Keith, Braid acts exactly as you suggest only when the many small diameter conductors are under sufficient pressure to cause the RF currents to flow on the surface of the braid. This is the case with
Keith, You should use braided strap only when RF grounding or lightning protection is not required. Otherwise, use copper strap, copper tubing or stranded or solid copper wire. If you must use braid,
Keith, If you work as a professional in the industry, or if you're interested in spending several hundred dollars, purchase the EIA/TIA and IEEE grounding and bonding standards that provide exactly t
Vertical antennas constructed of telescoping tubing are difficult to protect from water intrusion in any climate; however, its particularly important to protect telescoping tubing joints and screw or
Jim, W1GKK's QTH was in an old house in the city, surrounded by very close-in tall mountains! DX savvy and operating skill, not antennas, were big factor's in George's success. Those who were active
Chuck, In Maryland, where brick veneer construction is common, all tool rental stores have the equipment needed to drill a large diameter hole in brick, concrete block or concrete walls Hopefully, to
Hi Gregg, Can you borrow a time domain reflectometer? They are widely available these days because of their relatively low cost and widespread use in the wireless and CATV industries, among others. T
Scott, If you're willing to use towers over 100 feet tall, there's not a reason in the world why a QTH with relatively flat terrain cannot be fully competitive with a hilltop QTH. I realize that flat
W3LPL, K3MM, KE3Q and W2BZR suffered significant failure of Polygon fiberglas rod when stored in the original eight foot diameter coils. This happened with multiple shipments over several years. If a
I also used pole mounted beams many years ago, as did many other hams. A very important point that applies to any load bearing holes drilled into a pole: the holes must be drilled perpendicular to th
I still have dozenbs of broken pieces from rolls that fractured. When I spoke to the engineers at Polygon Plastics years ago, they were not interested in analyzing them. If they's suddenly become int
Dan, One bit of advice: Builders of multi-tower stations too often neglect the significant degradation caused by interactions between antennas for the same band on collocated towers. This issue was c
It would be better yet if he pointed it True North! :) CU y'all at Dayton this weekend! (spoken like a true naw-than-ah) 73! Frank W3LPL donovanf@erols.com ___________________________________________
My experience with three Orion 2800PDC rotators has been excellent with absolutely no failures in nearly eight years of use. This is with very heavily constructed 48 foot booms HF Yagis on 200 foot t
Glenn, AB-105 is arguably the best available tower for rotating or fixed towers for serious DX and contest stations. Because it breaks down for very compact shipping (its original intended applicatio