5/8 Silver Rod Installation

Update have antenna up and it survived the bad storm last night ,swr a bit high 1.5 but working on that going to try to raise antenna by another 6ft ,picked up a lot of chatter but no joy yet ,unit is sending as tried mobile and was picking up ,just waiting for first proper contact now

Did you put tape round the pl259.
Also you might want to tape the coax to the pole (i leave a little bit of slack between the pl and the first tape to the pole.

Just waiting on tape from ebay and for my boy to come over and get on roof to secure coax for me

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Finally completed set up antenna secured and waterproofed also SWR is now as low as a rattlesnakes gooolies

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Didn't come with any mate

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Hi Wayne,

I've followed your thread with great interest, so thanks for sharing!  Now, I know that space is tight but, and at the risk of sounding like a complete novice, would it be worth you trying to get it about 6ft higher?

Cheers

Simon.

I would love to but we are only tenants else I would have mounted mast on side of house ,in the meantime I'm looking for a longer pole as I'm not getting much joy on sb I went mobile and was picking up base station 8 miles out on am ,bit of trial and error at the moment ,

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Wow he only asked why you didn't put it up 6ft higher lol.
About time we heard you on the airwaves Wayne more talking less typing lol.

Wireless wrote:

TheReverend wrote:

Hi Wayne,

I've followed your thread with great interest, so thanks for sharing!  Now, I know that space is tight but, and at the risk of sounding like a complete novice, would it be worth you trying to get it about 6ft higher?

Cheers

Simon.

Hi Simon,

If it were only that simple!!!

I have three issues; first one is I have a lot of other antennas up and space is limited, not just because there's so many bands I want to operate upon, but also if you mount them all too near to each other or the lattice tower, they tend to de-tune with proximity.

Second one is I am trying to be as discrete as possible, so all antenna's are low visibility so's not to upset the neighbours, as it happens any band above 40m / 7 MHz is not ideal for local propagation, and is more useful for DX, so a low power 11m / 27 MHz base antenna might be a little more visible at 20ft tall and cable losses have to be a consideration, as the Diamond V-2000 on the tower reaches a height of about 30ft, I judged that maybe the Silver Rod mounted at 6ft and rising to 26ft, at my hilltop QTH was a good compromise, and adding another 4ft in base support wasn't going to improve matters that much.  In any event I'm also going to be erecting a 26ft ground mounted with 20fx 10m long wire radials Butternut HF-9V with Top Band Resonator, in the middle of the lawn.

Third one is 'er indoors, if she doesn't like the look of it, then a life of earache takes place.

Have to admit I suffer some QRM with QSB on 11m in the very late evenings and night on certain channels even being 70ft from the houses, its not street lights as ours go out between midnight and 5am as the Council saves money doing that, I believe its atmospherics as the Noise Floor builds from S1/S3 QSB in the afternoons, and gets to S5/S7 QSB by the time I switch off, I don't think conditions will improve by raising the Silver Rod another 4 to 6ft.

As regards antennas...

Currently up

A half-wave horizonal (part vertical ladder line) wire dipole resonant at 1.81 Mhz, tuned with an SG-235 for 160m to 10m, together with a Diamond V-2000 + EAV2000 6m radial kit for 6m, 2m, 70cms, and a DPW X-4 vertical dipole for 4m.  All that will be connected to a Yaesu FT-847 via a Triplexer (6/2/70) and Duplexer (6/4).

The above set-up is for RAYNET use for Digital Modes JS8Call or PC-ALE Order Wire.

A DPW X-2 vertical dipole for 2m, connected to an Icom IC-24G for AX-25 Packet.  A DPW X-70 vertical dipole for 70cms, no radio as yet, for AX-25 Packet.  A horizontal dipole made from two Watson HF Mobile Whips for 40m, connected to a Yaesu FT-77, for Pactor.  If this link is not reliable, I'd try either 80m or 160m instead.

The above is to re-establish an AX-25 Packet Node in Shrewsbury.

In planning

A Diamond X-30 for local 2m/70cms FM Simplex connected to a Yaesu FT-90R

A 70cms Co-linear for 70cms Local Repeaters, connected to an Icom ICF 210

A 2m Antenna for 2m SSB, using either a Standard C58 + 25 Watt Linear Amplifier, or a Yaesu FT-480R 30 Watt, and SOTA 120 Watt 144MHz Linear Amplifier.  Initially this is for the local Salop Amateur Radio Society SSB Nets, but who knows what else.

Ground Mounted 26ft Butternut HF-9V + 160m Resonator + 20x 10m long ground radials, plus a Earth Spike, connected to a Yaesu FT-991A for HF DX 160m to 6m.

A 60cm Satellite Dish for downloading real-time encrypted Weather Satellite Data from EUMETSAT.

In addition, 'er indoors wanted a 50 Watt floodlight for BBQ and Garden Parties mounted on the tower, plus a 10 Watt PIR for night illumination.

So you can see that I've had to make compromises to allow 'joint' ownership of my lattice tower, she was even wanting a shelf for drinks mounted near the bottom, not sure that idea has been discouraged as yet.

Thanks Wayne!!  I can see why things are soooo tight in your garden now!!  I think I've also seen a glimpse of my future!...

Cheers,

Simon.

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I'm after a recommendation for what/where to buy a wall bracket to fix my Sirio gainmaster 5/8 to the wall of my house please anyone ?

I have had a couple from Moonraker and good quality ones they where.
Don't know if this link will work.
https://moonrakeronline.com/antennas/antenna-hardware/mounting-brackets-base

Alan Pilot wrote:

I have had a couple from Moonraker and good quality ones they where.
Don't know if this link will work.
https://moonrakeronline.com/antennas/antenna-hardware/mounting-brackets-base

Which ones Alan? 
I should of been clearer in my post. I was wondering between the T and K or if the U type single bracket would suffice ?

I don't need much clearance on the gable end. 
Incidentally, someone mentioned
 "T and K"  I thought they meant a certain manufacturers but realised when i google searched and visualised them
Oh and Knights are cheaper

Thanks Alan

I have the TK-12 for the long pole with a multi band vertical in it.
Also have the SO-9 and that has a 10ft 1.5" with my 2m/cm aerial on it and that is around 2mtr in length.
Living overlooking the Irish sea we get some strong winds but they are solid as a rock.

Hi, I used 18 Inch TK brackets from this link as they sold the coach bolts with wall plugs too. GM 5/8 been up at a height of 36 foot off ground now since 2011. 
https://www.thunderpole.co.uk/homebase-fittings/t-and-k-bracket.html

hope this helps

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Got a strong feeling that various radio outlets are sharing resources and supplying each other, kind of like our car tyre garages do in our town. So buying an item from one is probably going to be the same quality as buying from another. Below is a channel preprogramed into a radio I bought from Knights..



For mounting brackets, might be worth a quick check of Toolstation or Screwfix if you have one locally. I know a lot of their tools are cheap and not-so-cheerful as often don't last, but some items are ok. Just choose a steel one from them, not a softer metal.

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Here Neal, is that the Anytone?

Moonraker used to have free 'codeplugs' available on their site one of which included all the UK repeaters/channels for dual band radios such as the Anytones......145.550MHz is often used as the 'chatting' channel such as at Hamfests and sometimes club meetings or open nets.

I believe Moonraker still monitor that frequency, (S22 as it used to be known), at their store or rather used to.

So perhaps Knights used their codeplug?


Got lost after 'concrete'.


Nige,
T&K brackets - you pays your money and takes your choice.
Thicker steel and hot-dip galvanizing should be a pre-requisite.

Remember to spread the load if attaching a honking big scaffold pole and antenna atop them, (place the brackets further apart). Put them too close together and it's like holding a broom handle at the tip with a thumb and finger....one good gust of wind or months maybe years of rattling around and those brackets will fail or even pull the brickwork from your house!

Victor wrote:

Neal, is that the Anytone?

CRT Electro UV. Think it's one of the many rebadged Anytones.

Thanks for the info. Didn't know about Moonraker supplying code plugs. That makes sense then.. asked Knights if they could update the Swindon 70cm repeater channel before they sent it to me, so they probably got the latest details from Moonraker. RX/TX frequencies were the wrong way around when it arrived still, but easily corrected.

Victor wrote:

Here Neal, is that the Anytone?

Moonraker used to have free 'codeplugs' available on their site one of which included all the UK repeaters/channels for dual band radios such as the Anytones......145.550MHz is often used as the 'chatting' channel such as at Hamfests and sometimes club meetings or open nets.

I believe Moonraker still monitor that frequency, (S22 as it used to be known), at their store or rather used to.

So perhaps Knights used their codeplug?


Got lost after 'concrete'.


Nige,
T&K brackets - you pays your money and takes your choice.
Thicker steel and hot-dip galvanizing should be a pre-requisite.

Remember to spread the load if attaching a honking big scaffold pole and antenna atop them, (place the brackets further apart). Put them too close together and it's like holding a broom handle at the tip with a thumb and finger....one good gust of wind or months maybe years of rattling around and those brackets will fail or even pull the brickwork from your house!

Victor, have you seen wirless's mounting ?

Joking aside, I am concerned about brickwork. I've noticed cracked bricks where the old satellite dish was mounted.

I was thinking of an extra T bracket if using a scaffold pole but the ham bloke I bought the gainmaster off told me it would be fine as long as I got the tip above the roof level being a 5/8th. 
So I may just bolt the antenna straight to the bracket just below the gutter.

I have a 7ft high brick wall running along the centre of the rear garden.
I might just put brackets on that and a scaffold pole.