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

[Zack Widup]

A few years ago, at our first MAMS (Mid-America Microwave Society) meeting,
Bill K9AWA set up a 10 GHz beacon with a horn antenna pointed up at the
curved surface of the bottom of a water tower. I believe it was running
about 100 milliwatts. A couple of us at the meeting about 20 miles south of
the beacon (I think) were able to hear it from a hill in Big Bone Lick State
Park in Kentucky.

73, Zack W9SZ

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Ken Boston <kboston at lsr.com> wrote:

>
>
> 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
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