Posted: 5/4/2014 4:13:46 AM EDT
I sure hope that I get a few extra dBs of gain for digging the trench by hand.  For my 155' run it took a good portion of the day. Fighting with the rocks was a task in and of itself. BUT, laying the cable is just about done! I had to call it quits after it got too dark to see in the back yard so I hope to finish that today.
I also managed to get 3 feet into my 4+ foot hole that I will be mounting the antenna. Never one to be a fan of any job involving a post hole digger, this was actually not all that bad once I got through the rocky layer just under my topsoil. I do anticipate the last foot to be the hardest though.
On the list to finish today: Order the antenna.
Finish laying cable. Finish digging mounting hole. Concrete my mounting pole into the hole. Any tips/tricks from those who have done this before? I'm installing a 6BTV per DX Engineering's instructions. How long should I expect during the tuning process to take? Is the 17m add-on worth doing? I'm trying to get this setup soon so that the grass will hide my radials before too long. |
I'll be interested in how it performs when finished. I find it hard to believe you hit rocks in WV soil.  My yard is 90% sandstone. Got up early today for nothing. Bands suck this morning compared to yesterday. LoTW is down as well. Been trying to upload my logs since yesterday.
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I sure hope that I get a few extra dBs of gain for digging the trench by hand. Here's a beer!  Trenching sucks. Too much like manual labor. Two different trenching projects using a small Lowes/Sunbelt rental trencher. If you use conduit instead of direct bury cable by itself, adding additional runs is a LOT easier. The payoff is a nice clean install.
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Ahhh the local place has one of those for a mere $42/day. I really wanted to rent it (especially halfway through the job!) but I had too many unknowns in my lawn. I just moved here a few months back and have not located all of the underground lines yet. I have two buried drain pipes and one sewer pipe plus I had to cross the sewer main fairly close to a manhole cover. Bottom line, I had to dig it by hand to feel comfortable not screwing something major up. 
Thankfully, 95% of the digging is done except for routing my copper strap to the ground rod and none of that is very deep. I went back and forth on what kind of conduit to run. Was going to run rigid PVC then I heard a lot of good stories about people using Liquidtite flexible conduit. In the end I decided to do a direct burial. I'm considering it a long-term experiment to see how well it holds up over the next couple of years. I don't think we have very many pests living in the lawn that will try to eat it here so we'll see how it works out. Not "ideal" like putting it in conduit, but it should get me on the air for awhile. One thing I did do was to map out where my coax is in case I need to know its exact position later. |
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Here's a beer! Trenching sucks. Too much like manual labor. Two different trenching projects using a small Lowes/Sunbelt rental trencher. If you use conduit instead of direct bury cable by itself, adding additional runs is a LOT easier. The payoff is a nice clean install.
http://home.comcast.net/~gregbell/Trench2%20Sophie%20Jump.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~gregbell/Gen%20Wiring%20Pic%2083.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~gregbell/Gen%20Wiring%20Pic%2080.jpg Quoted:
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I sure hope that I get a few extra dBs of gain for digging the trench by hand. Here's a beer! Trenching sucks. Too much like manual labor. Two different trenching projects using a small Lowes/Sunbelt rental trencher. If you use conduit instead of direct bury cable by itself, adding additional runs is a LOT easier. The payoff is a nice clean install.
http://home.comcast.net/~gregbell/Trench2%20Sophie%20Jump.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~gregbell/Gen%20Wiring%20Pic%2083.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~gregbell/Gen%20Wiring%20Pic%2080.jpg Lowes rents those? Going to find out if my local store has one. Not going to break my back. Maybe they have a post hole digger too. |
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Hustler 6BTV with some of the DXE goodies. Quoted:
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What antenna are you putting up? Hustler 6BTV with some of the DXE goodies. You should have been able to just drive a pipe into the ground for that one. Also 16 radials Minimum 32 preferred, it will make a difference |
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You should have been able to just drive a pipe into the ground for that one. Also 16 radials Minimum 32 preferred, it will make a difference Quoted:
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What antenna are you putting up? Hustler 6BTV with some of the DXE goodies. You should have been able to just drive a pipe into the ground for that one. Also 16 radials Minimum 32 preferred, it will make a difference Yeah it's a little overkill for sure. The antenna isnt very tall and it is fairly light. I'm going with a big pipe in concrete just the same though. I figure if I ever decide to change antennas (for some currently unforseen reason) then the feed line, radial system, etc can all stay and I can just change out the antenna. I'm definitely going with lots of radials. I have done so much up to this point, I figure, why skimp on radials? 
Thanks! |