It would appear that from the size of 1.75" you stated, that this might be a 3 section push up mast (1.75", 1.5", and 1.25" are typical diameters of the 3 nested sections) since TV mast is usually in 10' sections maximum. If this is the case, that would make it around 30' maximum height and by using only 15' of the length, the mast would extra rigid due to the shortened extension lengths. I would say that if the above is true, then you should have no problems using it for the indicated purpose. House bracket like was suggested and I would even guy the vertical antenna with dacron UV resistant cord/rope. I have a 40M 1/4 wave vertical (appx 34' high) ground mounted on short TV mast 1.25" dia section and dacron guyed a little below midpoint on the antenna and it has withstood many high winds we get out here in the Mojave Desert.

One thing to avoid is the use of chain link fence toprail tubing in 11' long lengths unbraced or unguyed properly. It is way too maleable and will fold right over in the situtation you described. Been there and done that and have the antenna pieces to remember it by.

Good Luck,

Gene W5DQ

A lot of these what I like to call T.U.T.s (Tune Up Turkeys) think if they don't get that amplifier tuned down to a gnat's ass exactly on the freq where they want to use it, then it won't work right. Many seem to think (by their idiotic actions) that their amplifier final tank circuitry has zero bandwidth therefore requiring spot on tune ups. I agree with your suggestion of pop down the band a bit outside the active bandwidth, listen and do a quick tuneup. Should take less than 10 seconds to completely preset and tune the amp after a band change. To expedite my operating, I have my starting points for each band/mode my amp covers on a small chart. I preset the LOAD and PLATE to the chart and then if necessary I can tweak the controls during the first couple of calls to the DX in the pileup. No one is bothered and life is good.

One other thing beside the TUTs that I completely abhor is the damn retarded jackass's that think they are God's gift to ham radio by policing the DX frequency for any operating discrepancies. These so called "Freq Police" do more harm than good in most instances and should have their licenses cancelled and they themselves fined by the FCC. 

Transmitting with the wrong VFO is understandable.    Freq police I can tolerate although they do more harm than good.  The one type of BOZO operator I cannot stand is the turkey who has to get right on the DX transmit freq and tune up his amplifier at 20 over on my receiver, usually taking 20-30 seconds to do it. It usually happens when the DX is weakest and I have the receiver / filtering tweaked as much as possible to hear well and then one of these jerks fires up the amp and throws the carrier right into my headphones. Then I have to wait for a few minutes for my hearing to quit ringing before I can get back into the pileup. 

Now I know why people get pins in their coax or coax cable cut or worse!!

If I need to tune / tweak my amp, I will go up (or down as needed) to outside the pileup bandwidth, listen for a couple of exchanges to ensure no one is calling where I am at and then do a very quick tuneup (or tweak) as needed on the amp. Then I set the XMIT VFO back to the area the DX is listening too and get back into the fracas. 99% of the time no harm - no foul to anyone. If you need more than 10 seconds to tune your amp, you need to get an autotune Alpha or learn to do it faster. My starting points for CW, RTTY and SSB are all charted using a dummy load and since my antennas are very closely matched to 50 ohms, it only requires a very quick touch up and I usually can do that on the first call or by doing as I mentioned above. 

Gene W5DQ

I feel your pain. Being on the West Coast (or close to it - I'm inland about 200 miles) I have to cross the ENTIRE country to get into EU. If you don't have an amplifier to compete with the BIG BOYS, maybe you should explore that idea. Granted it isn't the same as a 170' tower and monster yagi and amp combo but every little bit helps.

remember life is too short for QRP 

Gene W5DQ
40' tower and C3S with a AL-811 but I fight tooth and nail in pileups 

Station wise same as last year ... small but effective station consisting of:

TS940S, AL811 amp and Force 12 C3S, 40M 1/4 wave vertical and 135' OCFD, N1MM Software

Raring and ready to go as I missed the RTTY test last week due to a bout of pnuemonia.

Gene W5DQ

Paul,

I was lucky enough to work YI9PSE and get a card. Thanks for the new one.

For T6PSE, just make sure you take a 'big can of propogation' and spray it towards the West Coast I'll take all the bands and modes I can get you guys on.

Hope to see you and the team in Visalia in April before you head to T6.

73

Gene W5DQ

Well Vince, I hope you did better in the contest than I did. I heard alot of bits and pieces but ended up working only the one station I heard well enough to do so and he was in and out all afternoon on Sat. I also had planned on working the BARTG RTTY contest that weekend so I spent most of Sat working it. Like I mentioned, there wasn't many 6M stations heard up here in the desert. I heard a bunch from back east but it would be a "Whiskey Baker Nine" and then nothing or a "You're 59 in EM" and then nothing. Never heard any full exchanges or such so mainly the 6M contet was a bust fromo here. The one I did work actually turned out to be a new grid for me  - DM24.

Hope you had fun and manage to work some. Like I said before, June should be a lot better than Jan.

Steve WB2WIK - how'd you do in the test? Sounds like you weren't roving this year.

73

Gene W5DQ

Vince,

I live about 3 hours north of you up I-15 and US395 in Ridgecrest, CA. I'll be on during the test but not sure how the 6M band will perform. Past Jan events were not too lively but I will be on so listen for me and I'll do the same. I have a 7 element yagi (31' boom) at 40 ft and use a TS2000X also but I also have a King Conversion 6M SB220 amp (dual 3-500z's) that can help out at around 1200+W output when needed  . Hopefully there will be some openings too but like K5TR said, don't expect anything akin to the June test for 6M Es propagation.

Good Luck to all in the test. I'll be on from DM-15 in the high Mojave desert of Kern County, CA.

Gene W5DQ

I'll 2nd the DX Lab Suite and DXKeeper logging software. I have used electronic logging programs since the DOS days when I rolled my own using dBASE III Plus. I looked at many of the packages, free to quite pricey, and in my humble opinion the DX Log Suite out does them all and for FREE. To answer your original question, it will track all the major awards as well as many of the smaller ones - some I never even heard of until I saw them in the software. I am an award chaser and have found that DX Lab Suite does everything I could ask for, quickly and easily. Before you decide, I would highly recommend you take a look at the DX Lab Suite website and see for yourself.

Good Luck in your research. It can be confusing with the myriad of choices out here.

Gene W5DQ

I'd SOONER use LATTER line than not

W5DQ

My question would be "If you're fined every 6th of the month for having the current antenna, would the fine be the same for a larger antenna?" If it is the same $50, I'd put up the biggest antenna I could SAFELY install and pay the $50 each month. $50 is like a dinner for 4 out 1 time during the month. What sort of association benefits are you going to lose access to that is going to ruin your life? Fight fire with fire, have an antenna and enjoy your radios. Let them fine you but you'll have an antenna that is useful.

If they try to change the rules to make it tougher on you after they have been fining you and you pay those fines, I would think that you should be exempt from changes as you had a pre-existing installation, but then I don't live where anyone can tell me how to live on property that I OWN! 

Good Luck, I think you gonna need it

Gene W5DQ

Yeah but Vinnie you can look out the window and see EU from your QTH - kind of like we can the JA's from the West Coast!

Gene W5DQ (So Cal)

Short of some weird special relayed wiring that you may have configured, my vote is no way can the ARB-704 affect your tuners. I have 2 amps in line with individual manual tuners each on the amp outputs and use seperate ARB-704 on both amps. The amp is either in line with the xcvr or bypassed if in STBY. The ARB-704 supplies the switching regardless of the amp in or out of the xmit path. It is simply ignored by the amp if amp in STBY.

If the tuners were working before the 704 was installed I'd look for a miswiring in the coax somehow between the xcvr/amp/tuner.

Hope this helps.

Gene W5DQ

If you want Cabrillo now, take a look at AA6YQ's DX Lab Suite. It already does Cabrillo, ADIF, CSV and other formats in the logging function of DXKEEPER. Best of all it is free, very easy to use and efficient. I tried HRD (an older version, # I don't recall but think it was an early 4 version) and found it to be too unstable for my taste. Messed with it for quite a while and it just did not play nice with my TS940S radio. Just another point of reference for your consideration.

73 Gene W5DQ

Just personal preferences. Alot of the PSK operators seem to like to push the macro to dump me their life story about rig, ant, s/w, PC type, interface type, just loads and loads of info that really isn't of any interest to me. I don't recall ever seeing anything like that on RTTY but some info is traded. I guess what I'm saying is to me, lengthy macros seem to be too easily used on PSK. I also don't do alot of kybd to kybd RTTY QSOs but rather a lot of RTTY contests. I like contesting and chasing DX and do some ragchewing but not alot on RTTY.

Sorry if there was confusion, just my personal preference - not meant to smash anyone's toes.

73

Gene W5DQ