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For the first five minutes, the crew needs safety training. The rigger is freeclimbing the tower, no fall arrest in use. I don't see the ground crew wearing hard hats. Now I see guys hanging off the ball! ARGH. I doubt VERY much that what they have is man-rated. During their descent you...

:headbang ARGH! The same basics apply for CB, ham radio, paging systems, cellular phones, broadcasting, etc. It doesn't have to be expensive or complicated. In fact, proper planning at installation can be very simple and not cost anything extra. You likely have no problem dishing out...

You need to do more than just pound ground rods into the earth. Think how the energy will be dispersed throughout the various rods and ground systems. Improperly bonded, you can be creating as much problem as you hope to solve by providing a low impedance current sink from one ground to the...

Guys at work just swept the parts into a dustpan and then into the garbage bin. Hundreds of small nuts and bolts, stainless hardware, mix of metric and standard, all into the trash. I've pretty much given up.

It is neither difficult nor expensive to build things properly. Any expense would be offset by peace of mind, not to mention cost savings from potential damage to the house or equipment inside. A little information to someone who cares and is truly interested can go a long way. Those are...

Hey cool link. :) There are two issues involved. Grounding is important, but so is bonding. The individual AC and antenna grounds must be bonded in such a manner to provide a direct low impedance path between them and a high impedance path through the equipment. This will shunt any ground...

Using two in series in theory will provide 50pF. You would have to determine experimentally how well it works. Once you start playing at VHF capacitors will display inductance and placing them in series may not work as you hope. (In a similar manner, inductors can appear as capacitors) Let...

Careful. You're giving turd a bad name comparing it with this guy.

Clear sky and nothing of significance in the sky at 45 degrees North...

Not even close. It's a half sphere, about 1-1/2 inches diameter. Made of hard black plastic. The VHF whip screws onto the top.

Hmm. I need a picture... Anyone know what I'm talking about?? I used to have one in the middle of the roof of my car. They used to be very popular on taxis, sometimes attached to a right angle bracket bolted to the fender next to the hood or trunk. It uses a 3/8 inch hole mount, then a...

I built something similar for 2 meters. It used 1-1/2 inch copper outer and 3/4 inch inner copper pipe. The whip was a 3/8 inch hole mount, black half circle. Worked very well.

Soldered connections are not always good outdoors either...

You have to realize that DC ground and RF ground are not always the same. I've seen 5/8 inch cable arc and burn holes through the outer jacket when it was attached to the reflector of an antenna. The entire antenna was bolted to the tower. DC wise the entire thing was one huge short circuit...

How does the supply work at low current draw? The specs say it requires a 10% minimum load or roughly 5.7A. Is the idle current of the amp enough for the power supply to work properly? Do you have a means to monitor output voltage as the load changes rapidly? I used a 80A 28V switch mode...

That sort of Tee connector is fine. Placement of the stub isn't critical, but I like to keep it near the antenna / AC ground bond. I often put a spade lug on the shorted end and connect it to a ground terminal somewhere. The cable can be coiled up, taped to the mast, or used as a radial on a...

Here's some more info. Check the input and output connectors. Larcan Power amps for 50 MHz

I read somewhere about the amplifiers being used around 40MHz, possibly in Australia. It would be quite interesting to see what changes were performed to get it that low. Be very careful with attempting any changes. Without proper sweep equipment you have no real way to determine what's...

Sounds like a neat antenna. How is it fed? Does it use a pair of phasing cables to create a circular polarized signal? Pics please. :)

Answering questions is a good way to learn. It's good to discuss ideas and come up with new approaches to problems. If you read through the grounding pdf you'll find other projects I've been working on. Writing and trying to explain how things is quite useful to understanding whatever the...