I mention this, because I have the TV in my bedroom connected to a modest 4 bay Channel Master TV antenna located in the attic. The antenna slowly sinks in the insulation though, and occasionally requires repositioning. Also, I've always believed that if the antenna were outside I would get better reception, because the duct work and roof wouldn't be in the way.
One day, I realized that there was a satellite dish on the corner of my house!
Since I don't have a satellite TV provider, this is more or less junk screwed into the side of the house, and I could probably replace the dish with my TV antenna!
I thought about this for quite a while, but never did anything about it. Recently I began to re-gain interest in ham radio, and I need to have some sort of outdoor antenna to get a fuller enjoyment out of that hobby. Eventually I figured out that these two projects could go together!
The HOA does not allow any sort of antenna other than a TV antenna, Which meant that the 10 ft tall fiberglass antenna that I have been carting around for the last few years was out of consideration. But, I thought I could find something more low profile that would probably escape notice of a passer-by or official inspectors.
From the street the satellite dish is pretty much out of view:
the neighbor's tree hides it, except for about a foot long space on the sidewalk across the street:
and then the view is hidden by the house itself.
So I began thinking about using a mobile antenna, which looks a lot like the radio antenna on your car, except that it has a small curly-Q in the middle. That would require a ground plane of some sort, which I was confident I could make or buy faily cheaply. But, I wanted something more; I just couldn't wrap my head around what I wanted though, until I was looking through antenna reviews on eham. The very first reviews were about a company called the arrow antenna co and I knew they made small handheld antennas for tracking satellites, but not that they had anything more substantial. There was one for a jpole antenna. I had built a jpole antenna out of copper pipe about 10 years ago and it worked terrific, but it was huge and made out of shiny copper!
This is much smaller and a different design than the one I built, but I knew it was exactly what I wanted
The elements are small and round, and not very obtrusive.
So after thinking about things for about 6 months I knew what I wanted for my antennas. The one problem I couldn't figure out how to solve was getting up to the satellite dish. I own a 6 foot ladder, but that was going to bee way too short. I asked around to see if anyone I knew had an extension ladder I could borrow but no one did. One guy at work suggested I rent one from the Home Depot. I had no idea that they rented ladders, but turns out they do! The next problem was figuring out how to get the ladder to my house. I traded my gas guzzling pickup truck for a sensible Volkswagen while I was stilling thinking about what I wanted to do.
For Christmas my parents gave me a small chest type deep freezer that they promised they would someday bring. Well, last week my dad loaded it into the back of his pickup, and delivered it. I took advantage of his truck and we rented a ladder!
Eventually we got the ladder out, and propped up against the house.
Dad isn't too good with ladders, and so it was up to me to go up and take off the dish. I only took off the dish, I wanted the bracket that held it up to hold my TV antenna and my ham radio antenna.
After I got the dish off though. It was pretty obvious that the little bit of pipe remaining wasn't tall enough to hold my jPole antenna above the TV antenna. I had a small piece of pipe in the garage that looked like it might be just the right size to fit in, or over the dish mount, so I climbed back up to find it was too big to fit inside, and too small to fit outside. So it was time for a trip to Lowes to see what they had that might fit. Jamie and Jonathan had come over, and I wanted to let them visit with Dad, so I took off in my car. I found that 1 1/2 in conduit would fit nicely inside the small pipe I had with me and decided to buy it. Lowes only sells conduit in 10 foot lengths, and they wouldn't cut it into a smaller piece for me. I went out to my little car and tried my hardest to get it to fit. I layed the seats down, moved the passenger seat out of the way, but even with one end stuffed under the dashboard I still couldn't get the hatchback to close. Eventually I grabbed one of my bowling shoes and put it over the conduit, and pulled the hatch down. I drove very slowly down the street to my house and the hatch only opened a few times :)
At home I got out my trusty dremel and cut off a 4 foot section. I drilled a hole through it so I could bolt it to the satellite dish's mounting hardware and keep the antenna from turning in the wind. Drilling a matching hole through the pipe at the top of the ladder was a bit of an experience, that I don't want to do anytime too soon!
A few more trips up and down the ladder and everything was in place!
I hooked the ham radio in my car up to the antenna. I had some really good cable, but I was worried I had stored it improperly and wanted to test it out before I returned the ladder. A few quick contacts, and I was satisfied the coax was good. I had Jamie turn on the TV and we worked together to get the TV antenna pointed in the right direction. It looks like I will never be able to watch channel 5 though. The only way I could get reception on the other channels and channel 5 was to stand right in front of the antenna!
Here's the finished product:
I was pretty happy with it, but I was concerned the thick black cable might draw too much attention to it, So Sunday morning I made a few more adjustments. I used some hooks to nail the coax to the side of the house. I thought climbing the ladder was a little nerve wracking before, but this was scary! On the back of the house there is only about 3 feet between the house and the retaining wall. This really felt like I was climbing straight up, and I was worried I might tip the ladder over backwards!
Once the coax was neatly nailed to the house it still looked pretty out of place, so I bought some pink spray paint to make it look more like the color of the house:
It's not an exact match, but you definitely have to look to see it now!
And inside I dusted of my icom 910h all mode 2m/440 radio and I have been having a ball chatting all over Las Vegas and beyond!
I have a friend in Kingman, AZ that I can talk to on his club's repeater, 90 miles away! I made a few simplex contacts with various hams, including one who was in Las Vegas from Anchorage, Alaska!
The best contact I've had though, was with Dan KE7TBB, who surprised me a month ago by sending me a few messages through APRS the ham radio tracking system I use. It was great to talk with him rather than exchanging messages!
(in ham radio speak TNX means thank you, and a QSO is a contact or conversation)
BTW, I really do like using APRS, and you can often watch my travels on the internet. I don't always use it in town, but if I am ever on a trip somewhere you can watch me coming to your house! I'll be traveling out of town for work, and you can follow my semi truck here: KD7MIR-14.
No comments:
Post a Comment