I am getting closer to putting up the new stick!
I am getting closer to putting up the new stick! After two trips apiece to the hardware store and the home center, I think all of the pieces now fit together properly. 😉 Thanks to Antenna Guy for doing the hard part and making the coil for me! Oh by the way, after doing quite a bit of testing, I have moved up the dial to 1560. It’s much clearer in the daytime at my location, and only slightly worse at night than 1500. The efficiency is also a little better.
One hint: I found that it’s not really necessary to use 1-1/2″ rigid conduit for the base. You can’t buy that in anything less than a 10′ length at a home center store, which will set you back about $35 or so. Hardware stores don’t carry it. They told me to use galvanized water pipe, which they will sell in whatever length you want, and they will also thread it for you. I tried, and the threads fit into the PVC adapter just fine. They are a little different than the threading used on the rigid conduit, but they work.
Great Tips for the SSTRAN antenna
WEAK,
Great tips for the antenna construction. I also found the cost of the conduit prohibitive and devised an alternative method to mount the antenna. You are pretty far along with yours, but I though I would resurrect an older thread since it might interest you and others. If you read through the thread you will see that some of us went back and forth with ideas. The end result was that mojoe came up with a nice design and it is now posted on the SSTRAN site.
Modified SSTRAN Antenna Design
***edit I just checked mojoe’s links to his pictures and they are dead. Go to the SSTRAN site (click SSTRAN on the left here) and click on the Modified Antenna with In Line Coil link. The pics. are posted there. End edit***
Be sure to let us know how your antenna works when you get it together.
Neil
Disappering pictures
Neil, thanks for the plug. As to the pictures, I used one of those picture hosting sites and the links weren’t supposed to expire. In fact, links to older pictures I posted in the same thread are still there.
As Neil pointed out, the best place to get detailed information and pictures on modifying the original SSTRAN antenna is the PDF that Phil has posted on his web site. If anyone has questions, post them here and I’ll answer them.