I had better luck when trying to cut the 10" piece of 3/4" copper pipe with the hacksaw blade almost parallel to the pipe. Though it took many times longer to complete each cut, I found that I had much better control over the cut, and less warping by the time I was done. Thanks for the tip.
I might have discovered an easy way to help form the tabs into place. I was able to put them in the right place, with two tabs outside of the other two, then tighten the hose clamps. I then pushed a piece of scrap 1/2" pipe up from the bottom. I then tightened down the hose clamps fully. This seemed easier than trying to push it down through the top.
I mounted the finished coil to the 10 inch 1 1/2" pipe and made the electrical contact to the bottom of the copper pipe using the pipe grounding clamp. I used a multimeter to assure myself that I had a complete path from the bottom tap through all of the joints to the end of the a piece of 1/2" scrap coming out from the hose clamps. I was a little concerned about this, as I had used a cold welding product, rather than sweat the copper pieces together. I don't seem to have any increased resistance due to this method.
All that remains is to buy and install the 1 1/2" diameter pipe/conduit on the outside of my house and the weatherproof housing for the transmitter. This kind of pipe is about $25 per 10' section at my local Ace Hardware in the plumbing section (I'll also check the larger "superstores" for better prices). They had some kind of conduit in the electrical section, but it didn't have threads on the ends. Is there something else that might work, but not cost so much? I need about 20' of pipe for my mast.
Regards,
Scott
Here is my biggest concern about tall towers for the antenna, how do you tune it in place when it 20 foot up?
They reccomend to tune in in the final resting position of the antenna.. if it up 20 foot thats pretty high up to be on a ladder..
Now if you built a really sturdy tower it would not be such a big problem but, being on a smal tower 20 feet up and trying to juggle a few screw divers, multimeter, ect.. sounds like a fairly risky proposition...
Jason
The antenna will be mounted on a pole that runs along the side of the house, but free standing, to roof level. I plan to lean my ladder on the house for support to reach the box and hoseclamps, which will be around the level of the gutters.
I hope to get the pole up this weekend before the gound starts freezing. I still need to run electricity to the outside. My transmitter is in the mail and should be here this week. I'll need to make the transmitter modifications, as well, so that means it may be a week before I am on the air.
I'm still trying to work out an automation solution for linux.
Regards,
Scott
AT roof hight would not be to bad for a height.. but if Im going up i would like to go way up at least 20 feet or higher.. that proves to be a issue..
Maybee a crank up tower and remote meter wires, crank it up, get a reading, crank it down, adjust, and repeat, till your happy..
My TX needed to be moded but after getting into the mod, I looked and the one part that needs to be swaped was already swapped.... I found it odd but, kind of nice the mod was quite quick.. solder a jumper and remove one piece.. done.
CHeck before you order the part from SSTran.. it will say the value on the side of it..
Good luck on the linux automation.. Linux would be nice for stability..
Jason
I finished my SSTRAN base loaded antenna construction this morning, and preliminary testing is very promising. The base loading coil is 14 feet from the ground. My mast pole descends another 3 feet into the (cement filled) post hole.
I drove two 8 feet copper grounding rods using a post driver. I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to drive grounding rods to use a post driver. It's a $20 tool that you'll rarely use, but will save so much time and trouble over trying to hammer them in with a sledge hammer. I plan to put in more rods, perhaps up to a total of eight. The ground is very dry against the house and under the eaves. I wonder if I should "water" my antenna.
With my SSTRAN Tuned to 1680, I took a drive to some points north, south, east and west of my transmitter. The signal was very solid at least to 1/2 mile out. In many cases, it was quite listenable at one mile. To the west I was able to pick up the signal mixed with crosstalk (from the noisy 1620 station) at 3 miles. 1-2 miles to the east. I only went 1 mile north and 1 mile south and was able to hear it fairly well at some points.
When I got back home, I retuned to 1690 to try to get farther away from the 1620 splatter.
Right now I've got my MP3 player in the box on the mast looping one of my wife's songs ( http://www.roxanneredd.com/), which is probably driving nuts anyone who might happen on the signal. When the audio signal is quiet, I hear a hum that concerns me. I wouldn't think it would be ground loop, since the audio device is battery powered and connected directly to the transmitter. Maybe I need to tweak the gain, modulation and compression controls or output level on the MP3 player.
I'll do some more range testing over this week and let you all know my experiences.
In summary, the SSTRAN coupled with the SSTRAN antenna (following the instructions to the letter) seems to produce an excellent signal easily heard throughout my neighborhood, and a moderatly large part of central Omaha.
Regards,
Scott
So your doing the sstran antenna and TX... and your antenna is 14 feet up..
Your doing better than I am, i gor a 1/4 mile of quality signal and it fades out rapidly from there..
Im begining to think after antenna building and all the other stuff a Rangemaster would have been a good choice.. I just wish they were under $500..
Jaosn