Gary,
Sounds like a normal antenna raising day in the woods. Your antenna will
probably work fine now. Don't ask me how I know that...
73, Les W2LK
On 9/25/2016 1:22 AM, Gary Smith wrote:
A little follow-up with my life in the
fast lane...
I move slowly, all considering, kind of
like Ahab with a pair of shoes. I've been
spending the better part of the last two
weeks putting up a HI-Z 4-8Pro array.
If it were open space with good soil, all
would have been done after the first 1-2
days. But no, I live in New England, the
place where the Glacier's Gall Stones came
to rest after it encountered Global
Warming.
The place I have to put the array in is
like a Louisiana Bayou minus the standing
water. It's a salt marsh and just a bit
above sea level. I don't have an option
where else to put it, this is it.
We're known for Lyme disease, Lyme, CT is
10 miles west of here so tick protection
is mandatory. Worse, this is Bambi's
frolic-land and deer sign is everywhere.
More, we're blessed to have West Nile and
of course Zeka is getting all kinds of
press. So pyrethrin and DEET 40 is the
cologne de jour.
You can't imagine the scale of the rocks
here, it really boggles the imagination.
So much stone 5" below the surface and
muck on top of them. Some boulders above
ground are the size of Volkswagens and
most showing are like an iceberg with the
greater mass underneath.
This place has one other unusual issue in
that in a storm surge, at high tide, salt
water can get in there and will ruin
everything. So to outwit the tide, I moved
the amplifiers up inside the PVC tubes and
used a rubber cap to hold the amp high
enough that if the water rises, it won't
reach the electronics as there will be an
air pocket inside to keep everything out
of harm's way. I posted this pic earlier
of what I did:
doctorgary.net/Hi-Z-8-Pro-3.jpg
It will work just fine to keep the amps
safe..
Of course there are the briars, brambles
everywhere that are strong enough to stop
an Iron Man in his tracks, not to mention
the bittersweet vines that make walking in
a straight line impossible.
I staked out the proper placements for the
8 antennae, 4 times, before I found an
acceptable spot rock-wise but the trees
were unforgiving and ended up cutting down
7 rather large trees to make room.
Of course the Poison Ivy is everywhere and
the last spot I had to deal with branches
& rock-wise had a hairy 5" root of Poison
Ivy going up the tree with branches
hanging out right in the way of the
antenna. The Oak was too thick for my 20"
chain saw so I had to remove the tree
branches and the poison ivy.
I couldn't reach the branches 20' up and
my extendible saw/pruner could only reach
the poison ivy. Ended up slicking the vine
at knee level and leaving it die for a few
days. I tried a rope saw but it got stuck
1/2" in and was useless. Then I remembered
the extra elements I ordered from DXE and
connected the large ones & duct taped the
pruner to the aluminum and was able to
reach the branches. Between the tree
sawdust and the poison Ivy Sawdust, it was
a glorious time.
Finally , success! The local metal shop
cut my aluminum angle for the
ground/support rods, so today I hoped to
sink all the angles, using a Stainless
Steel angle as a probe to find what
worked. Great success, I get to the last
place I had marked out as correct, put the
knapsack with all my tools down, pull out
the SS angle and pound in the Aluminum and
there it was, the sound like small Harley
Davidsons on a mission from God, the
ground wasps that I had put my knapsack
down on their entrance were angry and knew
I was to blame.
Give me three good Honey Bee stings, one
yellow Jacket sting but nothing inch for
inch is more painful than these guys, they
are just mean. They stung me several times
and I proved Ahab can still run if the
prize is worth enough. I couldn't get my
tools, there were constantly 3-4 dozen of
these in the air swarming everything I had
laid down.
Some Hornet killer later and I could get
close enough with a stick to wrangle my
tools out but the damage was done
time-wise, I couldn't finish before dark.
So I finished assembling the antennas,
have them ready to connect to the
controller and tomorrow I get to connect
up all the coax, the terminals, everything
outside and I'm good to go.
My ear is the size of a Cauliflower but at
last count it was Wasps 5, Gary 100, that
wasp stuff really works... Looking forward
to hearing with this marvellous Antenna
system.
Oh, and I left out so much more of the
saga... ;)
73,
Gary
KA1J
I'm so close to being done with putting
this together. I have all 8 antennas made
@ 23' each the tip section is .5" and the
base is .850" I'm using a 3/4" fiberglass
rod as an insulator
doctorgary.net/Hi-Z-8-Pro-1.jpg
doctorgary.net/Hi-Z-8-Pro-2.jpg
I am having a conundrum with the placement
of the enclosure for the preamp mounted at
each antenna and need some advice. The
problem is I am at sea level and the
antennas will be mounted in a location
that will possibly get a storm surge
during a Hurricane, it ruined my remote
coax switch during Sandy from this very
reason. The preamp does have a silicone
gasket but if the amp gets submerged in
salt water, I'm sure it will get past the
terminals and ruin the amp. I have no
alternate choice, this is the location
where I have to put the array.
Seeing the photo of the end cap on the PVC
tubing with the zip tie holding the amp in
place (to protect from rain & Snow), gave
me an idea for the solution; At the top of
the PVC tube, make two opposing holes, run
a loose loop of thin wire through and
twist together. Run the coax up & over the
wire to hold the amp elevated inside the
tube, all the way to the top. Use a rubber
cap with radiator clamp to secure the top
and make it truly airtight. Now if the
tide water from a storm surge encroaches,
there will be a pocket of air inside and
will be unable to push high enough to
reach the amplifier. I tried this with a
Mason jar and the water did not get very
high in the upside down jar.
doctorgary.net/Hi-Z-8-Pro-3.jpg
So here's the dilemma: As a further hedge
against water damage assuming there are
strong winds making waves (they would not
be breakers, just waves in the marsh) at
this time, I'd like to raise the placement
of the amplifier so it would be another
foot higher than standard placement which
is on the base below the insulator. This
would require me to clamp the PVC on the
antenna instead of the base. Can anyone
see how this might be a problem with
operation?
Also, I'd like to spray camo paint on the
elements so they don't stand out. When the
leaves come down, I'd prefer the neighbors
not see the elements, they're nosy enough
as it is. I think I remember reading a
layer of paint on the element shouldn't
cause a problem, is this correct?
Thanks & 73,
Gary
KA1J
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