The AM Forum

Ok. This morning, We put the fiberglass pole up in the pine tree to support LEG B of the open wire antenna.  I found a local Tree service guy willing to do the work.  He V cut the tree so the mast would go flush to the trunk. We used Camo ratchet straps to hold the mast to the tree. 

Things to know:

1.  You can buy this pole for about $80 shipped with the dipole hanger and guy rings. 
2.  The sections DO NOT lock in,  So you cannot pull the mast UP or the joints will slip. Use tape to secure the sections.
3.  These poles are not very sturdy. They will hold a wire but the sections are only 4 ft each so you really need support ropes.
4.  Tie a rope to the top of the dipole hanger and then pull that rope downward and tie it off to a Tree limb or other support, This will stop the wind from picking the mast up and seperating it.

The antenna is now up flat top.  15 ft of turn down each leg.  Propbably around 50 ft. Its working well now.  Next week, We will put another pole in another pine and move LEG A. of the antenna over away from the vertical.  This will also stretch the antenna out a bit so it will have only 5 ft of turn down. 

Sometimes you have to make major compromises.  I lost my tower in the storm so this is what I came up with to get back on the air with a decent antenna.  Cant wait to try it out tonight. East coast AM has been comming strong late at night.

C

Curious as to why you didn't put the mast above the top of the tree. Seems no height advantage was gained.

SHould you tell him about those fiberglass masts, or should I, Steve   :'(

Is that Thing from the Addams Family sitting on the branch helping you?  ;D

It is out of the top of three. That picture does not really show it.  The top of that tree is really thin.  Going much higher would leave 2 or more sections not supported. Also. I wanted it equal and flat to match the other side. These poles are not strong enough in the high winds we see to even go two sections not supported.

This pole allowed me to go another 20 ft or so over just rope in the tree. Also the wire is no longer touching the branches which will help when it rains.

ITs working pretty good like this. I was able to key down over a certain someone that skipped me in the rotatation on friday when robert was out there on 3885.. LOL  Really irritating to wait 30 minutes in rotatation and then get skipped. Robert heard, me, Laughed and I signed off.  east coast is booming in late at night now.

I am going to now move the other side of the wire to a different pine.  This will allow more flat top wire and not so much turn down and it will get the wire away from the vertical.  This time, I am going to use a square 20ft pipe out of the top of the tree. The military poles are really neat, They are also cheap.  For a center support of an inverted V, They would work great.

C

Good deal. The higher and flatter you can make the wire, the better.

There are also aluminum versions of those masts. These are quite a bit stronger (although somewhat heavier) than the fiber ones. I was impressed with these aluminum masts at the NEARFest. Tron used 4-5 sections to hold up three big PA horns. THe mast flexed to nearly a 45 degree angle when we lifted the assembly off the ground but it didn't break. And there no lasting affects when we got the mast up to vertical.

That 3" diameter PVC pipe can make pretty good masting too. Schedule 40 is OK but schedule 80 is as strong as steel... ;)

They sell it in 20' lengths at the yards, though 10' is more common.  I remember when we put up Craig's 100' 45G tower we used this for the side antennna wire supports. Very strapping stuff when sched 80.  We actually telescoped it down to 2.5" making a 40' guyed mast IIRC.   Push this up a tree and you're golden.

T

The tree service guy suggested we go down to the local metal scrap yard. They sell hundreds of types and lengths of pipe. He suggested we get a 20 ft Square section and put it in the far tree. This could be up 10 ft over the top and that tree is much thicker. 

Had I known about the aluminum masts, I would have purchased one steve, Do you know where I can get one?

I need to move the wire over, Its really interacting with the vertical now.  I have to short the feeders on the wire antenna or the vertical shows SWR and is really down on performance.

C

Try Ben -->> http://www.ontariosurplus.com/masts.htm

spill it!  ;-)

I lashed one of those military fiberglass poles to a small tree at our place in the Upper Peninsula.  I chickened out ---one 4 foot section not installed.  Used bungee chord and nylon rope to attach to tree trunk as high as I could reach on a ladder.  It survived a 50 MPH blow before we left for home and when the super low pressure went through (28.20), the winds got to gusts of 65+ MPH over several days.  My sources tell me it's still standing!!

OK.... I bought a bunch of those with the welded tripod base and guy rings etc.  HUZ and I fiddled with it for hours trying to raise it vertical but those things had way too much flex and we could never "get it up".  Then they split at the couplings from the stress - I fixed that with hose clamps. 

So plan B was putting a mast in a pine tree similar to Clark's.  Unfortunately the swaying of the pine tree in the wind busted the fiberglass masts all to hell after a short while.

So Plan C was a Radio Shack 10' steel mast strapped into the pine tree.  Even that bent at a 20 degree angle after a few years.

I finally settled for a few feet lower, attached to the pine tree itself with a bit of slop in the lines so the pine tree swaying wouldn't take down the ant.  That's been up for 4 years now, hafta tighten it up every 6 months or so, but it's survived wind and ice storms no problem.

Ant in question is a 130' flat top fan dipole, center fed with W7FG open wire.  Each element of the fan is roughly the same length, and spread about 2-3' at the ends.  It's up about 30'.  Seems to work FB, even on 160.   Undoubtedly it would work a lot better if it were up higher, but that's pretty difficult given the tree situation.

On the fiberglass poles, There is a light duty and a reinforced version.  THe stronger of the two has a plastic or epoxy collar around the bottom so it wont split.  My "kit" had a few HD ones so I put them at the top.  The other thing I did was to put a dacron rope at the top to pull the entire thing downward. This makes a big difference in the strength.  Mine is very rigid in the tree. I can pull the wire antenna right through the top section and it does not sway at all.  Time will tell how this works. For now, I am happy. I wish I got the aluminum poles... I just did not know about them.

C

I think those are the kind I have also, off ebay.  I have about 20 ft of it on my roof no problems.  When I have used trees I alsoo used large springs or bungees on the antenna ends.

Rich

Back guying it was a good move.