K0LWC Ham Shack Tour: Coax Entry Panel and VHF/UHF Antenna Mast!

Take a quick tour on the progress I’ve made with the K0LWC ham shack. It’s a work in progress, but VHF/UHF is performing really well!

[vkhau]

the vswr issue might be because it looks like the antenna ground plane is below the mast pole, try rising the antenna up higher so the ground planes are above the mast pole.

[SevenFortyOne]

That entry panel looks really nice! I've been thinking about doing some upgrades to my coax entry and will be taking at hard look at this to see if it will work for me. Thanks for sharing!

[killerandom]

Very nice setup. Hopefully you fixed your SWR problems

[David-hmic]

As of this writing the video is 3 years old. For anyone contemplating a similar antenna base, drain holes at the bottom of the socket are a must. Without them water will collect and initiate corrosion regardless of how "rust proof" the base is. A pin going inside the mast instead of a socket would not collect water if the pin was either solid or had a welded on cap so it was absolutely watertight.

[mattspannaus]

Looks great! I would recommend grounding.

[devinhedge]

1. I love this video.
2. I wish operators understood the concept of aesthetics.

You've done a fairly decent attempt at non-industrial aesthetics.

[dx]

Nice install, what about a ground for the antenna mast?

[DonRamon]

It’s never high enough is a true story, just added 4’ to my mast today and already want to raise it higher

[kgcpradio]

What was the answer to your SWR problems.

[AndrewMurphy]

you need to put that antenna farther up the mast close to the tip of the mast it might help you with the swr i know it did me

[rodneymcgiveron]

G'day from Australia .... We use UHF as our primary 80 channel citizen band radio systems operating on 476.4250 to 477.4125 . I have about 10 handhelds both 2 watt and 5 watt and four of my units are dual band UHF/VHF units . I have three vehicles and all three have five watt car UHF's for road usage which is the maximum allowable output power for private use . After that you require licencing and qualification . In my State (Tasmania) we have lots of non highway roads where mobile phone coverage is not good or non existent so having UHF access is great . We have two emergency channels on 5 and 35 which is 476.525 .. Channels 1 to 8 and 41 to 48 are Duplex repeater channels where repeaters are present . I have three repeaters Channel 3, 7 and 8 not too far from me, One day I'd like to set up a basic base station at home . Your vid is a great help for a good antenna set up . Thanks ...

[AdamWarrix]

Diamond makes some great antennas. During tropo openings, I've used my X50 at 35 ft above ground and made FT8 contacts over 700 miles away.

Have you considered having the mast pass through the deck and pass into the ground? Another video idea would be to repeat the Pi Star distance test but with the hotspot using the Diamond antenna. I know it isn't what hotspots were intended for but would be interesting to see.

[TroyCraft]

What was it like working with LMR 600? Did you do the connections yourself? You mentioned switching to the Ultraflex at the box. Was that just to make the 90 degree turn or for any other reason? would you make the same coax decisions if doing it again? ...independent ground rod, or tie into panel ground rod for house service?

[alessandroconcas]

Nice and clean ground system! the antenna if you can place vetical to the box not the other side, seems too low and too much coax and place the pole on the wall and not on patio so gain in height...my 2 cent 73 de iz3qvb

[DerekMurawsky]

Is that ground rod tied to your house ground as well? You should only have one ground for everything, and bonding the rods together is important. Otherwise, nice setup! Thanks for the vid!

[rodneymcgiveron]

Forgot to mention in previous reply . VHF is essentially used for aircraft, marine coms and safety/ weather updates and police, fire, ambulance, forestry, SES, and rail and is mostly encrypted and anyone caught with units that can interact on these emergency services faces huge fines and having to give up the equipment and repeat offenders can face gaol time ..You can listen though via scanners so long as you can't hook into and hamper operations . HF is used for long distance as you'd know of course . 27 Meg /SSB is essentially gone now, The truckies and buses etc use UHF almost exclusively now . Even though VHF is primarily for essential services some of the services do carry UHF as well as a back up which is mostly for citizen use in case it's needed or VHF links aren't available or failed .

[LanceSheppard]

Newbie here KO4MWD. I like the antenna set up. If I might recommend looking at some angle brackets to mount on the bottom side of the deck board then through the deck joist. Might be over kill, but in the mountains of Virginia where I live it gets VERY windy. Where is a good place to order lmr600? I'm currently running a btech uv50x2, 100' rg8u, and a tram antenna 1477 I believe. Thanks! 73

[heiser_bill]

Nice neat setup. What did you do on the inside wall where the conduit goes in?

[davemitchell]

Better to use WHITE heavy duty zip ties. Black absorbs heat from the sunlight and wears out a lot quicker.

[kevinc]

Distance on simplest you can hit on VHF?