That's the Way It Crumbles, Cookie-Wise

[Joe Riley]

The Battle of the Ants​

by Henry David Thoreau​

Thoreau's Walden Pond, Chapter 12: Brute Neighbors, presented here as a convenience to students and instructors.

"I have no doubt that it was a principle they fought for, as much as our ancestors, and not to avoid a three-penny tax on their tea; and the results of this battle will be as important and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of the battle of Bunker Hill, at least."

​

"I was witness to events of a less peaceful character. One day when I went out to my wood-pile, or rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once got hold they never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled on the chips incessantly. Looking farther, I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not a duellum, but a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black. The legions of these Myrmidons covered all the hills and vales in my wood-yard, and the ground was already strewn with the dead and dying, both red and black." (READ MORE)

 

[Nancy Hart]

Well doggone! After reading such a detailed account of ant fights in this short story, maybe I should correct my one-line description of the pavement ants. They didn't really run in the opposite direction. Some appeared to be bewildered (in human terms) randomly wandering around, but I'm sure there was a strategy if I had looked closer. While others grabbed an egg and took off with it, to who knows where. The point was, they appeared not to care in the least who destroyed their house. Just switch to Plan B: House Destroyed.

 

[Nancy Hart]

(10/12/25) Sunday



My cute little pole

Hardly noticeable from the street, you think?



You are supposed to ground both the pole and coax cables. I can see why if it were mounted on the roof. Neither was grounded on the old installation. It would be almost impossible to do it strictly to code, but I'll give it a try, mostly just for show in case the local dish police show up.

They say just changing the dish location sometimes stops interference. Last night around 10 pm it was even worse than before but only lasted a half hour. The dish is 50 feet closer to the suspected source. Couldn't that alone explain it? Next step is to run the new shielded cable.

 

[Nancy Hart]

(10/14/25) Tuesday

TV interference was particularly bad today from 10 am to 1:30 pm. Sometimes losing signal completely.

11:00 am. Spent a long time unwinding 100 feet of coaxial cable from a tiny little roll to get the bends and twists out of it. The midpoint started upstairs wrapped around a stairway post. Both ends came down the stairs, through the living room, dining room, and ending in the kitchen. Having to live with this is good motivation.

Coffee break

1:30 pm. Sometimes poor workmanship is a good thing. I discovered some space between the hole in the closet where the drainpipe, coming from the attic HVAC unit, goes outside. Just large enough to slip the new cable through. Also, the outside cover they put over the drainpipe on the new unit has slipped down, allowing one to run the cable down from the 2nd floor without trying to feed it through the long cover.

Another coffee break

2:30 pm. Connectors put on both ends. Hooked up the new quad shielded cable between the receiver and the dish with no splices. No interference! Does this mean it worked, or did whoever is causing the interference stop? Someone with a full-size pickup truck lives in the suspected house. The truck was there all morning but now it's gone.

This cable runs from the bedroom closet across the hall into the TV room. I will live with this until enough time has passed to be able to say (1) it didn't help, or (2) blocked interference beyond a reasonable doubt. This is only temporary until I find out if I will be wasting time trying to run the new cable through the attic. Not so easy.

 

[Don Alaska]

(10/14/25) Tuesday

TV interference was particularly bad today from 10 am to 1:30 pm. Sometimes losing signal completely.

11:00 am. Spent a long time unwinding 100 feet of coaxial cable from a tiny little roll to get the bends and twists out of it. The midpoint started upstairs wrapped around a stairway post. Both ends came down the stairs, through the living room, dining room, and ending in the kitchen. Having to live with this is good motivation.

Coffee break

1:30 pm. Sometimes poor workmanship is a good thing. I discovered some space between the hole in the closet where the drainpipe, coming from the attic HVAC unit, goes outside. Just large enough to slip the new cable through. Also, the outside cover they put over the drainpipe on the new unit has slipped down, allowing one to run the cable down from the 2nd floor without trying to feed it through the long cover.

Another coffee break

2:30 pm. Connectors put on both ends. Hooked up the new quad shielded cable between the receiver and the dish with no splices. No interference! Does this mean it worked, or did whoever is causing the interference stop? Someone with a full-size pickup truck lives in the suspected house. The truck was there all morning but now it's gone.

This cable runs from the bedroom closet across the hall into the TV room. I will live with this until enough time has passed to be able to say (1) it didn't help, or (2) blocked interference beyond a reasonable doubt. This is only temporary until I find out if I will be wasting time trying to run the new cable through the attic. Not so easy.

@Nancy Hart have you tried contacting the FCC office in Atlanta and asking them if there is anything that can be done? With the government shutdown, most of those people may be furloughed, but if it continues after things start up again, they may have a solution for you. They could force your neighbor to put a high or low pass filter on whatever they are using that is generating the interference. I know Ham operators sometimes have issues with this, but I have never heard of anyone transmitting strong enough signal to get through a shielded cable. I am only guessing that the FCC office covering your area is in Atlanta. There may be one closer to you. I cannot guarantee that they will do anything for you, but it is worth a try. I think they still have vans that can be used to determine the frequency and strength of signal that is interfering with your life.

 

[Nancy Hart]

Don, I have outdated, receiver, dish, and coaxial cable. Could be 20 years old. I can't remember. Everything has always worked fine until recently. The newer equipment is better shielded. I wanted to update everything I can from my end before riling the neighbors. If it's a ham radio from across the street, they are likely still using the same antenna at the house from 2012 when the original FCC license was not renewed. Could be CB too.

If none of the updates work, I'll try to politely talk to the neighbors. I don't want to get anyone in trouble. No one is being purposely malicious. Probably just not knowledgeable.

 

[Don Alaska]

Don, I have outdated, receiver, dish, and coaxial cable. Could be 20 years old. I can't remember. Everything has always worked fine until recently. The newer equipment is better shielded. I wanted to update everything I can from my end before riling the neighbors. If it's a ham radio from across the street, they are likely still using the same antenna at the house from 2012 when the original FCC license was not renewed. Could be CB too.

If none of the updates work, I'll try to politely talk to the neighbors. I don't want to get anyone in trouble. No one is being purposely malicious. Probably just not knowledgeable.

A CB shouldn't be able to transmit with enough power to cause much interference, but Hams definitely can do so, and have a much wider frequency range to use. If a CB is interfering, they are using a ham amplifier...which is illegal. Most of the time, they just need to put a filter on their output so they transmit in a narrower frequency range. Good luck with the problem @Nancy Hart .

 

[Nancy Hart]

A CB shouldn't be able to transmit with enough power to cause much interference, but Hams definitely can do so, and have a much wider frequency range to use. ...

Thanks. I'm trying to understand all this stuff for the first time. Sentences where you don't understand a single word.

The pickup truck (4x4 extended cab ) came back at 5pm yesterday, stayed 5 minutes, took off, and never came back, at least not until 1 am. Gone this morning at 9 am. You don't need to watch for it. He has one of those modified mufflers that make a very loud noise. I've learned to tune it out. Trying to un-learn for the time being.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Final: Alabama 24, Georgia 21

Next time, at points where Alabama has the ball, start chanting "Roll Turd! Roll Turd! Roll Turd!" Soon all UGA fans will (or at least they should) start chanting too, and that should throw Alabama off their game. They hate that...

 

[Nancy Hart]

They have a decibel meter on the scoreboard at the stadium here. "The loudest recorded decibel level inside Sanford Stadium at UGA was a reported 131 dB during the 2022 game against Tennessee. Comparable to a jet engine, loud thunder, or a jackhammer. "

https://twitter.com/x/status/1589021654218571776

 

[Joe Riley]

They have a decibel meter on the scoreboard at the stadium here. "The loudest recorded decibel level inside Sanford Stadium at UGA was a reported 131 dB during the 2022 game against Tennessee. Comparable to a jet engine, loud thunder, or a jackhammer. "

https://twitter.com/x/status/1589021654218571776

A jackhammer is 90 decibels.

 

[Nancy Hart]

The jet engines reminded me of Art Arfons. I never met him, but he had a shop in his father's feed store. It was less than a mile across open fields from the house I grew up in. He worked on his green monsters there.



When he moved to the jet engines, and tried them out, they were very loud even at our house.

 

[Nancy Hart]

(10/17/25) Friday

I was finally about to finish this job (or so I thought). The neighbor hasn't been back since Tuesday, unless he traded his big truck for a smaller one, so I started to make the new TV cable permanent.

Cut off the old wire. Used it as a feed down through the outdoor cover. Attached the new cable to the old cable and pulled it down through. In case this makes no sense, this is the white plastic cover on the side of house that slipped down. Goes up to bedroom closet:



The cable has to go to the other side of the house. It either had to be fed through the attic, or else across the bedroom floor between two wall plates and into the front crawl space. Just 2 more connectors to go bad and cable to sweep around. I couldn't feed it up from the closet below because my arms aren't long enough, so I tried feeding down from above in the attic. Kept telling myself it's just a couple trips up there and it's done. Get it over with!

The attic from hell-O:



I had to creep over to that far wall over ductwork and batts of disturbed fiberglass insulation---the 16 feet from hell-O. The height in the center to the peak of the rafters is only 45 inches, so you have to stoop all the time or crawl and find joists to balance on else foot goes through the plaster below. Tried to get the line to feed between the crack where the roof slopes into the wall on the left. Got it started but would go no farther. Became claustrophobic and left. Arms still too short to reach the end from the closet.

So, I'm sitting here trying to get up enough courage to try it again tonight. I'm taking some boards up there this time to walk on and bringing at least two pieces of insulation back down out of the way to be thrown away. Also a stick to attach the cable and force it sufficiently through that crack.

This time I'm posting this not as motivation, but in order to procrastinate as long as possible.

 

[Don Alaska]

(10/17/25) Friday

I was finally about to finish this job (or so I thought). The neighbor hasn't been back since Tuesday, unless he traded his big truck for a smaller one, so I started to make the new TV cable permanent.

Cut off the old wire. Used it as a feed down through the outdoor cover. Attached the new cable to the old cable and pulled it down through. In case this makes no sense, this is the white plastic cover on the side of house that slipped down. Goes up to bedroom closet:

View attachment 1252

The cable has to go to the other side of the house. It either had to be fed through the attic, or else across the bedroom floor between two wall plates and into the front crawl space. Just 2 more connectors to go bad and cable to sweep around. I couldn't feed it up from the closet below because my arms aren't long enough, so I tried feeding down from above in the attic. Kept telling myself it's just a couple trips up there and it's done. Get it over with!

The attic from hell-O:

View attachment 1251

I had to creep over to that far wall over ductwork and batts of disturbed fiberglass insulation---the 16 feet from hell-O. The height in the center to the peak of the rafters is only 45 inches, so you have to stoop all the time or crawl and find joists to balance on else foot goes through the plaster below. Tried to get the line to feed between the crack where the roof slopes into the wall on the left. Got it started but would go no farther. Became claustrophobic and left. Arms still too short to reach the end from the closet.

So, I'm sitting here trying to get up enough courage to try it again tonight. I'm taking some boards up there this time to walk on and bringing at least two pieces of insulation back down out of the way to be thrown away. Also a stick to attach the cable and force it sufficiently through that crack.

This time I'm posting this not as motivation, but in order to procrastinate as long as possible.

You do amazing things @Nancy Hart. Perhaps it would be easier if you affixed paracord or some other strong but small rope to the old cable and pulled the new one through the conduit with that. I must confess that I am not completely clear exactly what you are trying to do. I was just thinking that old cables are sometimes pretty stiff, and using this method might be helpful.

 

[Joe Riley]

When tackling a job in the Hell-O, you should alert someone or Leave a note on the fridge, and have your cell phone handy. Either the heat or cold could prove to be deadly if you had a medical emergency or worse happen to you. (Think: "muffified woman found in attic". I wanted to use the word "problematic " in a sentence....so I guess I just did. Good Luck.

 

[Nancy Hart]

You do amazing things @Nancy Hart. Perhaps it would be easier if you affixed paracord or some other strong but small rope to the old cable and pulled the new one through the conduit with that. I must confess that I am not completely clear exactly what you are trying to do. I was just thinking that old cables are sometimes pretty stiff, and using this method might be helpful.

I try to make posts in this thread as brief as possible, so sometimes they end up not making sense. That's why I try pictures (1000 words) sometimes.

That white cover contains a large insulated pipe, copper tube, and a PVC drain pipe from the HVAC system, plus an electrical wire and the original dual coaxial cable. Needed something stiff to push through and around everything. I didn't want to use the new cable, in case it got stuck or bent. Wasn't sure it was even possible.

 

[Nancy Hart]

When tackling a job in the Hell-O, you should alert someone or Leave a note on the fridge, and have your cell phone handy. Either the heat or cold could prove to be deadly if you had a medical emergency or worse happen to you. (Think: "muffified woman found in attic". I wanted to use the word "problematic " in a sentence....so I guess I just did. Good Luck.

I got all the new cable pulled up into the attic and strung to the middle. All that's left is to crawl to the other side of the attic and poke it back down through. That's the plan for today. Then it will be done, except for the ground wire (which it never had before).

I like "problematic." It's a new catch-all word, isn't it?

I always take the phone with me and tie the ladder to the ceiling with a rope, in case it tries to tip over getting up or down. That's enough. If I'm not able to call, it probably doesn't matter where I am. Perfect weather this time of year for attic work.

 

[Joe Riley]

I got all the new cable pulled up into the attic and strung to the middle. All that's left is to crawl to the other side of the attic and poke it back down through. That's the plan for today. Then it will be done, except for the ground wire (which it never had before).

I like "problematic." It's a new catch-all word, isn't it?

I always take the phone with me and tie the ladder to the ceiling with a rope, in case it tries to tip over getting up or down. That's enough. If I'm not able to call, it probably doesn't matter where I am. Perfect weather this time of year for attic work.

​

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Don, I have outdated, receiver, dish, and coaxial cable. Could be 20 years old. I can't remember. Everything has always worked fine until recently. The newer equipment is better shielded. I wanted to update everything I can from my end before riling the neighbors. If it's a ham radio from across the street, they are likely still using the same antenna at the house from 2012 when the original FCC license was not renewed. Could be CB too.

If none of the updates work, I'll try to politely talk to the neighbors. I don't want to get anyone in trouble. No one is being purposely malicious. Probably just not knowledgeable.

Many years ago, I lived in a house where one of the neighbors was a HAM radio enthusiast. I had an electric chord organ that I enjoyed playing, and to my utter astonishment, one night, it started “talking to me” when I was playing a song. At first, I had no clue what could be causing that, but eventually, I realized that it sounded like CB chatter, and that it must have been bleeding over from the guy with the big HAM antenna on his house.

Another time, we were visiting a friend, and called on the CB from in front of his house, to let him know we had arrived. The CB somehow triggered his garage door opener ! It is amazing what radio frequency can do sometimes. Even an electric fence pulsing can send interference on a radio or television.

 

[Nancy Hart]

Many years ago, I lived in a house where one of the neighbors was a HAM radio enthusiast. I had an electric chord organ that I enjoyed playing, and to my utter astonishment, one night, it started “talking to me” when I was playing a song. At first, I had no clue what could be causing that, but eventually, I realized that it sounded like CB chatter, and that it must have been bleeding over from the guy with the big HAM antenna on his house.

Another time, we were visiting a friend, and called on the CB from in front of his house, to let him know we had arrived. The CB somehow triggered his garage door opener ! It is amazing what radio frequency can do sometimes. Even an electric fence pulsing can send interference on a radio or television.

Thanks Yvonne. It's great to hear from someone who actually experienced these things. I began to worry if I was completely on the wrong track. I don't think so. Watch the pickup truck man move out of that house now. Then I'll never know for sure.