Like these guys.
It would take forever to make it up the stairs to the top of controversial landmark Sutro Tower, so a swaying elevator car is the preferred method.
Click to expand to get a closer look at a sunnier, more colorful San Francisco:
Take the tour.
Not that you’d really be able to tell, though. Sutro Tower Inc. has just finished a project that had some of the digital TV broadcast antennas (not “antennae” – that plural term is only used for bugs in our silly English language) gaining a higher altitude.
Not much howver, maybe a seven-percent increase, max. Does that make a big difference? No, not for most people, but at least STI is trying.
Here’s the antenna of KPIX-TV (OMG, that’s the home of Eye on Blogs – big ups, Brittney Gilbert!) a way up top, like 1700 feet above sea level. Now Channel 5 is as high as possible:
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The Future is Now, and what’s labeled “CURRENT” is history:
From this:
To this:
Well, they were still wrapping the KPIX, KRON, KTVU antenna assembly, but you get the idea.
So it looks like we’re all set with the Great Digital TV Conversion of 2009. As long as Sutro Tower doesn’t get hit by a shooting star….
…we’ll be all right.
This is what a Notice of Pesticide* Application looks like – it’s from our oddly-named San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. They’re spraying herbicides, like Roundup ProDry from Monsanto and Garlon 4 Ultra from Dow, on 15 hilly acres up there, right above the Midtown Terrace. That’s what Rec and Park is doing this month.
Why? Well, why not?
Targeted for extermination are Cotoneaster, Pittosporum, and Arctotheca calendula. See?
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Maybe it’s that stimulus money they’re spending.
Now, while the impoverished R&P is doing that, they’re also sprucing up, wait for it, the HQ building for the R&P.
See?
Maybe it’s that stimulus money they’re spending.
Oh well.
*Or “herbicide” – sometimes people call herbicides “herbicides” instead of pesticides. Sometimes.
This is the view from San Francisco over the Golden Gate – can you see the defunct buildings of Hill 88 in front of the East Peak of Mount Tamalpais? Those buildings were the eyes and ears of SF-88, southern Marin’s very own Nike Hercules missile complex.
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The actual nuclear warheads and missiles were stored at another facility down the hill – you can visit that place Wednesday through Saturday.
What’s shown in this photo above is the radar station part of the base, on the summit, where they had German shepherd guard dogs, machine guns, the whole magilla until the 1970′s. San Francisco also had a similar setup back in the day using the Presidio and Mount Sutro, but that was the smaller, non-nuclear Nike Ajax system and there’s really nothing left to visit anymore.
But in Marin, you can climb up to the hilltop facility of SF-88 whenever you want - you’ll get nice views and you’ll have a chance to see the graffiti.
Come visit Marin’s Wild Ghost Town in the Sky.
If you ever want to feel suddenly transported away from the City, you should head on up to Medical Center Way (aka Upper Service Road) and then venture into the spooky Interior Park Belt.
It’s just up from where Jerry Brown raises money and just down the hill from where the old SF-89C Nike missile control center used to be, up on Mount Sutro.
Click to expand:
Mind the poison oak.
If you search the Flickr this arresting photo is the first result – but of course putting Interior Park Belt in quote marks narrows things down considerably.
Speaking of Flickr, be on the lookout for Flickers.
See you out there…
San Francisco’s famous Sutro Tower (owned by Sutro Tower, Inc., the buyer-offer and $hutter-upperof San Francisco’s mid-town NIMBYs) has a new look for Fall.
Here’s Before (a way back in August 2009)…
…und jetzt After, the way it looks these days (when being buzzed by a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 NG heading to El Lay, camera right, see it?)
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Très chic! Non?
Now, she’s all set for the next meteor shower:
Courage.
You know that Autumn has come to San Francisco when you see a crescent moon inside of the nine red stars that make up the Sutro Constellation.
As seen from Duboce Park around 8:00 PM last night:
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Red stars at night, a Sailor’s delight
Well here’s this scene this morning up on Mount Sutro (former home to the SF-89C Mount Sutro Nike Missile Control Station, don’t you know.) Can you see what’s missing?
Sutro Tower is losing antennas (that’s right, not antennae or antennea or anything else) and getting other updates all in the name of Our Digital Future. Get some deets here at the Burrito Justice.
The West Stack appears all nubbed out these days, no? Click to expand.
Make your necessary adjustments and your Wheel will come in just fine every evening, as per usual.
How can it be.
Believe me
All right, you already know about Sutro Tower, right? Well, here’s an update. Digital TV is here, not that you care, cause you get cable from the Comcast monopoly.
But, just in case you’re struggling with a free digital to analog converter box you just got from the govmint, there might be some good news coming in a few months when they lift the digital antennas up higher on the tower.
So, do you see this vertical array in the middle of this photo? Them’s the digital antennas:
Click to expand.
Kind of an afterthought, they were, so there was a big fuss about getting them up there. They weigh a ton (or rather 10 tons, actually). I’m a little hazy on all the deets of high-def and digital and whatnot, but whatever, this 125-foot long array is not long for this world. Check it:
See? All the “DT” antennas are going up all the way to the top (and losing the DT suffix). Match up the chart with real life here:
So what this all adds up to is that there’s a chance your reception will improve in a few months. No promises, however. Most of the people who are bummed with DTV are still going to be bummed with DTV, but it’s a Worthy Effort. Listen to a KQED Forum podcast from Scott Shafer and Glenn Phillips, field agent for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
And, as always, re-scan if you run into trouble. What’s that? You still can’t see Wheel and all your stories? Sorry.
Oh, and what about the Not In My Back Yard millionaires who never cottoned to Sutro Tower in the first place? Well, they’ve been bought off for peanuts.
Check it:
a. $ 3,000.00 per year to the Midtown Terrace Home Owners Association. The initial contribution payable prior to December 31, 2008. Subsequent contributions to be made on or before July 1 of each year.
b. $ 4,500.00 one time contribution to the Twin Peaks Improvement Association for an open space improvement project.
c. $ 6,000.00 one time contribution to the Forrest [sic] Knolls Neighborhood Organization to replace the Forrest Knolls [sic again - Run Forrest Run!] entrance sign.
d. $ 10,000.00 one time contribution for the benefit of the surrounding area to purchase two drinking fountains one each at the walking paths around two area reservoirs. The contribution will be payable only when the fountains are approved by the appropriate agencies and actually purchased.
How’s them apples?
Anyway, hang your antenna high and hope for the best.
Here’s what you do, you get a free Digital to Analog TV Converter Box and then kick Comcast cable to the curb. (Of course, if you have a newer TV, you don’t even need the converter box.)
Get a sneak peek of the stations you’ll get here, based upon your specific location. And read a report from one San Francisco resident who seems pleased with the whole transition to digital.
It’s new, it’s you!
Click to expand.
If you like Spanish and Chinese language programming, you’ll love digi-TV. Plus, you can get KQED Channel 9 three ways.
What about NBC? Well, they left the 415 a while back and now base their operations out of San Jose. Consequently, they broadcast from San Mateo County. Consequently, you might have a little trouble tuning in the NBC.
Anyway, more and more people are saying good-bye to their local cable overlords. What have you got to lose?
