On Mon, 2003-03-10 at 06:33, Bill Nash wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 10 Mar 2003, George Toft wrote:
> 
> > One question - how did the Pringles can hold up to the rain?  I'm sure
> > the Pringles would hold up well with all the preservatives, but what
> > about the cardboard?  I have a sinkhole in my yard from the rain - I'm
> > wondering about the cantenna.
> 
> 	That's a great question. We did this last June, and after playing
> around on the roof in the heat, rain would have been a nice thing to have.
> 
> 	One of the other antenna designs we looked at was another shotgun
> style, with a coiled load extended down the directional axis. The problem
> we had (this is where our schedule 40 PVC came from, in fact) was signal
> absorption by the PVC (Microwave test: If the PVC gets hot in the
> microwave, it's absorbing your signal.) We were planning on some permanant
> mount externals to tie our houses together (~7 miles) but never got around
> to finding PVC that wouldn't eat our signal. Then I moved and it kinda
> became moot.
> 
> 	Overall, the Pringles cans would be best for an evening of
> wardriving, parking on an elevated point and doing sweeps, or just for
> purely temporary link ups. Unless you eat a lot of Pringles, in which case
> you have plenty of spares. For something that can take the weather, I'm
> still inclined to go with the PVC, since metal cans will rust, even here.
> Sure, PVC will dry and eventually crack under the sun, but that's better
> than gradual signal degradation as the can rusts. Also, your cue to
> replace your antenna is when it stage dives off the roof at you.
> 
-----
Seems to me a good coat of polyurethane would pretty much control the
effects of rain for several years but it might interact poorly with the
Sour Cream and Onion flavoring. In the spirit of Benny & Joon (as they
contemplated the effects of the rayon setting on the iron when making
grilled cheese sandwiches), might I recommend Salt & Vinegar?

Gosh, that story was funny.

Craig