It's tower and antenna season once again. For tower guying I prefer Big Grips, but for some applications I still use old fashioned cable clamps, for example, to attach guy wires to ground anchors, al
didn't see or missed was something to put on the guy wires to protect me from hanging myself while mowing the yard. I noticed that the electric company (Magic Valley Electric Company) had put long pl
6 inches longer than required. when the required turns are wound flat, just cut that wire as short as possible and force the tip flat with a pair of Channel Locks No it doesn't make serving easy, bu
First there was the Gotham Vertical. Then the infamous Max-Com automatic antenna matcher. Now, Cushrcaft is in on the action. "R9" vertical. Low angle radiation gives incredible, easy, world-wide
You don't HAVE to bury the guy anchor all the way in the ground, below grade. You could dig down 2 ft to the bedrock, and build concrete forms to extend the rest of the 4 ft anchor above grade, lett
Hams are WAY too obsessed with SWR. If it's a full size half wave, the difference between an antenna resonant at 3615 and 3515 wouldn't make a bit of difference in performance. VSWR at 2:1 or less i
How many tower erectors, including professionals with years of experience, ever noticed this discrepancy? The U-bolt clips/clamps long sold as "guy wire cable clamps", even by major reputable tower m
At age 38 I erected up my 127' base-insulated Rohn 25G tower solo, except for the first section where I needed a couple of people to help hold it vertical while I attached temporary guys to the anch
Exactly. I have found that the hardest thing to do on a project like this is to co-ordinate my time with someone else's. If you are trying to assemble a crew, you have to co-ordinate your time with
RF only penetrates the ground a few feet. A 190' well casing wouldn't be much better than a couple of 8' ground rods. And then there is the local case where an owner bought into the myth and had a 19
I can't understand why so many hams build towers this way, especially a former AM BCB tower. The proper way to erect a guyed tower, particularly one more than about 50' tall, is to attach a flat base
If the tower is being used as a vertical radiator and a substantial radial system is installed, the radials themselves also make the best lightning ground. By "substantial" I mean at least 15 or so e
One thing I forgot to mention. With the pier-pin solution you normally don't have the problem of hollow-legged towers filling with water and the necessity of drilling a weep hole in the legs or maki
Exactly. Look at the map. Some adjacent sections jump abruptly from the lowest conductivity to the highest. Santa Fe, N Mexico is a good example, where it's 15 on one side of the line, and just to t
Exactly. Look at the map. Some adjacent sections jump abruptly from the lowest conductivity to the highest. Santa Fe, N Mexico is a good example, where it's 15 on one side of the line, and just to t
Which is PRECISELY why I would never recommend setting the base of a guyed tower of any height in concrete, but use a pier pin and base plate. The only occasion on which I would bury a tower base wo
That's true - to shield the radiating antenna from the LOSSY earth. Some self-proclaimed experts have argued with me on that point, saying I was wrong and that the function of the radials is not to
I use the better grade Loos gage for my 3/16" guys. Well worth the cost. The calibration chart that comes with the instrument is correct only for the 19-strand wire rope it was designed for, which i
You don't need an additional strain gauge; the Loos will do it all. Just attach a short piece of the recommended wire rope end-on-end to a piece of EHS, and string the whole thing between two trees
If that's the case, let him know (friendly advice in a non-threatening way) that his grow lights are generating a signal that can be heard on the radio some distance away, and imply (may actually be