Base station construction, antenna/mounting questions (WITH VIDEO!)

[airplane1]

looking good

 

[office888]

Well, I got some miscellaneous things done. Found a deal on craigslist that I couldn't pass up, so I'm installing a 2m vertical antenna!

Antenna is a Diamond F23A

I went ahead and bought 80 feet of RG8U for the run, picture is a comparison next to RG58AU.

Since I'm lacking space as it is, and this is purely for local use, I'll be using a chimney mount, and a 10-foot mast to attach the 15-foot F23A vertical to.

The F23A is a hybrid stainless / fiberglass design, and is tested on winds upto 90 mph.

More pictures as I get things installed!

I still have yet to finish my main mast, as I have not yet acquired an antenna rotator. But once I do, you bet it'll be up to full height, asap!

-Richard-

 

[W5LZ]

I figure I'm missing something. You aren't planning to put that rotor under the 2 meter vertical are you?
- 'Doc

 

[office888]

I figure I'm missing something. You aren't planning to put that rotor under the 2 meter vertical are you?
- 'Doc

No!

Rotor is for the 2m 5-element beam, which will be my 10/11m vertical mounted above it. So the 10/11m will rotate, but not by choice. It's a space / funds issue. It's just because it shares the same mast that the 2m 5-element beam is on. :laugh:

-Richard-

 

[office888]

Some pictures!

Diamond F23A is installed on a 10ft x 1.25" EMT conduit mast in a chimney mount, and a 3-way guy-wire mount installed ~halfway up. Very solid mount, I can lean all 150 lbs of me against it, and it doesn't move!

Inverted-vee dipole will be in the trees...here's a better picture to see what that's going to look like.

-Richard-

 

[Marconi]

Hey office888 how about a progress report? It has been a month and no reports on getting the V58 and the beam up higher.

 

[office888]

Hey office888 how about a progress report? It has been a month and no reports on getting the V58 and the beam up higher.

I decided against my cobbled-together mast idea.

Antenna rotators are expensive, and I don't like the idea of putting a 20+ ft piece of aluminum above it, which would drastically increase the horizontal load on the gears.

So I'm not using the 2m 5-element beam. I found a new local ham that's having trouble making contacts, he said he might want it.

Instead, I'm making use of the pictured 2m vertical.

I already have the materials, just need the initiative to raise that Maco vertical. Now that I have the capacity to work 10m, I'll probably do that this week!

My latest purchase :

Plans:

1. Raise Maco vertical with 15-18ft of mast, haven't decided where to set the bolt yet.
   
2. Hang 10-80m dipole in the trees, run inverted vee to the tripod mast, and the fenceline.
   
3. Run ladder line into the shack.

-Richard-

 

[office888]

Well, the cheapo mast didn't survive the large storm we had a few weeks ago. 70+ mph gusts.

So, I took this as my excuse to upgrade finally!

Antenna is now raised to full height. I also upgraded the coax from 100ft of RG58AU, to 75ft of RG8U. I haven't really had a chance to use it yet, no 10m band openings, and not a lot of local chatter.

Mast is two pieces of EMT conduit slipped together, 1" into 1.25". Two 10-ft sections, with a bolt through it. Total height is 10 feet. I need to add a second set guy-wire ring to the middle, but it's actually pretty solid as it sits. However, more guy wires is cheap insurance.

Hopefully we'll have a band opening soon enough!

-Richard-

 

[Simbalage22]

Well, the cheapo mast didn't survive the large storm we had a few weeks ago. 70+ mph gusts.

So, I took this as my excuse to upgrade finally!

Antenna is now raised to full height. I also upgraded the coax from 100ft of RG58AU, to 75ft of RG8U. I haven't really had a chance to use it yet, no 10m band openings, and not a lot of local chatter.

Mast is two pieces of EMT conduit slipped together, 1" into 1.25". Two 10-ft sections, with a bolt through it. Total height is 10 feet. I need to add a second set guy-wire ring to the middle, but it's actually pretty solid as it sits. However, more guy wires is cheap insurance.

Hopefully we'll have a band opening soon enough!

-Richard-

Read all the post in this top... Great example (The corrected stuff) I will be raising mine like this with Guy Wire soon enough now that I know plains wont hit it LOL... Cool stuff.. These antennas are a Bth to get up arent they LOL

 

[office888]

Worked Texas, Louisiana, and Massachusetts today.

I'm digging the RG8U, it seems like I can get out a lot easier. Even a signal that's barely pulling 1 s-unit, I can make contact with fairly easily!

-Richard-

 

[Marconi]

Well, the cheapo mast didn't survive the large storm we had a few weeks ago. 70+ mph gusts.

So, I took this as my excuse to upgrade finally!

Antenna is now raised to full height. I also upgraded the coax from 100ft of RG58AU, to 75ft of RG8U. I haven't really had a chance to use it yet, no 10m band openings, and not a lot of local chatter.

Mast is two pieces of EMT conduit slipped together, 1" into 1.25". Two 10-ft sections, with a bolt through it. Total height is 10 feet. I need to add a second set guy-wire ring to the middle, but it's actually pretty solid as it sits. However, more guy wires is cheap insurance.

Hopefully we'll have a band opening soon enough!

-Richard-

Well 888, I see that over-engineering idea didn't go quite as anticipated. At least the tri-mount didn't give-way or break. Sorry to hear those light weight tubes from Lowes/HD didn't hold up.

You tell us above that you now are using two 10' sections of conduit with a bolt, but then you note that the overall height is only 10' feet. It looks taller, but I guess you either double walled the new conduit together for better engineering, or you made a typeO with the new overall height.

I know that some fence railing that is supposed to fit together with a compressed 6" tip at the ends does not fit for vertical applications worth a hoot, too loose-a-fit. I haven't checked out the sizes of conduit like you used however. How well does that 1" stuff fit with the 1.25" conduit? Is it reasonably snug going together?

New setup is looking better. Hope the guy lines are anchored into the short side of some 2x4's in the attic with some nice long heavy eye screws. If you doubled the height, be sure and check the Power line distance from the service pole to your weather-head again, and make sure the new height will not get into that area if it comes down again.

 

[office888]

Well 888, I see that over-engineering idea didn't go quite as anticipated. At least the tri-mount didn't give-way or break. Sorry to hear those light weight tubes from Lowes/HD didn't hold up.

You tell us above that you now are using two 10' sections of conduit with a bolt, but then you note that the overall height is only 10' feet. It looks taller, but I guess you either double walled the new conduit together for better engineering, or you made a typeO with the new overall height.

I know that some fence railing that is supposed to fit together with a compressed 6" tip at the ends does not fit for vertical applications worth a hoot, too loose-a-fit. I haven't checked out the sizes of conduit like you used however. How well does that 1" stuff fit with the 1.25" conduit? Is it reasonably snug going together?

New setup is looking better. Hope the guy lines are anchored into the short side of some 2x4's in the attic with some nice long heavy eye screws. If you doubled the height, be sure and check the Power line distance from the service pole to your weather-head again, and make sure the new height will not get into that area if it comes down again.

Yeah, I wasn't too worried about it, I got the Menards antenna mast on sale for like $6/section anyways.

You're right, that was a typo on my part. Total NEW antenna mast height is about 15 feet overall. Two 10 ft sections together, 5 ft overlap to give it some rigidity.

They don't snug together by any means, there's a gap, but I don't really worry about it too much. The guy wires let you keep it from..uhh.."wilting" to one side".

The power line safety idea, I took as much into account as I could. I'm clear from the main lines, however, there's no getting away from the house connection. Luckily, it's on the east side of the house.

With the way I've got my antennas set up, there's no way they'll fall east, only southwest. Every guy wire is reinforced, and every hook is either screwed into a roof stud or into a 2x4 on the other side to distribute the pulling force. Each hook is about 3" of threads dug into wood. The aircraft cable is rated wwaayyy in excess of my application.

I like a durable antenna setup.

Only thing I have left to do is add that second guy wire hookup, and I want to move one of the 10m mast's hooks over a few more studs. I don't have them perfectly at 120 degrees, and I want to get them closer to that.

I will say, through this, that tripod had been really durable!

If I put ONE more antenna on the roof, I'll be using one of those 10-ft ladder-style tripods. I'm soo done with guywires. I love how durable they are, but I'm getting tired of calculating, measuring, and swagging cables!

-Richard-