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Sodapop
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 6:52 pm: | 
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Well, it may not have anything to do with CB. But I have many friends here on the forum. And I wanted to share my good news with you guys. As of yesterday, the 5 month up hill climb to own our first home has ended. We now own it. We are very happy, but now comes the whole base set-up thing.
My SkyLab is a great antenna, but it may not be worth taking down. Why? Well the roof has been fixed on my folks house since it went up, and I may not be able to get to it. We'll see, but the big thing is the new house. There is no good place to mount it on the roof. And I have trees right next to my house. And not one of them is less then 60 feet high. Tower you may say, can't afford one I reply. And there is no way the SkyLab would work in a tree. So I have to give this a good think. For now the old base set-up is still up. But there is no way I can go without my base radio over the winter. So I am sure I will come up with something!
Anyways, sorry to carry on, but I wanted to share. And now I have! *G* |
Kattracker
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 7:35 pm: |
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Sodapop
If there is a will there is a way.
Of course I do not know the details on your house and landscape but how about 2 or 3 ten foot mast pipes in a area away from the trees. Hook them to your house if possible.
Got a privacy fence? Put a couple sections attached to it. You cant go too high, but 20 feet should be possible.
I would think you could do "something" to tied you over until you can come up with a permanent solution.
Ever take a tower down? I don't know where you live, but here in Indiana a lot of folks mainly elderly ones will gladly let you have theirs for your labor to remove it. That is assuming they are now on cable.
I have got many towers that way. The one I may put up for my base is a 60 ft. Cost,... totally free.
Better than that, as far as quality anyway, I once had (sold it) a 40 footer 2 section that was solid galvanized steel. I mean solid, no hollow legs, no stamp-steel construction. Like new condition. This thing weighed about 485 pounds. Bolted together with 3 4-bolt flanges. Complete with galvanized panels on the sides to deter children from climbing it. Some guys would give their left n*t for that tower. Total cost,... just had to take it down.
Start knocking on doors and you may be suprised how many towers you may get for free. Better be careful though. You screw up and cause property damage or personal injury your toast.
One more thing. Ever look at a tower retailer like Rohn? The prices may surprise you how much a new one can cost. I know guys who do what I mentioned, except give them a quick paint job and sell them. Potential for big profit if you have the connections to sell them
Good Luck,
Kattracker  |
Scrapiron63
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 8:34 pm: |
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Congratulations on the new house Sodapop, I know how you feel, I can still remember how proud we were when I built our first one over 40 years ago. Sounds like you have some ready made towers with those big trees. Stick an I-max 2000 out the top of one, and you'll be talking big time. scrapiron |
707
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 10:04 pm: |
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Trees? You mean natural dipole supports, right? |
Alsworld
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 12:49 am: |
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Sodapop,
I'm not sure if this is the answer you are looking for, but I'll throw it out as it may spur some ideas anyway.
At the CB frequencies, trees do not really interfere with the signals. Much different than say UHF or VHF. I have my IMAX 2000 snaked up through a very tall pine tree (at least 100ft high). The antenna falls short by 25-30 ft from the top. I use standard antenna poles, which would never be strong enough to support the antenna by themselves, but that is where I use the tree as leverage and tie (yes with rope) the antenna poles to the tree limbs or trunk as best I can. In Florida, it worked fantastic as I could climb the tree. Here in Washington, much more difficult. Trees are much too high (limbs start at 45ft).
I have the antenna "snaked" up (after looking for holes where limbs cross and can support the antenna poles, and it works fine so far. It is a cheap and primitive way for sure, but I'm at 79 ft to the tip of the antenna and have withstood some fairly stiff windstorms so far.
The tree saves me from the cost of a tower, and even if the antenna were to fall, it would be impossible to hit either the house or any power lines. So far, it's cheap and effective.
I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK SEARCHING FOR A SUITABLE SOLUTION.
(ooops, sorry about the caps)
Alsworld |
RCI 2990
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 1:30 am: |
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I knew a guy that had his A 99 up top of a 90' tall oak tree and it work GRRRRRRRREAT!!!!! :-) |
Sodapop
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 6:45 am: |
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Well thank you for the advice guys. The tree way will be the cheapest, and easier, way to fly. Trouble is, I need a tree I can get into that will be close to where the new CB ROOM will be. I am going to give it a good look this weekend. Who knows, this may work out to be a good thing. I will let you guys know what happens! |
Pig040
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 10:05 am: |
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Congratulations on your house, it is a huge step, that you will find very rewarding. Best of luck with it.
Pig |
Scrapiron63
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 4:53 pm: |
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Now here's one that will get above those trees, 130 feet of rohn 55g rotating tower, has several antennas including 3-12 element 30 foot phased beams. MAN, whatta rig.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3050698105&category=4672
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Karatebutcher
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 7:45 pm: |
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Sodapop, Trees are the in thing, when I lived in Georgia my antenna was in a large Pine tree, here in Northern Calif it is in a large Oak tree, it is not up but 25 feet but away we go, |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 9:23 pm: |
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Ever think of trying to load up a tree AS the antenna,scrap?Peel some bark,attach the coax center to the sapwood,hook the shield to a ground rod,might work on a maple tree in early spring when sap runs. |
707
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 11:37 pm: |
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That's not so farfetched...
I read a story somewhere about testing an antenna made of water. The premise was you could use heavily salted(copper chloride) water in a vertical plastic tube as a radiator. The antenna could be tuned by raising or dropping the water column. |
Crafter
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2003 - 2:17 am: |
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Soda Pop use a long wire for the time being! A
"inverted V" I've used wires for years not any gain but they work. |
Bruce
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2003 - 2:17 pm: |
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hummmm if you could find a 3/4 wave tree you could gama feed it like a J pole |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2003 - 8:59 pm: |
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AND considering the many branches you could have an infinite multi-bander with very little tuning,huh,Bruce. |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2003 - 9:04 pm: |
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My uncle had a seamless galvanized chimney pipe 9 feet tall above a sheet metal roof he hooked the coax to them appropriately and had a temp. cb base antenna this was a foot in diameter WHAT an l/d ratio,whew! |
Sodapop
| | Posted on Saturday, October 04, 2003 - 4:28 pm: |
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Well I have two ways to go. I will post the results when I decide which one will work the best. And on a side note, my 2950DX is here. I talked to the Unit 109 in FLA. He reported it had the best audio he had heard in a long time. And that was on the stock mic! And another guy, forgot his numbers, was portable in FLA, and he siad it sounded great as well. WHOOHOO! |
Sodapop
| | Posted on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 3:47 pm: |
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Well I am in my new house! And I am using a dail-up connection. It has been a LONG TIME since I did dail-up. So far, not to shabby! I should have my SkyLab up in the next two weeks at the most. I missed last Sunday, but I hope to be back on the CEF check in soon. Still need a desk for the radio to sit on. But it's all coming together. Slow but sure! |
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