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Cheap Antenna "towers." (water pipes)
It turns out that I don't have any decent supports for a good long wire
antenna on my property. I do have access to lots of old iron water pipe. I was thinking that I could build a support by screwing together 10ft lengths of this galvanized iron pipe. Start with 1-1/2inch on the ground, use reducing couplers until I am down to 1/2inch at the top. Seems pretty strong and stiff. The wire load would be pretty minimal (we don't get ice storms very often). I could get 30-50ft really easily. Has anyone done this? TIA, Steve -- Steven D. Swift, , http://www.novatech-instr.com NOVATECH INSTRUMENTS, INC. P.O. Box 55997 206.301.8986, fax 206.363.4367 Seattle, Washington 98155 USA |
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you could use the pipes as uprights for a HUGE curtain array .. Put the pipes in some sort of insulated base Then When it's set Wrap insulated Stranded wire round & round & Round 500 - 2000 feet later you'd have something of interest.. I mean, - WHY not give it a try . . ! In article , David writes: Sounds scary. On 6 Dec 2003 19:28:22 GMT, (Steven Swift) wrote: It turns out that I don't have any decent supports for a good long wire antenna on my property. I do have access to lots of old iron water pipe. I was thinking that I could build a support by screwing together 10ft lengths of this galvanized iron pipe. Start with 1-1/2inch on the ground, use reducing couplers until I am down to 1/2inch at the top. Seems pretty strong and stiff. The wire load would be pretty minimal (we don't get ice storms very often). I could get 30-50ft really easily. Has anyone done this? TIA, Steve |
SS,
NOT A GOOD IDEA [.] Read these two Messages on the SWL Antennas and AM & FM Antennas eGroup on YAHOO! TOP RAIL - As an Antenna Support Structure - Building Material http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...enna/message/3 TOP RAIL as a "Free Standing" Antenna Support http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/201 iane ~ RHF .. .. = = = (Steven Swift) = = = wrote in message ... It turns out that I don't have any decent supports for a good long wire antenna on my property. I do have access to lots of old iron water pipe. I was thinking that I could build a support by screwing together 10ft lengths of this galvanized iron pipe. Start with 1-1/2inch on the ground, use reducing couplers until I am down to 1/2inch at the top. Seems pretty strong and stiff. The wire load would be pretty minimal (we don't get ice storms very often). I could get 30-50ft really easily. Has anyone done this? TIA, Steve .. |
TOP RAIL - As an Antenna Support Structure - Building Material I've used top rail in the past but never un-guyed, but then I live in tornado alley. Rob Mills ~ Tulsa |
Hi Steve
When I was a kid in central Alberta in 1956 I used a galavanizeed 4 inch well pipe about 30 feet long to support a 10 element channnel 2 yagi so I could get a 100 microvolt signal from 100 miles away. It was lashed to my shack and I could turn it with a pipe wrench to get US TV during the summer sunspot cycle. The end was about 3 feet in the ground resting on a piece of wood. That fall the pipe filled with water that froze and it split (must have been poor ERW) but still worked fine. I used to shinny up it to replace the twin lead. If you don't want to guy the pipe lash three together and I'll bet you can go well over 30 or 40 feet with no guys and much higher with guys. Drill a small hole in each near the ground level to let them drain!..In common soil the ultility companies bury 10% plus 2 feet for 50 foot poes but I don't think you'll have that much load so unless a fall will cause other damage you could probably get by with 10% well tamped. 73 hank wd5jfr "Steven Swift" wrote in message ... It turns out that I don't have any decent supports for a good long wire antenna on my property. I do have access to lots of old iron water pipe. I was thinking that I could build a support by screwing together 10ft lengths of this galvanized iron pipe. Start with 1-1/2inch on the ground, use reducing couplers until I am down to 1/2inch at the top. Seems pretty strong and stiff. The wire load would be pretty minimal (we don't get ice storms very often). I could get 30-50ft really easily. Has anyone done this? TIA, Steve -- Steven D. Swift, , http://www.novatech-instr.com NOVATECH INSTRUMENTS, INC. P.O. Box 55997 206.301.8986, fax 206.363.4367 Seattle, Washington 98155 USA |
RM,
Ah... Don't have that 'problem' here in the SF Bay Area. - When the earth starts a Shaking ))) ) ) ) ))) ) ) )) - - the Top Rail Automatically . . . - - - Retracts into the Ground ! Just For the Fun of It ! jftfoi ~ RHF .. .. = = = "Rob Mills" = = = wrote in message news:HdzAb.32342$Gj2.3458@okepread01... TOP RAIL - As an Antenna Support Structure - Building Material I've used top rail in the past but never un-guyed, but then I live in tornado alley. Rob Mills ~ Tulsa |
No, but it sounds like a good idea. I have heard of useing PVC for a mast.
But thay say it's only good for about 20 feet. If your only going to use a wire antenna, you might think about a mast and not a tower. Bill, N5NOB |
Steven Swift wrote:
I was thinking that I could build a support by screwing together 10ft lengths of this galvanized iron pipe. Start with 1-1/2inch on the ground, use reducing couplers until I am down to 1/2inch at the top. Seems pretty strong and stiff. The wire load would be pretty minimal (we don't get ice storms very often). I could get 30-50ft really easily. It's not a good idea. Even a slight wind puts a load on the wire. Think about a first class lever. There will be about a thousand to one multiplication of the wind force on the wire at the first thread coming out of the coupling/reducer. You basically have a ten foot lever with a fulcrum at an inch and a half from the far end. The metal isn't that great of an alloy to begin with and gets weakened further by the cut threads. The breakage will most likely happen at the bottom of one of these threads. Don't do it... mike -- __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /\ / / / /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ / /_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ ..let the cat out to reply.. |
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