As well as remembering the gravel....would it be a bad idea to ram an 8' rod in the bottom of the hole, right where one of the legs will be? Slide tower leg on it, weld outside of rod to inside of tower leg.  Direct connection between tower and ground, but plugs one of the tower legs. I can fill that leg w/ foam (from the top of ground rod to above-ground level, maybe there is an option for a _small_ hole to drain water at that point?  I feel this would be an improvement over copper strap at 90-ish degree angles connecting to an external ground rod (4' higher than in-hole rod).

All good advice!

1) yeah I should have specified a little better with the concrete.  I'd want it as close to the building while _still being centered in the concrete_.  I want as much concrete as I can pulling down on the tower, and I want that force to be straight down...so yeah absolutely centering it. 

2) I will definitely be reinforcing the structure where the brackets will bolt into.  2x4s added to the studs, large quality bolts through-and-through.  If this thing is going to come down, I want it to be because the entire garage wall came down.  Like I said, trying to overdo this a bit.  At first the 40' will have just an Opek UVS-200 on it (2m/440 base antenna).  Once I get the guy situation figured out and add the remaining 40' of tower (total of 80') it will have a UVS-300 (replacing the 200), Cushcraft A3S and a home-brew PVC+wire 6m Quad. If I don't have room for the quad, it will be a home-brew 6m beam (ABS or PVC). There WILL be a rotor on the final product as well.

3) I'll dig a hole and do a non-concrete markup to figure out what I need for bracket length. 

Putting up 40' of 25G behind the garage.  Garage has an add-on, so I was going to put the tower in that corner where the back wall of the garage meets the side-wall of the add-on (figured it would be better secured that way).  NOT guying it while its only 40'...will add guys when I add on next year.  

Going to hand-dig at LEAST a 3'x3' cube, want to try and do 4'x4' or more (yes, overkill).  Can bracket it up the wall the first 16'.  Don't have a base, but one section has a small rupture at the very bottom on one of the legs (1" split) so thats the one I'm submerging 4' down in the concrete.

Looking for advice on which brackets I should use? I assume as close to building as possible (more stable)?

Brilliant, thank you!!! God forbid they make mention of that on page 51 where they discuss the code-practice menu...

Seems to be my night...got an answer to my question and just discovered that a broken pro-64 handheld scanner that has been living in the back of a drawer has managed to heal itself and works just fine now after sitting in the dark for 4 years.

Once again I've posted in a panic.  The RED (right) channel wire goes to the positive, shield to negative/ground (oops).  Key works in the "key" port now.

Practice = i hear my keying, but the fan still kicks on and the power display goes to full tilt. Need to find an SWR/power meter (its around here somewhere) to connect to the antenna jack to see if I'm actually transmitting or not.

So yeah, I was spazzing out.  Sorry :|

No-code general here trying to teach himself morse.  Radio is supposed to have a practice mode...but its actually transmitting a signal in practice mode.

Looked at the manual (page 51), turned to menu 31 and set it to alpha+numeric code practice. Pressed "start" and it played some CW through the speakers.  The manual states that when I start keying, I should hear my code through the speaker and it shouldn't transmit.

I started keying and it started transmitting :| I did not hear my code through my speaker.  Little irritated about that.

Any idea what I 'm doing wrong? Radio was in CW mode.

EDIT: and i just realized the key only actually works when connected to the "acc" port and not the "key" port.  Using a three-wire stereo cable, ground on the ground side (duurrr) and the white wire (left channel) for key-down. Key is the plastic el-cheapo MFJ straight key.  Trying to figure out why it doesnt work in the port labeled "key",,,

Theres one for sale in the recent HRO catalog. Don't know the manufacturer (as the magazine is in the bathroom, at home, where I'm not).

Didn't know if you were interested in another one or just info about your old one.

Totally trying that!

Ok I'll ground the radio at the same post the car stereo is grounded at since the 2m is installed directly above the stereo

Also noticing static bursts when I roll the windows up/down too.  This car DID sit for a year and I'm wondering if there is an OEM ground that compromised (that may not be helping).

I read that those in-line filters can drop the amount of power going to the radio so I didn't check into those (yet).

I honestly thought I was doing something correctly by going straight to the battery. Guess not heh.

Thanks for the tips. I'll let you know how it all turns out this weekend.

Okay so you have me on the "i should have the stereo down when I TX" thing

Right now I don't give two shakes about the CB/10m because its not really being used at the moment.  The alternator whine on 2m is my primary target, heres what Ive done so far:

5 snap-on chokes around the alternator control wires.

sanded/brushed all OEM ground-points (removing paint from metal *sigh*) and reconnected securely.

I had a thick -gauge grounding system (bunch of pre-made wires w/ eyelets) that i had put in my impreza a while ago. dont drive the impreza, so used those wires to connect engine block and one of the alternator mounts to negative battery terminal. The OEM set up also grounds transmission, front-left strut tower and sub frame (above left headlight).

The DC cables from 2m radio have always been directly on the battery terminals, however the negative is fused and I keep seeing that pop up as a bad thing in the course of my research.

I have 2 large square/cube shaped snap-on chokes, so i have one on each DC lead (from radio), wrapping the wires 2 or 3 times around them.

The 2m coax may not be routed very well under the dash. The antenna is mounted towards the rear of the forester, the coax entering through the trunk hatch. Inside the plastic molding along the top, down the A-pillar and straight over all the wires that come in through the firewall, including the ECU wiring.  I'm thinking that may be an issue as well.

Just mounted a 2m center-loaded mobile antenna, as well as a Firestick Firefly ( 4' ) antenna for CB (and hopefully 10m). 2m is permanent NMO mount, firestick is mounted to roof rack w/wire running from shield to bolt on roof.  SWR on 2m is 1.1:1 @ 146.52 and firestick is 1.4:1 on 27.200 (tested using MFJ analyzer). R ~ 50ohm on both mounts.

If I have the car radio on in the forester and I TX on either the ic-2100 or radio shack CB, the car radio signal is completely wiped out.  This wasn't an issue when the 2m was mag-mounted to a Toyota.  On the forester, the car stereo antenna is integrated into one of the pieces of side-glass on the back of the vehicle.

I assume this is a fault w/ the car stereo, but wanted to make sure there isnt something else I could be looking at.  I'm also having a problem w/ noise, but after visiting k0bg's site its obvious the noise is from the alternator. The alternator noise is present on both RX and TX.  Could a bonding problem cause this sort of behavior (enhanced alternator noise, wipes out car stereo signal completely)?

http://forums.radioreference.com/community-announcements-news/251804-gre-america-inc-press-release.html


Someone may have already posted this. Sorry if its a duplicate.

wat

The 897 is a good radio.  I think every model from every manufacturer has some order of pitfall or nuance that are no big  deal to some, and complete show-stoppers for others.

Some links that may or may not help:

http://f5ad.free.fr/Docs_ANT/Tonna%209el_144-20809_1.pdf

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2772212/21-elements-432MHz-Antenna-Tonna-F9FT