Month: December 2021

Panel-Tennas

John12 Comments

If you happen to look up at any cell tower, you will likely see these flat, rectangular antennas mounted all around the tower. These are the antennas that communicate with your cell phone or other device using an array of radio frequencies. Today, these guys were removing some obsolete antennas and other equipment from this tower.

I spoke with these guys about a week ago as I passed by on my bicycle, it’s nice to chat with people who know and understand the technology these antennas are using today. Some of these panel-tennas are tri-band antennas which means that the antenna is capable of using the 5G AND 4G bands at one time.

Some VHF/UHF ham radio antennas are also capable of tri-band operation. They were deep into whatever they were doing as you can see by the many coaxial cables hanging down from the antennas. If I were in better health, I would pursue this work! I’ve been interested in radio since the late 1970s.

Round And Down You Go!

John10 Comments

I wish that you could see this view with your own eyes, the camera can’t do the view real justice. It’s a very long way down there to the bottom of the valley, and those mountains are far higher than they look in the photos. One of them is a solid 6,000 feet high, that’s a bit more than one mile high. This range forms the north end of Las Vegas Valley.

The other photo was taken while heading out of the city on Charleston Boulevard toward Calico Basin with the walls of the ancient fault line easily seen with clouds touching the top. I would like to wish each and every one of my readers, followers a wonderful, blessed, safe and happy 2022. May you find good health and happiness in 2022, my friends!

The Fake Sunset

John21 Comments

This is an iPhone photo at full zoom, it was too distorted to use so I popped it into the Prisma app on the iPad then used two other apps on the Mac to finish it off. This is what happens when you are bored in front of the boob tube. 🤪

Edited in Prisma app with Thota Vaikuntam

Just A Spit Of Snow

John9 Comments

Just a bit of snow up there just under the clouds that wasn’t there yesterday. I don’t have a telephoto lens at the moment so the 50mm zoom will have to do. Today wasn’t very eventful, the big excitement was the security system tech changing one outdoor camera to a better one, and fixing some glitches in the system. All set.

More Beautiful Desert Views

John21 Comments

I had a nice chat with a woman in the grocery store this morning who is also a native Michigander, it’s so nice to talk with people who know the lifestyle we live in Michigan. People are more friendly and easygoing than here in Las Vegas. She even knows just where my hometown is and has been there. It’s truly a small world, isn’t it? Even her words sound like a true Michigander, our dialect is slightly different than here in the desert southwest. A little taste of home.

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Higher Elevations and The Beauty of Calico Basin

John12 Comments

Continuing with more photos from Calico Basin, the colors are amazing when the sun strikes the multicolored rocks. The other photos nicely show the change in elevation on the west side of the valley that can make your ears feel like they need to be popped! Cloudy and 53F are on tap for Las Vegas today, a forecast that I am not happy with! The winter months are my least favorite here, I may as well have a cabin back home in Michigan and go snowmobiling!

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The Cheyenne View

John11 Comments

This photo was taken today with the Nikon Z50 looking northeast from where the northbound 215 freeway obviously drops down a long way into the valley, your ears may need to be popped like in an aircraft. Nevada is the most mountainous state in the union directly behind Alaska. Have you been wanting to visit the mountains lately?

The very distant mountain range forms the northern end of Las Vegas Valley

Cloudy Mountains

John9 Comments

After picking up my medication from the pharmacy, I decided on a whim to have a drive west to the usual places I photograph to capture the clouds hugging the peaks, Please pardon the redundancy of these photos? The Nikon Z50 did a darn nice job capturing the beautiful colors and the clouds up there this morning, do you agree? It’s still so cold though at around forty-five degrees. Cold for this desert rat anyway! I’ll be glad when it’s warm enough for a bike ride…

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