Last night we were able to install the SteppIR 4 element yagi on the tower at about 71 ft - roughly 11 feet below the Cushcraft XM240. Coax and control cables for the Prosistel Rotor and SteppIR have been brought to ground level but are not yet installed. If things go well tonight, I will [...]
I managed to get the SteppIR 4 element yagi built yesterday and today I added the truss systems to the SteppIR and Cushcraft XM240. Additionally, this afternoon with the help of my neighbor, we were able to get a trench for the coax/pvc. Fortunately, central Iowa had a picture perfect October day today as [...]
Spent some time in the past few days building my 40 meter antenna. Unfortunately, we’ve had some rain, so I finished the project in the mud. Although the Cushcraft XM240 Big Thunder is a small yagi for 40 meters it is a very large ham radio antenna by my standards.
The XM240 is a two [...]
It took awhile, but the delivery from Industrial Communication Engineers (ICE) arrived Monday. I’m now getting close to having all that I need in terms of grounding for the new ham radio tower.
Here is the list of products that I’ll be using for lightning/surge protection in the grounding system:
ICE Coaxial Surge Suppressors - Model 303U [...]
Today was tower raising day. A crew with a lift arrived at about 8am. First challenge of the day was to get the lift into the back yard - not an easy task when your fence gate has an 8 ft opening and the lift is 8 ft 2 in wide. Solution? Remove a [...]
Tuesday night at about 5:45pm Dave (KIØQ) called and wondered if we could work on the tower. Dave said he could be at my QTH by 6:30pm. I figured that Dave could help me position the tower sections such that I could then take a day off of work and bolt the sections of the [...]
Ham radio tower plans are progressing and the concrete foundation for the ANWireless HD-70 has been curing for 15 days now. While waiting, I’ve been working on ordering lightning protection equipment, cable, etc.
I’ve learned that the gear from ICE is in demand. I needed to order several surge protection devices and the only place [...]
Considering several aspects of the 4 element SteppIR controller cable today… lightning protection/SPG, burying it along with the coax in PVC, etc. As it turns out, because I’m having to route around the septic field, the 175ft of 16 conductor SteppIR controller cable won’t be long enough.
So, I’ll need to order a 16 conductor line [...]
Thinking a bit more about running coax to the tower. In an earlier post, I described the general plan for grounding. That hasn’t changed much, but over the noon hour today I went to the local Menards to investigate PVC coupling options and copper (no cheap sources yet) to use as ground straps (roofing flashing might [...]
With the tower foundation in place and curing in the Iowa summer sun, it’s time to think about the antenna system. Topping the mast (~83′) will be the Cushcraft XM-240 which is a two element “shorty forty” monoband antenna for 40 meters. Beneath that (at about 73′) will be the SteppIR 4 element yagi [...]