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Colby, Kansas | If I understand you correctly, the pole would be at basically the same location as the existing setup. My recommendation would be to find some good heliax to run to the antenna on the leg and then put your base on the ground. Serviceability I think will be a lot better in that situation as a leg isn't too bad to get to. I have worked on customer equipment on various fold down "things" and one setup on a pole set in the ground, its not as handy as you would think. Grounding becomes an issue as when the antenna is mounted on a steel structure, it provides some grounding ability, on a wood pole you are relying solely on whatever ground lead you run along the pole, which typically doesn't provide as low resistance system as a tower (or leg) would.
Back to the heliax, if your radio correction is running at 900mhz it becomes a lot more critical on that length of run to find some good cable (1/2" would be a decent compromise), sometimes you would even be lucky enough to find a 100' length of 7/8"s that was taken off or left over from something else. (If your anywhere near SW Nebr. I could hook you up with some "scraps"). Even at 50' 900mhz is lossy with smaller cables.
If you looking at this for another location, ask around to a local ham operator or radio shop, there are often used towers (some self supporting) laying around. You can buy a new 80' self supporting for around $3,300.
Just some thoughts.
Lucas | |
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100' home made rtk tower
