remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of this Nation.

In my own tiny way, I do say: Thank you. I am not worthy of your sacrifice, but you inspire me to do the best I can and not ever to take your actions for granted.

Just this past week, I received my first issue of the venerable Harvey County Independent, which included the “Memorial Day 2009 Roll Call of Honor,” a multi-page spread listing the names of those who served and those who died from Bentley, Halstead, Burrton, and Sedgwick.

I didn’t know any of those people, but it struck me that they all had families whose sacrifices are beyond anything I really even understand.

In addition to this reflection, I've (finally) had an opportunity to come up for air a bit and contemplate what I've been up to for the last few weeks and perhaps muse a little bit about what's coming up in the coming weeks and months for Blue Sky Cable.

It may be less than ideal for me to meander backwards in time and touch on different topics inside of one Insider post (the alternative being a separate post on each topic) but I suspect for now that this will be the way to go if I want to actually get it done. (Ah, but I will endeavor to enjoy the “journey” of this writing.)

Today being the 25th, payments received after today are past-due and I’ll be cutting off billing after I post any payments I receive tomorrow – so tomorrow night, I’ll be busy. Tonight is a good night for this missive.

C-SPAN & QVC, Satellite Dishes

Most of the programming I receive via satellite for delivery on cable are transmitted to me digitally. This has a couple of benefits – of course, there's the improved picture quality of digital signals... but also, digital satellite transmission allows the programming providers to squeeze more signals into the same amount of satellite space.

The satellites used for television transmission in my world are known as “C-Band” satellites. Each “bird” (i.e., satellite, spacecraft, etc.) has 24 transponders. Under analog transmission, each transponder can carry only one television signal... i.e., ESPN is on one transponder, The Weather Channels is on one transponder, TBS, TBN, CNN, C-SPAN... you get the idea. Considering the gazillion dollars invested in each satellite, it does seem like 24 channels is a relatively small amount of content. Digital transmission allows multiple signals to occupy each transponder, and not only is there no loss of quality, there's actually an improvement (typically).

C-SPAN and QVC are a couple of holdouts that are still sent analog, and their picture quality is not where I'd like for them to be (but, in contrast, The Weather Channel and HBO are still analog and they look fine – so it's not “simply” the difference between digital and analog. There are other factors).

And, of course, the multiple signals the programming providers are able to provision on each bird doesn’t directly help you and me, because we still need essentially the same amount of equipment per channel (not per satellite transponder).

About 3 weeks ago in Bentley I spent several hours trying to “tweak” my satellite antenna for better reception. The problem I have is, one of the dishes – which is not intended to receive signals from multiple satellites – has been pressed into exactly such service... so the digital signals come in fine, but the analogs are a bit fuzzy... and QVC and C-SPAN are the guys. Bottom line, here, is that I'm going to need to install another dish in order to get really satisfactory reception.

So that's added to the list.

Backup Power

Backup power means several different things... and I've been working toward a couple of different aspects of “backup power.”

First, there's “online” backup power – this being the most important, in our environment – and I am working towards everything in my facilities being protected by 5 to 10 minutes of online battery backup. Here’s the logic:

If the power goes out for the entire community for more than just a few minutes, it’s unlikely that anybody is watching cable or surfing the Internet – your power is off just like mine.

However, it’s important for the relatively-delicate electronics at my place to be protected from the brief power “hits” we experience, especially during severe weather.

Also, though, consider this: Let’s assume for just a minute that the power fluctuations were not bad for my equipment. Even if that were true, it would still be annoying if you were trying to watch television during severe weather and you had to wait, after the power came back on, for the system to stabilize and for the channels to come back.

So... online backup will keep all of the equipment powered on and happy during outages of 5 minutes or less, to give you the best possible experience.

My objective before summer is over to have 100% of my equipment on backup power that allows me to ride out short disruptions.

Then, there’s “offline” backup – think “generator.”

Now, consider this aspect of generator power that may not be intuitively obvious until you do: let’s assume I had a generator on site at each head-end and it automatically started any time there was a power outage, and ran from a theoretically-infinite fuel supply... what’s the problem that a generator doesn’t address?

Two words: “transfer time.”

Until time travel is invented, a generator can’t start until the power is actually already off, and then it needs to come up to speed, and then take over the load – hard on the equipment, arguably, but also just as annoying in short-duration intervals as having no generator at all, because the system still has a restart-interval when switching to generator, as when recovering from a short-duration power outage.

Annoying, isn’t it? So with a generator-only solution, we could ride out hours and hours with no electricity (not a high priority item, usually, because you’ll have no power either).

But if we combine these two, we have the best of both worlds: on-line backup to see us through short-duration outages using batteries, and then off-line backup to keep us going during longer-duration intervals (and with an added bonus – the batteries allow us to switch to generator after the initial outage, and then of actually recharging the batteries at the same time, so that if we have to take the generator offline to refill, check the oil, etc., we can build back up to a full store of 5-10 minutes of battery while running on generator – although this actually takes several hours, since the battery charger is deliberately less-aggressive than it otherwise might be, since an aggressively-rapid charge deteriorates the batteries).

So for now (to make a long story short), my focus is getting all of the equipment in both cities connected to battery backup.

Bentley is perhaps 75% done (100% of the Internet equipment and maybe 50-60% of the television equipment). A couple of weeks back, I installed all-new batteries in Bentley and we are in far-better shape for withstanding short-duration power hits than we were previously.

Marquette is catching up, with about 55% of the equipment on batteries, and the balance t.b.d. I hope to have both towns to 100% by August 1.

I do have a relatively beefy generator that could keep either facility on-the-air for hours or days as needed, assuming the supply of gasoline didn’t run out... and in the event of an outage that impacts only part of the community, it will be pressed into service.

Equipment Protection – Heat is the Enemy

This past week, I bought a spare air conditioner so that if I should happen to lose a unit this summer, I don’t have to go looking for the money to purchase one – I’ve got one on hand. The cash flow of the cable company is such that about 2 weeks out of the month, I’m eating ramen noodles or beanie-weenies (not both). The other half of the month, I can have an occasional steak (filet is my favorite, in case you are planning to invite me over). I figure if I lose an air conditioner, I only have a few hours to get a new one – hence the decision to buy the spare unit now. It’s connected up at my house in Oklahoma, and I’ll be running it periodically to keep it in good condition – clearly, this is not a purchase that can simply be placed in storage and expected to work when needed.

Meanwhile, in considering the implications of what would happen if I lost enough air conditioning capacity in either town that the temperature began to rise inside my facilities, I have also ordered some safety equipment – thermal cut-outs that will force the electronics to shut down in the absence of sufficiently-cool air.

Come again? Yes, I am going to set up the systems to have a deliberate self-protective shutdown if the temperature reaches an unsafe level inside the buildings. This might seem a bit confusing – installing equipment designed to cause a deliberate service outage? Yes – but consider this: I can restore service by sending Vinnie and Guido and a large box fan to cool the place down while the air conditioning is serviced or replaced, and the equipment will come back online as soon as the temperature drops back to a safe level.

Absent this capability, in an over-temperature situation, the equipment would continue to run, churning out more heat, and ultimately this could cause thousands and thousands of dollars of damage to my electronics, and cause a period of involuntary service disruption that would make the safety-cutoff-caused outage to pale by comparison. Even a fire isn’t out of the question, and I don’t even want to think about it.

Of course, in addition to the self-sacrificing auto-shutdown, I’m also planning active temperature-monitoring equipment to alert me before such drastic actional become necessary – and, of course, there’s the obvious approach of applying the 40% rule to air conditioning.

If you’re unfamiliar with the 40% rule, permit me to elucidate:

If I want to engineer redundancy among two systems, where each system can “cover for” the other, what capacity point am I shooting for?

Typically, the answer is 40%.

Each of two “whatevers” (air conditioners, in this example) that is configured in a reduntant setup should be designed such that its capacity is used as close as possible to 40% under normal conditions... less than this, and you likely have spent too much on “whatevers.” More, and you have a problem in that one unit, operating alone, is not sufficient to tow the line.

On really, really outrageously-hot days, the units will be working at almost 50% – so they are not being strained for capacity by any means. However, in the failure of one unit, the remaining unit will be forced to run at 80% capacity – presumably a very efficient (or at least not wasteful) operating niche. Bring on the outrageous weather, and our lone wolf is pushed to near 100%... but that’s okay, because after all in this circumstance, we’re in emergency mode anyway.

A “triple-redundant” (depending on how you define it – I’m using it to describe 3:2 or N+1 redundancy in contrast to the 1:1 discussed above) arrangement would be different, in that the design assumption is that you’d never be “down two” so you could use three smaller units — which would be nice... but how would you like it if you had 1 unit still working but it wasn’t enough? Ah, well. I think 1:1 will do nicely, especially in contrast to what we have now.

Cable Repair and Replace

Ron has been out driving the cable routes looking for inconsistent signal levels (which indicate loose connections, breaks or defects in the lines). So far, we have replaced almost 3,000 feet of aerial feeder and distribution cable that was sub-par due to improper installation, maintenance, repair, wind, or squirrelification.

I’ve ordered an additional 10,000 feet of new cable, which should be here this week.

With this new cable, we’ll be replacing more sections of line that we’re not happy with. We will also start – and hopefully finish, very soon – our project to have cable and Internet available to every household in Marquette, including the newest part of town. Circumstances permitting, we may also be able to reestablish service on the South side of the bridge, but that’s still up in the air. Get it? The cable is in the air. LOL, sad joke.

In parallel, we’ll be doing a couple of...

New Projects

We’re sectionalizing the town of Marquette into two Internet upstream TDMA domains. The impact of this will be that trouble in one half of town will have zero impact on the other half of town. The dividing line goes right down the middle of Washington Street. Those on the West will remain on the exising upstream infrastructurel those on the East will move to the new feeder. I am extremely optimistic about the potential for dramatically-faster and more reliable connections, especially on the East side of town, around the “crick.”

If this provides the anticipated benefit, then Bentley will be sectionalized into three different TDMA domains (West, Northwest, and North of my head-end). This, like a lot in this business, is a fairly substantial investment, but I believe it will provide a level of performance and resiliency that I’m looking for. And, of course, I’m going out on a creative limb, here — larger cable companies do what they do in a different way that makes less sense in our environment, and there isn’t a lot of precedent among small cable companies for what I have designed.

I’m also actively working on live broadcast capability – the ability to “go live” from just about anywhere in either community on cable channel 2, and I hope to have some tangible progress on this, this coming weekend. One of many applications will be Marquette’s 135th Anniversary celebration in late July/early August. I have already scheduled vacation time away from my day job and to do my part to add some excitement to this event.

I thought last weekend, with the Thunder on the Smoky motorcycle rally would be a good time to test my system’s capabilities and sure enough the live video capabilities are severely limited – as in, it doesn’t work. My predecessor has peppered the network with gizmos that are alleged to improve Internet connections, but which are – imho – snake oil that was applied to mask troubles, instead of just simply repairing problems.

So, no live video last weekend, but I enjoyed the event and was able to shoot some video and play it back on Channel 2 later in the day. I also got some good still shots from my rooftop perch at ArtSpace.

Hopefully, this coming Saturday, we’ll get a new feeder installed from Marquette City Park back to the head-end, which will make for good times later this summer with live video.

I am planning the same type of capability in Bentley, and will take Marquette’s lessons and expand Bentley’s network to include this capacity.

New Programming

I believe I am at the point where a tentative announcement is a safe bet:

Fox Sports Kansas City is coming to Blue Sky Cable, along with Fox Business Network.

Fox Sports does some strange branding with their sports programming, so to avoid (and by “avoid,” I essentially mean “create”) confusion – Fox Sports Network (FSN), Fox Sports Midwest, and Fox Sports Kansas City are fundamentally different names for the same thing – what you see on “Fox Sports Network” depends on where you live. This year’s lineup has 160 Royals games “where we live.”

I purchased Fox Sports reception equipment from the same people who made me a good deal on the recent Turner equipment, as well as some test equipment. In Bentley, I’m good – ready to go, just have to figure out what channel to place it on. In Marquette, it means an additional satellite antenna, and this one will be facing a different direction than the existing ones – the satellite carrying the Fox channels is much further to the East, essentially at 91° W (compared to the eastern-most spacecraft I’m able to see right now, “Galaxy 14” at 125° West Longitude). If you drive past the Bentley site, it’s pretty easy to figure out which one I’m talking about.

Fox Sports, Fox News, and Fox Business are all on this new satellite, along with other things I hope to eventually be able to add... so this investment is a good move going forward.

Ron has a couple of new ~~toys~~ *ahem* tools, one of which I am actually using to write this post... I’ll hand it over to him... eventually... but I had to get it all tricked out for him, first. This is a Dell Mini laptop... tiny little thing, shown with a pencil next to it for perspective... but respectably fast and excellent for plugging in and checking an Internet connection – does this PC work? Your Internet is up. Does it not? Yow, Ron has work to do outside. I’ve also added a television tuner to the laptop so it can be used as a mini digital television, also for field troubleshooting. So truthfully, it’s not a toy at all, and I scored a great deal on it – refurbished. If not for the dirt-cheap price, Ron would still be asking, “do you think sometime I might could have a laptop for troubleshooting?” I don’t anyone to get the idea that I could actually afford to buy anything but refurbished.

I also scored a Sadelco Minimax test set – used, refurbished, but excellent for our applications – this unit reads the level of each channel on a digital display and allows tweaking with a granularity down to 1/10th of 1 dB.

The old meter, a Drake Model “Dinosaur-1” (not really – but by comparison) had a granularity of maybe 1/10th to 1/30th of this one, so it’s a major step up. If it gives you any idea, the unit shown in the photo is newer and nicer than the one we have. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong, but not sufficiently precise for some of the things we need to accomplish.

I’ve scored a bundle of hardware on eBay, too, that’s been absolutely essential for getting things back in shape.

As Ron will attest, I’m sure, I’m nothing if not resourceful, finding equipment and thinking to myself, “I know that’s not what this was designed for – but I’ll bet I can make it do it.” Heh. Creativity pays off.

I’m working on a design for new car signs – primarily to make it just a more simple matter to figure out the answer to the question, “who’s that guy looking up at that pole?”

And, of course, there’s the web site... recently added are links to local weather information from Weather Underground and the National Weather Service.

In the coming weeks, I’ll also be tweaking the Blue Sky Cable Emergency Alert System to interrupt programming – briefly – on all non-local channels – when there is severe weather in the area or if any local, state, or federal emergency is declared... so if you’re watching TBN, Discovery, ESPN, etc... and local severe weather or other conditions threaten, you’ll be greeted with the familiar “attention signal” with a visual message inviting you to tune to Channel 2 for full details, and then normal programming will resume. Total time for the disruption, only about 10 seconds. Then a message about the emergency condition will continually scroll on Channel 2 until the event (such as a tornado warning) expires.

Local stations have requested that they not be interrupted – which makes sense, since if there’s severe weather, they are likely to be talking about it anyway and it wouldn’t make sense to interrupt them.

The EAS system is automated, and obviously, I don’t want this to become like the boy who cried “wolf” so I will be very judicious in setting up the rules for which kinds of emergencies will automatically interrupt all channels, and which events (such as severe thunderstorm watches) will only be displayed on Channel 2, without the message on the other channels suggesting that you tune there.

Of course, there’s more... so stay tuned!

Whoosh!

2009-05-03T22:30:00.004-05:00

What was that noise?

It must have been time flying past.

Wow.

Okay, so a lot has gone on in the past week or two. We got the new satellite equipment in for TBS, TNT, CNN, and Headline News in Marquette and Bentley, and Fox News Channel in Bentley.

Got ‘em installed.

Even bought a spare... which was a good thing, because one of them didn’t work at all. Then, another one (TNT in Bentley) “gave it up” less than 24 hours after we got them in. So, I’ll be back to replace that as soon as the vendor sends me a replacement unit.

Last week, I also switched Bentley Public Access Channel 2 to a new digital stream from News Radio 1330 KNSS. Sounds much better. Much better. Much. My next plan for this is an automatic switcher to fall-back to the off-air AM radio signal if the digital feed should happen to drop out.

I did a bit of work on the www.blueskycable.com web site this weekend, adding the channel lineups for both towns... and, true to my usual form, I wasn’t satisfied just to list the channels... no, I also built a table to show which package included each channel, and included links to the web site of each channel.

Also on the web site, a question from a customer prompted me to add a “Check E-Mail” link, allowing those who use a blueskycable.net or blueskycable.com address to check e-mail from anywhere... if you can remember “blueskycable.com,” then you can remember how to check e-mail remotely.

Ron continues to find and repair tiny defects in the outdoor feeder cable – mostly hair-line cracks that are the result of mechanical or thermal stress (translation: wind and heat) and replacing the defective section of line each time he finds one. This will all add up to a generally more reliable system, and specifically will improve some picture quality issues and Internet issues.

And, this past week I received the first of several shipments of items we will be using to further improve Internet performance. More about this as deployment time approaches.

I had my little girl with me this weekend, which makes traveling and working kind of tricky. The only time I can really get anything done is at nap time... at which time I, myself, am ready for a nap.

But, Lord willing, I plan to be in Bentley on 5/9 and Marquette on 5/16 for more testing, refining, and upgrades.

Weekend Progress

2009-04-05T23:45:00.002-05:00

I most definitely should be asleep by now, and it’s not far off. But first, a little bit of status to report.

On Friday, Phillip (a.k.a. freelance outside cable technician extraordinaire, who also owns a bucket truck) had a productive day in Bentley, replacing about 800 feet of aerial feeder on Ragan Street. The Ragan Street Feeder (a.k.a. the “A” Feeder) serves everybody southwest of Midland Street. In that 800-foot section, the cable had already been repaired twice (before my time) with little patch-sections being inserted, which means a total of 4 couplings [cable – (1) – patch – (2) – cable – (3) – patch – (4) – cable] and the repair jobs had not held up very well… especially with this wind.

My policy on repairs to feeder cable from here, on out, is very straightforward: We don’t repair feeder cables. We replace the bad section.

I once saw a sign that asks a poignant question:

“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

I know, right? Good stuff. How many times have you said to yourself, “I’ll just ‘temporary’ this and fix it later?” Not good.

Sometimes my progress is slower than I wish it was. Sometimes, it’s because I’m trying to do it right the first time.

Stated another way:

Good, Cheap, and Quick – pick any two.

If it’s good and cheap, it won’t be quick.
If it’s good and quick, it won’t be cheap.
If it’s cheap and quick, it won’t be good.

I stopped by Bentley on my way up on Friday, then spent Friday night and Saturday in Marquette, until a migraine took me out of commission.

I started out the morning looking through the channels at a couple of rough spots. Channel 41, the KWCH Storm Team 12 Weather station, has been looking and sounding terrible. I had walked Ron through some attempted adjustments on the phone, but adjustments weren’t the fix – that modulator had to be replaced. Done. I didn’t have a new Channel 41 unit, but I did have an “agile processor” which can be used to transmogrify one channel into another, so I shoehorned it in there and the quality is much-improved, though not as much as a proper modulator would probably provide, so I’ll add that to my list.

Channel 96, JCTV, was very fuzzy. Testing revealed another bad modulator needing replacement. Also done. In this case, I did have the exact piece I needed and JCTV looks and sounds quite amazing. If you haven’t looked at it lately, it’s definitely worth a second look.

Channel 24 (or is it 25? I’m sleepy) HGTV has a “squiggly thing” going on, which also appears to be a… wait for it! Yes, another defective modulator. I’ll add that to my list.

Then Ron and I went out to look at a feeder cable on 3rd Street that has another of those infamous repair/patch jobs. I figured that’s what we’d be looking at, so I brought a couple of hundred feet of replacement feeder cable and that is on his short list of things to do. This should clear up some intermittent Internet issues east of Washington Street.

The wind has really done a number on the cable plant. We sawed off a fallen pole today and then went looking for cable damage.

We recently acquired a very handy piece of diagnostic technology that allows us to locate breaks in the cable line. When I say “breaks,” I don’t mean, “Oh, look, a broken cable,” No, I’m referring to partial breaks – which are much worse that complete breaks. If the line is laying on the ground, just about anybody could drive up and say, “yep, I found your problem, here, yer cable’s broken.” Partial/intermittent breaks are much more elusive, since they still “work,” but they cause reception and/or Internet problems.

So we went out in search of them. All I can say is, “ask and you shall receive.” We found one spot where the wind has flexed the aerial feeder cable to the breaking point, two more that “don’t look good,” and a 4th one with no visible damage, but damaged nonetheless. Things like this can really cause some annoyingly intermittent problems, which get worse when it gets windy, as a result of the weakened cable being flexed over and over. I have 2,000 more feet of feeder cable on order and Ron will jump to it on these issues as soon as they arrive.

We went over to the new (northwest) part of Marquette, and did some preliminary design work to extend the cable system to all of the residents of that part of town. After the repairs I talked about above, guess what Ron will be doing next?

Still no progress with Turner, but I think the coming week has a bit of potential to get the process off high-center and get those stations back on the cable. Progress report will be posted when available.

Sunday afternoon, the headache finally relented to the point that I was able to get out of bed, so I headed to Bentley.

Bentley has a pleasant surprise coming. I dropped a big ‘ol chunk of change and purchased a new Fox News satellite decoder last week. I was planning to install it in Bentley on Sunday, and I did… knowing that it wouldn’t work right out of the box, because I have to wait for the Fox News business office people to do the documentation required to “authorize” the descrambler (i.e. make it work).

Unfortunately, I discovered that Fox News’s digital feed is now on a satellite called Galaxy 17, at 91° W, in the orbital slot formerly occupied by Galaxy 11. And there are no other channels that I’m carrying from Galaxy 17… although I do have a dish pointed at it. Try as I might, I was unable to lock onto the Fox News signal, so that left me with two unknowns – either the receiver I just got is no good, or there’s trouble with the alignment or the electronics mounted on the dish. (Incidentally, the receiver will lock onto the signal and tell you what signal it is, even if it’s not authorized – you have to lock it on before they can send the authorization codes to it – they’re sent over the satellite.) I’m showing strong signal, but the “AFC” (automatic frequency control) indicator shows wild fluctuations – too wild for AFC to lock.

Good troubleshooting calls for eliminating the unknowns, so I took the receiver to another cable system where I have some contacts, and dropped it off Sunday night, so they can hook it to their G-17 dish and see what gives. Meanwhile, I submitted the necessary information to Fox News so they can authorize it. As soon as it’s working, I’ll make a road trip to Bentley. I’ve already re-activated Cable Channel 24 (complete with a “no signal available” screen), so everything is ready once the equipment is good to go.

If you remember from before, when KSAS-TV (Fox 24) was on Cable Channel 24 (prior to it moving to Cable Channel 7), there was something not right about 24 on cable – it had squiggly lines on it, just like 24 in Marquette, which is a totally different station.

Testing revealed that the modulator was in fact not defective this time. When I took the 24 signal off of the cable and connected it straight to a TV, the picture was great. So I reconnected it, and then began going through the other modulators, shutting them off a few at a time until I found one group of 8, which, when disconnected, caused the interference on 24 to go away. Looking at which 8 channels were involved, I contemplated with of them would be most likely to interfere with channel 24. The winner? Channel 13. Because of the way cable channels are numbered, 13 is actually only one channel – 6 MHz – away from 24. (It goes 12, 13, 23, 24… some time I’ll go into the detail of this, which will also answer the question of why the cable system skips from 46 to 95).

As luck would have it, I had a filter in my toolbag that blocks channels 24 through 39. I have no idea just why I had this filter, but I had it. (I don’t generally throw things away if there’s the remotest possibility of using them in the future.) I screwed it onto the back of the Channel 13 unit, and voila – trouble cleared. Apparently, it’s reasonably common for modulators to “splatter” signal outside of the desired range, and perhaps especially so in the case of “agile” modulators, like the one being used on Channel 13. Many modulators are made for one specific channel. They’re called “fixed,” in contrast to “agile” modulators, which can be set to whatever channel you need, depending on the design of the modulator. On a fixed modulator, the manufacturer can attach a bandpass filter to only permit the desired signal range to leave the chassis – if there’s any splatter, it won’t make it to the outside. Apparently, the agile one doesn’t have that.

Incidentally… a “modulator” is the device that takes the decoded video signal I receive from either satellite (cable networks) or antenna (local stations)… or locally-generated video, in the case of Public Access Channel 2, and wraps it inside a carrier signal on the desired channel. For example, the Channel 2 modulator encapsulates the video in a carrier at 55.25 MHz, and the audio in a carrier at 59.75 MHz. All televisions know that this is the frequency we commonly call “Channel 2,” so when you set your television to “Channel 2,” the TV knows what frequency to tune in and display.

On the topic of satellites, how strange is this: the satellites used to relay cable programming are in geosynchronous orbit – orbiting the earth at the same speed the earth rotates. Well, sort of. Technically, they’re higher up, so they’re actually traveling much faster, but from the ground, they appear to be stationary. They’re 22,300 miles up, and over the equator. This altitude is necessary because of Kepler’s third law, which in simple terms dictates that if you’re further away (example, the Moon, 235,000 miles away, requiring 27 days to orbit the earth) you take longer than a day orbit, and if you’re closer (example, the International Space Station, at a paltry 190 nautical miles up, orbits 15.7 times per day) you spend less than a whole day in orbit.

As for the communications satellites, each “bird” occupies an orbital slot on a particular line of longitude. But here’s what’s strange: They name the individual satellites, not the orbital slot (i.e., position in the sky). So, for example, at 135° W, all of my equipment says “Satcom C-4.” But the satellite is now “AMC 10” – they replaced the actual “Satcom C-4” spacecraft (satellite) with a different one, “AMC 10” and instead of sticking with the same name, they change the name that the same orbital slot is represented by — so now, you have to have access to that legacy information in order to make sense out of the current information. To me, that’s about as sensible as changing the name of “Air Force One” when the physical aircraft is different… which, of course, they don’t do.

Tinkering with the Fox News hardware took several hours, so I didn’t get anything else accomplished on the channel lineup changes in Bentley. I’m still looking forward to getting that done – I think it will be nice to have the channels all arranged in a sensible order.

I’ve had some trouble with the new TBN (Channel 98) satellite receiver in Bentley – it’s locked up on me twice now, and had to be rebooted. It’s plugged into the battery backup system, so I don’t think it’s a power-related problem, but I don’t really know what else the problem could be, at this point. I’m going to continue to watch it, and if it continues to misbehave, I may swap it with the Smile of a Child receiver and see if the trouble follows the receiver, or the satellite signal. (These two receivers are the same).

I also will be bringing JCTV to Bentley. The first satellite receiver Trinity sent me was defective – doesn’t even power on. They’ve ordered another one for me. The current plan is to place JCTV on Channel 97. Additionally, I’m working to bring in C-SPAN 2.

Status Report

2009-03-02T20:00:00.002-06:00

It seems like practically yesterday when I wrote the previous post, but the calendar tells me that it’s been quite a bit longer than that.  Looking back, I guess I didn’t think of any of my recent tasks as particularly noteworthy... just takin’ care of business.

Retransmission Consent is a done deal, and although I’m not paying as much as the local stations originally asked, I’m still paying too much.

I’ve been working to bring the business affairs of the company into some semblance of order with the various suppliers who make my final product possible.  More unexpected previously-unpaid bills have come up... and as you might expect, this has slowed my progress somewhat on other projects as I do have to work within the constraints of the funds available at any given moment.

There are some technical issues still vying for my attention… although, despite the fact that I wish I had accomplished more in the amount of time I’ve been at this, in the grand analysis I am glad that I have made as much progress as I have.

I’ve begun the process of rearranging the channels in Bentley to put things in a more logical sequence, and repairing or replacing hardware that isn’t performing up to spec.  Distribution of television and Internet signals on a coaxial cable network is a delicate balancing act – and recalibrating equipment to achieve the proper balance is an ongoing process.

Within the next few weeks, I hope to have things going as generally smoothly in Bentley as I have gotten them going in Marquette – and then it’s back to Marquette for more tweaking until the system there too is truly up to my standards.

In Bentley, Fox News will be coming back.  PBS Explore, TBN, JCTV, and Smile of a Child are also coming to Bentley, joining the recently-added channels PBS Create and KWCH Storm Team 12 Weather.  (PBS Explore is also coming soon to Marquette.)  I am also in discussions with Fox Business and Fox Sports Midwest/Kansas City for carriage of their signals on Blue Sky Cable, in both towns.  You probably already know, or could take a lucky guess, that each channel I carry involves royalties paid by me each month to the provider of that signal. Prices vary wildly by channel, from a few cents to several dollars for each customer on the system. These royalties ultimately end up on your cable bill. I very much value your feedback in this regard.

Interestingly, the programming providers (with the exception of the premium channels) flat-out refuse to allow me to let individual subscribers decide whether or not they want a particular channel. No – it’s all or nothing.  If I add a channel to the system – pretty much without exception – I have to make it available to all customers.

I’m not singling them out – just by way of example, here – Question: Do I have the option of selling ESPN or The Discovery Channel to only those who watch them, and not to those who don’t?  Answer: No, I do not have that option.  If I want to offer one channel to any customer, I have to include it for all customers.  These are rules laid down by the people who are in control – the providers of the programming, not the cable company.

The only exception they allow is for “Limited Basic Cable” – and limited basic isn’t permitted to include any of the nationwide services, except for C-SPAN, the religious channels, and The Weather Channel.  Those channels, plus the local TV channels, are all that’s permitted to be included in Limited Basic… which, by the way, is now available for $16.00 per month if you’d like to sign up.

KAKE-TV Redefines “Good Faith Negotiations”

2008-12-30T20:45:00.010-06:00

— 2008-12-31 12:00: Update: I have come to an “understanding” with KAKE’s station manager, so I will not be forced to remove Channel 10 from the lineups at midnight tonight. I agreed to pay them what they’re asking, and they agreed to extend the negotiations to remove some unduly burdensome language from the contract. The messages I documented, below — which were uncalled-for and unnecessary — have been removed from KAKE’s on-air schedule and web site.

I very much regret the confusion they caused among some of my subscribers, especially with the digital transition so close at hand. Just to be really, super, mega clear, this issue was not related to the digital transition in February, and, the digital transition will not cause you to lose any channels you currently receive.

As I’ve discussed with customers, city council members, and others... the local television stations, realizing that they essentially hold all the cards, have decided that the mandatory carriage on cable that they’ve enjoyed for years under “must carry” is not enough… no, now they want money… from me (which really means from you, my subscribers – after all, the cable company doesn’t have any other source of income… just “subscriber revenues” – a sanitized way of saying, “your money”) for the privilege of having their signals on the cable system.

Never mind the fact that you can get them with an antenna for free.

Never mind that cable makes it more convenient for you to receive their signals.

They know they’ve got the goods and they want us to pony up the dough.

Fine. I’m not an unreasonable person. Realizing that I’m over a barrel – it’s not illegal, after all, for them to demand payment, and it doesn’t seem like I have much (if anything) in the way of alternatives… so I made it my business to attempt to negotiate the best deal possible from them, for you.

…even though I’m feeling like David, but without the benefit of the slingshot.

Fortunately, some of the stations have been somewhat reasonable in their dealings with me on this. I have arrangements with some of the stations, and although I don’t think any payment is fair or appropriate, at least the personnel involved were cordial and acted as if they were negotiating in good faith.

The same thing can’t exactly be said for KAKE-TV.

You tell me if this is negotiating in good faith. I’ve communicated with them several times, at least once including a list of questions and discussion points (hey, I thought we were negotiating) and at least once with a marked-up copy of their proposed agreement, including requests for clarification. None of these drew any cogent responses – all I ever really got was a restatement of their original proposal; no explanations, no discussion.

Responding both to the rapid approach of January 1, 2009, and a letter I received – the tone of which implied that I had not been attempting to “negotiate” all along – I spoke to the station manager yesterday – one of numerous contacts I’ve made and attempted to make – and made him an offer.

I let him know that I did not believe this to be a fair price – I believed it to be more-than-fair, but in the interest of moving ahead, this was my (most recent) counter-offer and was one that I would stand by, even though I didn’t like it. Further, I gave him a very specific, numeric explanation of how I had arrived at that offer.

Today, at 2:19pm, I received an e-mail. Because I am not a vindictive person, I have removed the contact details… but you will get the idea.

From: {administrative assistant}
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 2:19 PM
To: 'Michael Ezzell [BSC]'
Cc: {station manager}

Just want to let you know we have received approval for {{ price }} for your retransmission agreement.

{{ signature }}
{{ direct phone number }}

That’s all well and good, except for the fact that the price was over 125% of the price I proposed yesterday. So they got approval… but not for what I counter-offered them. Personally, I would have preferred to at least have them say, “we’re sorry, we can’t meet your proposal, but here is our next offer.”

The problem is, they really don’t seem to see it this way. They do not appear to be interested in “negotiating.”

If this were all there was to my grief, you could probably still see both sides. But given the fact that – at least as far as I can tell – the “negotiations” are still underway, what follows is wholly inappropriate.

I received a call from one of my subscribers, saying there was a message on Channel 10 about how the station might not be available on Blue Sky Cable. At first, I thought it was a message related to the digital transition in February. But no, it wasn’t... it was quite specific.

This was tonight at 6:16pm on the 6:00 news. In case you can’t see the video, it says:

**** If you are a Blue Sky Cable subscriber, you may not receive KAKE-TV after 12/31/08. To ensure that you will continue to receive KAKE-TV’s news, weather and programming, call DirecTV at 1-888-777-2454 or DISH network at 1-888-825-2557. ****

Now this, my friends, falls outside the bounds of good faith negotiations.

If KAKE-TV is not on Blue Sky Cable after 12/31/08, it will not be because Blue Sky Cable refused to come to the table and wash their feet.

Surely I can’t be the only cable company that hasn’t acceded to their demands. Could I?

No. From the KAKE-TV web site:

“If you are a Blue Sky Cable, Epic Touch, Pioneer Communications or United Comm cable subscriber, you may not receive KAKE or KUPK after 12/31/08. To ensure that you will continue to receive KAKE/KUPK's news, weather and programming, call DirecTV at 1-888-777-2454 or DISH Network at 1-888-825-2557”

(You can click the image at the right to see what their web site looked like when this entry was posted.)

Oh… well, how about that? It appears I’m not the only cable company that they’ve failed to reach an agreement with. For whatever reason, they’ve decided I need to be made an example of, on-the-air, I suppose. The implication of the message on the screen is that they know something about Blue Sky Cable that my customers don’t know. I resent that implication.

Let’s be super, super, clear about this: one party to these negotiations – Blue Sky Cable – has been attempting to negotiate to avoid a disruption and to avoid a rate increase. The other party has been ... not. I frankly am shocked by this kind of hardball over a few dollars a month.

Also to be clear: I do not have any desire to drop Channel 10 if we can reach something resembling a fair agreement. On the other hand, I will have a technician on hand at 11:59pm in both Bentley and Marquette to flip the appropriate switches as circumstances dictate.

— 2008-12-30 22:10: ETA: Ironically, nobody in Marquette has seen these messages... not for the last several hours, anyway... Channel 10 was off the cable due to a failed demodulator. Tech went out and replaced it a few minutes ago.

Updates: ABN, TBN, and Billing

2008-12-10T06:45:00.000-06:00

I don’t know about you, but I am thoroughly enjoying listening to ABN’s Old Time Radio programming on Channel 2 in Marquette… If you would have told me two weeks ago that I would actually postpone going to bed so I could hear the “exciting conclusion” of a radio show, I would have said you were out of your mind… but it’s true. I’ve even taken an interest in Jerry at Fair Oaks.

The way I’m carrying ABN’s audio right now is something of a “hack,” a little ingenuity spawned by drive and necessity (Jay called me “resourceful”) using software on the Access Marquette Channel 2 screen generator to play the audio stream… and the fallout from this is an occasional interruption in audio. I’ll have that remedied within a few days, with some different hardware.

I got a message yesterday from TBN that the new equipment has been shipped! So the countdown continues and TBN will be back on the air very shortly.

I’m working on cutting the “December 1” billing… hoping the bills will be in the mail within a couple of days, with payments due back on December 25th. Still not charging late fees, until I get the cycle on a good solid schedule.

New Programming in Marquette

2008-12-07T11:00:00.003-06:00

I didn’t get any positive feedback on the C-SPAN Radio programming that I was carrying on Access Marquette Channel 2… I listened quite a bit, myself, and it was kind of – um, what’s the word – dry?

A chain of coincidences led me to discover the Antioch Broadcasting Network (ABN), from AM 1710 in Antioch, Illinois.

Without waxing too philosophical or assuming too much, this appears to be an example of chasing a dream and following a passion.

A radio enthusiast there named Jay Lichtenauer has a collection of thousands upon thousands of old-time radio programs that he has categorized by genre and organized by date – and then written computer software to automatically schedule a very well-organized 24 x 7 stream of quality programming from days gone by – categorized, organized, and apparently very listenable and enjoyable for all ages.

Access Marquette Channel 2 is now carrying the audio from ABN. It’s still in a bit of a testing phase, here, but it seems to be working quite well.

I hope to update the Channel 2 display screens to include “Now Playing” to match the audio track, but that will take me a little bit of time – or I’ll need a brilliant flash of insight in the meantime.

The ABN web site contains a complete schedule and some background information.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be adding a new channel for kids – “Smile of a Child.”

Here is how its promoters describe it:

“Consistently gentle, faith-based children’s programs”

“Value-based programming for children 2-12”

“Smile of a Child is all about family values and wholesome entertainment ... Parents will never have to worry about their children becoming confused, upset or frightened by something they see on the network...”

If this programming lives up to these claims, I believe it will be a valuable addition to the Blue Sky Cable programming lineup.

Also coming soon, is “JCTV” –

“JCTV’s programs consistently combine non-stop entertainment with value-driven messages.”

“JCTV features a blend of Christian music videos, teen talk and reality shows, extreme sports, comedy, concerts, and more. JCTV is currently the only faith-based entertainment network in the U.S. exclusively targeting young adults.”

“Young adults,” in this case, means 13 to twenty-something.

I’m optimistic that both of these faith-based channels will bring new value to Blue Sky Cable’s programming lineup for you and your family… and once we launch, I hope to hear your feedback.

Marquette Status Report: December

2008-12-07T09:30:00.000-06:00

Good progress in Marquette this weekend, with Lifetime now working again on Channel 29. Woohoo! And good news ahead for Trinity Broadcasting Network’s loyal viewers: I’ve talked to Trinity and they are sending me a new digital satellite receiver so I can restore TBN on Channel 36. I hope to have this going before the end of 2008.

There are a few areas of town where the signal levels are a little bit catawampus. Yes, it turns out, that’s actually a word. For the most part, this is something that only shows up on my test equipment, but there is one small area of town with internet stability issues. All-in-all things look good. I will be going over the system with a fine-tooth comb in the coming weeks to try to pinpoint and eliminate this.

If you’re experiencing any picture quality issues or Internet issues, please let me know!

New and exciting things coming in Marquette – see the related post.

Bentley Status Report: December

2008-12-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

Latest Word on Missing Channels:

Fox News: I am still working with Fox News to get new equipment.
HGTV: I spoke with HGTV’s representatives again on 12/5. They have two different databases – the database used by the accounting department, and the database used by the technical department. Accounting says “oh, yes, you’re a customer in good standing, and you are authorized to carry HGTV in Bentley. All you need to do is have the technical department send an “authorize” signal to your satellite receiver. The technical department, in turn, says “Sorry, nothing in the database for HGTV in Bentley. Call accounting.” As of late Friday, the two departments are finally talking to one another… so hopefully this is another light at the end of this particular tunnel.
GAC (Great American Country) – Channel 9: This channel could be restored as soon as today. I will be in Bentley in a few hours to work on that system.

Internet service in Bentley seems to be going well. If you’re having any “issues,” please give me a heads-up. I still have a handful of “I wonder who this is” users on the system… probably people who gave up and switched away or just quit paying under the previous regime. Some of them even appear to have nothing but a cable modem connected – no computer. Go figure. If you happen to be a previous customer, please go ahead and turn off that cable modem and take it to Daylene at City Hall.

I am still creeping forward towards the “everything back to normal” destination.

Last weekend (11/30) was productive, in the sense of baby-steps, at least:

C-SPAN – Channel 22: the satellite receiver had rolled over and quit. It was still on, but making a nice squealing sound when I arrived, and, as several had reported, not cranking out any audio or video. I replaced the receiver and got the channel back online.

Showtime – Channel 26: this receiver was just “dark.” As it turns out, there was a problem with the power supply, which I was able to repair.

Access Bentley – Channel 2: the images on Channel 2, as you might guess, are generated by a computer. The computer’s power supply quit. Ironic, really… I tell you to “check Channel 2 for information” and then Channel 2 goes dark. Got that power supply in, and the computer is working again.

“Avast, Harrr!”— Cable Pirates

2008-11-20T17:00:00.005-06:00

Watching “free” cable is stealing.

Even if “...the violator was not aware and had no reason to believe that his acts constituted a violation...”

The United States Congress apparently considers this a serious crime: The district court or any other court with jurisdiction can award damages to the cable company of $100 to $10,000... although the neighbor who took your $20 to hook up your cable for you... the fine for him is up to $50,000... unless he’s done it more than once, which would make it $100,000. Oh, and up to six months in jail.

It’s serious business, but I know my predecessor left a lot of things undone... so I’m not accusing anyone of theft.

To those who have already alerted me to these problems at their houses, I sincerely thank you. To the others, I realize...

Most likely:

The cable was working when you moved in.

You stopped paying because you were dissatisfied with the quality of service and my predecessor never cut you off.

You signed up for one service, but you got more than that service.

If you are getting service that you are not supposed to be getting, please let me know so that I can either disconnect the unauthorized services or sign you up as a customer.

The current policy of Blue Sky Cable is that when you notify me that a condition of unauthorized signal or service delivery exists, then your notification relieves you of any past liability related to paying for the unauthorized service, as long as you either —

Agree to begin paying for the services you wish to keep, going forward; or,

Immediately stop using the service and permit me or my contractor with access to your premises during reasonable hours and with reasonable notice to properly disconnect or filter the unauthorized service.

47 USC § 553. Unauthorized Reception of Cable Service

Unauthorized interception or receipt or assistance in intercepting or receiving service; “assist in intercepting or receiving” defined
1. No person shall intercept or receive or assist in intercepting or receiving any communications service offered over a cable system, unless specifically authorized to do so by a cable operator or as may otherwise be specifically authorized by law.
2. For the purpose of this section, the term “assist in intercepting or receiving” shall include the manufacture or distribution of equipment intended by the manufacturer or distributor (as the case may be) for unauthorized reception of any communications service offered over a cable system in violation of subparagraph (1).

Penalties for willful violation
1. Any person who willfully violates subsection (a)(1) of this section shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned for not more than 6 months, or both.
2. Any person who violates subsection (a)(1) of this section willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain shall be fined not more than $50,000 or imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both, for the first such offense and shall be fined not more than $100,000 or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for any subsequent offense.
3. For purposes of all penalties and remedies established for violations of subsection (a)(1) of this section, the prohibited activity established herein as it applies to each such device shall be deemed a separate violation.
Civil action in district court; injunctions; damages; attorney’s fees and costs; regulation by States or franchising authorities
1. Any person aggrieved by any violation of subsection (a)(1) of this section may bring a civil action in a United States district court or in any other court of competent jurisdiction.
2. The court may —
  1. grant temporary and final injunctions on such terms as it may deem reasonable to prevent or restrain violations of subsection (a)(1) of this section;
  2. award damages as described in paragraph (3); and (C) direct the recovery of full costs, including awarding reasonable attorneys’ fees to an aggrieved party who prevails.
3. —
  1. Damages awarded by any court under this section shall be computed in accordance with either of the following clauses:
    1. the party aggrieved may recover the actual damages suffered by him as a result of the violation and any profits of the violator that are attributable to the violation which are not taken into account in computing the actual damages; in determining the violator’s profits, the party aggrieved shall be required to prove only the violator’s gross revenue, and the violator shall be required to prove his deductible expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other than the violation; or
    2. the party aggrieved may recover an award of statutory damages for all violations involved in the action, in a sum of not less than $250 or more than $10,000 as the court considers just.
  2. In any case in which the court finds that the violation was committed willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, the court in its discretion may increase the award of damages, whether actual or statutory under subparagraph (A), by an amount of not more than $50,000.
  3. In any case where the court finds that the violator was not aware and had no reason to believe that his acts constituted a violation of this section, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of damages to a sum of not less than $100.
  4. Nothing in this subchapter shall prevent any State or franchising authority from enacting or enforcing laws, consistent with this section, regarding the unauthorized interception or reception of any cable service or other communications service.

Weekend Update (11/16)

2008-11-19T21:00:00.006-06:00

This past weekend, the migraines prevailed. I didn’t arrive in Marquette until around midnight Saturday night. I did get a few things done, the most significant of which is the fix-up on Channel 12 – looks good, no?

Other things included posting a channel lineup on Cable Channel 2, tweaking the picture quality and readability of the words on Channel 2, and installing a new Lifetime receiver in Marquette... you will notice that Lifetime now shows “No Signal” instead of just “nothing.” Hey, it’s progress. Sort of. So it’s installed... but has... uh... no signal. That is my next project, to get the Lifetime guys to activate it.

Same thing for Trinity – new satellite receiver needed, but I have one that I believe will work.

After these, I’m hoping to add a new channel in Marquette:

PBS “Create” calls itself “The TV channel for cooking, arts & crafts, gardening, home improvement, and travel.” Hmmm...

Take a look at the Create schedule. Create is on the air 24 x 7. If nothing else, it will be great on those nights that you can’t sleep. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

And, in Marquette, I’m still working on bringing in audio programming from Wichita for Channel 2... which currently is simulcasting the sound from Storm Team 12 Weather (from Cable Channel 41). AM 1330/KNSS is already on Channel 2 in Bentley.

Irony of ironies, my Channel 2 display computer in Bentley is not working... the place to go for information on the cable system has... no information. Just a blinking yellow light... and the light is supposed to be solid green. I also appear to have lost C-SPAN in Bentley. Still pending investigation on that one.

Oh... and yes, I’ll be working on a printed channel guide.

Bills went in the mail yesterday. I believe I’ll be able to get on a normal schedule for December, mailing out the bills around the 1st, but not due until the 25th.

Test My Cable Modem!

2008-11-15T15:30:00.004-06:00

New feature... available now in Marquette, coming soon to Bentley (some upgrades are required on the equipment there):

Visit the BlueSkyCable.com web site, and click on Test My Cable Modem.

The test will show you status about the quality and reliability of your cable modem connection, and can also make suggestions and do some troubleshooting.

I’m Not Short on Anything, Except...

2008-11-15T15:30:00.003-06:00

...time, money, air, and opportunity!

No, really, it’s just time. A migraine can really slow a fellow down. Two in a row, even better. :(

So at this point, I’m about 24 hours behind on the things I had hoped to accomplish this weekend, which included a new PBS channel in Marquette, adding KNSS AM 1330 to Channel 2 in Marquette, and getting the channel numbers on the “Marquette Listings” page at the blueskycable.com web site updated (most are right, some are not).

If you haven’t seen the listings, check it out – pretty slick.

Also, I have cable lines to re-hang, trouble reports to investigate, and new customers who want my service, all of whom I appreciate very much.

There were some Internet issues this week that were related to trouble “upstream” – that is, things were good here locally, but “on the way” to the Internet there were some issues that were a little bit disruptive – but mostly during overnight hours.

Overall, Internet service is working very well – so if you are having any difficulty, please don’t hesitate to call. Same goes for picture quality.

Thank you to those who have called to let me know that they were receiving additional services for which they were not being billed. If you have some of that, please let me know — I can sign you up, or I can remove the unauthorized services.

I’m continuing to audit the system and remove these unauthorized connections one at a time on my own, but time, time, it all takes time, and your reports make things just that much easier for me.

Bentley City Council, System Status

2008-11-15T15:00:00.000-06:00

I had the opportunity to attend the Bentley City Council meeting on Thursday night and I’m grateful to the council, the mayor, the city attorney, and those of you in attendance, for your courtesy and giving me an opportunity to visit with you briefly.

Blue Sky has a financial obligation to the city for some unpaid fees. I’ll be working with the city to make good on those obligations.

I hear different reports from different people on the performance of the Internet service in Bentley… so if you have cheers or jeers for me, I’d like to hear from you.

The Channel 2 system in Bentley has fallen and it can’t get up. It’s a Dell server and apparently has a bad power supply. I’m scrounging for one and will replace it as soon as I can… or replace the whole machine if it comes to that.

I will be in Bentley on Sunday, with a big ’ol list of things to do. More later.

Where’s My Cable Bill?!

2008-11-10T19:00:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I’m still workin’ on that. :)

Like I mentioned this weekend, I’m diligently trying to make sure everybody’s bill is correct the first time. Inevitably, things will slip through, so I do request your patience just a little bit longer.

If there is any question in my mind about the accuracy of your bill, I will be including a note of explanation.

I hope to have the bills in your hands before the end of the week.

The Bentley City Council is meeting on Thursday night. I am planning to be there.

I’ve Been Kinda Quiet

2008-11-08T23:00:00.000-06:00

’Tis the season... for winter illness, I suppose... I’ve had “one of those things” that everyone says “is going around” ... not enough to lay me out, but too much to let me go full-steam ahead. It finally put me fully out of commission on Friday.

Through the Nyquil haze, I’ve been working towards implementing the new billing system. I don’t have the old one, which is probably just as well considering how temperamental it apparently was. I’m told it was written in Access 95, required Windows 98, and had 7 “patch” CD’s, each patch rendering the database incompatible with previous versions. No thanks.

As I write this, I’m finally to the point where I’m feeling pretty good about the reliability of this new system. The invoices need a little tweaking, but it’s a relatively straightforward process.

Billing is one of those things that you only get one chance to do it right – after that, you’re entrenched, and even if you made a bad choice, now you’re stuck because of how much work would be involved to migrate over.

So this bill that I’m getting ready to mail out is the first one from the new system… and I genuinely hope that when you get yours, it’s accurate… and if it’s not, I hope you’ll let me know and be confident that I will fix it.

I am still in ongoing discussions with Fox News and Lifetime (getting replacement receivers lined up), and HGTV (sorting out a contractual mess).

Weekend Update (10/25-10/27)

2008-10-29T23:00:00.001-05:00

I don’t know where the time goes! It certainly goes somewhere, though… I never did post an update from last weekend. Have talked with several customers, and I genuinely appreciate your continued patience…

In Marquette, I had sincerely hoped to fix Lifetime. My old satellite receiver seems to have most likely gone out during a thunderstorm… it’s got a little computer inside, so naturally, that’s going to be the first thing to roll over and quit. When you plug it in, the front panel just blips on, off, on, off. I took another digital receiver to replace it, but it turns out they use the “S” standard rather than the “M” standard for their satellite transmission… and the receiver I had with me was only for “M” signals. Trinity, naturally, uses neither “S” nor “M” for their transmission… so those two are still on hold.

I fixed channels 7 (Fox-24, Wichita) and 10 (KAKE-10, Wichita) — much better. Channel 12 is also improved, but has more work to be done. This will be completed in a few days.

I did make a lot of progress on Internet speeds, including installation of a new software platform that performs continuous monitoring on cable modems and can report back to me on signal quality and reliability at each house.

Here is a very important point: If you have Internet trouble, please call me. It seems many customers have gotten so accustomed to problems, that they sit back and wait, figuring it’s another one of those things. That’s not my way of doing business. If you have to leave a message, please be assured that I will receive it and will acknowledge it as soon as possible. If there is a widespread Internet outage, I will update TV Channel 2 if possible.

MAC Address	xxxx.xxxx.xxxx
IP Address	xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Prim Sid	11
Interface	C5/0/U0
sysDescr	General Instrument SB3100 Cable Modem	Hardware version	2; OS	VxWorks 5.3.1; Software version	3.2.17p
Upstream Power	58.00 dBmV (SNR = 26.48 dBmV)
Downstream Power	-10.05 dBmV (SNR = 35.04 dBmV)
Timing Offset	3054
Initial Timing Offset	3054
Received Power	!-3.00
MAC Version	DOC1.0
QoS Provisioned Mode	DOC1.0
Enable DOCSIS2.0 Mode	Y
Phy Operating Mode	tdma
Capabilities	{Frag=N, Concat=N, PHS=N, Priv=BPI}
Sid/Said Limit	{Max Us Sids=0, Max Ds Saids=0}
Optional Filtering Support	{802.1P=N, 802.1Q=N}
Transmit Equalizer Support	{Taps/Symbol= 0, Num of Taps= 0}
Number of CPE IPs	0(Max CPE IPs = 5)
CFG Max-CPE	5
Flaps	11229(Oct 30 13	42	10)
Errors	0 CRCs, 0 HCSes
Stn Mtn Failures	239 aborts, 0 exhausted
Total US Flows	1(1 active)
Total DS Flows	1(1 active)
Total US Data	31564 packets, 3491163 bytes
Total US Throughput	33768 bits/sec, 16 packets/sec
Total DS Data	31612 packets, 2851211 bytes
Total DS Throughput	21382 bits/sec, 12 packets/sec
Active Classifiers	0 (Max = NO LIMIT)
DSA/DSX messages	permit all
Total Time Online	1h18m

Slick, huh?

I’ll be installing the same thing in Bentley soon.

In Bentley, still no Fox News. I’m looking at $1,500 for their downlink equipment. Will keep you posted. HGTV— another interesting development: They use “M” satellite gear, so I called up their control center to ask them to authorize my new receiver to get HGTV so I could fix that channel. “We don’t show any records that you have HGTV in Bentley.” D’oh! So despite the fact that we all know it was there, I’m having to sort that out in the contract. I’m paying for it (I have to pay a monthly charge to the programming providers for just about all of the channels), yet… well, go figure. HBO is still to be determined.

Bills are coming out soon for November. For now, I will keep the due date at the 25th of the month, but appreciate your prompt payment.

Marquette Today - Ambitious Plans

2008-10-25T09:30:00.001-05:00

I've been at it for a couple of hours now in Marquette, planning to repair Lifetime TV, convert 7, 10, and 12 to digital clarity... no change required to your TV. Lifetime is actually still up in the air, because although I do have a new digital satellite receiver with me to replace the one that apparently took a power or lighting hit, it's not exactly identical to the original one... so all I can do is "try it and see."

I have a MAJOR Internet upgrade planned for the day... this WILL cause a disruption, though I hope it will only take a few minutes. It will be worth it for the new quality and cabilities that will come from it.

If you read this before the upgrade, I need to hear from you right away to check your cable modem's serial number and match it up in the new system. If you have friends with Internet service from Blue Sky, please call them and ask them to call me too... 546-2800.

My biggest concern with this upgrade is that since it will be disruptive, I'm hoping that there will not be people who say "I can't believe it, they're out of service again!" You might wonder why I would do this during the day... the answer is not half bad :) ... the middle of the night would theoretically be "better," but if I do that, then there's the real possibility of everbody waking up and nobody having Internet. Don't want that... would rather catch people during the day as they happen to get online and work with them individually if they have trouble from the upgrade.

I'll be in Bentley late today or early Sunday.

Weekend Preps

2008-10-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

It seems my repair work of last weekend has held its own pretty well.

I’ll be meeting with a consultant tonight to review some of my contract arrangements with the television programming providers and learn more about the future disposition of WGN, HGTV, and Fox News in Bentley. At the moment it seems like Fox News is a receiver replacement, HGTV is a receiver reprogramming and WGN is an “I’m not sure.” Tonight’s meeting should clear that all up with a reasonable degree of certainty so that I can continue repairs.

In Marquette, I’ll be replacing the satellite receiver for Lifetime and possibly Trinity if I have one. Bigger news for Marquette is that I hope to convert some or all of the local channels to digital reception. This doesn’t impact the individual viewer’s television or home equipment – only the quality of the picture.

I’ll be in both towns this weekend.

There will be a brief Internet outage in Marquette as I replace some hardware and perform some upgrades — and it all goes according to plans, it will only take a few minutes. If you experience an outage of more than about 15 minutes, please call me at 546-2800.

Adventures in Marquette

2008-10-19T23:15:00.000-05:00

Just arrived back in Oklahoma a few minutes ago… very productive weekend.

Things are looking up for my customers in Marquette after my visit today, with TBS (4), CNN (14), Headline News (28), and TNT (38) all restored to service.

I was able to make a significant improvement to the picture quality on Channel 12 although I have to confess I’m not sure if I did “enough” – one of those things that “I hope” continues to work well… so even though it’s better, it’s not to my standards, so I will be doing more on Channel 12.

Channels 7 and 10 also have a lot of room for improvement, so next weekend my plan is to return to Marquette to install new digital receivers on these channels along with 12. That really should get us in good shape and take care of these things once and for all.

That leaves me here: the satellite receivers for Lifetime (29) and Trinity (36) are dead… I don’t know if it was lightning, a power surge, or just what might have torched these receivers (or precisely when), but neither receiver is working, despite the fact that the signals are there… these things cost $1,000+/each… ouch… but I will order new ones and bring them up. I don’t know just when this might be, but if things to really well, I may be able to have them with me this coming weekend.

Once I get the channels in good order, I’ll be starting with the outside facilities, making sure I’m delivering these channels in good quality all the way to your house.

Bentley Progress Report – Good News

2008-10-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

As of today in Bentley, CNN (channel 31), TBS (channel 19), and TNT (channel 29) are back in service! I also found and fixed the problem with the audio on ABC Family (channel 21) and turned up the volume on The Weather Channel (23) – it seemed to be unusually low.

Bentley still has some system-wide things that need to be improved – but overall this was good progress.

I had hoped to make it to Marquette today as well, but the best-laid plans didn’t materialize, so I spent most of the day in Bentley.

I’m posting tonight from the Swedish Country Inn in Lindsborg, where I’ll be staying, planning on a full day in Marquette on Sunday. I’m optimistic that I will be able to restore most of the missing channels in Marquette as well, and, I’m going to focus on improving the quality on Channel 12 there.

Here’s a little background information on some of the vacant channels in Bentley:

Cable Channels 3, 10, and 12 are vacant by design, because of the closeness of the Wichita broadcast transmitters and the interference problems that could result. Channel 6 says “WGN” on some of the channel guides I’ve seen, but I’m not finding a feed from WGN. Could be old information – will have to investigate this one. Right now, I have connected a closed circuit camera with a bird’s eye view inside my building. The picture needs tweaking – it’s too bright. Channel 14 looks like maybe it’s supposed to be CNN Headline News. I’m looking to see if there’s anything to back this up in my records. Channel 24 has what I would call a “herringbone” interference pattern. I’m receiving a clean signal from KSAS-TV (Fox) but there appears to be something in my building interfering there… so more research needed. If this isn’t readily fixable, I’ll move KSAS to a clean channel. A&E (channel 41) still has some kind of snowy interference, and channels 43 and 44 have nothing on them. I have some information that suggests 43 might have been “Starz” and 44 may have been “HGTV.” Again, back to the records to see if these are channels I have available. Fox News is the bad news, because I will need to purchase a new satellite receiver to get Fox News going again in Bentley. Will keep you posted on that one.

If you have any insights into what “should be” on a particular channel, please let me know.

Overall, the channels in Bentley look pretty good leaving my building… so if they don’t look good at your house, let me know and we’ll get out and inspect it.

Starting the Cleanup

2008-10-18T10:45:00.001-05:00

It’s Saturday morning and this weekend is a big one.

I’m getting ready to leave Oklahoma. In a little while, I’ll be headed to Bentley to take the first steps toward cleaning up the systems. I plan to spend several hours there if not the entire day, and then head north to Marquette to do the same thing, this afternoon or tomorrow.

You may laugh… some of these things are funny, in a not-really-funny kind of way. Seriously.

But here’s what lies ahead for me:

First, I’ll go through the channels and figure out what channel is supposed to be where. I told you it was funny. I don’t have a channel lineup sheet, and those of you who do have probably found them to be inaccurate. So first, I need to know what goes where.

Then, I need to document my facility. My hope is to find a couple of volunteers willing to drive out to the “head end” to flip an occasional switch or restart/reboot an occasional piece of hardware. These shouldn’t happen often, but equipment and technology are never 100% bullet-proof. Proper documentation will make this process relatively easy even for a person without a lot of technical expertise, and local volunteers will make it much easier for me to restore or investigate outages more quickly.

Next, I’ll be evaluating the quality of the picture and sound on the channels that are working. Anything that’s not easy to watch will need to be fixed, whether this means checking connections, the aim of my antennas or satellite dishes, or something else. If these are relatively simple fixes, I’ll fix them today. If not, I’ll formulate a plan and tell you about it here.

If I have channels that are completely dead, there are a few things that immediately come to mind as possibilities…

Possibly, the equipment simply needs to be reset, with nothing less obvious than a power-off/power-on sequence.
Maybe, I need to call the network and have them re-enable my receiver (sometimes, they do spontaneously lose their authorization, and the satellite company has to re-authorize them).
Alternately, I could have a defective satellite receiver (takes satellite signals, turns them into raw, viewable video) or a defective modulator (takes that same raw video and inserts it into the cable system on the appropriate channel).
It is also possible, as appears to be the case with Fox News, that the channel may have moved to a different satellite and/or that the channel may have changed the technology they use to send the signal to me – making my equipment obsolete, and requiring that I purchase new equipment.

Whatever I find, I will repair what I can, today. Whatever else may be required, I’ll post updates on here to let you know of my progress.

Start Here

2008-10-15T19:00:00.002-05:00

Thank you for your interest in the happenings at Blue Sky Cable.

As you have likely heard by now, Julie Hodges, the former owner, passed away unexpectedly in early October. She had been sick for a long time, but her death from an aneurism was unexpected, and only indirectly-related to her illness.

I purchased the company from Julie a very short time before her passing, but did not take active control in the operations until several days afterward. Taking on these cable systems was a big risk... but the alternative was to see two communities lose their cable television and Internet service altogether, and I did not want to see that happen.

I know that the level of customer service and technical quality that has been provided by Blue Sky Cable can perhaps only be described as “pitiful.” Calls not returned, troubles not repaired, payments not applied, bills not mailed, disconnect requests not honored... an almost surreal experience for you, as a customer, I’m sure.

I believe Blue Sky can be an asset to the Marquette and Bentley communities, but it will take me some time to return the systems to a proper operating condition and to regain your trust.

I will post updates here to give you an insider’s view of my experiences in this new venture.

If you have remained a customer, I sincerely thank you.

If you are no longer a customer, I have no hard feelings toward you; I only hope that over time I can build the systems back up, improve the quality and reliability, and regain your trust as a provider of Internet and Cable Television service.