Recycling old comms kit
I remember working in the Pilbara back in the 1990s. The terrestrial TV reception in town was woeful even though it was coming from an ABC transmitter a few kms away. The reason? All the steel house roofs on new houses, required for cyclone proofing, were causing ghosted signals. The fix? I retrieved a pole from the old North West telegraph line, attached it to my house, put the TV antenna on top about 5 metres high, and voila, excellent reception. (I did get permission from the land owner to take the pole.) It was manufactured on Germany in the late 1880s and had survived rain and cyclones.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
