"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
. ..
The size and layout of our city lot means that I can fit a 40 meter dipole
in the back yard with one end supported at the peak of the roof, but with
no way to guy a mast to hold up the other end. Power lines run directly
along the property line in back, there electrical service line runs right
across the roof of the detached garage and there are no trees back there.
I picked up a couple of [cheap] 10' steel mast sections at the local Radio
Shack and attached the lower section to our fence with conduit clamps, but
just the weight of the antenna under minimum tension causes the upper
section to bow significantly.
I'd like to replace the far-end support with something that will stay
erect
under tension without guys. Getting higher than 20' would be nice too.
Can anybody offer practical suggestions to someone with essentially no
mechanical skills, pointers to articles on the subject or commercial
products?
--
Bert Hyman W0RSB St. Paul, MN
While it may not be too inexpensive, you can use some Rohn 25G tower
sections. There may be soe other inexpensive tower sections you can use. I
was in a similar situation. I could support one end and the middle of an 80
meter dipole. I found some used tower for about $ 30 per 10 foot section.
I was going to save it to put up a tower someday. I decided I could put two
sectons together and also use one of the 10 foot sections of TV mast like
you have. I think the TV mast woud fit over one of the legs. I also put a
big eye bolt at the top of the mast with a rope through it so I could pull
up the antenna wire. This was done before the tower was raised so there is
no need to climb it. To climb it I would think you would want about a yard
of cement in the ground, then you could go up to about 30 feet of tower. I
just rested the tower on the ground and took a couple of radiator clamps and
fastened it to the pipe that held up the corner of the chain link fence. I
used it this was for about 3 years before I moved.