Maco 103c Beam Antenna

[Troubleshooter]

You must live in a very low wind area and have no ice to worry about. A Maco 103 on a 40 foot pipe mast is something I would NEVER do. IMHO that would look far more ridiculous than a nice freestanding tower of 40 feet. The tower would be far stronger as well. Why would you think you need 100 acres for a tower to look appropriate? I have 1.2 acres and have a 64 foot freestanding tower on my property. I do live in a rural area but it is far from remote. I have neighbors and town is a mile away.

If you were to read my posts I said I was not going with my Maco 103c beam, I am putting up the IMAX 2000 with ground plane, so there will be no problem with my idea.. I said in my previous post, for the beam to do it right , you would need a tower.. Where did it say I was putting up the Maco beam on the 40 feet of pipe? I said I decided not to use the beam because I did not want to put a tower up on my property, I will be going with my IMAX 2000 on my pipe configuration.. Thanks for your comments though, you are correct that putting the beam up on a pole is bad idea.. I totally agree.. But that's not what I am doing. The Maco will remain sealed in the box..

 

[camaro1]

so a 40 foot pipe looks better than a 40 foot tower,, I still see disaster with a 40 foot pipe , no guy wires and a 24 foot antenna on top of that with 4 ground plane radials hanging off it,, but if you feel its safe, knock yourself out and go for it

 

[Troubleshooter]

so a 40 foot pipe looks better than a 40 foot tower,, I still see disaster with a 40 foot pipe , no guy wires and a 24 foot antenna on top of that with 4 ground plane radials hanging off it,, but if you feel its safe, knock yourself out and go for it

Well a straight up pole would not stick out as much as a tower.. I just do not want a huge tower in my neighborhood.. Like I said, my friend put up the same kind of setup and he has not had any problems. That's why I figured I would go that route.. I honestly do not know how else to do it.. That's why I was asking for help in the beginning.. I guess I could use guy wires to secure it, but I figured the 3 1/2" pipe as the base in concrete would be a solid foundation.. If you have any other ideas I would be glad to here them. But its for the IMAX 2000 not the beam.. Thanks for trying to help, I appreciate it..

 

[camaro1]

any trees in your backyard?? before I got my tower I put my 24' gainmaster up in a pine tree about 45' up to the bottom of the antenna, I made a nice side bracket to mount to the tree and rented a manlift for a few hours,, its still up there and working fine, gota be about 4-5 years now.. just an option if you have any trees

 

[gamegetter]

i used a 3 element beam very similar to the maco 103 with a small antenna rotor on a push up mast for about 10 years with out a single problem. if you guy them up they will be fine. i have also used pipe much like you are about to with the vertical antenna and i have to say that the pipe really scared me when it was up in the air. i did guy it up at around 13 feet, it was the best i could do with it. my length of water pipe was only about 26 feet.

the push up masts seem to be better designed to take the wind from what i could see.

hope you get some ideas and best of luck.

 

[Troubleshooter]

any trees in your backyard?? before I got my tower I put my 24' gainmaster up in a pine tree about 45' up to the bottom of the antenna, I made a nice side bracket to mount to the tree and rented a manlift for a few hours,, its still up there and working fine, gota be about 4-5 years now.. just an option if you have any trees

No, I do not have any trees, but I can put he pipe close to my house and then secure it to the peak of my garage roof of the side, as well as the concrete footing... The peak of my roof is about 15 ft or so.. So I can attach the 2nd pipe to the side of the garage roof to stabilize it more..

 

[camaro1]

yes that will help mounting it to the house, I still don't know if id push my luck with 40' of pipe maybe 25-30 feet tops

to me that spot looks perfect for a tower, right at the peak and use a house bracket on the peak to stabilize it

 

[gamegetter]

i was just wondering how you plan to lift 40' of water pipe, because when i used 26 foot of pipe and then the gainmaster on top of it, it took all my and my son's effort to lift that up. the darn thing was really top heavy especially when you get past the pivot point and are on the home stretch to getting it vertical

i would sure recommend a lift as camaro used for such a long length of pipe. if securing to the house i would make sure the end wall is shored up and sturdy by inspecting the inside.

 

[Troubleshooter]

yes that will help mounting it to the house, I still don't know if id push my luck with 40' of pipe maybe 25-30 feet tops

Yeah but I was told that the bottom of antenna has to be 40 feet off the ground, so 30 feet of pipe will not get me where I need to be...

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

If you were to read my posts I said I was not going with my Maco 103c beam, I am putting up the IMAX 2000 with ground plane, so there will be no problem with my idea.. I said in my previous post, for the beam to do it right , you would need a tower.. Where did it say I was putting up the Maco beam on the 40 feet of pipe? I said I decided not to use the beam because I did not want to put a tower up on my property, I will be going with my IMAX 2000 on my pipe configuration.. Thanks for your comments though, you are correct that putting the beam up on a pole is bad idea.. I totally agree.. But that's not what I am doing. The Maco will remain sealed in the box..

That was a typo as I was looking at the thread title at the time. Yes I saw where you were going with the IMAX instead but my feelings are still the same. That's a lot of movement back and forth in the wind and my concern is metal fatigue at the bottom after a few years depending on the wall thickness if not total failure in a good storm.

 

[Troubleshooter]

That was a typo as I was looking at the thread title at the time. Yes I saw where you were going with the IMAX instead but my feelings are still the same. That's a lot of movement back and forth in the wind and my concern is metal fatigue at the bottom after a few years depending on the wall thickness if not total failure in a good storm.

I hear what everyone is saying and I really appreciate your help.. Very much.. So maybe that's a bad idea then.. What else can I do if I do not want to do the tower thing? I guess I will have to rethink what I am going to do..

 

[gamegetter]

with 40 feet of pipe up in the air, i would sure use a lift, and i would rig a guy wire set up at about another 15 or 20 feet past the peak of the roof. the antenna would be the last install after anchoring vs. the house and the guy wire system is set up.

if your area experiences wind, you would likely have issues with out proper guying.

 

[camaro1]

also whoever told you the imax has to be up 40 feet in the air to work is wrong,, many people use them anywhere from ground height to 40 feet plus,,, sure higher is better for local distance, but talking skip you probly wont notice much difference from 25-40 feet

these tri-pods are simple and easy and cheap to put on the peak of your roof , add a 8' mast and your imax on that,, its quick and easy way to get on the air

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Yeah but I was told that the bottom of antenna has to be 40 feet off the ground, so 30 feet of pipe will not get me where I need to be...

Who told you that and what did they base it on? If they quoted some old thing about being one wavelength high or it wouldn't work too good please disregard any further information from them. While the higher the better there is certainly no reason 30 feet would not work and the difference will be hardly noticeable about 98% of the time.

 

[gamegetter]

you could just get the tower, set both the beam and the vertical on it and be done with it.