[TowerTalk] Long pole / simple, tall construction for small antenna

[Michael Tope]

On 10/26/2014 10:25 AM, Jim Lux wrote:
> On 10/26/14, 8:53 AM, Vegard Svanberg wrote:
>> .........Apart from the pole itself, an issue is also proper 
>> anchoring in the
>> ground (rocky ground is easy, obviously, while sandy and muddy soil
>> could be tricky).
>>
>> The weight of the antennas are only about 400 grams and the surface area
>> is small (HxW = ~300 x ~80 mm) so we're talking pretty light and simple
>> stuff here.
>>
>> Before I go ahead and start constructing this myself, I was just
>> wondering if someone here has done something similar before, or know
>> someone who sell ready-made kits I can buy.
>>
>
>
> This sounds a lot like what TV antennas use. Standard inexpensive 
> steel tubing masts in sections, guying hardware, etc. Your windload is 
> way lower than a big LPDA for fringe area TV reception.

When I lived in Florida, I had "Wireless Cable" (aka 2.5 to 2.7 GHz 
MMDS) for a while. To get LOS to the tower, they put a Rohn push-up mast 
on my roof and guyed it to the fascia boards.  The antenna was a small 
"barbeque grill" parabolic (~16 to 18 inches across, if I recall 
correctly).  In my case the overall height above ground was somewhere 
between 35 and 40 ft.

I actually worked in the MMDS business for a time (on down-converters), 
so I know firsthand how much pressure there is to make customer premises 
equipment (CPE) as cheap as possible. If you couldn't sell the 
downconverter for less than $50, it cost too much. Thus, I imagine that 
steel pushup masts were among the cheapest solutions out there at the 
time.  I don't know, but perhaps composites have come down in price 
since then.

73, Mike W4EF...........