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If I end up getting something like a Palomar Engineers MC-1-3000 choke, I'll have to do some experimentation to see if it works best on the radio side or on the antenna side of the MFJ-272 lightning protector (which I have been told should be replaced by an Alpha Delta ATT3G50UHP). Then I'll...

It's a shame to remove these shavings created while de-burring the inside of one of the galvanized mast pieces before inserting the sleeve. Mother Nature showed she can do something similar all by herself.

I will take a look at that. The balun/choke stuff is still a science I don't quite grasp but as long as it works, I'm game. I do have one smallish ferrite I've been moving around on the coax e.g. right by the radio, outside before the MFJ-272 lightning arrestor and also after it, but no effect...

Well, the project is still progressing although not as quickly as I'd like. Life has a way of doing that. I have collected nearly everything I need to finish the project except for coax, guy wire, another batch of concrete mix, ummm, I'm sure there's more. I decided to make my own tilting base...

No noticeable change in wattage but I run the amp on the conservative side. I put the ferrite on the coax because I was reading about some signal backwash/harmonics possibly being a cause and a suggested step is to install one or more ferrites preferably where the coax connects to the antenna...

Are you thinking this because of the SWR issue (that may have been resolved by removing the lightning arrestor temporarily) or because of the new reports of the SSB modulation starting to get choppy/crackly despite no changes to any of the hardware or setup?

I am having a slowly growing high SWR issue with my 200HDC amp (running at 14.5 volts) turned on high that gets worse as the frequency increases from channel 1 to 40. The SWR on channel 1 is 1.1:1 with the amp off or on, on channel 40 it is about 1.4:1 with the amp off and 2.5:1 or higher with...

Mine (200HDC) is screwed on.

This 2" OD, 0.5" wall, 48" long T6061 aluminum tube may be strong enough to cut in half and use 24" of it in each of the two mast junctions. Kinda pricey though, so I am going to chew on it a bit and try to track down its specs.

Today's puttering involves determining how I am going to attach the three 11 foot long, 10 gauge posts into one 33' long segment. This will form the backbone of the mast and will support the rotator and thrust bearing brackets. The pipes have an OD of 2.375" (60.33mm) and an ID of about 2.115"...

The second-hand free-standing Universal Tower 15-40 I had planned on using requires a 4' x 4' x 4' concrete base as per their documentation. That plan got shot down when the utility companies came to check the lot and marked at least two underground services where I wanted to put the tower.

It looks like the 10 gauge pipe I am using for the new mast (three pipes, so two joints) has an OD of 2.375", a wall thickness of 0.130" and an ID = 2.115" (53.75mm). Now to locate a suitable tube to slide inside the mast pipe to reinforce each of the two joints, maybe have 18" to 24" of...

The rotator and thrust bearing mounting plates have arrived as have the four 10-gauge, 11 foot long pipes. Three pipes are for the mast and one for the gin pole. The two mast joints will have inner reinforcing sleeves as will the bottom few feet of the gin pole.

And one day later...

Hmm, this home made tilting base is from a small windmill but it looks like it'd work well for a mast too. I'd definitely have a go at making this one myself. To my wife... "Here, hold my beer...".

The service line running right down the middle of my planned tower location does somewhat limit my options but I've been getting some good suggestions. I think I have settled on using a mast base plate like the one pictured below anchored to a 2'x'2'x2' concrete pad right where the current mast...

I ended up ordering a pair of these rotator/thrust bearing platforms. They should do the trick. Now to decide if the 11 gauge galvanized mast pipe I am using right now will be strong enough for the added weight of the 7 pound rotator and 20 pound beam. The mast is currently comprised of three 11...

Sigh, I am going to have some difficulty digging the hole for the tower foundation where I want it. Turns out some buried electrical was re-routed when the window well was dug a few years ago when we finished our basement and it was moved further south along the west wall where I want to put the...

It's definitely not easy to undertake this project in an area with not a whole lot of concrete companies especially during a building boom in the general area. I do not want to have to buy 100 80# bags, rent a mixer and hire someone to lift that many bags for me. So far I have not been able to...

Yup, that is where it was.