[TowerTalk] HF9V update and a question

[berferd]

Hello,

Just thought I'd follow-up with a quick report on how things turned out.

I ended up putting ground mounting the HF9V with 16 buried radials
(plan on adding more) and a 8'x10' piece of hardware ground fabric
directly under the antenna.

It works surprisingly well...I've worked ~120 countries in the few
months I've had it up.  It tuned up pretty well except for 17 meters.
The best I was able to do on that band was 2.8:1..but it still
gets out well on that band.

Now my question.  I'm putting up a 36-foot telescoping mast and
I'm looking for a source of inexpensive, light-duty earth screw
anchors.  The purpose of the mast is for a multiband inverted
vee, but I also plan on putting a Diamond 2m/70cm vertical
on top.  The legs of the inverted vee will also act as guys.
Since the wind load isn't really going to be that much, I plan
on using dacron rope for guy material (the black UV-resistant
stuff).  I have a galvanized pipe which I will drive into the ground
about 4 feet and the bottom section of the mast will slide into
that tightly and be bolted as well.

The Rohn earth screws seem a bit expensive...and I probably
don't need something geared toward heavy towers.  Any
suggestions/sources?

Thanks,
Jeff KI0RO
(ex KC0HEP)


On Fri, 11 Feb 2000, berferd wrote:
> Thanks to everyone for all the good advice.  I've decided that
> the incremental performance gain (if any) from a rooftop installation
> is not worth the risks I'd be exposing the structure and occupants
> to in the case of a direct strike.  Even with the proper grounding,
> I would still be worried.  Also much easier to for maintenance
> 
> So instead I'm going to ground mount the Butternut in the middle
> of my backyard with a buried radial system.
> 
> Which brings up another question.  Would a single ground rod
> tied into the buried radial system be good enough as far as the
> antenna goes?  I would still tie into the service ground rod and
> there would be another ground rod near the shack which the
> lightning arrestor would be attached to.
> 
> Thanks again everyone.  This people on this mailing list are a
> great resource.
> 
> Jeff
> KC0HEP

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