Antennas

[skier]

Yes, good thinking; give him a call and reaquaint. (This way, if I should contact him and mention that you had told me about him, he won't say anything like, "MJ WHO???")

 

[-mjk-]

Lol. You'll find that there is pretty much nothing that "phases" Dana or Grady (I had to do that, you understand).

 

[skier]

A pun on our expertise? I suppose you had a "yen" for it? (Well, kuai actually, but it didn't work in "my pun".)

 

[-mjk-]

Jerry, you garnered some significant style points for knowing the correct word that applies to Taiwan.

 

[skier]

Thanks, I get lucky sometimes. I seem to have stored some words I rarely or never use, something I pick up in my reading or hear in a movie, lookup, don't think about it, and then it comes to mind when on on some kind of related topic. To bad I can't always do that when I actually have some important problem I need to solve and the mind goes blank. SHEESH!

Back to the actual topic of this rather general thread, tomorrow, I'm going to install the 146/440 J-Pole. I want to put it up onto a mast held against my deck. It'll be a temporary installation because, if all goes well, we'll move to Colorado within a year or so and I'll put in a bigger installation. Instead of an actual metal mast, I'm wondering if I just put up a couple of 10 foot lengths of schedule 40 or 80 PVC pipe to gain 20 feet, would that stand up to the wind? I think it would, it'd be cheap, and easy to take down when we move. The 20 feet would get the radiating portion of the J-pole above the roof so nothing is blocking the signal but the trees - yeah, the worse signal absorber is something I can't resolve for a reasonable price. All I can hope for is that my reach won't completely die when the leaves come out on the trees. Of course, there could always be a 2m linear... hmmm... the band chart doesn't show any lower limit on these bands. What would an experienced broadcast engineer do?

 

[-mjk-]

What would an experienced broadcast engineer do?

Put up 6, 500' towers and make a full legal-limit steerable array.

Or, what you said. Seems fine to me. 440 will cut through the "signal absorbers" pretty well.

Repeaters can usually hear quite well. You may be surprised at how well you can hit the local machine with something that you would consider to be not very good.

 

[-mjk-]

I seem to have stored some words I rarely or never use, something I pick up in my reading or hear in a movie, lookup, don't think about it, and then it comes to mind when on on some kind of related topic.

At least you can keep your thoughts straight. My own brother told a friend of his that I married a "Thai" woman. Another person, upon hearing that I live in Taiwan said "Awww, you have those cute elephants there!"

 

[skier]

Put up 6, 500' towers and make a full legal-limit steerable array.

That is EXACTLY what I'd like to do. Can you imagine the sight of looking up at those suckers? I took my girlfriend to the base of a 630 foot (HAAT) TV antenna tower last summer and she spent at least ten minutes looking up at is and asking questions - this is not normally something of interest to her, but there is something awesome about a tall tower, especially when looking straight up from below.

Of course, there is the problem of your 6,500' suggestion starting with the 200 foot maximum Amateur antenna tower limit, the 2,000 foot maximum commercial tower limit, the fact the FCC has hardly ever given a waiver even to a commercial enterprise, and most important, the paltry Jerry tower fund allotment.

Well, I'm glad to hear that my concerns may not be warranted and that even the 70cm band still has some penetration ability.

 

[skier]

I keep "some" of my thoughts straight. Then there are all the others. But thank you for thinking the best of me.

 

[Arjan P]

At least you can keep your thoughts straight. My own brother told a friend of his that I married a "Thai" woman. Another person, upon hearing that I live in Taiwan said "Awww, you have those cute elephants there!"

I noticed on my travels to the US (spent more than a year of total time there) that Americans don't know much in general about the rest of the world (I'm not judging, why should they?). I developed a practice of saying I was from Amsterdam, since The Netherlands or even Holland didn't sound familiar, or the next remark was "Oh, that's in Michigan, right?" Amsterdam usually was placed in Scandinavia - or at least in Europe

BTW, yes, I'm still reading this topic... Nothing useful to add but it's interesting anyway.

 

[-mjk-]

I took my girlfriend to the base of a 630 foot (HAAT) TV antenna tower last summer and she spent at least ten minutes looking up at is and asking questions

She's a keeper! I took my wife to a transmitter site where Grady was working with another engineer and a tower crew, and she was bored. But, Grady did meet its for Chinese food later and he impressed her with his knowledge of Asian cuisine. BTW Jerry, Grady has been to Taiwan 2 times.

 

[-mjk-]

@Arjan P don't get me started. A lot of it has to do with the school system.

 

[-mjk-]

This thread is becoming the escape from the abuse that I endure in the other threads.

 

[skier]

I noticed on my travels to the US (spent more than a year of total time there) that Americans don't know much in general about the rest of the world (I'm not judging, why should they?). I developed a practice of saying I was from Amsterdam, since The Netherlands or even Holland didn't sound familiar, or the next remark was "Oh, that's in Michigan, right?" Amsterdam usually was placed in Scandinavia - or at least in Europe

BTW, yes, I'm still reading this topic... Nothing useful to add but it's interesting anyway.

Yes Arjan - you are completely correct! In fact, this is an embarrassment that I recurrently endure and from which I chafe. Most Americans just don't seem interested about what happens in the rest of the world, other than those events which are sensational or gossipy. Currently, the fascination with a row going on within the British Royal family is all over the news, day after day. Most Americans have never been out of the country, don't know where many countries are located on a world map (or have it wrong), know little about other cultures, and don't care. I realize that what happens here often affects more of the world than the reverse, but that's no reason to be ignorant. The past administration did not help by trying to be more isolationist than working together. America's influence is currently under change and most Americans will not be happy about it when they learn, though they're not currently paying attention and that is also very bad.

China's influence is growing fast and America will be eclipsed as the most influential country on the planet in the not too far distant future. Global warming is real and will affect the entire planet - isolation is no longer an option for any country - being on separate continents no longer matters or protects - we will live or die together, but so many don't yet realize that, especially here. It is extremely frustrating to realize this and to be concerned for not only our descendants, but for all of humankind - too bad that feeling isn't pervasive.

You'll never offend me by speaking the truth - the facts are the facts. Now, I just wish we could better educate not only so many here, but everywhere, so we don't bring ourselves to extinction.

 

[skier]

She's a keeper! I took my wife to a transmitter site where Grady was working with another engineer and a tower crew, and she was bored. But, Grady did meet its for Chinese food later and he impressed her with his knowledge of Asian cuisine. BTW Jerry, Grady has been to Taiwan 2 times.

HA! Ok then; I guess that's what we engineers and technocrats should do when contemplating a long-term relationship with a potential partner: take the potential significant other to the base of a tower and evaluate their response. Who knew? We should post this clever advice on the more prominent dating sites; perhaps there's a reward to be had.

 

[skier]

This thread is becoming the escape from the abuse that I endure in the other threads.

Yes, same for me. It's been great to socialize with a technical bent. Though, I'm often awaiting one of Arjan's witty and humorous responses, such as, "come on guys, what's going on here?" I generally find myself laughing out loud at those times.

 

[-mjk-]

@Arjan P is like a rudder - he keeps things on course. He's a rare one. I can honestly say I have not seen a single post of his that was proven wrong or didn't age well. Wish I could say that about my posts....

And for those who have read the other threads: there isn't enough money in the world to make me want to endure some of the things that are said on the forum. I wish I was was getting a paycheck from Tascam so I could send it back.

 

[skier]

Be careful, we need to be able to talk to Arjan and it'll be no fun if his head gets too big.

 

[Arjan P]

Now stop it guys, y'all are making me blush!

 

[skier]

Yesterday, I received delivery of an arborist’s rope launcher. They use it to get ropes over branches so they can control how the tree falls. I need it to get antennas into the upper branches of trees to assure I have at least a half-wavelength distance between the antenna and the ground at the lowest frequency at which the antenna will be used. (It’ll also be valuable to knock drones stuck at the top of trees - yeah, it happens – not to me of course, only to others ). It’s like a big slingshot.

I wonder if the elastic portion has any use in the studio. Perhaps it could provide sonic benefits to the low end of my songs. I could vary the tone by changing the tension on them — it strikes me that the tone could sound a little flabby. Hmmm… Skier’s flabby tunes? It could work!