If I can ever escape this HOA and get to a property that I can install a base antenna I'm going to run my coax through some cheap PVC pipe. More expense, but hopefully fewer surprises from tree rats.
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M104C Project
- Thread starter TimmyTheTorch
- Start date
Yet another reason why i recommend hardline. U
It is a neglige cost difference that pays enormous dividends far less loss, better connectors, squirrel proof. You could use 1/4 hardline if you wanted.
To put it in comparison, belden rg213 is 1.35 a foot, i bought ldf4-50a for a whooping 1.65 a foot ... Its a no brainer.
Rg213 loses 30% of its power on a 100ft run . 1/2" hard line loses something like 8%. It literally gives you back free watts.
It is a neglige cost difference that pays enormous dividends far less loss, better connectors, squirrel proof. You could use 1/4 hardline if you wanted.
To put it in comparison, belden rg213 is 1.35 a foot, i bought ldf4-50a for a whooping 1.65 a foot ... Its a no brainer.
Rg213 loses 30% of its power on a 100ft run . 1/2" hard line loses something like 8%. It literally gives you back free watts.
Not trying to hijack the thread, but where does a person get hard line and connectors?
I got the coax entirely off the ground, cleaned out the spots where the casing had been chewed through, covered them with liquid tape and then after that dried, covered the spots with Temflex rubber splicing tape. So far, so good with the RF problem being fixed. I was able to make several contacts to England, Ireland, California and Florida and had great sound on the monitoring radio too.
So it looks like having a section of coax lying on the ground with exposed shielding in contact with the ground messes up the works a bit. Or it's just a coincidence that the problem went away after fixing the coax casing. I did not make any other changes.
I did end up ordering two new 50 foot RG213 coax to replace this patched coax before winter.
But before I do that, I need to weld up a removable joint brace to put where the first 11' section of mast joins the second 11' section. It is already internally reinforced but when I was raising the setup, I was not comfortable with how much it still gave. So time for an external brace made from two 2" wide by 1/4" thick pieces of 48 inch long steel angle iron. I am going to weld on multiple tabs on each one and drill a hole in each so I can use grade 8 bolts to basically have the mast as the hot dog and the angle iron as the bun surrounding and supporting the joint. Plus I haven't been able to play with the welder for a while, so that's a factor too!
So it looks like having a section of coax lying on the ground with exposed shielding in contact with the ground messes up the works a bit. Or it's just a coincidence that the problem went away after fixing the coax casing. I did not make any other changes.
I did end up ordering two new 50 foot RG213 coax to replace this patched coax before winter.
But before I do that, I need to weld up a removable joint brace to put where the first 11' section of mast joins the second 11' section. It is already internally reinforced but when I was raising the setup, I was not comfortable with how much it still gave. So time for an external brace made from two 2" wide by 1/4" thick pieces of 48 inch long steel angle iron. I am going to weld on multiple tabs on each one and drill a hole in each so I can use grade 8 bolts to basically have the mast as the hot dog and the angle iron as the bun surrounding and supporting the joint. Plus I haven't been able to play with the welder for a while, so that's a factor too!
My horizontal M104C and V58 with no ground plane radials installed is still up and surviving. I think the 7 guy wires do a good job of covering the angles. The Yaesu G-800DXA rotor is working well too. The horizontal M104C gets the job done but I find I rarely use the V58 and there are some locals (20-30 miles) here where I would really like to have a vertical beam to pick them up better. The V58 picks up too much noise to the east (90 degrees from where the locals are located from me) and the horizontal M104C doesn't get along well with these local stations.
Looking at the assembly instructions for the Maco Shooting Star (4 horizontal, 4 vertical elements and a reflecting wire), it seems like I should be able to grab some suitable aluminum tubing to use for the vertical elements, a gamma match, some fiberglass rods and wire for the reflector and basically turn my M104C into a Shooting Star and forego installing the V58 on this same mast. I may find another part of the property to stick up the V58 if I decided to do so in the future. I have a feeling that once I start adding up the cost for the individual bits needed to do this, it'd be more money that just buying a brand new Shooting Star.
Or maybe I can keep an eye out for someone selling a used M104C, or a Moonraker IV in someone's attic or a Shooting Star that's looking for a new home. Or maybe just leave it all alone. But that's really not like me at all. I do love to futz about and experiment.
The birds are still hanging out of the elements. Good thing we don't have any hefty birds making themselves at home on them.
Looking at the assembly instructions for the Maco Shooting Star (4 horizontal, 4 vertical elements and a reflecting wire), it seems like I should be able to grab some suitable aluminum tubing to use for the vertical elements, a gamma match, some fiberglass rods and wire for the reflector and basically turn my M104C into a Shooting Star and forego installing the V58 on this same mast. I may find another part of the property to stick up the V58 if I decided to do so in the future. I have a feeling that once I start adding up the cost for the individual bits needed to do this, it'd be more money that just buying a brand new Shooting Star.
Or maybe I can keep an eye out for someone selling a used M104C, or a Moonraker IV in someone's attic or a Shooting Star that's looking for a new home. Or maybe just leave it all alone. But that's really not like me at all. I do love to futz about and experiment.
The birds are still hanging out of the elements. Good thing we don't have any hefty birds making themselves at home on them.
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looks wonderfull well done !
Looking forward to hear about your progress !
Looking forward to hear about your progress !
I mean yes the cheapest thing to do would be to get some tubing get some hardware get another gamma match and make it into a 4 + 4. On the other hand by the time you take the antenna down and do all the work and source all the parts yes it'll be cheaper but you could probably just take your antenna down sell it and buy a four plus four and throw it up in a couple hours and do a lot less work
I got out my protractor, slide rule and pocket protector and did some calculations. Looks like either putting up a Shoot Star or adding four vertical elements to my existing M104C is going to have an interference issue with the upper guy wires. I can lower the top set of them some, but I don't want to do it at the risk of the whole thing blowing over. It's very sturdy as it is now and has withstood 70 mph winds and two Wisconsin winters so far.
And replacing this with a tower is problematic on several fronts. Other than money, the biggest one is that we have a lot of very nice large trees on our property and they really restrict my ability to have a tower we can stand up. Probably limited to 30 feet, so not worth it to me. Of course, there are crank-up towers but wow are they $$$$.
This picture was taken right before we took up the slack in the guy wires.
And replacing this with a tower is problematic on several fronts. Other than money, the biggest one is that we have a lot of very nice large trees on our property and they really restrict my ability to have a tower we can stand up. Probably limited to 30 feet, so not worth it to me. Of course, there are crank-up towers but wow are they $$$$.
This picture was taken right before we took up the slack in the guy wires.
- No one is chatting at the moment.
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@ Geoexplorer69:Coax question. I just put up a new Sirio monsoon base antenna with 100’ of rg8u coax testing with myMFJ antenna analyzer shows 1.4 swr at 26.965mhz and a 1.1 at 27.405 mhz . When I checked the ohms it’s steady a 30 ohms across the entire bandwidth.
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