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Quote:i have a wilson pre-amp and amp. antenna is on the roof. without it i wouldn't get any service inside. usually it works well.
I've got a zBoost YX545 with a YX026-CEL directional outdoor antenna (rotatable). It works sometimes but more often than not, it doesn't. Basically if you usually get one bar on your phone, then an amplifier is likely to help.
fyi, there's an NOAA air quality forecast page here:
http://airquality.weather.gov/sectors/northcalifornia.php#tabs
Scroll over the little squares to see the map for the time and condition you want to see on the map.Here's a map of Calaveras County to help get you oriented on the NOAA map.
joe[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSj–jzvmNs&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
BTV posted a few photos on their FB feed today. A couple give a longer range view where you can see the haze/smoke.
I would like to add that we have very good Verizon cell service . Our place is at the corner of Shoshone and Chumash. We have been receiving cell service since December of 2012. The service is so good that we cancelled the ATT land line (which was out more than half the time, anyway).
Quote:Hoping to come for the weekend.
Would you say it's better to pick another weekend or am I trying to make a decision too soon? These website pics make everything look clear. 
We will probably be dealing with smoke for a while. The website pics are all very short distances. Look out a little further and it's quite hazy looking. In the early morning it looks more like fog but it's all smoke. It's so bad over in Sonora / Columbia they have shut down schools.
i have a wilson pre-amp and amp. antenna is on the roof. without it i wouldn't get any service inside. usually it works well.
Quote:Hoping to come for the weekend. Would you say it's better to pick another weekend or am I trying to make a decision too soon? These website pics make everything look clear. Smoke conditions change every day. Today there's no sun so far but yesterday the afternoon was nice. Actually the sun is just starting to peep through the smoke as I write this.
Picture was taken a couple of minutes ago (about 11:40 am).
Quote:Would you please post an update for air quality? Thank so much.The same or maybe a little worse. Very smoky in the night and mornings Skies get pretty clear in the late afternoon though you can still smell the smoke.
Would you please post an update for air quality? Thank so much.
The question of whether signal boosters or repeaters will help folks get cell coverage in their homes in Big Trees is a good one. If anyone has success using any of those it would be really helpful to hear that and in what part of the subdivision they have been tried…
I have been emailing a sales rep from Wilson electronics for a booster antenna.
I took some signal measurements and it may work. Let me know if anyone has tried this.
Quote:When a fire starts in such an explosive landscape, it must be put out right away or it can blow up from a spot fire to an inferno. The DC-10s were late arriving, and in three days the fire grew from 5,000 to 50,000 to more than 100,000 acres.This is exactly what I was referring to. It doesn't matter how well the firefighters fight fires, it's how fast they get on a fire when it starts. For those that may not remember, we had a fire on the "real" Boards Crossing Road (the dirt road that goes down to the old Boards Crossing Bridge). Luckily the firefighters had it out in less than half an hour. Had it gotten very big, I'm quite sure a lot of BTV would have burned to the ground.
I'm sure there has been forest fires since the beginning of time , the sad thing is, when they're started by mankind !
Tom Stienstra, S.F. Chronicle…..good read.
It is heartbreaking to see the old, giant pines get incinerated by the Rim Fire in the Tuolumne canyons and on their ridges. You wonder if this can be prevented elsewhere.
The forests around beautiful Cherry Lake and Eleanor Lake in Yosemite are in flames. The beloved Camp Mather and San Francisco’s power and water utilities are under siege. Miles of blackened tree skeletons will be left behind for 20 years and longer. Ash and topsoil will wash into the Tuolumne.
I have explored this region in my truck, on foot, in a raft and the trail-less canyons from the air. Everybody in the area knew it was a time bomb.
When a fire starts in such an explosive landscape, it must be put out right away or it can blow up from a spot fire to an inferno. The DC-10s were late arriving, and in three days the fire grew from 5,000 to 50,000 to more than 100,000 acres.
Environmentalists and fire scientists agree on how to avoid these high-heat infernos that turn into forest massacres, while keeping the forest landscape and habitat fresh and healthy at the same time.
A key is addressing “ground fuels” and “ladder fuels.” The Tuolumne canyons, for instance, are filled with ground-level manzanita, chemise and layers of dry pine needles. When they ignite, they burn fast and hot, and can catch low-lying limbs of pine trees.
If you burn out the ground fuel in low-heat prescribed fires, you remove much of the tinder for big fires and keep the soil fresh and charged with nitrogen.
You also trim the lower limbs of pine trees, up to eight feet above the ground, and thin out tightly-packed groves of smaller trees. That way a ground fire won’t spread “up the ladder” and get into the tree canopies – and in a worst-case scenario, start “crowning,” jumping from treetop to treetop.
What we’re seeing now is a worst-case scenario. An area many love for recreation, wildlife and the source of drinking water and electricity is a war zone. We are losing the war.
Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle‘s outdoors writer. E-mail:tstienstra@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @StienstraTom
