50 MHz, 144 MHz, and 440 MHz Antennas

From a distance

Old and New

Now, to get the Tri-bander up.
The tri-bander will go where the 6-meter antenna is now located (100 feet).
The present system will be raised to put the 6-meter antenna about 14-15 feet above the tri-bander.
I have the tri-bander mostly assembled and MAY (hopefully) get it up this week.

June 27 2001
With the Help of Bill Albe (N8FUZ) I raised the TH-5 up to about 35 feet where it can be tested.
At that height it doesn't even show from the road.

Starting up with the TH-5	Rotating the TH-5 around the guy lines Note the guy lines from the old tower are still in place, with two of them crossing near the bottom of the image.

July 29, 2001
First, I raised the mast, using a 20 foot long "Come Along". With a couple of trips up and down between the rotor and the come along.
We raised the TH-5 to the top of the tower...Like the other antennas, I just rotated it around the guy lines as we went up. The biggest problem(s) were the guy lines from the old tower.  It was a pretty easy haul up and the antenna was quickly clamped to the mast and aligned. I hooked up the flexible "Pigtail" and it was ready to go.
Summer of 2001...Along in here I lost track of the dates and got way behind on keeping this page up-to-date.
All the big antennas are now in place. We had many, many, 6-meter band openings...In one week I missed WAC by Oceniana...I heard several who made WAC in one day. It appeared to be F layer openings rather than mulit-hop E.

Then came the "Big Job"! Taking down the old tower.
The tower itself was not a big job, although I had to twist off about a third of the steel bolts. The biggest hurdle was the South guy lines from the new tower. They ran within 10 feet of the old tower. Then the NW, NE, and SW guy lines from the old tower (it had 4 point guying) ran through the guy lines of the new tower. It was kind of like a jigsaw puzzle.
Getting the old Cushcraft ATB-34 down was interesting to say the least.
With the Help of Dennis (WD8BPT) on the rope and Gin pole in place, we removed the TV antenna, mast, and its rotor as a unit. It fit nicely between the elements on the ATB-34 and missed most of the guy lines. I attached a small nylon rope that Dennis used to pull the assembly out away from the tower and I just let the rope from the Gin pole slide through my hands. "I wore leather gloves".
The next step was to remove the top section complete with the rotor (Ham-M) and Mast....Welllll, that didn't prove as easy as it looked. First we had to remove the guy lines, one-by-one. It required unhooking the bottom end of the guy line and then getting it through the maze of guy lines from both towers. I took particular care as the guy lines for the new tower are Phillistrand (Kevlar), while the old guy lines are rusty steel. I didn't want to damage the new guy lines.
It took me a good hour to two hours to get the guy lines unhooked and all hanging down the same side of the tower. Dennis came over again, and I went back up the tower to disconnect the guy lines up there. Then we let the top section down...
We managed to get the next section down, but the last 50 feet it traveled were in the dark.
It was the same old stuff, for the next few days, with us removing a section or two per day. Due to the guy lines we were down to 20 feet before we could hinge the last two sections over.
What a relief!
I constructed two 80 meter center fed dipoles and one for 40 meters. The 80 meter antennas were put in as slopers with one to the NE and one to the SW. The 40 meter antenna was installed to the NW.
There is a remote antenna switch mounted at the 90 foot level. You'd think as both 80 meter antennas were cut the same and fed the same, that they'd look the same, but the tuning appears to be quite different. So, I built up a table of settings for the antenna tuner and the Power Amp. My first contact on 75 was John, G0NVD. My first 75 meter DX from this location.

I have yet to work anyone on 40, but I do have the tables made up for both the antenna tuner and the power amp.
2002
We had an early thunderstorm and the tower took its first hit. The two meter antennas started acting strange and one computer (the newest and fastest naturally) was pretty well demolished. It's easier to say what was left rather than what was damaged...The CPU and the main Memory. Even the external film scanner was toasted.
A bit of trouble shooting determined the "PolyPhaser" in the line from the 2-meter array was toast. However it did its job. No problems with the rigs.
BTW, the old tower used to take about 3 hits a season on average.  I already have a substantial ground system and I think I am going to add "static balls" to the top of the tower and maybe another set about half way up.

There was a lot of Aurora activity until late winter...and lots of double hop E layer as well as some F layer openings. Six was open nearly every day for over three weeks straight.

Oh! There is a little more to the story.
I started with a Hy-Gain HDR-200. It lasted till the first strong wind, but I did have a second one for back-up. It lasted another couple of weeks. I had one of the big Ham-5s that I decided to use just as a holder until I could get one of the new "Big Boy Rotors". It didn't even take a 20 MPH wind to tear the gears out of that. Soooo.... I went up and clamped the mast in place to prevent it from moving. The new rotor was a bit to big to fit inside the Rohn 45-G, and it bit too small to put the motor outside. A bit of change on the motor placement and it finally fitted between the cross braces. When I finished up mounting the rotor, it was COLD up there.

"The System" made it through Winter and Spring just fine. It has survived winds near 70 MPH, but at the time those two meter beams made that mast look like a light fly rod that had just tied into a big Bass.

I'm beginning to think about taking down the 2-meter and 440 arrays and replacing the tri-bander with something that covers 40 through 10 with most of the WARC bands. That would make the 6-meter beam the highest on the structure and reduce the moment at the top of the tower even with the addition of the big HF antenna.

 

The TH-5 at 30 feet for testing	The finished project Note the feed line to the SW 75 meter sloper in the left foreground and the one to the 40 meter sloper in the left background..

     A bit of a recap:

     The right hand photo is the overall view of the 97 foot Rohn 45G, which is guyed with Phillistrand, Kevlar guy line. The white, side mounted antenna is a duo-band Diamond for 144 and 440 MHz at roughly 50 feet.  There is a 40 meter inverted-V at 40 feet on the north side of the tower for the station out in the shop.  There are two 75/80 meter half wave, center fed, sloping dipoles. anchored by 1/8 th inch Nylon rope at the 90 foot level with the ends of the antennas about 12 feet out. The slope is roughly 30 to 40 degrees. One favors Europe and the other favors south west.  There is also a 40 meter sloping, half wave dipole to the north west, which is also anchored at the 90 foot level with a 45 degree slope.  These are fed with a single feed-line to a remote mounted Ameritron, grounding, antenna switch.  The antennas are fed through 1:1 baluns and there is a PolyPhaser at each connection as well as the line to the switch from the shack.

As mentioned earlier the top antennas are mounted on two concentric steel masts. There is an inch and a half mast inside of a two inch mast. Both have 1/4 inch thick walls.

 

Working at the top of the tower Yes, I still do my own tower work.	The latest view of the back yard November 13, 2003 40 meter sloper runs to the SW It was moved to make room for the HyGain AV640 vertical on the west end of the shop The 144/440 vertical for the shop is just visible behind the black satellite dish..

The antenna installation was relatively simple and did not require a great deal of "muscle". The muscle was replaced by a 20 foot long, heavy duty, "come along".  The 144 and 440 beams are vertically polarized and mounted on a 14 foot inch and a half tubular cross boom.  This was mounted at the top of the inner mast.  There are thrust bearings at the top of the tower and 20 feet below the top. The top of the outer mast was clamped in the thrust bearing at the top of the tower. Two way power dividers were attached to the 144 and 440 arrays and 28 foot flexible LMR 400 pigtails were taped to the mast as it was raised. 

Using the "come along" clamped to the top of the tower and hooked to a yoke around the "inner mast", the mast and antennas were raised to 15 feet above the top of the tower. This had to be done in two steps even though the "come along" had a 20 foot cable. Using the "come along" I raised the inner shaft as far as possible, then clamped it in the lower thrust bearing. Then the clamp was loosened and moved down another 10 feet on the inner mast, the cable from the "come along" attached and the mast along with the top antennas was lifted up to put the cross boom 15 feet above the top of the inner mast. 

At this point the 7 element, 6-meter, C3i beam was raised to the top of the tower and mounted on the inner mast right at the top of the outer mast.  Then both masts were pinned together. A flexible LMR-400 pigtail was also attached to the 6-meter antenna and taped to the mast as it was raised.
NOTE: the 7 element 6-meter antenna is difficult to see in the photo.

Again, using the come along the masts were raised another 14 feet with the TH-5 tri-bander mounted at 100 feet.  That put the tri-bander two feet above the top of the tower.

After destroying all the other rotors, the mid-size "Big Boy" rotor was installed and the bottom of the mast clamped into place.  It has now been up and running for a bit over a year.

About the only work left is to mount the white C-band satellite dish atop the pole next to it and then remove the black dish and the associated hardware and pole.

I'd like to replace the steel masting at the top of the tower with Chrome-Moly tube, but that may have to wait a while.

My thanks to: Bill (N8FUZ), Bob (W8LSS), Ryan (KC8PMX), Dennis (WD8BPT), and Bill (AB8JC), for pulling on the rope and helping set the concrete forms.
My apologies to any one I missed.

The Office at the other end of the coax complete with sleeping cat	That cat (Streak) has grown to the point where he barely fits without the rotor box in there.

The latest incarnation of the operating position. The Icom 751 has moved to the shop
At the moment, Streak is sleeping elsewhere.

Well, that was the latest at the time. Although I'm still using the 756Pro and Alpha 76 the den has become much more crowded and far less neat.
I need to replace the carpet, but the antenna work comes first.

September 26, 2004 Addendum:

The system has now been in operation for several years and the inevitable evolution has taken place.  A bit of change here and a bit of change there. 

I sold the Icom 751-A I had been using in the shop (probably should have kept it as I spend so much time out there) and that leaves me with a Henry 2K4 that has nothing to do.  I'd like to replace the Icom 751A with one of the new, 1.8 through 440 all mode rigs, otherwise I'm going to reroute the coax to the AV-640 to the main ham shack. (Note) sold the 2K4 in the Spring of 2008.

This past week I added a 160 meter half sloper to the south side of the tower with the feed point at roughly 96 feet.  I built a bracket which makes it easy to install the feed point.  The antenna is close to or a bit steeper than 45 degrees and appears to work well. Actually it loaded well over the bottom half of the band on the first try, but it was a bit too long for the entire band. I shortened it about a foot and it now loads well across the entire band.  It hears very well and most of the band is within the Icom 756 Pro's built in tuner. However I'm using the MFJ 989C tuner along with the Alpha 76A.  

NOTE: (2007-2008) I did use a Yaesu 897D for a while, then the Icom 7000 and they'd make good mobile rigs, but I didn't like either one for fixed station use.  They are great if you operate one mode, but switching modes, changing CW speeds, tweaking the noise blankers, and varying the drive power for tuning an anp requires going through menus within menus under different controls. So the 7000 is gone with the 897D soon to follow. Then I hope to be able to get another 756 Pro although I'd like a later version if and when the budget will permit.

The first night I heard a PY2 on CW around 8 PM EDT (0000 UTC) and just barely could make out an EI a couple hours later.  No, I didn't work them. I didn't even call.

The center fed half wave 75 meter sloper to the NE quit working. A quick check revealed one of the wires coming out of the choke had broken off. I was going to repair it, but water had gone down the inside of the other wire to the point where there was nothing to which I could solder.  That left me replacing the choke with a balun and it is again working fine.

Due to the original installation being finished when the temperatures were near zero the whole system had a bit of room left for a little "neatening up". So I've spent about 2 to 3 hours on the tower for each of the last 4 days, rerouting cables in addition to the half sloper installation and center fed sloper maintenance.  Also the center support for the 6-meter yagi has come loose which means lowering the mast down to the point where I can reach the support to put it back together.  I have to lower the mast and antennas about 15 feet. The whole works weighs around 500# to 600#.

Time will tell if I get it all done before it gets too cold to work "up there". 

 (January 2005) Time did tell and I didn't get it done!  Well, some where along the line the 6-meter antenna ended up being neglected.  During the winter of 2004 the rotator froze up.  It took a while to get up there and the culprit appears to have been the top thrust bearing. It has worn to the point where the top race is setting on the bottom casting.  Loosening up the centering bolts and allowing the mast to turn within the bearing seems to have fixed the problem.

Unfortunately the rotator only worked through the next summer and by the early spring of 2006 had frozen up again.  It took a while to get some gophers..er go-fers but with the help of Bill (N8FUZ) and Dennis (WD8BPT) I removed the rotator on the afternoon July 23, 2006.  Disassembly brought to light the top seal had leaked and the top bearing which is much like a wheel bearing had pretty much disintegrated. It was the pieces of the retainer, or rollers shifting that were binding it up tight.   There are some high resolution photos located at http://www.rogerhalstead.com/Gears.htm .  There are three photos of about 750K each. I'll try to get some smaller ones up here.

I was unable to climb the tower for a while, but I'm now back at it.   Unfortunately the boom truss on the7L 6-meter C3i Yagi broke and one section now hangs down on the driver element of the tribander. The tribander has to be removed before the 7L C3i can be taken down for repair.  Also the 12L 144 MHz Yagi on the right side of the cross boom has shifted and the whole cross boom with the 2 11L 440 antennas and 2 12L 144 antennas has to come down as well.  The boom to mast mounts for the 144 MHz antennas will be replaced with saddle clamps (IF I put them back up) Currently the mast from the rotator consists of 1 1/2" structural steel tubing inside of 2" structural steel tubing up to the 7L 6-meter Yagi which puts the 144/440 array well up on the 1 1/2" which is just too flexible.  This is where the real work comes in as that assembly is heavy.  I really need to bring the mast down as well as the antennas. Then weld the two tubes together with an end cap over the top. I may just cut it off at the 6-meter Yagi and only put the tribander and 6-meter antenna back up.  Only time will tell how this is going to work out.

Current plans call for setting the antennas up for "Single Operator 2 Radio" (SO2R) Operation where the station in the house/den plus the little portable rig in the shop can use any of the antennas using what is called a 6-pack, plus two remote antenna switches. That means I need to get the NEMA 4 box at the base of the tower replaced with a larger one, The conduit run from the shop to the tower, and the remote antenna switches put into operation.

I have 3 center fed, half wave slopers for 40 and hope to have the same for 75.  The ones on 40 do very well into AU, NZ, and most of Europe. The one on 75 to the NE works well into Europe.

Larger images to follow

As pulling the rotator required moving the mast up and down, I took the opportunity to lower the mast.  I didn't get it quite to the point where I can reach the 6-meter beam but it's close.  So the next time up I'll have to cut the tape holding the pigtails to the mast and then lower *things* to the point where I can work on the 6-meter Yagi.  If time, energy, and arthritis permit I'll lower the mast to the point where I can remove the 144 and 440 arrays as I rarely use them any more.  The side mounted Diamond duo-band vertical works well enough.  I also need to replace the top thrust bearing which has been beat to death. It is worn to the point where the top race sets on the bottom casting.

As of Sept 08 the pigtails are out and all runs of the LMR-400 have been taken down.  The LMR-400 is going to be replaced with LMR-600, while the pigtails will be replaced with Davis BuryFlex (TM).  The LMR-400UF did not stand up at all well in the elements (The jacket split on all the pigtails). OTOH the regular LMR-400 looks and works as good as new and I consider it to be a very good cable.

As I Work the entire length of the 160, 75 and 40 meter bands I decided to use the low loss LMR-600 due to the high SWR and high voltages when running the legal power limit on those bands. Also as the coax runs are 228 feet I chose to use the LMR-600 for the VHF and UHF bands as well as loss can be very important "up there".

PST-61 internal workings after a top seal failure.  The only real corrosion is the top bearing and races.  However I've not been able to get the worm gear wheel pressed off the shaft yet.  This is one heavy duty rotator.

Originally I ran the cables from the tower to the station through 4" PVC conduit. The conduit started at a NEMA 4 enclosure (Hoffman box) at the tower, ran along west side of the garage and house foundation and came in through the basement wall.  We had to do some basement work so while the back fill was dug out I changed to conduit  and added a sweep 90 to bring it into the bottom of another NEMA-4 enclosure mounted on the side of the house.  The cables then come out of the back of the box and through the end plate between the floor joists.  This makes for a much neater routing of the cables  and keeps them out of sight in the basement.  That box needs to be replaced with one about 4 times its size.

 

The old conduit entering through the basement wall. Note the moisture trap	The new cable entrance. The cables come up through the conduit and out the back of the box

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