If you're going with ground mounted, 12 radials is nowhere near enough, especially on 80 meters. You can probably make 40m work with that setup -- I did -- but you'll be doing your DXing with 3x3 sig
I live in the low Sonoran dessert (1400 feet above sea level) and UV is something we worry about around here. My stuff is too new at about a year in place, but I am wondering a bit about some of my s
Good thoughts from one who has been there. Question for you: Is direct sunlight more important than the reflected kind? I seem to remember that you can get sunburned from reflections off of sand just
Agreed. I have one on my tower and it simplifies everything. Not clear you can really stack stuff with it (I couldn't though I've seen it done) but it really simplifies tower work. Everything on my t
As some may remember, I have a remote shack. I'm not there a lot, obviously. So, the site has to basically "protect itself" when I'm not there. Accordingly, compared to some here, I have to seriously
I'm no engineer, either, but that fits my way of thinking too. I'm biased, too, by a colleague with a tall tower and a big mask sticking out the top. He was a VHFer. He got a fairly big storm. The ma
Me three. Larry WO7R _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ TowerTalk mailing list TowerTalk@contesting.com http://lists.contesting.com/mailma
Bucket trucks are also rentable. The guy who brought a crane to put up my tower will rent one to me if I want it. Given how reasonable his crane services were, it should be affordable. A colleague of
Would it be helpful to have a couple of twists in the line as it goes up the tower? Or, would that make it worse? I was thinking that if there were a couple of "rotations" (a couple, not a huge amoun
Simplicity and standardization. Polarization. The costs are not terribly significant compared to the cost of the gear they hook up to. I don't know about you, but for me, it's easier than it looks to
Fine for you, but for me, it's not good enough. I also host Field Day and I need to be able to offer standardization for those that bring their gear over. I could announce your solution to everyone I
Yeah, at this point, it is getting ridiculous. Who wants to be against this proposition: Those arguing about 1.32 per connector and less probably own at least one HF rig that cost between 2000 and 60
There's an obvious reason people want lots of bands these days. With the new 90 MPH standards, if you're going to follow the zoning laws, there's a lot less antenna that can go up compared to the "50
FWIW, I've worked some with a compass function on my Android phones (two different ones). I am not all that impressed with the accuracy. Its OK for getting things roughly right, like within 5 or 10 d
I don't understand all the naysaying here. If we can get our rotators aligned with in 1 degree, 5 degrees, 1/2 a degree accuracy, depending on our stamina and ability to understand the procedure, we
I did a "proper" crankup with the tilt-over and the NN1NN tilt plate. US Tower heavy duty. I'm quite happy with the results. I can do everything at ground level. Because it is 72 feet, it was motoriz
I remotely control my Orion 2800 with a Green Heron controller. Currently hooked up to an on-site PC which I then access with TightVNC. Simple and effective. When I figure out how, I will control it
Not if the "savvy ham" can't hear them! The point of low loss coax is to hear them. How much added money is worth how many more marginal contacts? That's the question to be answered here. FWIW, coax
I believe I use a "bottle jack" as well. The model I bought had a minimum distance that was too big, so a buddy of mine cut off a fixture I didn't need. In many respects, getting it moving from "rest
Pushing off by hand is low on my list. I have a bad back. Also, if I screw up or slip, it's easy to imagine the tower falling back and crushing something. Like my hand. These things do tend to bounce