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Budget Base set up

W1MSG

Now W1MSG
May 9, 2010
499
18
28
MA
Ok I am looking at doing a Budget base setup.

Looking at TV antenna stuff, and a Hy-Gain Dual Band Beam ..

Rotator $59.00, I know I will have to manually adjust during the pass but its cheap.

TV Antenna Mast 40 foot, I need to replace the one on the side of my house as its been there for at least 40 years.
It will be 35' to the rotator with an additional 5' to the beam.

The Hy-Gain Dual Band beam, $89.95 its small and shouldnt overload the rotator.

I'll set the beam at 30 degrees elevation, probably wont be the best at super high or low passes but after looking around the net thats what most folks are doing.

So is this gonna work well enough for the cost involved ???
 

Here's my question to you...

What radio are you going to be using? does the radio automatically tune down for the doppler shifting?

If no, then you're going to be pretty busy manually tuning down your radio, while rotating your antenna.
 
Here's my question to you...

What radio are you going to be using? does the radio automatically tune down for the doppler shifting?

If no, then you're going to be pretty busy manually tuning down your radio, while rotating your antenna.

I'll just do it the same as my hand held, set up memories for the doppler, I wont have to be moving the antenna constantly either as I dont do that now with my arrow, I just move it as the signal starts to change, same with changing for the doppler. I'll be using my FT-857D ..

As soon as I get everything I will do some pictures and a video of the first couple of passes I try to work, if it doesnt work well, I'll just take out the elevation and use it as a 2 m / 70cm beam ..
 
Thanks for the info Mole, If I decide to change out the antenna at a later point I might try my hand at building.

Ok everything is now on order and was just shy of $300.00.

This is everything from the ground up as I have to replace my old TV antenna mast that has been there for probably 40 years, the wall brackets are rusted through and I couldnt get the old rotator off.

So I have 7 5' sections of antenna mast, 2 12" Stand offs, a Cheap Rotator with controller, adjustable antenna mount, and the Hy-Gain Dual Band Yagi on the way.
I'll try to do some photo's during the build and erection, I hope to do it this coming weekend 21/22 August.

Stay Tuned
 
Ok just an update...

It took Hy-Gain 5 days to finally ship my antenna, so I am expecting it by Thursday 26 August.

I gave up on my order for the rotator, ended up canceling the order as they didnt have anything in stock and kept trying to do substitutes so I finally gave up and canceled the whole thing.

I picked up a Radio Shack Rotator Local and it should work just fine, I am not replacing my current mast as it is mounted very securely and is a one piece heavy duty pipe that is cemented in at the base, its been up for over 40 years so why fix something that isnt broken.

I'll get the antenna and rotator up this weekend and take some pictures as I go, I will probably have to experiment with angles on the antenna but I will start at 30 degree's and adjust from there for the best overall coverage. I figure it should do Ok on the high passes even at 30 degree's and should do marginal on the low passes.

We shall see !

Craig
 
QSY with HRD

Hey Craig- your FT-897 can be automatically tuned for Doppler with HRD I believe.
 
So how are you going to install this and still get your SSB and PSK31 contacts, with all the contacts you've made since upgrading I'd think it was field day for a week.

Ya I kind of got a little carried away with making contacts, I think its just over 150 in 10 days.. OCD Maybe :w00t:
 
Have you tried the 857 with the data connector with HRD sat to see if the audio skip is gone? I know it is bad through the speaker and audio jacks with HRD controlling the up/downlink freqs with the sat tracker.

I think I checked your call on qrz to see if your general upgrade was official and I saw all of you last hrdlog.net 15 contacts were from that morning
 
Have you tried the 857 with the data connector with HRD sat to see if the audio skip is gone? I know it is bad through the speaker and audio jacks with HRD controlling the up/downlink freqs with the sat tracker.

I think I checked your call on qrz to see if your general upgrade was official and I saw all of you last hrdlog.net 15 contacts were from that morning

No I havent tried the HRD Sat Tracking yet gonna wait till the antenna is up and running. BTW The antenna arrived today so it will be up this weekend one way or another.

I am probably buying a new rig for the house and moving the FT-857D to the truck for mobile use, gonna give the ATAS-120 antenna a try for mobile.
I average 30,000 miles a year and having HF would be a nice change.

I'm looking real hard at the IC-7000 for the house after reading some of the reviews and all the bells and whistles on it I think it will be on my desk next week. So I will probably have a LDG Meter and YT-100 Tuner for sale real soon.

Craig
 
Ok here we go .. Its up and the SO-50 is coming by shortly so lets see how it goes.

I put a 20 degree bend in the mast so lets hope that does well.

CheapSat.jpg
 
Nice

Nice work- you didn't waste any time getting that set up. Let us know how it works out. If I get a chance I'll try to work the evening pass.
 

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