2012 - Christmas in Cove

In 2012, our display dramatically changed as we were able to swing an outstanding deal on surplus Christmas decorations from somebody who used to be heavily involved in the industry who was retiring. Listed below are some highlights of what is unique this year:

Additional Controllers - To support the influx of lights and equipment, we purchased 3 additional Light-o-Rama controllers, expanding our channel selection from 32 to 80.
Expanded Mega-Tree - I can't remember how many channels we used on the mega-tree last year, but this year, we dedicated an entire controller (16 channels) and 96 strands of lights (half red, half green), bringing our light count on the mega-tree to 9,600. Tina built a topper for the tree out of some steel pipe and a bun from the hardware store. This is the first time we ever used a trampoline frame for the base and a tether-ball pole for the center. We erected the mega-tree by attaching the lights while laying down and then standing in the back of the truck whilst backing up in order to lift the pole. There has got to be an easier way...
Musicians - Of the surplus lighting items procured were several musicians. They had a body intended on being run all of the time and two animated upper-body positions, when alternated, make the musician appear to move. These were fun, however, the mini lights within them are very faded/worn and there were many bulbs needing troubleshot. The board was made with corrugated plastic and a steel stud frame. Tina staked them to the ground using spare balusters from our home build.
Ice Thing 3.0 - We stuck the star up on top. We ran into issues because we did not have the plug for the star firmly plugged into the extension cord before erecting it. It came disconnected and we had to climb up top with an extension ladder to repair. We also used a 1/4 mile spool of 190 lb test electric fence wire for our guy wires.
Posts - The posts were wrapped in 4'x8' mini net lights. We wished we had of faced them towards the road as we installed them.
Valence Lights - We installed those down by the road strung along some spare balusters. We drilled little holes in the top so that we could zip tie the lights to the posts.
Arches - We used 1" PEX pipe with cut down rope light (2' sections) for the arches. We liked this a lot, however, don't like the little dark gap between the arches. Initially, we tried using mini lights wrapped around a 20' PVC pipe, but the thing was so huge, heavy, and unwieldy as to make it impractical. This design disassembles quite nicely for storage in the future.
Radio - We built the new Ramsey radio transmitter.
Radio Night/Day - We ran a "show" throughout the night where we blinked our star as well as left Bridget's narration intro playing throughout the night. During the day, we turned off the star, but left the narration running.
January program - Because it gets so darn cold in Cache Valley and we don't really want to go out in the cold on January 1st to tear down the display, we decided this year that we would run a January show throughout the month of January. This program would have additional music that wasn't tied to a Christmas theme. Some ideas that we have are 1000 Violins, Axel F, The Island Road, The Final Countdown, etc.
Fried Triac - We experienced a problem this year with a homemade extension cord/defective vampire plug. This defective cord effectively shorted out a set of wires and blew a ceramic 15A fast-acting fuse from within the LOR controller. After finding the problem and investigating the implications, we discovered that a part of the LOR controller (controller #?, channel 15) is stuck on, meaning the channel is always sending full voltage regardless of the commands sent from the computer. We tried resetting the controller and power-cycling the system. As it turns out, some LOR forums indicated to us that we had a fried triac. We ordered several replacement triacs and fuses from Mouser.com (put them into the fishing tackle box) and will look into diagnosing the problem (resoldering) at a later date. For now, we have the channel providing electricity to our "tune to 99.3 sign" at the street. It has an LED light, so it won't use much electricity running 24/7.
Hose/Heat Tape - We purchased 75' of hose as well as 75' of heat tape (raingutter melter stuff) for the ice thing this year. With these, we can turn off the hose (turning on the heat cable) when the temperatures are above freezing point.