If you have a wintering flock of turkeys around there you got bobcats. Pretty cool creatures and they eat a lot of rodents.
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New Tower
- Thread starter 928bolo
- Start date
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
Do you live in the shack? Awesome work, great location. You have me thinking about where I want to live when I retire.
The house is for ham radio only. Mainly contesting.
Lots of turkeys in the area but 1st time we have seen a bobcat in the three years we have been working up there.
Lots of turkeys in the area but 1st time we have seen a bobcat in the three years we have been working up there.
Antenna almost complete. Need to assemble the balun to the balun bracket. Fiddly and need to do that on the workbench.
The antenna is a DX Engineering Skyhawk. 10 elements total. 4 elements on 10 meters, 3 elements on 15 meters, and 3 on 20 meters. Driven elements are 1/2 wave in length so they have a 50 ohm feed point.
Very easy to assemble. I was able to put it together by myself.
My buddy Jon will be here tomorrow. We will rig the guys for the tower. Weather permitting. Hihi
The antenna is a DX Engineering Skyhawk. 10 elements total. 4 elements on 10 meters, 3 elements on 15 meters, and 3 on 20 meters. Driven elements are 1/2 wave in length so they have a 50 ohm feed point.
Very easy to assemble. I was able to put it together by myself.
My buddy Jon will be here tomorrow. We will rig the guys for the tower. Weather permitting. Hihi
Well.....we had to move the Hazer to another side of the tower. We realized that in a year or two one tree might block the raising or lower the antenna. We removed over 20 trees already and didn't want to delay to tower project to remove another.
The tower guy bracket is installed and the the guys are attached to the tower. We are using Stainless aircraft control cable at the top of the tower then transition to Phillystran. Crimping the cable was a pain.
Crane is scheduled for Wednesday of next week. I think we are ready.
The tower guy bracket is installed and the the guys are attached to the tower. We are using Stainless aircraft control cable at the top of the tower then transition to Phillystran. Crimping the cable was a pain.
Crane is scheduled for Wednesday of next week. I think we are ready.
We have been using the Array Solutions Filter Max band pass filters and they do a good pretty good job but since they are between the radio and amplifier they don't really do much to prevent transmit harmonics. The only problem we have experienced when running two stations at high power is a small portion of 20 meters gets wiped out when the other station is TX on 40m. With the installation of the second tower and beam this will likely make the problem worse and may create a few new one.
We are installing VA6AM's high power bandpass filters and a triplexer to use for the Skyhawk tri-band antenna. We have filters for 10m, 15m, 20m, and 40m. They eliminate image and harmonic RF interference issues in our multi-radio radio configuration. The triplex will allow us to operate multiple transceivers simultaneously on the same antenna.
We are installing these tomorrow and integrating them with our automated antenna switch (4 radios and up to 8 antennas). Our antenna switching is getting very complicated. With the triplexer we are not selecting an antenna but a band. Basically we are selecting which band pass filter to transmit though.
Nice thing is all these changes all happen in the basement. Nothing changes in the shack. Only one coax per radio runs into the shack.
Also on today's list is to finish up the antenna assembly. Need to mount the balun and tighten everything again.
We are installing VA6AM's high power bandpass filters and a triplexer to use for the Skyhawk tri-band antenna. We have filters for 10m, 15m, 20m, and 40m. They eliminate image and harmonic RF interference issues in our multi-radio radio configuration. The triplex will allow us to operate multiple transceivers simultaneously on the same antenna.
We are installing these tomorrow and integrating them with our automated antenna switch (4 radios and up to 8 antennas). Our antenna switching is getting very complicated. With the triplexer we are not selecting an antenna but a band. Basically we are selecting which band pass filter to transmit though.
Nice thing is all these changes all happen in the basement. Nothing changes in the shack. Only one coax per radio runs into the shack.
Also on today's list is to finish up the antenna assembly. Need to mount the balun and tighten everything again.
Attachments
Bandpass filters and Triplexer installed and integrated with or automated antenna switch. The photo below shows two antenna switches (2x8 and 4x8). The 2x8 is used to choose either 40m or 20m on the dual band 40/20 Yagi (JK 4020 Long boom, 4el on 20m, 2 on 40m). Each band has a separate feed line.
Configured the second Green Heron rotator controller with the Yaesu G-2800 rotator. We are using PstRotatorAZ to network our Green Heron Controllers.
Measured and cut the coax, installed connectors, and added it to our line isolator stand.
Also, finished the balun install on the Skyhawk, and made sure all the bolts and nuts were tight. Crane comes at 8am Wednesday to stand the tower up.
Configured the second Green Heron rotator controller with the Yaesu G-2800 rotator. We are using PstRotatorAZ to network our Green Heron Controllers.
Measured and cut the coax, installed connectors, and added it to our line isolator stand.
Also, finished the balun install on the Skyhawk, and made sure all the bolts and nuts were tight. Crane comes at 8am Wednesday to stand the tower up.
It's up!
Yep, that is a 40 ton crane to lift our 400lb tower. The crew was great and very efficient. Took longer to set up the crane than to lift the tower and the antenna.
The hazer worked as planned though we found out that we have to keep an eye on the cable as it spools up on the winch. We have to guide the cable so it loads evenly on the spool. The lower guys are inside the hazer as it goes up and down and that worked as planned.
The Triplexer and high power bandpass filters work great. Like having 3 mono band yagis. The video below shows transmitting (1,000 watts) on 20 meters and listening on 15 meters through the triplexer on the same antenna. The harmonics on 40 and 20, and 20 and 10 are still present, but attenuated quite a bit compared to our previous antenna setup. Not an issue on SSB and we can plan around it on CW with frequency selection and the Elecraft K3's filters.
The CQ World Wide SSB contest is next weekend. We are ready. Should be fun.
PS...my first contact with the new antenna was on 15 meters, FT8, with ZS6DPS (South Africa). He gave me a +11 SNR.
Yep, that is a 40 ton crane to lift our 400lb tower. The crew was great and very efficient. Took longer to set up the crane than to lift the tower and the antenna.
The hazer worked as planned though we found out that we have to keep an eye on the cable as it spools up on the winch. We have to guide the cable so it loads evenly on the spool. The lower guys are inside the hazer as it goes up and down and that worked as planned.
The Triplexer and high power bandpass filters work great. Like having 3 mono band yagis. The video below shows transmitting (1,000 watts) on 20 meters and listening on 15 meters through the triplexer on the same antenna. The harmonics on 40 and 20, and 20 and 10 are still present, but attenuated quite a bit compared to our previous antenna setup. Not an issue on SSB and we can plan around it on CW with frequency selection and the Elecraft K3's filters.
The CQ World Wide SSB contest is next weekend. We are ready. Should be fun.
PS...my first contact with the new antenna was on 15 meters, FT8, with ZS6DPS (South Africa). He gave me a +11 SNR.
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Update.....
Worked the CQ WW SSB contest. The triplexer and bandpass filters worked as planned. We were sharing the antenna and working 10m and 15m simultaneously (both station running 1kw) with zero interference. We made 840 contacts on 10 and 15 using the triplexer.
On Sunday the solar flare was evident with aurora noise and signal absorption on 10m when pointing the antenna to Europe (north of 90 degrees). No noise on 15m and good signals to Europe. So we found ourselves wishing for a separate antenna for 10m so we could work South America. We may add one to tower #1 fixed at 180 degrees.
Below is a video demonstrating the noise on 10m as the antenna is turned from south to north.
Worked the CQ WW SSB contest. The triplexer and bandpass filters worked as planned. We were sharing the antenna and working 10m and 15m simultaneously (both station running 1kw) with zero interference. We made 840 contacts on 10 and 15 using the triplexer.
On Sunday the solar flare was evident with aurora noise and signal absorption on 10m when pointing the antenna to Europe (north of 90 degrees). No noise on 15m and good signals to Europe. So we found ourselves wishing for a separate antenna for 10m so we could work South America. We may add one to tower #1 fixed at 180 degrees.
Below is a video demonstrating the noise on 10m as the antenna is turned from south to north.
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