I do have an 80 meter dipole at 40 feet. The other side of my property away from the conifer is a 60 foot palm tree. Actually in the east to west orientation I am able to hang 350 feet of wire. While I live in the city we live in an area that was never annexed by the city so technically I live in the county. I could erect a 100 foot tower if I wished, no zoning issues. I believe it's $100 for the permit, just submit the manufactures tower specs and the footer specs. There is only one inspection for per concrete. After that you are on your own. No tower inspection. So there are many options. I just thought a low profile vertical might be fun if it would work with the limited radial area.

73
James, KF7ITG

I am considering installing a vertical antenna in the 40 to 70 foot range??? I live in Tucson where soil conditions are poor at best. So a decent radial field is a must. First a little background to work with. My property is about 200 X 200. The optimum place for a vertical for aesthetic reasons would be 22 feet east of my single story home. Also that would place the antenna just N and outside of the parameter (25 feet from the trunk) of a 75 foot conifer. That's two large objects with in 25 feet. My radial field would be asymmetrical.
Starting at 330 degrees to 20 degrees I have 110 feet available. From 20 to 30 I have 80 feet from 30 to 140 I have 60 feet from 140 to 180 I have 50 feet from 180 to 200 I have 85 feet from 200 to 330 I have 25 feet. These measurements for each section is the shortest radial length for that section. Some will be longer by 20+ feet but none shorter. The reason I am considering a vertical now is that I was to lazy to dig several thousand feet of trenches just to throw wire in for radials. As a secondary project with trenches already open I'm not so opposed to the idea. I am installing an extensive drip irrigation system and would like to drop a wire in all trenches before backfilling them. If I were to use the irrigation trenches it would roughly resemble a spider web over the area described. The wire I have on hand is 2, 500 foot rolls of 14 gage insulated copper wire and 6, 500 foot rolls of 20 gage insulated copper wire. I would prefer to use the 20 gage if it is heavy enough and use the 14 gage for an NVIS antenna. I have the 4.0 EZNIC software but I'm not proficient with it yet .... so....

73
James, KF7ITG

Coax in the wall:
I am completing a 30 x 40 shop with 12 foot ceilings. I am getting ready to insulate and then drywall. In one corner of the shop I have a work bench that is 16 feet on one side and 11 on the other. I would like to set up a station on a section of this bench to listen to as I work on other projects. My question is i want to route the coax for the antennas inside of the wall to the roof. If I go this route the coax will cross at a 90 degree angle two 110V wires. Where they cross they will be within 5 inches of each other at the closest point. One wire is to power overhead lighting the other goes to an outlet. If this is unacceptable I can always run the coax clear through the wall to the exterior then up. I just wanted to keep it as clean visually as possable without sacrificing performance.

Thanks & 73

James ... KF7ITG

I am interested in HF commutation between vehicles while off roading in the Southwest.  No line of sight. No repeater. From the bottom of a canyon to the bottom of another canyon 30 miles apart.  Communicate between two vehicles 50 miles apart with a 10,000 foot mountain in between. The NVIS antenna is what we need. I have read about the military vehicles with their 20 foot whips bent into a large inverted U that they claim provide good results in areas like I just described.  I have found extensive information on the web related to the portable wire NVIS military and civilian antennas but nothing definitive on the mobil antenna. Communication while in motion. If this mobil antenna exists and works as advertised can anyone help point me in the right direction on some 411 about it.

Thanks 73
KF7ITG

A little 411

http://k9jy.com/blog/2010/02/18/ham-radio-web-sites-need-improved-marketing/

73 James

Hot Young Ladies are attracted to the bad boys and the excitement that goes with them. At the next Hamfest look around. Turning the power up on a 1500 watt amp while setting at a fold up table is not the same as turning the key to 1968, 1000 HP Fire Engine Red Camaro that has questionable license plates. This guy never has to work and always has a pocket full of cash. He is always saying come on lets go do (.........) it will be fun. If you catch my drift, I'm saying you will need to combine something dangerous, sexy and exciting with ham radio When that happens......Hot Young Ladies everywhere. But you will need to remember talking dirty on the air is an FCC no no. But by then you will be a Bad Boy and the rules don't count. Your new hot, tall, redhead with the skirt that is waaaaay to short will be listening to every word you say on her new IC-7000. So make that contact count and that contact shouldn't be DX either:o Just a thought but perhaps a change is in order. XYL " X young lady = old woman." How about some new terminology like dumping the XYL to something more appealing like HYL to describe your significant other. Of course if you prefer to keep Ham Radio a guy thing then by all means then continue to call the girls that you talk about on the air old women.    Then again I could be wrong.  

73

I was cruising the web looking at some interesting Amateur Radio sites when I happend across a site sponsored by K9JY. He has some incites related to Amateur Radio Clubs that I think may be of intrest to some.

http://k9jy.com/blog/2010/04/26/lose-your-ham-radio-club-members-one-easy-step/

and .................

http://k9jy.com/blog/2010/05/07/your-ham-radio-club-general-purpose-or-specialty-club/



73 JAMES

I would bet the border law enforcement is claiming encrypted radios as another excuse why they can't do their jobs. I mean really, why would you need to encrypt "OK Pedro, its all clear". No one could ever tell where such a short message originated or where Pedro was located in the first place. Anyway I have changed my mind about listening to Pedro on the radio. Now I'm thinking it might be fun to set on one of the hill tops and watch the smugglers haul several loads of drugs over the flimsy border barb wire fence. Then post their progress on 20 meters in real time.

We have strayed from the topic of encrypted radios.  But here is the deal on the secondary subject. Nobody wants the War on Drugs to succeed. There is just too much money in it for everyone. Anyone with any common sense knows that the border could be sealed in two weeks if they wanted to stop the drug flow. We can defeat a desert country like Iraq but we can't seal 1000 miles of our own border? Give me a break. Like Tisha says the military are most likely able to listen in on many of the smugglers radio conversations. Yet nothing happens to the three hundred cartel observation posts located inside of our country. We have our weekly rolling gun battles involving smugglers on I 10 between Tucson and Phoenix. Phoenix is now the kidnap capitol of the nation. Like you said it's terrable when your teen age daughters are getting ready to go out and you have to ask. Do you have plenty of gas ..... yes Dad. Do you have your licence .... Yes Dad. Do you have bottled water ..... Yes Dad. Do you have your phone ..... Yes Dad. Are the battries charged ..... Yes Dad. Do you have your pistol ..... Yes Dad. And that's the way it is. That said, I still would like to listen in on the smugglers radio transmissions.

Well at least out here they expect you to have some nuts and take care of yourself. There is so much Marijuana crossing the border into Arizona everyday that they won't prosecute anyone that has 500 lbs or less. The Feds say 499 lbs is now considered for for personal use . Just think if we were in Chicago or New York. They would have arested us for possession of firearms and interfering with a criminals pursuit of happiness.

Anyone know what type of radios these guys are using? Is it off the shelf Ham equipment with an add on encoding unit?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43096521/ns/nightly_news/t/cartels-using-ariz-mountaintops-spy-cops/

We were down by Aravaca (about 20 miles north of the border)the other day on a dirt road west of I19. We were stopped by Border Patrol. They just wanted to make sure we were well armed enough to be able to take care of ourselves if need be. We told them "We're good." They said just make sure you are out of here before dark. They are putting up big yellow warning signs on roads south of Tucson warning people of the danger of losing your life by just being there. That's inside the US. WOW whats with that? Any way It would be fun to be able to listen in on the smugglers radio traffic. I guess that won't happen they are already 2 jumps ahead of our law enforcement.

I just happened to run onto this site. It's a good web site offering some basic information about how and why on several Ham Radio subjects. Thought I would pass it along.

http://vk5ajl.com/index.php

TEP uses 4kV (4160V line to line, 2400V line to gnd) in the older central neighborhoods such as Sam Hughes and uses 13.8kV (7970V line to ground) for everything else.  Your service is fed from B-phase of circuit LC-35 from the La Canada substation which is at the NW corner of La Canada and Hardy and is a 13.8kV distribution area.  They (system operators) usually run the voltage a little higher (14.1kV / 8.1kV) and can control it remotely by the addition of capacitors in the substation and the load tap changer on the substation transformer secondary.  You can spot the older 4kV overhead transformers because the high voltage bushings are on the side of the can.  The 13.8kV distribution transformers such as yours has the high voltage bushings on the top.
TEP inherited the former Citizens utilities service territories in Santa Cruz and Mohave counties.  They use 13.2kV and 20.8kV for their distribution system.  Other utilities which serve more rural areas usually use higher distribution voltages to reduce the losses.  For example Sulphur Springs and Navapache uses 25kV and 35kV respectively.
TEP sub-transmission and transmission system voltages are 46kV, 138kV and 345kV.  Three phase power system voltages are normally specified as line to line quantities.  Divide the line-line voltage by the square root of 3 (1.73) to find the line to ground voltage.

James

Remember this is a receive antenna. I don't have any idea what 1500 watts of power would do to your neighbors TV when you hit transmit with you antenna 1/4 inch away from his TV cable and possabibly everyone's TV within a mile. Worse yet you might fry your own TV.

In plain sight of course. Stop by the second hand clothes store and pick up a set of work clothes that resemble the local cable installers. Grab your ladder, put on your white hard hat. and start putting up wire. If you are known by the neighbors get an unknown friend to help out. You can always return the favor around his place. If someone comes out to see what you are up to ask them to check channel 224 and see if they have a good clear picture. Then say "OK thanks then the trouble must be further down the line." If your install is on a main road have two magnetic signs for the doors of you pick up resembling the cable company logo made. Two nice big signs for $60 at the sign Co. Now I wouldn't do anything like that to get over on the HOA but someone sure could. You gotta think big.