New Ground Plane Base Antenna

[LugNut949]

I have set up a new antenna for my base on the roof of my house in Dana Point, CA. I will have some pics up shortly but here is that I have going on so far. I live about 1 mile from the coast and live in a heavily populated area with neighbors 360 deg. We are about 200 ft above sea level and I have a ground plane hub with 3 x 102" whips and a 102" whip off the top for TX/RF. This crazy setup is mounted of 2 x 10' push up poles with 100 ft of Belden RG-8x running vertically to my base.

In the past I have been using one 102 whip with metal wire to ground but I have been getting complaints from the upstairs neighbor about RF interference with her speakers and it stops her wireless mouse (hehe). I have been getting a lot of Loss out of 2 barrel connectors and hope to remedy this with my new setup and 1 piece 100ft Coax.

Here is the simple Hub I bought.


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More pics to some Shortly, I welcome your comments.

Lugnut - 2112

[LugNut949]

I have set up a new antenna for my base on the roof of my house in Dana Point, CA. I will have some pics up shortly but here is that I have going on so far. I live about 1 mile from the coast and live in a heavily populated area with neighbors 360 deg. We are about 200 ft above sea level and I have a ground plane hub with 3 x 102" whips and a 102" whip off the top for TX/RF. This crazy setup is mounted of 2 x 10' push up poles with 100 ft of Belden RG-8x running vertically to my base.

In the past I have been using one 102 whip with metal wire to ground but I have been getting complaints from the upstairs neighbor about RF interference with her speakers and it stops her wireless mouse (hehe). I have been getting a lot of Loss out of 2 barrel connectors and hope to remedy this with my new setup and 1 piece 100ft Coax.

Here is the simple Hub I bought.


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More pics to some Shortly, I welcome your comments.

Lugnut - 2112

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[BlueTahoe]

great set up.....

another cali CBer here just getting set up ......

i have a 102 i just picked up and mounted on the truck .
i was using it clamped to my 2nd stry balcony..works good. then i made a true horizontal 1/.2 wave and wow much better...

im at the bottom of a small valley in an atp complex.... its hard just to get the next town over...and lots of noise......lol

my next is going to be a vert 1/2 wave on a tall pole i can put n down (no antinas aloud) and then get it up as high as posible..... with luck i can talk to people then.....

but i had my firse 2 conversations yesterday morning... 1 on the base, early morning, the other in the truck...early am....
love it....





I love making things....
Now all i need as a real radieo


ps i hear my wireless mouse all the time.. i need to back to a regular mouse here in house

[baggie]

looks like you made your self a homemade starduster, good luck with it.

[LugNut949]

looks like you made your self a homemade starduster, good luck with it.

Yeah, exactly... would have spent a lot more money than a Starduster too but I already had 3 x 103 whips laying around and my friend had a penetrator laying around so we figured why not... Baggie, have you had luck with the starduster setup? Will it be necessary to run a copper ground to EARTH?

Thanks,

LugNut

[drdx]

I'd run that ground, and be careful, that starduster approach, as in the drooping radial deal, is a known TVI generator, as the drooping radials actually radiate, as opposed to horizontal ones. That is said to yield a .3db in gain, but it is not really noticeable. -drdx

[LugNut949]

I'd run that ground, and be careful, that starduster approach, as in the drooping radial deal, is a known TVI generator, as the drooping radials actually radiate, as opposed to horizontal ones. That is said to yield a .3db in gain, but it is not really noticeable. -drdx

Thanks DRDX, from what I have been told as long as I can get the ground plane at a level higher than most neighbors I should be ok. i have been thinking about getting another 10ft pushup pole and rigging some "stays" lagged in solid up on the roof.

I am waiting 100ft of silver tinned RG-8x so I haven't been unable to test my creation as of yet

BTW my last post the word "Copper" was sensored...

[drdx]

If you end up going higher, and guying it, make a 2nd set of lower radials, same length and pitch. Looks good though. I ran a starduster for years, loved it until the wind got it. By the way, I'm still reflecting on your first LSB experience with my own mental version of what really happened. -drdx

[LugNut949]

so here's the latest...

I finally got my 100ft of RG-8x in the mail last night so like a kid on xmas morning I had to go up and install it. Let me tell you it was a little scare up 40-60ft in the Dark. Not to mention the fact my place sits about 200 ft above sea level, I could see La Jolla (San Diego) from Dana Point which is about 70 miles. Anyway, installed the new Coax checked SWR and was peggin the RED, so back up the house I went after a beer... and found the penetrator antenna was grounding out on the Hub. Back down the house, removed my 102 whip from the truck . Back up the house and installed the whip. Back down to check SWR 1:1 Match! Woo Hoo! I had about 40 ft of extra Coax in the living room, I cut it to length and install a 259. SWR went to 1:2 - 1:3 on the higher channels. I am assuming the extra impedance in the 40 ft of cable was a good match for the SWR? But I am sure I had an output loss with that much resistance (100ft).

I found a good ground in the back yard... I am going to run ground from the HUB to the garden faucet as it is all copper and goes underground.

I welcome your thoughts.

Mike - aka LugNut/2112

[209 first class]

hi, your antenna is still at the same frequency, the coax length just changes the reading a lil bit. if you dont have conductor from antenna to ground, the excess rf that is not used by the antenna will travel back down the coax shield to your radio, and back to the wall socket which is connected to neighboors houses wall sockets directly via the ground.for grounding the antenna to earth solid wire is no good, stranded is so-so, braided c o p p e r is good, sheet c o p p e r the best. rf likes to travel both directions over solid wires. the strip or sheet has the least resistance, works the best, and unfortunatly most expensive. i got mine from fleabay, like 48 bucks for a 40 foot x 1 inch strip also called strap. i have read of some hams using 8 inch wide strip,lol. imagine that. the wider it is, the less resistance. i soldered lugs on it by rolling the end and inserting it so the entire edge was in the lug. 6 foot cawwperr pipe in the ground, clamped and soldered. the antenna looks great, im sure it works well ! 209
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[LugNut949]

hi, your antenna is still at the same frequency, the coax length just changes the reading a lil bit. if you dont have conductor from antenna to ground, the excess rf that is not used by the antenna will travel back down the coax shield to your radio, and back to the wall socket which is connected to neighboors houses wall sockets directly via the ground.for grounding the antenna to earth solid wire is no good, stranded is so-so, braided **Censored** is good, sheet **Censored** the best. rf likes to travel both directions over solid wires. the strip or sheet has the least resistance, works the best, and unfortunatly most expensive. i got mine from fleabay, like 48 bucks for a 40 foot x 1 inch strip also called strap. i have read of some hams using 8 inch wide strip,lol. imagine that. the wider it is, the less resistance. i soldered lugs on it by rolling the end and inserting it so the entire edge was in the lug. 6 foot cawwperr pipe in the ground, clamped and soldered. the antenna looks great, im sure it works well ! 209
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Numbers 209

Thanks that is exactly the info I needed... I would have run solid copper. I am assuming the "strap" is flatten(rolled) sheet metal right? Can you possibly take a pic of your ground (@ ground)? I was incorrect on my reading BTW I checked again last night and SWR is much better 1.5 - 2:1 I am basing this off the swr CAL on my Cobra though.

I have has really good TX/RF in the area, I am trying to fix this old 10/11D Comanche base I have and things will really be 10/8!!

Thanks again,

LugNut

[LugNut949]

Why the hell is "C O P P E R" sensored?