I have a SSTRAN that I built a while back that works just great. I am probably going to build the vertical antenna from the SSTRAN site. I am thinking about mounting it on a pole that is attached to the back of the house. If I do this, I can only install buried radials in a half-circle pattern (unless I dig under the house foundation - not).
I know that with a quarter-wave antenna, this would skew the radiation pattern. How much of an effect would this be with the 3M antenna, since it is such a small fraction of a quarter-wave?
I have a SSTRAN that I built a while back that works just great. I am probably going to build the vertical antenna from the SSTRAN site. I am thinking about mounting it on a pole that is attached to the back of the house. If I do this, I can only install buried radials in a half-circle pattern (unless I dig under the house foundation - not).
I know that with a quarter-wave antenna, this would skew the radiation pattern. How much of an effect would this be with the 3M antenna, since it is such a small fraction of a quarter-wave?
My other option is to mount the antenna on the cooler, which is on the roof. I live in NM, and I have an evaporative cooler. If I go this route, I couldn't do the buried radials. Has anyone tried doing this and using the air ducts in the house (through the cooler) as a ground/counterpoise?
Speaking of NM, according to the FCC website, the ground conductivity around here is four (sucks). It may be a little better in my back yard.
My gut feeling is that the mast and buried radials would be best, but I wouldn't mind some opinions on this.
I'm actually in the same boat as you - I live in Tucson - so maybe we're the two that will have to figure it out and report back.
I was planning on a chassis that runs around the 50.00 mark - kind of spendy, but when you consider the cost and time of rebuilding a tx every 3 or 4 months because the chassis didnt hold off heat/weather very well.
I did get some info from Phil, which I am posting shortly regarding the amount of heat the crystal can take while operating - this is the only volitile bit in the tx according to him.
As for grounding, my experience is that my cold water pipe was my life saver. However, if you do a search for water pipe in the forums, you'll see a thread about that.
BTW: This is response to both of your posts - box/enclosure and the grounding.