2022-03-07 Antenna on mast
When we moved to our new house in Chattanooga, I knew I had plenty of space for antennas. Back in Santa Rosa, I had put up an Off Center Fed Dipole (OCFD) for 40 meters to 6 meters. This barely fit in my back yard and was mounted on a painter's pole about 20 feet at the center and sloping to about 10 feet at the ends. Here, I have acres. I decided to erect it temporarily on my Buddipole 18 foot mast mounted on the tongue of our trailer, where I have used it while traveling. The ends are mounted on fishing poles. I doubled the length by adding a wire to the end of the short leg, so that the total length worked for 80 meters and down. Now, I don't see the need for 80M as I have not used it, so I am going to mount in on a new 32 foot fiberglass mast as the original OCFD. One end will be attached to our garden shed, and the other will be attached to a fiberglass fishing pole as it is currently mounted. I will guy the center mast to the house screened porch and to the ground at the back of the yard.
This will free up the trailer as the mount for my antenna, which I need to do before camping starts in May.
For 2M and 70cm, I am currently using an Ed Fong J-Pole antenna on top of the painter's pole I used in Santa Rosa about 24 feet high. I will keep that J-Pole for use as the antenna for my Winlink Gateway, and perhaps also as an APRS digipeater/ i-Gate. For primary 2M/70cm, I will add a J-Pole above the OCFD at the top of the new mast.
Both new antennas will have DXE-400 coax feeds that will go from the top of the 32 foot mast to the lightning arrestors I installed on the house ground rod. I will bury the coax from the base of the mast to the porch, then on the ground to the lightning arrestors. I will use my existing RG-8X coax to feed into the house through an MFJ window feed through. I felt I had to add the lightning arrestors as we are now in lightning country, unlike Santa Rosa where lightning was rare. It is common here. We had a lightning storm just this past week.
My antenna farm is growing.
This will free up the trailer as the mount for my antenna, which I need to do before camping starts in May.
For 2M and 70cm, I am currently using an Ed Fong J-Pole antenna on top of the painter's pole I used in Santa Rosa about 24 feet high. I will keep that J-Pole for use as the antenna for my Winlink Gateway, and perhaps also as an APRS digipeater/ i-Gate. For primary 2M/70cm, I will add a J-Pole above the OCFD at the top of the new mast.
Both new antennas will have DXE-400 coax feeds that will go from the top of the 32 foot mast to the lightning arrestors I installed on the house ground rod. I will bury the coax from the base of the mast to the porch, then on the ground to the lightning arrestors. I will use my existing RG-8X coax to feed into the house through an MFJ window feed through. I felt I had to add the lightning arrestors as we are now in lightning country, unlike Santa Rosa where lightning was rare. It is common here. We had a lightning storm just this past week.
My antenna farm is growing.