[TowerTalk] Ground Mast Mounting

[Jim Brown]

On 10/6/2023 6:39 PM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> What a fantastic portable setup and also a great presentation.

Glen does a great job.

> I am wondering where you can set up a station like that?   Is it on public
> land?  Do you need permission?

All sorts of places. Tomorrow, we'll be in a State Park. We've done at 
least a dozen county expeditions for CQP and 7QP at multiple locations 
in UT, NV, and CA. Here's a slide deck I put together for multiple 
setups in NV the first year we did it. k9yc.com/7QP.pdf

When planning, we make extensive use of Google Earth looking for sites, 
often trying to find them on county lines. Having selected some 
possibilities, we drive east to survey them; sometimes they work, 
sometimes we have to poke around to find ones that do, or that are 
better. We've set up on the long-abandoned construction of US50 in NV, 
running parallel to the current road. We've set up on dirt/gravel roads 
running alongside railroad tracks, and in the middle of a field a few 
hundred yards from I80. We have rarely asked.

At least 15 years ago, before I joined the team, N6RNO found a triangle 
of gravel between a 90 degree turn in a state highway and a dirt road 
that turned off of it to farms/ranches. The first time he set up there, 
a State Police car stopped by to see what they were doing. Turns out his 
ranch was across the highway, and his property included the triangle. He 
was happy to give us permission to stay there, and our team used that 
location for 6-8 years. It was in Tehama County.

After having chosen our sites, we camped at the most distant, where we 
operated for 2-3 hours, then moved west to the next. We've activated as 
many as 6 counties in a day 7QP. And as we drove between them, W6JTI 
worked CW riding shotgun to Glen in his pickup.

As we've all gotten older, we're doing only one setup. W6JTI stays home 
for CQP, where he activates Humboldt Co from his mountaintop station. 
Frank runs CW QRP, and often beats 100W stations in other counties.

73, Jim K9YC


> 
> John KK9A
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Jim Brown K9YC wrote:
> 
> Take a look at the system we use for portable operation with mil-surplus
> mast sections. It's about halfway into this link, which are slides for a
> talk W6GJB did at Pacificon several years ago. He found the tripod adapter
> fitting at Dayton about ten years ago. I suspect they're available online.
> 
> A dozen or so slides farther into it, Glen shows guy anchors that can be
> driven almost anywhere. They're used to tie down small aircraft.
> 
> http://k9yc.com/trailer.pdf
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
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