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1-4 of 4 messages
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Where there's a will...
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by KK7OY on August 31, 2001
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Living in a CC&R controlled area in Chandler, Az I feel frustrations never felt when I lived in the Chicagoland area(tri-bander at 40' + wire). After being off the air for the 8 years I've lived in Az I discovered the Spider Antenna(10 15 20 40m). Mounted on a swimming pool fence I've at least been able to get on the air and even worked South Korea on 15m(Kenwood TS820). I've also had good stateside luck with a Radio Shack 10m hooked up to a Radio Shack 10m mobile mag mount again mounted on the same swimming pool fence. Worked some J's with this one. I guess my next venture is into the attic. Anybody else using similar configurations. 73's.
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RE: Where there's a will...
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by WB2WIK on August 31, 2001
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Is that your personal fence, or public domain?
Anyway...I also used a Spider, 1989-1991 or so when I was "temporarily" living in a 3-level town house. In my case, I tried it first in the attic, where it easily fit but the only counterpoise available was radial wires laying about here and there. It did not work well in the attic, probably because the building had stucco siding and there's always a wire mesh that is behind the stucco...
...so, my next try was taking the same Spider topside, mounted on a 3/8-24 angle-bracket whip base screwed into a huge air conditioner (my own) sitting atop the roof. Viola! It worked. I added tuned radial wires, four per band for 40-20-15-10m -- that made it work MUCH better. Much. In fact, running 100W on 40m CW, I worked into Europe (from southern California) almost nightly during the winter months -- something I never dreamed would be possible with a 6' tall vertical antenna.
This installation, however, took some guts. I had to prop a 24' extension ladder up against a fire escape ladder to reach it, then climb up the escape ladder to the roof and hop over a sill, then slink across the roof until I was over my own unit. This took very gentle walking because the roofing material is some new technology waterproof stuff that is soft and spongy and not intended to really take any concentrated weight. (It is applied after all the conduits, air conditioners, etc. are already in place.)
I ran the coaxial feedline down inside a water vapor vent pipe, one that happened to run vertically all the way to my garage (literally four floors below), where it ended at a PVC trap behind the washing machine. I drilled a hole in the vent pipe a few inches above the trap and reached in with long-nose pliers to pull out the flexible coax (RG8/X "mini-8"), and then ran it over to the station bench on a garage wall.
This was all pretty clandestine.
But, I must admit, properly mounted and tuned, and with wire radials installed, the Spider was an amazing antenna! Worked the Bouvet Is. expedition, 3Y0X (I think it was) literally first call on 10m, and I think second or third call on the other bands, using the Spider and 100W on CW.
73 de Steve WB2WIK/6
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RE: Where there's a will...
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by KK7OY on August 31, 2001
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Thanks for the respose, Steve. Sounds like you went through a lot to get rigged up. My swimming pool fence encloses my own rectangular(approx. 10'x60') pool on 2 sides. The Spider's mounted at the top of the fence which is about 6' high. The steel fence is "L" shaped with a gate at the corner and it's anchored at the far ends to cinder block walls which surround the back and sides of the house. I mounted the Spider at the near end of the fence for convenience to my patio where I temporarily operate from. I don't know if 60' of fence is making it directional along that line but at least it gets out. As it's relatively new, I haven't tried it on 40m yet. I thought of mono-band ground planes mounted on this fence.
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RE: Where there's a will...
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by N4ZYV on October 6, 2001
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Couldn't you hook up to the rain gutters and use a tuner? I don't have rain gutters so I can't try this myself.
Anyone tried this?
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