[Lowfer] LowFER Grabber and Converter

[Ed Phillips]

I'm sure those new verticals would be great but not inexpensive.  As I 
recall the price [circa 1980 to be true] of a 30 foot pushup mast was 
around $40.00 and guys here in Socal didn't bother making connections 
between sections - at least when they were new there was enough 
metal-to-metal contacts between the sections.  Top loads are a problem 
but one can get out a fairly decent signal without one. Good ground 
mandatory of course.

Ed


On 9/23/2012 4:47 AM, Douglas D. Williams wrote:
> Good points, Ed. Not sure how readily available those "push up" masts are
> nowadays. That was the method I used on my one attempt at a Lowfer beacon.
> The one I purchased was galvanized and came with the guy rings. Since the
> mast itself is the antenna, care must be taken to ensure that the sections
> are electrically joined.
>
> I see a lot of talk these days about those all band 47 foot vertical
> antennas for HF. It looks like they are usually made from aluminum tubing
> with tapering sections that fit within each other and are held together by
> overlapping them then squeezing them together with hose clamps. It seems to
> me that those would make an ideal base loaded LF vertical. The capacity hat
> would require some thought. I made mine out of 1/4" aluminum tubing and
> attached them to the top of the mast with "L" brackets. It folded up like
> an umbrella the first heavy snow we had. The "L" brackets just weren't
> strong enough to bear the weight.
>
> D.
>
> On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 3:29 PM, Ed Phillips <evp at pacbell.net> wrote:
>
>> No one seems to have mentioned a guyed tower using TV push-up towers or
>> mast extensions [I assume they're still available].  With a little help
>> it's easy to get up 30 feet or so.  You need an excellent insulator at
>> the base and guys have successfully used glass bottles although that
>> could be ifffy.  The antenna is always the hardest part of any LF
>> station and the loading coil comes next. True for 'commercial' guys
>> too.  Watts' "LF Radio Engineering' states somewhere that at least half
>> of the total cost of a serious LF or VLF [down to 10 kHz] is in the
>> antenna and loading coil.  I've gotten several guys on the air in the
>> old days with 'push-up' TV masts  and home wound loading coils.  Ground
>> wires run to water pipes aren't ideal but they're easy and a quick way
>> of getting going.
>>
>> Ed
>>
>>
>> On 9/18/2012 11:15 AM, KD7JYK DM09 wrote:
>>> "It would be wonderful to have at least one beacon from each state."
>>>
>>> I have a kit I bought form a fellow a few years ago.  I can make the
>> time,
>>> money and space aren't the problem, building a decent antenna for LowFER,
>>> THAT'S my problem...  I don't have equipment to test it, and wouldn't
>> know
>>> how to model it.
>>>
>>> Kurt, Nevada
>>>
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