End-user perspective on small office tools & technology

An Elegant Solution to Meeting Audio: Indoors & Outside

I never really wanted to lead anything. In fact, I spent my career trying to be the second or third in-charge. The guy one tier down the org chart who got stuff done. However, back in May of this year I was once again elected to the board of the Woodland Heights Civic Association. From 2017-2021 I was on this board as director of Communications. This time around I was elected president. I was weak and allowed myself to be talked into it.

WHCA Members Meeting May 14-2024

The member’s meeting (pictured above) where the election was conducted was held outdoors in a nearby park. It was May, so the weather was nice. It wasn’t yet too hot.

The outgoing president used a small, battery operated, PA system to be able to address the gathering of  a few dozen. It looked like a tiny guitar practice amp. It had a wireless microphone with a very limited range. I suspect it was Bluetooth based. The range seemed to be about 6 feet. Take two steps away from the amp, or even turn to face away from the amp, and the signal faded. That made things a little awkward, but the business got done.

Given my background, I’m fussy about AV stuff. This experience stuck in my mind. It started me on the lookout for a better solution for meeting sound. Preferably one that was suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

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Presenting on Backup Power to the Montie Beach Civic Club

The evening of Thursday, September 12th I will be giving my presentation on an Affordable Approach to Whole Home Backup Power to a meeting of the Montie Beach Civic Club. This is the fourth time giving this presentation this summer, and most likely the last.

Each time I give it the slides change a little to reflect the time and place. Also to add little things that I’ve learned  along the way. This time I’ve added the following image which reflects the reality that we are currently in the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Hurricane Season

This week Houston had a near miss with Hurricane Francine. Initially moving toward the Texas gulf coast, it veered northeast toward the Louisiana coast. Nonetheless, it serves as a reminder that we need to be prepared for those events that impact the city. We’ve already suffered a number of days of power outage this year, the result of the derecho and Hurricane Beryl.

In truth, much of the reason for this post is to give me a place to put a link to download the slides as a PDF. That way I can have a URL to be the target of a QR code contained in the slide deck.

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Revisiting an old love: JBL Studio Monitors

JBL 705P QuarterIt happens from time to time. I become entranced by some little thing. Something so special. An elegant piece of engineering. And admirable work of art. It’s happened again. This is the back story.

As a young person, I had a fascination with media technology. In fact, my teen years read like a rough draft of Wayne’s World. I volunteered/hung around the small town cable TV studio, learning to use their gear. Shot and edited little programs. Volunteered as a DJ. Lots of hands-on with the media technology the time.

So, when it came time to consider College, I decided that I wanted to study media production. There weren’t many options for media arts education at the time. My friend and I selected a private school in Toronto. It was good. All the teachers were active in the business. But it didn’t have its own facilities beyond classrooms.

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A few nice accessories for your backup generator

I’m told that accessories are the key to great fashion. I can’t remember where I heard this, but it certainly rings true. I have discovered a few accessories that make life a little better with respect to the use of our backup generator.

Battery Operated Liquid Transfer Pump

It always seems that utility power is restored just after I refilled the generator. I tend to put stabilizer in the gasoline I use. Even so, I don’t like to leave the generator fueled while in storage. I prefer to empty the tank and let the carburetor run dry.

Further, I have never acquired the skills involved in siphoning liquids using suction and gravity. I tried, but quickly gave up. I think this only works in movies. So, after Winter Storm Uri, I ran up the street to the local O’Reilly Auto Parts where I procured a cheap liquid transfer pump.

transfer pump

You can get these on Amazon as well. For under $20 these little devices make it very safe & easy to pump the fuel back into the same containers I used to purchase it. Thereafter, I typically just pour it into our cars.

After several days of listening to generators drone on endlessly, silence is most welcome. Nothing is quite so annoying as a neighbor, with an especially noisy generator, attempting to “burn off” the fuel in the tank by letting their generator run for hours and hours with very little load.

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Whole Home Backup Power: An Affordable Strategy v3

inlet-generator-inverter-AC-unit

The evening of Tuesday, August 20th was the third time I’ve delivered my presentation on An Affordable Approach to Whole Home Backup Power. This time it was to  a meeting of the members of the Woodland Heights Civic Association. The meeting was held in the library at Travis Elementary School, which is quite literally across the street from our home.

The meeting was well attended. Actually, better than I was expecting. The WHCA business portion of the meeting went a little longer than expected, so my presentation was delivered swiftly. Even so, the presentation seemed to be well received.

This presentation is specifically for those who, for whatever reason, don’t want to invest the $15K necessary for an installed standby generator from the likes of Briggs & Stratton, Cummins, Generac or Kohler.

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On Batteries for Whole Home Backup Power

EcoFlow Ultra BasicIn recent weeks I’ve twice given my presentation on an Affordable Strategy for Whole Home Backup Power. The first time was online using Zoom. The second time was live at the July meeting of the Norhill Neighborhood Association. Both went very well. But as ever, the presentation changed a little from one outing to the next. In particular, a Norhill resident had a comment about battery storage.

This inspired me to show a couple of slides I had originally skipped in the interest of time. Simply put, I’m not a fan of whole house battery backup. And I’d like to explain the logic my position.

For the love of sunshine

Our is a modest home. A hundred+ year old Craftsman Cottage built by William Wilson Realty Company. This kind of home has a roof that’s all angles. There’s just not much contiguous space upon which to locate solar panels.

Further, one of the truly great features of our older neighborhood are all the mature trees. The place is just rich with grand old Maples, Pecans, Oaks and Sycamores. Even the occasional Loblolly pine. Our property has a mature Pecan in the center of the back yard.

All these big ‘ole trees tend to shade single-story homes like ours. Those houses that do have solar installations are mostly two-story homes, that manage to peer out beyond the treetops.

Oaks over the east end of Bayland Ave After Hurricane Beryl

So, we don’t have solar panels on the house. Many companies have tried to sell us on the idea, but in the end, it’s just not practical for this house, at this location. That makes this all about batteries, and batteries alone. Not solar+batteries.

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