A little follow-up with my life in the
fast lane...
I move slowly, all considering, kind of
like Ahab with a pair of shoes. I've been
spending the better part of the last two
weeks putting up a HI-Z 4-8Pro array.
If it were open space with good soil, all
would have been done after the first 1-2
days. But no, I live in New England, the
place where the Glacier's Gall Stones came
to rest after it encountered Global
Warming.
The place I have to put the array in is
like a Louisiana Bayou minus the standing
water. It's a salt marsh and just a bit
above sea level. I don't have an option
where else to put it, this is it.
We're known for Lyme disease, Lyme, CT is
10 miles west of here so tick protection
is mandatory. Worse, this is Bambi's
frolic-land and deer sign is everywhere.
More, we're blessed to have West Nile and
of course Zeka is getting all kinds of
press. So pyrethrin and DEET 40 is the
cologne de jour.
You can't imagine the scale of the rocks
here, it really boggles the imagination.
So much stone 5" below the surface and
muck on top of them. Some boulders above
ground are the size of Volkswagens and
most showing are like an iceberg with the
greater mass underneath.
This place has one other unusual issue in
that in a storm surge, at high tide, salt
water can get in there and will ruin
everything. So to outwit the tide, I moved
the amplifiers up inside the PVC tubes and
used a rubber cap to hold the amp high
enough that if the water rises, it won't
reach the electronics as there will be an
air pocket inside to keep everything out
of harm's way. I posted this pic earlier
of what I did:
doctorgary.net/Hi-Z-8-Pro-3.jpg
It will work just fine to keep the amps
safe..
Of course there are the briars, brambles
everywhere that are strong enough to stop
an Iron Man in his tracks, not to mention
the bittersweet vines that make walking in
a straight line impossible.
I staked out the proper placements for the
8 antennae, 4 times, before I found an
acceptable spot rock-wise but the trees
were unforgiving and ended up cutting down
7 rather large trees to make room.
Of course the Poison Ivy is everywhere and
the last spot I had to deal with branches
& rock-wise had a hairy 5" root of Poison
Ivy going up the tree with branches
hanging out right in the way of the
antenna. The Oak was too thick for my 20"
chain saw so I had to remove the tree
branches and the poison ivy.
I couldn't reach the branches 20' up and
my extendible saw/pruner could only reach
the poison ivy. Ended up slicking the vine
at knee level and leaving it die for a few
days. I tried a rope saw but it got stuck
1/2" in and was useless. Then I remembered
the extra elements I ordered from DXE and
connected the large ones & duct taped the
pruner to the aluminum and was able to
reach the branches. Between the tree
sawdust and the poison Ivy Sawdust, it was
a glorious time.
Finally , success! The local metal shop
cut my aluminum angle for the
ground/support rods, so today I hoped to
sink all the angles, using a Stainless
Steel angle as a probe to find what
worked. Great success, I get to the last
place I had marked out as correct, put the
knapsack with all my tools down, pull out
the SS angle and pound in the Aluminum and
there it was, the sound like small Harley
Davidsons on a mission from God, the
ground wasps that I had put my knapsack
down on their entrance were angry and knew
I was to blame.
Give me three good Honey Bee stings, one
yellow Jacket sting but nothing inch for
inch is more painful than these guys, they
are just mean. They stung me several times
and I proved Ahab can still run if the
prize is worth enough. I couldn't get my
tools, there were constantly 3-4 dozen of
these in the air swarming everything I had
laid down.
Some Hornet killer later and I could get
close enough with a stick to wrangle my
tools out but the damage was done
time-wise, I couldn't finish before dark.
So I finished assembling the antennas,
have them ready to connect to the
controller and tomorrow I get to connect
up all the coax, the terminals, everything
outside and I'm good to go.
My ear is the size of a Cauliflower but at
last count it was Wasps 5, Gary 100, that
wasp stuff really works... Looking forward
to hearing with this marvellous Antenna
system.
Oh, and I left out so much more of the
saga... ;)
73,
Gary
KA1J
> I'm so close to being done with putting
> this together. I have all 8 antennas made
> @ 23' each the tip section is .5" and the
> base is .850" I'm using a 3/4" fiberglass
> rod as an insulator
>
> doctorgary.net/Hi-Z-8-Pro-1.jpg
> doctorgary.net/Hi-Z-8-Pro-2.jpg
>
> I am having a conundrum with the placement
> of the enclosure for the preamp mounted at
> each antenna and need some advice. The
> problem is I am at sea level and the
> antennas will be mounted in a location
> that will possibly get a storm surge
> during a Hurricane, it ruined my remote
> coax switch during Sandy from this very
> reason. The preamp does have a silicone
> gasket but if the amp gets submerged in
> salt water, I'm sure it will get past the
> terminals and ruin the amp. I have no
> alternate choice, this is the location
> where I have to put the array.
>
> Seeing the photo of the end cap on the PVC
> tubing with the zip tie holding the amp in
> place (to protect from rain & Snow), gave
> me an idea for the solution; At the top of
> the PVC tube, make two opposing holes, run
> a loose loop of thin wire through and
> twist together. Run the coax up & over the
> wire to hold the amp elevated inside the
> tube, all the way to the top. Use a rubber
> cap with radiator clamp to secure the top
> and make it truly airtight. Now if the
> tide water from a storm surge encroaches,
> there will be a pocket of air inside and
> will be unable to push high enough to
> reach the amplifier. I tried this with a
> Mason jar and the water did not get very
> high in the upside down jar.
>
> doctorgary.net/Hi-Z-8-Pro-3.jpg
>
> So here's the dilemma: As a further hedge
> against water damage assuming there are
> strong winds making waves (they would not
> be breakers, just waves in the marsh) at
> this time, I'd like to raise the placement
> of the amplifier so it would be another
> foot higher than standard placement which
> is on the base below the insulator. This
> would require me to clamp the PVC on the
> antenna instead of the base. Can anyone
> see how this might be a problem with
> operation?
>
> Also, I'd like to spray camo paint on the
> elements so they don't stand out. When the
> leaves come down, I'd prefer the neighbors
> not see the elements, they're nosy enough
> as it is. I think I remember reading a
> layer of paint on the element shouldn't
> cause a problem, is this correct?
>
> Thanks & 73,
>
> Gary
> KA1J
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