Sean,
DONT USE fence post top rail or conduit tubing. I did the fence post top rail
and it was stupid heavy, lousy heat treat (not stiff) and a major PIA to raise
and lower. My fold over is 16 feet with two folding 6 foot cross arms (running
four 12ft beams VV) and its way to much to handle by hand but a heck of a lot
better than steel. I use a gin pole and a winch to raise and lower. Safe and
easy. Be super careful that it cant rotate while being raise because in a high
wind when folded over it will spin off to the side. I darn near killed myself
last November during testing up on a mountain top when we went from still air
to 50mph+ while raising the mast. My mast is now laterally guyed while going
up, good to 100mph. See my QRZ page for fab details. Just make the mast high
enough to get the right launch angle from the antenna's. You ability to be
mobile and drive to a stupid high location gives an 3,000 or 5,000 foot high
tower.
If you can go crank up vertical or pneumatic vertical you will be a lot happier
than using a fold over. I love my station but I went fold over because I
could do it on the cheap with fab skills in place of money that I put into
radio's.
73
John Young
KM4KMU
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Waite <waisean@gmail.com>
To: Nick Pick <nicolasgagnon@hotmail.fr>
Cc: vhfcontesting <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Sent: Tue, Sep 12, 2017 4:38 pm
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] September VHF contest
We use some thicker EMT, it's usually made of steel. We're looking at tiltover,
drive over mast holders and going with 2 lengths, the masts we'reusing are only
10' lengths so it doesn't get us up all that high. It's waytoo heavy,
particularly with the beams, to do it on 2 sections. Carefulloading up the
thinner stuff too high, it can buckle.We use one of the Ukranian 222MHz
transverters (http://transverters-store.com/). Inexpensive, 29MHz IF, about 8W
out. It'sslightly off frequency, but by a predictable amount. We ended up
getting aRadio Shack HTX-10 to drive it, there was too much of a risk of
"oopsing"and putting 100W from the IC-7000 we use on that station into
thetransverter and letting the smoke out. For an antenna, we picked up onefrom
Directive Systems.I've got a pair of 100Ah deep cycle batteries in the car
during the rove.We have 2 operators in the car, and are running 100W on 6
(IC-7000) and 2(IC-746) with assorted extra current draw from the 70cm
(FT-790RII) and1.25 (HTX-10+xverter) radios. If we're both transmitting it's
probablysomewhere around 45A draw, a little much for a single battery to be
happywith. I've thought about adding a solar panel, unsure if it's worth
thecost and additional hassle of setup in our situation. It may be more
usefulif you're sitting for longer or have shorter drives.It really is never
ending. The handy places with high elevation are closedin Winter in New
England, so for January we're looking at a full run-n-gunsetup so that we just
drive forever instead of stopping and setting upbeams. This is of course more
stuff. Then we need to implement a pile ofother changes for the next September
contest (June is a no-go for us,unfortunately).Maybe I'll get some equipment on
the air for the 2m sprint next week, butunlikely. I do need to test something
with our mobile setup, so maybe.Good luck and hope to make a contact
someday,Sean WA1TEOn Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 3:50 PM Nick Pick
<nicolasgagnon@hotmail.fr> wrote:> Hi Sean, yes still thinking on how to
improve, already know that I want a> second battery and probably a solar panel
because there's not a lot of time> to operate on a saturday, and dismounting
everyting when it's dark is a> pain in the lower region and probably focus on
operating on sunday the next> year, exept january, I will be on our local
mountain here so can go> saturday and sunday...> For mast, I use 2x 10' of
electrical metal tubing (forget in what material> is made) that I buy for 15$
each at Home Depot but with antennas, the thing> is too heavy and difficult to
raise alone, I was lucky to have someone> doing a sota to help me raise it!>
Will try to cut 1 tube at 5 feet and try to raise it alone, perhaps next>
monday for the 144MHz sprints, but not sure yet... Yes alredy thinking and>
planning, my next major move will be a 220MHz tranverter and antenna and> after
that good coax and.... it's never ending hi hi, take care and see you> on the
bands!>> Nicolas>> VE2NCG>> Le 12 sept. 2017 à 10:32, Sean Waite
<waisean@gmail.com> a écrit :>> Hi Nick,>> It really was chilly Saturday night,
at our FN32 stop it got down to about> 10*C.>> I tried listening for your a
couple times, but it was pretty chaotic> getting set up at both of our Saturday
sights so I couldn't spend a whole> lot of time. Roving is a ton of fun, and a
very good way to avoid issues> with your home QTH being in a valley or
restricted from having antennas.>> CW is useful, it's something I need to work
on more as well. I can kludge> along if need be, which is good enough for this
sort of contest.>> What are you using for a mast? Looks like PVC.>> Welcome to
the portable club. Now you get to spend every day until the> next contest
determining how to improve your locations and station!>> Sean WA1TE - K1SIG/R>>
On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 8:35 AM Nick Pick <nicolasgagnon@hotmail.fr>> wrote:>>>
ARRL 2017 Sept VHF>>>> Hello all!>> Decided to operate portable this time and
we decided (Me and Eric VA2MO)>> to operate on Mt-Radar at FN46ki, a 3 hours
ride and it was supposed to>> be warm>> and sunny.... not so much as you can
see in the album below:>>>> Album at: https://imgur.com/gallery/ZtFCQ>>>>
Installation when without a fuss and everyting was in order and Eric was>>
doing>> his SOTA activation and as I was looking at the sky, I decided to
unwrap>> the tarp>> and install it just in case... of course, 5 minutes before
the contest,>> Murphy's Law when into effect:>>>>
https://youtu.be/qwy65XcnViU>>>> It's was wetter, colder and inconfortable than
when I was Rover in>> january...>> after half an hour, decided to brig all the
equipment inside the truck>> and since>> I decided this time to use 20' of mast
insted of 10, the coax for the 6m>> and the>> ground plane for FM where too
short... anyway, still get the V/U>> horizontal and a>> 6m vertical and decided
to make somme noise on the bands and was fun>> anyway,>> portable will be my
niche from now on. Thanks to all that have worked me>> and special>> thanks to
everyone who have try! As a rookie, I have learn that cw is>> very important>>
when the band are so-so, next "upgrade" to my station would be to learn>>
cw!>>>> Nick VE2NGC>> _______________________________________________>>
VHFcontesting mailing list>> VHFcontesting@contesting.com>>
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