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Assaulter
Junior Member Username: Assaulter
Post Number: 31 Registered: 1-2003
| Posted on Sunday, August 16, 2009 - 3:11 pm: |
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Alrighty... I'm finally going to wind up doing the tower thing in a few months, a heavy duty one....but I've never done the tower thing before. My question is.... where do you place everything and how do you do it? I know that I want an 11 meter beam on top (shooting star more than likely), a 160 meter sloper antenna, a vhf/uhf beam, a carolina windom, and a couple of verticals, but where does one go about placing everything and how do they do it as to keep the antennas from interfering with one another? Can the VHF/uhf beam be stacked over the 11 meter antenna, using the same rotor? |
Patzerozero
Senior Member Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 4626 Registered: 7-2004
| Posted on Sunday, August 16, 2009 - 11:13 pm: |
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so assaulter WON the lottery! oh, ok, been saving bucks for many years. EXPENSIVE. the sloper & windom can go off the top of the tower no problem.....more or less. shooting star alone is going to require a decent rotator. WHAT type of vhf/uhf antenna? if a multiband, is it partly vertical? you'll need to space it & the maco on about 15-20' of mast.....read HEAVY. so it doesn't bend. just increased the size/cost of rotator. adding verticals for what bands? to put it above the vhf/uhf......NAH. not WHAT kind of problems....but WHEN. probably 1st day wind blows at 6 mph. unless of course, SUPER DUPER HEAVY DUTY masts....say goodbye to the rotator! start with a list of WHAT bands you want antennas for & what polarizations. the wires are simple, don't worry about them. for beams....10/11, 2m & 432-how about 6m SSB? 2m....is that going to be SSB (horizontal) or FM (vertical)? same question for 432. if you were to do only horizontal, and had a REAL GOOD rotator & HEAVY DUTY mast, you could probably do 4 element 10/11m flat, 6m flat about 6'-7' above it (though 12.5' would be nice), and MAYBE dual polarized 2m or flat 2m(SSB) & vertical 432 on 1 boom another 4' above the 6 flat. the 9' vertical element above the boom on the shooting star is what throws a kink into the works. look at all the horizontal amateur stacks around. if the dollars are there, anything is possible. i'd imagine many are as well insured as they are liquid(as in cash flow). |
Assaulter
Junior Member Username: Assaulter
Post Number: 34 Registered: 1-2003
| Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 - 4:39 pm: |
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Well... here's what I want to work. Pretty much ALL of the Ham Bands along with 11 meter. I'm shooting for a heavy duty tower...one that can handle pretty much everything. As far as the bands I want, I want to be able to work SSB on 6 & 2, along with working FM on 6,2, 440 and possibly 1.2 ghz. (My interests vary from distant repeater work to ssb weak signal work, etc on vhf/uhf) Definately some 11 meter action hence the shooting star, although a comet would be fine too. The verticals I want would be for 11 meter and 2 meter. I guess I could mount them on a sidearm extension on the tower somewhere? |
Train_man
Member Username: Train_man
Post Number: 64 Registered: 10-2007
| Posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - 1:36 am: |
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Forget the Shooting Star. Install a multi band beam (yagi) for 17,20,40 and 80, stick a 2 meter vertical on top and install your wires and ssb, fm antennas off the legs. Or you can install your 10/11 meter vertical above the beam and everything else on stand offs. Whatever you choose to do, I'm sure will work for ya.
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Tech237
Moderator Username: Tech237
Post Number: 1213 Registered: 4-2004
| Posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - 9:39 am: |
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Try a Log-Periodic for the HF Beam. These, with careful design (and I have some on file) will work 20-6 and everything in between. The size is around the same for a 20m monoband beam. Now above that you could stack a VHF log-periodic - 6m to 70cm is not unheard of, and then your vertical above that. The Windom and any other wire antennas then mount on stand-off from the legs - at least 4-5ft away from the tower. As for the rotor, mount it around 3ft below the top of the tower, with a bearing at the top. THis helps take some of the vertical strain off of the rotor. Just like anything else in this hobby - ask 6 people and you'll get 6 different answers. The solution is to take all those answers and combine them into one that works for you. Simon Tech237 N7AUS . I thought he said, "there was no rust for the wicked, and I own an MGB"
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