Good Old Fashioned Antenna Raising

[pa629]

Friend of mine locally has to replace a bad run of coax on his omni and he figures that as long as he's taking down the Imax w/gpk, he might as well put up something he's always wanted to try, a vintage Avanti Sigma.

He found it last fall and refurbed it over the winter, all new hardware, etc. It'll be going up on top of an old brick 3-story house with 20 ft. of mast and dacron guy lines. Should be plenty high enough to work, considering the Sigma itself is like 27-30 ft. high. He's been tuning on it the last few days and it's ready, so tomorrow's the day. It'll be interesting to see how it performs compared to the Imax, I know where my money will be bet.

Should be fun............

[pa629]

I swung by the place earlier to take a quick look to see if I needed to bring anything special. Damn, that's one tall mofo. First time I'd ever seen one on the ground, had no idea the matching section and hoop was as long as it is. Like around 7 ft.

Shouldn't be too bad, looks like about a One Six-Pack Installation. Ladders, three story house, beer.............good combo.

[hotrod]

nice have to posts pics

[pa629]

Originally Posted by hotrod

nice have to posts pics

Would've been, huh? I put the digital camera right on the counter next to my car keys so there would be NO WAY to forget it. Got there, could'nt find the &%$&% thing anywhere in my Blazer. Sure enough, when I got home, right on the counter where I put it.

Anyway, three of us put the thing up in less than 45 minutes, no ladders needed, went out a 3rd floor dormer window on front of house. Two on roof, one on ground to guide it up, bolted into tripod, tightened guy lines....done. Painless, like it had zippers. This guy has done this before many times over the years. Never opened a beer till it was all over with.

Performance-wise, can't really compare the Sigma to the Imax, as he hasn't been able to transmit for about 4-5 months due to intermitant short in the old coax and doesn't remember any meter signal strengths from when the Imax was working. But he said it tuned in well and was broadbanded for where he goes. So I guess all's well.

[hotrod]

i hate that also when i forget stuff like that. what would be
an ideal height for this antenna. being its sooo long id be afraid
to mount it high. probaly just high enough to get above my lil
1 story house roof that peaks around 15ft.they say height is might
maybe id be better off to raise my antenna higher. then buy a new
one thats not gonna be much above my house roof.

[pa629]

I'd figure an "ideal height" would be the usual yardstick of 36 ft. to the feed point. This particular one is on top of a three story brick house with an attic crawl space and a peaked roof, 20 ft. of mast in a 3 ft. tripod. So do the math, it's up there! He lives in the eastern suburbs of the city, I'm south of the city, and he absolutely crushes the A99's and Imax's from his side of town running a 2510, Shure studio mic through an EQ, and T-Star DX350 for when the going gets rough.

[hotrod]

thats cool.got me wanting to try 1 now.most guys i chat with
are bout 50 miles away. i use my magnum delta force and ts350hdv
and i can chat with them.if i could get back to these guys barefoot
and just a verticle antenna id make couple of my close local mad