The Neebish Island News

The St. Marys River is a great place for fishing. But for some reason, no one outside of Michigan and Ontario knows this.

Eric Sharp at the Detroit Free Press is doing his best to get the word out though.

See: There's nothing fishy about big, numerous steelhead

Last winter I told some California anglers about the great steelhead fishing in the Great Lakes. While they might not have considered it an outright lie, you could see they thought it was an exaggeration.

Labels: economy, fishing, St. Marys River, toursim

Here are a couple of links to pictures people have posted from around Neebish Island.

A user by the name of Melnick5 at Flickr has tagged numerous photographs from the St. Marys River.

At PaulRetherford.net see pictures from a Boat ride with dogs around Neebish Island in St. Mary’s River Upper Michigan

Labels: pictures, St. Marys River

First there was the Windspire, now ACE Hardware stores are set to start selling a supplemental wind power system. See: Rooftop wind turbine will be sold at your corner hardware store

Labels: cottage

The North Channel of Lake Huron is a freshwater paradise, yet in many places is still pristine and remote. Some of the charts have not been re-surveyed since the original soundings in the early 1800's!

And I consider Neebish Island the perfect home-base for cruising the north channel of Lake Huron by boat.

While daydreaming about cruising around in a Nimble Nomad, Nordic Tug, or C-dory; I came across an article originally posted in 1994 that reminded me about all that the North Channel has to offer.

See continuouswave.com: The North Channel and Manitoulin Island

Labels: boat, North Channel, St. Marys River

I mentioned previously that with the digital transition, NBC broadcasts from the Cheboygan tower no longer reach Neebish Island.

Well... there is good news. I have heard from a source in the industry, that TV 7&4 engineers have been working on moving to a digital channel on the Goetzville broadcast towers by bouncing the signal from Cheboygan via microwave.

So, if TV 7&4 isn't available over-the-air yet, it should be soon. Most of the digital converters have a "scan for new channels" option in the menu system and this is what you'll want to try.

Next time I am on the Island I'll give it a try myself.

Here's an interesting possible discovery of a paleo-hunting pathway that is now on the bottom of Lake Huron.

See DiscoverMag: At the Bottom of Lake Huron, an Ancient Hunting Ground

At depths ranging between 60 and 140 feet, researchers found lines of large stones, which may have been “drive lanes” that aided early hunters as they tried to take down galloping caribou.

Labels: Archaeology, history

I don't know if this movie will turn Neebish Island into what Madison County became after 'The Bridges Of Madison County', but a new film called "The Twenty" will be released soon. And you can see some of Neebish Island when watching the trailer.

There's more at the HollandSentinel: Directors talk about featured films, coming to Saugatuck for Waterfront Film Festival

The movie was shot mostly in Sault Ste. Marie and on Neebish Island, an island in the St. Mary’s River.

(following up on an earlier post)

Digital Television Transition is June 12th. If you have a television on Neebish Island, this applies to you unless you get satellite TV.

In preparation, I read reviews then purchased an Insignia Analog-To-Digital converter (http://insigniaproducts.com/products/dvd-players-recorders/NS-DXA1-APT.html). I bought it mainly because it offers an RF-bypass mode when powered-off. (what this means is you can still watch analog Canadian stations which haven’t made the digital switch yet).

I plugged it in, tuned the TV to channel 3 per directions, and was on my way to auto-tuning the digital channels. The Insignia located ABC (WGTQ), FOX (W64CG), and CBS (WWUP). But here’s the bad news – no NBC. The NBC tower is near Cheboygan and it appears that their signal will not reach Neebish Island.



This is not surprising as digital signals do not propagate as well analog signals (See: Digital TV Goes Dark For Some Rural Viewers), but it is surprising that WTOM would stop broadcasting NBC to the Alpena and Sault Ste. Marie markets. I don't think the advertisers on TV 7&4 will be happy about this.

However, the antenna I am using is old (from the 1970’s I believe) and in a cardboard box in the attic. So I am not getting great antenna reception but the above-mentioned three stations all broadcast from near Goetzville so the antenna does not matter too much.

If I have any hope of getting NBC and PBS digital channels I’ll need a new antenna.

I’ve read at HDTVPrimer.com that VHF (channels 2-13) and UHF (channel 14 and above) antennas are not interchangeable (See: http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html). And it is important to note that there is mo such thing as an HDTV antenna.

The Winegard brand antennas seem to do fairly well according to HDTVPrimer.

You can order an antenna from amazon.com


The web site antennaweb.org has more information on what helping find what antenna to buy.

But, to get NBC I’d need to put up an outdoor tower and get a large antenna with an amplifier and still not sure I could pick it up. I think I'll try making a digital antenna out of coat hangers and see if it works.

But what if it doesn't work? I am not one who goes to Neebish Island to watch television. Yet there are times in the evening when I wouldn’t mind catching something on the broadcast networks; or tuning in to a baseball game. But I don’t want to pay for satellite television nor possibly waste money on a tower and external antenna.

One option would be satellite radio. It has the advantages of being less expensive than satellite television, the receivers are portable, and Sirius/XM carries all the major sports leagues.

Another option is a smartphone. AT&T has recently expanded coverage in the eastern U.P. and my wife’s iPhone worked just fine to send/receive mail and browse web sites. The iPhone can also play videos from NBC Mobile and PBS has a YouTube channel. And Sirius/XM is launching an app for the iPhone so in theory this amazing device will be able to provide all the entertainment I need.

So perhaps, in the end, a phone will replace the television.

To review what I have found, here are the Networks - Stations - Channels I can receive without too much hassle:

ABC - WGTQ - 8
CBS - WWUP - 10.1
FOX - W64CG - 10.2


Maps of television stations and more information can be found at these links:
www.antennaweb.org/aw/Stations.aspx
www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/
www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/maps_report1/Traverse_City-Cadillac_MI.pdf
www.michiguide.com/dials/up.html

Via the SaultStar.com: Ray of Light — Little could dim Ray Stortini’s dream of a new lighthouse in Richards Landing

The upper portion of the lighthouse is modelled after the historic Peggy’s Cove lighthouse in Nova Scotia.

The lower portion resembles the former area lighthouse, which stood on Neebish Island.

Labels: St. Marys River