The Maller Boys Get Vertical
Februrary 2, 2001

As you may know, I (Steve) am now in the business of providing home theater solutions to his Wiremonkeys clients. So as part of the ongoing effort to utilize (and write off on our taxes!) our own home theater as a working laboratory, I decided to try and put up an "OTA" (over the air) antenna to receive HDTV (high-definition television) signals from our local Bay Area stations. In particular, the Super Bowl was going to be broadcast in widescreen format if you have the right equipment. And the 2002 Winter Olympics are being broadcast in HDTV on NBC (which recently moved to San Jose, CA, almost 30 miles away!).

In order to put up this antenna, we were going to have to get to the peak of our roof because of the height of our neighbors' houses. I am no fan of 30 foot extension ladders, so I decided to get a "bucket lift" (or man lift, cherry picker, etc) to do this. It turns out that you can rent one of these big toys for only $150 for a whole day, and you can tow it home on an ordinary trailer hitch.

Our mission was successful, and we enjoyed a beautiful HDTV-like broadcast of an uncharacteristically exciting Super Bowl XXXVI!

So here is the story in photographs of our day as the High Flying Mallers and Wiremonkeys!

Enjoy,
Steve

Digital Photography by , Max Maller and Samuel Maller, too!
(Canon EOS D-30 with 28-70L lens)