the beginning of my meager base

[poboy309]

I'm working on setting up a simple base station. I'm going to use my grant LT that I've been working on. I've been wanting to shoot skip but I'm not in my car as much as I am home. I added a freq counter but still need to get a 68pf cap because it kind of jumps around slightly. Just figured I'd post some pics.

lit up
[ external image ]

homemade wire harness
[ external image ]

[Cochise]

Nice!
what kind of base antenna ya gonna run?

[poboy309]

going to have to go with a groundless antenna I saw at sparky's last time I was there. It's rated at 500W so it can handle my TS 250. I want to get on sideband and see if I can't at least catch some skip. I'm going to be on the second story of a 3 story apt building so my options are very limited. I won't even try to stick an antron up off my railing and say hi to my upstairs neighbors.

[busman]

hey poboy 309, love the grant lt. ive never seen one of those. backlit knobs huh.?? i colect grant xls. got about 5 or 6 of them. howed you hook up that freq. counter. thats great. i got a dosy meter with the built in freq. counter. i got a old school uniden grant xl into a texas star mod-v runnin that into a eastcoast straight 4 pill base amp crankin out about 800 watts for one of my base radios. keep up the good work, those grants are neat ol radios.

[Slim Jim]

neat lookin', that's for sure!

[poboy309]

I found a spot on the web for the freq counter mod. The wire harness was actually a male connector from one of the many electronic components I've taken parts out of. I used a hot glue gun for now to anchor to the back of the case. I still need to add a 68 pf cap. The 6th digit jumps around a bit until I get the cap in.

[poboy309]

neat lookin', that's for sure!

I like uniden over cobra now. The backlit dials are handy and it doesn't have soundtracker.

[Slim Jim]

I hear ya on that. Have you seen those little base antennas that are about 4-5 feet tall and about an inch in diameter? they look like a section of a A99 or something, but it's just a chrome cap on the end. One of my friends runs one of those and it does pretty well. I don't know the name of it, but maybe somebody will chime in. I think it's got some small ground radials, but it could be easily mounted to the balcony, in your case. It might not even require the radials. I'll try to find out more about it tomorrow.

[poboy309]

well I'm going to use this groundless antenna for now. that way I can take it down every night. it's about 3 foot tall but I can't remember the brand or model. if I find a better antenna that suits my needs I'll get that too.

[Slim Jim]

man, I'm sorry. I think the one you mentioned is the one I was thinking about! If indeed it is, then it works pretty well.

[poboy309]

hey I'm open to suggestions. I do have to be careful with interference though. ALOT of neighbors could be knocking on my door.

[Slim Jim]

lol, yeah, I've got problems with that too. As long as I'm not sitting here running my box from about 6-10 pm it's generally ok. People coming home from work to watch Married with Children don't want to hear me in the background and I understand that, so I try to stay barefoot during peak activity times. Keeps things pleasant around here. Most of my local chatter is in the early morning time, and at night it's 38 sideband which normally doesn't require too much power. Put a little tiny American flag on the tip of the antenna, so people will think it's just a flag pole...so you don't have to bring it inside! lol

[poboy309]

LoL yeah a tiny flagpole...that's all it is...

I'll try 38 lsb once I get set up.