[NLRS] [SPAM] [BC'ers] Tower, or silo as tower?

[Ken Boston]

Dave;

Many many years ago, a group of us operated the June VHF contest from a
ham location with a silo next door.  So we set up a 6 element beam on
the top, at 90 ft, with a rotor, and ran a 300 ft run of coax to the
rig, plus a long run of rotor cable.  We found that the great height
made up for the cable loss, at 50 meg.  I can think that a similar
situation would be OK for you, with heliax runs for the higher bands.
For microwaves, run your IF on a long cable, and mount the transverters
up at the antennas.  I am sure that extra cable costs would be much
lower than the cost of a big tower.

Good Luck
Ken  W9GA

-----Original Message-----
From: badgercontesters-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:badgercontesters-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of David
Palm
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 3:18 PM
To: Badger Contesters List
Subject: [SPAM] [BC'ers] Tower, or silo as tower?
Importance: Low

I'm always kicking around ideas about radio set-up and I'm looking for
some
feedback on an idea I've been tossing around.

I have a very favorable location here.  I'm at about 1280 ft. ASL, right
smack on top of the ridge.  My only real problem in terms of an RF
horizon
is that there is a horseshoe of very tall mature trees (60 - 70 feet)
around
the house, spanning from the west to the east, leaving out the south.
So
I'm sure I get some attenuation on 2 meters and up and it'll only get
worse
as I try to add bands.

Putting up a tower over the tops of those trees is a possibility, but
obviously that doesn't come cheap.  But there is another possibility.

I have a silo on the property and the top of the dome sits at about 70
feet
above the ground.  I have often thought about building a platform just
under
the dome and setting up a PC, wireless router, computer-controlled rig
and
rotor, and whatever other amplifiers and transverters I want to mess
with.
There are a number of up sides to this, as I see it.  For starters, the
structure itself gets antennas at 80 feet above the ground (with an
appropriate mast) basically for free.  Second, the feed lines to those
antennas would be trivially short, like in the 25 foot range, so line
losses
would be kept to a minimum.  Third, not only is it above the trees but
it's
physically away from them as well, so all of that foliage attenuation
goes
away.  Fourth, even factoring in a remote-controllable rotor, it would
surely be a lot cheaper to do a set-up like that than it would to put up
an
80+ foot tower.  Fifth, I think it would be easier and safer to work on
stuff up there than it would on a tower, because the only way this silo
is
coming down is in a serious earthquake.  And it is protected from the
elements under the dome.

The downsides as I see them are these: I think I would miss having the
physical radio in the shack.  With the PC and the WiFi and the remote
control software and such there's a lot more to go wrong and it could
get
pretty annoying to have to climb that beast and troubleshoot something,
especially in the winter and/or during bad weather.  And the temperature
extremes would be much greater up there than they would be in my shack.

So, if you had my situation, what would you do?

Thanks and 73,

David  W9HQ
______________________________________________________________
BadgerContesters mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/badgercontesters
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:BadgerContesters at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com 
Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.67/2326 - Release Date:
08/27/09 08:11:00