| Author |
Message |
    
Hornet168ky
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2003 - 11:07 pm: | 
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I am getting ready to buy me about 4 acres, and build me a home. I will be setting up some kind of home base but I don't know what kind, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Hornet168KY
CEF 219 |
Bruce
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 5:11 am: |
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hornet
The BEST antenna depends on what you need. If I had 4 acres and could put up what i wanted and was goimg on cb probly a good 4 elm quad would be my choice. Now as for heights again what do you need if you live on a flat open place with few trees 30 foot might be all you need ..... lots of trees you might need 75 foot. Now if your going to be hamming also you then need to figure what you need for that too. Everyone will tell you bigger and higher and this is also true but will it make enough diffrence to realy matter you dont realy know...... untill you spent the money maby for little return.
Bruce |
Pig040
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 9:15 am: |
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C'mon Bruce,
Tell him what you really mean, tell him to put up a JoGunn, haha |
mikefromms
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 11:18 am: |
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This is a broad question. As Bruce said, figure what you what you want to do with the station.
Me, if I were in that situation and assuming I could spend several thousand dollars on my new set up, For really long distance, I'd get a 6 or 8 elements beam. But the size of the beam would depend on a lot on the kind of weather that is routine to the area. If high winds are a common occurance I'd go with a Super Scanner antenna, if I could find one, or a Signal Engineering Thunder 8XB which is a combination beam groundplane. No rotor. Works great and will withstand 100mph wind. I'd set that sucker on a 150ft tower. I'd also pay someone to put it all up and put it all together. As for radio, out there in the open without lots of close neighbors, I'd probably get that Galaxy 2995Dx which has a 150 watt linear built in it. I'd also add the fan kit to it. I have a Galaxy DX2517 and it is one loud base station without built in linear, though some people say I sound like I have one on. Maaybe a DX 2517 with a KLV 1000 then you could rub shoulders with the Florida Boys from the Sandpile down on channel 6! Actually they are bleeding on all the channels. The DX2517 is all I need. But...if I didn't have close neighbors....who knows...
Now, I'm going to assume you don't have $1000's to invest in a station and want to spend under $1000. With 4 acres and assuming no close neighbors, still, I'd say either of the Galaxies I mentioned would do a great job. They're not the only ones but Galaxy is top of the line (CB) IMHO. Oh, and get the copper big base station quality check. If you only want a omni-directional setup, get the imax 2000 and put it up as high as possible. You can mount this thing in the top of a high tree or put up a crissoak pole and ground the antenna good. You don't have to buy a tower. For coax, I have to agree with what I read on here all the time--if you use over 100ft of coax buy the best money can buy. Do a search on this site to find out which is best. Assuming you mount that imax in the top of a tree or on an inexpensive pole, you have money left over for a power mike--not that you will need it. DX2517 Radio with mods/tune/shipping= $494 (2995dx add $150) Imax 2000 with shipping= $90 100 ft best coax = $130? Groundrod $10. groundwire $30? Yhis time you do most of the work, but anyway, you can have a good set up for under $1000 or even under $500 if you get a used radio or really cheap mobile and put it on power supply. Lots of possibilities.
One hard lesson I learned is don't wade if you intend to swim. What I mean is, if you are serious about a station go ahead and buy some of the best equipment rather than inching your way up the performance scale buying, selling, trying this that. Take the dive if you are serious enough. It's cheaper in the long run. I know.
Good luck in setting up the new station. I'm sure you will gets lots of good suggestions.
mikefromms |
Ca346
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 11:48 am: |
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Hornet:
What are the money spending limits? Once that is known, look out Henrientta in the recommendation department from this forum... |
Bruce
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 11:58 am: |
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Mike go for the gold! the bigest baddest radio! he he he If i was him ham or not go get a ft-840 wide band it back it up with a 1000 watt amp ...
o pig i was going to bring up jogunn but i figured if i didnt everyone would think my sugar was wacked out again.....no im ok just starting a discussion intended to help give him some solid ideas.
Serously a good beam or quad on a reasonbal tower and a decent radio is the key...... mike is right cheep stuff you will outgrow but there is a limit as to what you will ever use. |
Scrapiron63
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 12:41 pm: |
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Mikefromms gave you some great advise, he's just been there, done that. Get the Imax-2000, put it high as possible, and for the radio, the DX2517 is hard to beat, then you'll be a Loud Motorscooter, huh mike. Haha
Now for a mobile radio, i'm really impressed with the Magnum Omegaforce, but any of the top line Ranger/Galaxy type radios work great when tuned right. |
mikefromms
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 9:48 pm: |
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Yeap, I'm a loud motorscooter and I'm about to go back there and let everyone from 75 miles around that Daddy's home.
mikefromms |
Hornet168ky
| | Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 9:34 pm: |
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Thanks for all those suggestions, I guess the money thing would be nice if I didn't have to worry about it butttt I do so maybe I had better go with maybe 1000.00 or so in all of it. As far as neighbors what are they? No just kidding closest neighbor is about 1/2 mile away. So no worries there. As far as weather is conserned I live in Kentucky and if you don't like the weather in Kentucky then just stick around because it will change. I will have a good all around direction to talk except for SW and that will not be very good because of the big hill right behind were my house will be to the SW. But all other directions will be nice and open.
I am looking at a Laser 500 I found pretty reasonable. As for an amp a friend of mine has a X-force 1000 watt. But when he got it he talked on it for about 2 hours straight and it went down it got so hot it melted the solder on everything inside but he had it fixed, then the rectifiers went out of it 2 times, getting hot problem solved by drilling holes in top and removing a 5" fan that was placed in the back of the box up agianst the transformer, replacing it with a 3" fan in the top of the box, works fine now. But 728.00 to the door not counting being rebuilt 2 times and fan replacement. But it does get the job done.
I may return to the KLV 1000 that I used to own one and man I did some talking then with a PDL-II
imagine what would happen with a Laser 500 woohooo.
Radio is easy it will probably be another galaxy 44 since I have one and like it so much. Rotor I will just have to shop around and see what pops up. Like I said before thanks for the imput.
Hornet168KY
CEF 219 |
Bullet
| | Posted on Friday, November 21, 2003 - 11:47 pm: |
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hornet,
were in ky do you live?
if your in a high elevation area you wont have to go super high to get out a long distance but if your in the west side of the state were elevation is low then youd need more hight.
you can get great used ham amps that uses transmitt tubes like a heathkit sb200 that will do about 1200 pep ssb/600am for around 200-300 bucks or a 2000pep sb220 or drake L4b for 400-700 bucks and it will last a nice long life if took care of.
that laser 500 would be a nice beam to build from if its cheap enuff id get it and convert it to a 6 or 7 element yagi with quad reflector more like a higher gain version of the laser400 or make it a 6 or 7 element quad. either way it would be meaner than the stock laser 500 with its wimpy 5 ft director spacings.
throw it upon a 60-80 ft guyed tower run the best coax you can aford (LMR 400 or better)and have fun.... you wont be the bigest and the badest maul dropper around but youll be darn respectable
at any rate. |
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