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Message |
    
Kid_vicious
Intermediate Member
Username: Kid_vicious
Post Number: 401
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, April 16, 2005 - 11:02 pm: | 
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sorry for the wait folks, the wind here has been very prohibitive. here are the results of my three month antenna project.
my top one is mounted on 40' of mast on the side of my house. the house is 15' at the peak and the mast goes from the ground up using an eve mount.
First thing was to finally upgrade the coax to the real deal. i bought 83' of LMR400 with PL-259's on each end from a company i researched. the quality of the work they did on the connectors was amazing! soldered through every hole and heat shrink tubing. this coax is stiff!
you have to order it in advance because it takes them an average of two weeks to get to your job.
next thing was to upgrade the TOP ONE. while it is a good antenna design; the actual engineering of the CTE TOP ONE leaves a bit to be desired. the hardware for example is made of subpar metal, and its a bit off sized. i drilled out all the holes in the antenna to 17/64" and bought 1/4x20x1" stainless steel hex bolts and nylock or "stop" nuts. these are nuts that have a nylon ring in them so they wont loosen up with vibration. the u bolts were replaced with 5/16" hardware and the holes enlarged to 21/64".
the next thing i noticed was that the ring on the bottom of the antenna was not a true circle. i used a compass to draw a 29 1/2" circle on the floor. then i took each of the four pieces that make up the ring, placed them around the circle and bent them into a "close to perfect" circle.
the next step was to spray paint all the aluminum pieces flat black. i like to do this as it makes the antenna disappear at night. i cleaned all the aluminum with acetone and then sprayed on krylon flat black. (make sure not to get any paint in the threaded connections.)
now onto assembling the antenna. the first thing you need is a product called "ox-guard". it penetrates oxidized metal for a cooler connection. you can get it at lowes. use this on ALL the connections of this antenna. i used a wire wheel on my screwgun to clean the alum. prior to adding the ox-guard and bolting the secitons together. i also used ox-guard on the threaded connections and the coax connector.
since i heard somewhere that an insulated wire antennna picks up less static than a bare one; i put heat shrink tubing around the top radials.
i put up a 10 foot mast and assembled the antenna on it. the ring will sway a lot in the wind so i believe that it needs some extra support. i used uv resistant rope to anchor the ring to the mast and keep the mast at the center of the ring. (it looks cool too!)
i put the coax on the antenna and secured it to the mast. then i put this mast on another 10' mast with a guy ring in between. i made sure to rmove all the paint from where the mast sections slide into one another and used ox-guard on them. i also put three small screws into the masts where they met for extra support.
on the side of the house i put together two more mast sections and mounted them to the eave mounts. i used a 10' piece of unistrut as an extra support so there are three eave mounts.
the base of these masts was connected to an 8' ground rod with 1 guage stranded copper wire. (pounding in ground rods in Las Vegas is VERY difficult!)
the two mast sections with the antenna on them were then stabbed onto the two sections attatched to the house.
for guy wire i used black dacron covered antenna rope 3/16". i used four guy wires attatched to the eaves of the house. (if your house is old i recommend pounding a few new nails into the facia board for strength.)
i always use turnbuckles for tensioning.
the results are worth the work! i love the way this antenna performs. i dont have any data as far as s units increase on the RX end, but i can tell you that i have a very low noise floor, and no static in the recieve. i use rabbit ears on one of my TV's and there is virtually no TVI. no low pass filter either.
it doesnt sway in the wind and its all but invisible at night. during the day i cant help staring up at it every time i leave the house.
let me know if you have any questions or if i left out any deatils. i see an antenna installation as a series of compromises and this time i made very few. this should last for years to come with very little maintainence.
matt |
Sixtiesmania
Member
Username: Sixtiesmania
Post Number: 82
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2005 - 1:38 am: |
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how is the swr and what coverage are you getting with your swr. ie what is it's usable bandwidth now?
I will have to have a look when I get back to Vegas.
Cheers
Andrew
CEF#511
Hong Kong |
Kid_vicious
Intermediate Member
Username: Kid_vicious
Post Number: 449
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 9:51 pm: |
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sorry it took me so long to see the post.
come by anytime andrew! just give a shout out for the ol' stratocaster. im usually on 27.515 during the day and ch 19 at night.
my swr is about 1.3 to 1 on ch `1 and flat on ch 40.
the highest freq. i have right now is 27.805 and on that freq. the swr is 1.5 to 1.
it has just survived its first vegas wind storm with sustained gusts of almost 60mph.
the top section above the guys swayed quite a bit but she's quite seaworthy. no change in performance or swr after the storm.
i think if i hadnt secured the ring to the mast that it might have gotten damaged in that storm. |
Vanillagorilla
Advanced Member
Username: Vanillagorilla
Post Number: 880
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 8:42 am: |
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Hey Matt...hows the Top One doing?
I'm FINALLY getting around to finishing the tower and should have an easy shot at a 40ft feed. I figured while I was starting over I may as well upgrade. New coax is waiting and all thats left is picking an upgrade from the A99.
Been looking at this antenna for a while now. I think its a toss-up between the Top one, M400 or V-5/8. I don't like what I see the Imax doing in the heavy wind AND I'd rather have aluminum anyway.
Just wondering how yours is doing? Comments?
Thanks,
Hank CEF559 |
Patzerozero
Senior Member
Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 3370
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 11:03 am: |
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maco v5/8, mine is leaning up against the side of the house right now & it gets out just fine, local & DX.....matt was making the trip here yesterday just fine, whatever he was using  |
Vanillagorilla
Advanced Member
Username: Vanillagorilla
Post Number: 885
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 - 10:19 am: |
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Sorry for the late "get back" Matt...busy busy.
I'll look into that...thanks
Pat...you mean I didn't need the tower after all?   Wish I knew that before burying a truck radiator with a cross drilled (drainage  )12ft pipe being stabbed through the middle filled with rocksalt, soldered to the rad then soldered to a 2/0 battery cable comming up through the bought, stirred and poured 20 bags of cement! Did I mention I also set the 12 ground pipe dead center under the tower base forming a cement funnel into the pipe thats been cross drilled and filled with rocksalt? Yea the one attached to the 4'X3' radiator thats 4ft deep?
And here's Pat LEANING an antenna against his house and talking to NEVADA! 
Part of my current issue is windload which is another reason why I declined the gift of the M103 beam from a friend.
Now that I'll be using a tower instead of the guyed mast I'll have a somewhat RIGID support mast. No longer will it sway lightly with the wind absorbing the load. I'd HATE to see the 8ft mast atop the tower fold. I know my 99 or an Imax2000 would be best suited for that application but am dying to try something else....anything that would be an edge over the 99 and further reduce any remaining TVI.
I'll keep hunting although the V-5/8 has been my target since the sight of the tower I want to be sure I'm not overlooking any other options.
NOT that I've EVER been accused of overthinking a situation! |
Revpo
Intermediate Member
Username: Revpo
Post Number: 104
Registered: 7-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, December 14, 2006 - 6:58 pm: |
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From the desk of revpo
I have a top one, but the wind storm we had a few weeks ago (65 mph), kept making the tubing on the hoop below rock somewhat and one side of the tubing finally broke, I took it down and not sure where to find some tubing, I found about a foot of it, sawed it in half and placed the section on the bottom tubing and the top tubing from the middle support(get the picture I hope), and took pipe clamps and clamped it on to the original tubing, two on each side, now the whole thing has support and is much stronger, and up again at 20-25 feet.
I really like that antenna it is a good listener and xmitter from the radio, it runs a close shot with a maco 5/8.. On ssb I use it and it punches thru the airwaves with good reports, it should be made stronger in the beginning</but we all know cost cutting/, I use it with my uniden pc122, also use a LDG automatic antenna tuner on it.
I have a MACO 5/8 also at 35 feet.
revpo/doctor/CEF795
MERRY XMAS |
1861
Advanced Member
Username: 1861
Post Number: 623
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, December 14, 2006 - 7:54 pm: |
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REVPO , most of us use heavy fishing line to tie from the mast to bottom hoop from four directions , like a pie cut in quarters . keeps it from blowing around and getting damaged. |
Wildchild
Junior Member
Username: Wildchild
Post Number: 40
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 14, 2006 - 8:16 pm: |
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When I had mine up with the feed point 40 feet above the ground I went to a local sporting good store and bought some cheap heavy 50 to 80 pound test I think works best dacron type fishing line and tied the bottom off in 4 directions and it held up in 60 to 70 MPH winds.
Mine had a SWR of 1.3 to 20 on channel 1 and it showed a flat reading on 27.605 |
