Dan: For a RIGID vertical element (such as an antenna mast or a heavy vertical made of thick-walled or solid tube), the force (say, 12.54 psf) would be applied midway up the element, or at 11 feet ab
Neil: I have had the Skyhawk up on my tower since 2001. It went together well - I even enjoyed pop riveting all the elements. When I got it on top of the tower the SWR curves were as spec'd - below 2
Bill: One caution about the BX series of towers. As Rohn literature states, they really are not designed for antenna booms longer than ten feet. Longer booms have a tendency to twist the tower in str
Ken: I read in a business publication the name change is supposed to signify they are more than just Radios now. Go figger. 73 de Gene Smar AD3F _______________________________________________ ______
TT: And Chip was one of two Hams on CW who blew the socks off a couple of text-messaging kids on the Tonight Show a few years back. 73 de Gene Smar AD3F ______________________________________________
Eric: My comments embeddded below. 73 de Gene Smar AD3F COMMENT: When I was designing electric substatoions years ago, we had a rule of thumb for designing conduit systems: No more than 40% occupancy
Jim: Polyphaser (and others) make surge suppressors for DC control cables like rotator wiring. 73 de Gene Smar AD3F _______________________________________________ ___________________________________
Gents: If you don't trust yourself pushing a wheelbarrow, or if the pour is a considerable amount greater than a few barrows full, you can rent a Georgia buggie to haul the concrete from the mixer tr
TT: You shouldn't need to use a wire from the tower to the concrete. The base legs, or the base anchor bolts, will provide electrical connection into this massive Ufer ground. What the ground rods ou
Dale: I've read on TowerTalk that some folks here use 10# fishing line strung above the boom and elements to keep birds from perching on their antennas. 73 de Gene Smar AD3F _________________________
Kostas: The manual for the MFJ-259B can be downloaded from several sites. In it you will find instructions for finding all the useful functions available from the antenna analyzer. 73 de Gene Smar AD
Gerry: They're all equivalent. Also, while you're buying the paste, pick up a couple of 3M Scotchbrite scouring pads. Use one to clean off the last layer of crud from the aluminum before you apply th
Bruce: This is one of my favorite questions to answer on TT. The best compilation of tower-related practice was created by N1LO: http://www.qsl.net/n1lo/tower_ref.pdf . Steve K7LXC also recently publ
Dan: I concur with Don's recommendation about using two dipoles on the same feedline. I used this arrangement (with a third dipole for 20M) during my Novice days and it worked well for me. The non-re
Bob: Another ten-element triband Yagi to consider is the Bencher Skyhawk. It's got the same 3-3-4 element array as the other two you mentioned. It may be a bit cheaper; I haven't looked at list price
Joe: Thanks for looking up the list prices. As I wrote, I am not aware of current prices for the antennas under discussion and that difference you mention would make anyone look more closely at the a
Michael: The Skyhawk will accept power, through a tuner, on 12M but its max gain will be in the reverse direction of the other bands. I think it's because the 15M director (in front of the DEs, of co
Mark: If you don't have a CAD system, but DO have the drawing used to identify your property when you bought it (it might be called a plat plan), you can use that instead. I made several dozen copies
Neil: When I installed my Bencher Skyhawk Yagi (similar in feed to the F12's) I wound my own 1:1 balun out of RG-213 coax. Here's a photo: http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j282/ersmar/?action=view&c