John,
I built essentially the same support: 3-foot RS tripod on plywood square and 6-foot mast; used for roving in the back of my pickup with a 3-element 6m beam, 2m & 70cm & 33cm yagis. It is high enough to clear the roof of the truck cab but not snag overhead wires on the road. It also is very useful for tuning antennas before being installed on towers or other high points. I have it for temp antennas if those "hurried" installations.
It may get semi-permanent use with a U100 rotor and 4-foot vertical loop antenna for LF/MW frequencies as a receiving antenna.
I have a second 3-foot tripod to mount a small 18-inch dish for microwave ham radio.
73, Ed
At 08:55 AM 7/20/2010, you wrote:
Since I live in a rental, my mount had to be temporary. I mounted a 3 ft Radio Shack Tripod onto a 4'x4'x3/4" plywood. Used a super large/heavy stepping brick to anchor it down, plus placed large river rock ontop. Mounted my G5400 Azimuth rotor just above the tripod, then placed 5 ft of 1-1/4" EMT mast, with the Elevation rotor and horizontal PVC with wooden dowel insert. Even only using an Arrow now, but still gives enough strength to when I'll get a "real antenna setup, again". See photo....
John W6ZKH
From: John Belstner [email protected] To: Scott Townley [email protected]; [email protected] Sent: Tue, July 20, 2010 8:32:12 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: pole mounting az-el system
Hi Scott,
The 10' galvanized pole trick is exactly what I did in my back yard. I used a hand post hole digger to go down 32" (until I hit a big rock) though I had planned to go down 36". The pole was cemented into the hole but I did not pour cement into the pipe.
The G-5500 sits on top with a 6' cross boom and a 7x7 432 on one side and a 5x5 146 on the other.
73 John
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
-----Original Message----- From: Scott Townley [email protected] Sender: [email protected] Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:51:05 To: [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] pole mounting az-el system
I was planning on pole-mounting an az-el system:
KLM CP yagis (the shorter ones) TekSharp 1.2m dish with dual-band patch feed 8' fiberglass boom G-5500 az-el rotator with mast brackets.
The G-5500 can accept a 2-1/2" mast. And the 2m KLM is about 13' long so I need to get it up at least 7' in the air. So I was thinking of using a piece of electrical conduit. Not EMT (the thin-walled stuff), but rather IMC, which is thicker walled (0.095" vs. 0.065") and readily available at home improvement stores. 2" trade size is 2.36" od so it will fit the mast brackets on the rotator fine. There is an even thicker electrical conduit GRC which is 0.146" wall, but at twice the price and a trip to Grainger (not out of the question but not convenient either) I can't help but wonder if that's overkill.
The conduit comes 10' long so I'd put 3' in the ground, say a 12"x36" hole, filled with concrete. Maybe filling the conduit with concrete as well.
I'd appreciate any comments as to the feasibility of doing this...particularly the conduit size and hole size for concrete fill.
Scott Townley NX7U Gilbert, AZ DM43di mailto:[email protected] http://members.cox.net/nx7u
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45 ====================================== BP40IQ 500 KHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com EME: 144-QRT*, 432-100w, 1296-QRT*, 3400-fall 2010 DUBUS Magazine USA Rep [email protected] ====================================== *temp