CAMP HF ANTENNA
We have a remote desert camp that go to when the weather is nice and play with radios. It is a pretty quiet spot both solitude and radio -wise. ( when the dune buggies are not running around)
Several years, at least a decade ago, On a camping trip here I convinced my nephew Nick there may be gold in the ground at about this spot. We proceeded to dig a 6 foot-deep hole and when we got to the bottom, I put in the 8 foot pole that is the support for this antenna and put all the sand and rocks back in it. I got the Hustler antenna from a ham club swap meet for $20 years earlier. It had been in service since the late '70s. Finally we dug some trenches and strung some tuned radials under the sand in all directions. They have been here ever since that day.
I used this antenna for many years. I never really took it down as this spot is so remote and nobody ever bothered it ...until last summer.
[bent antenna]
Mother nature had some fun one summer afternoon. I am not sure what kind of storm it was, the desert tends to get some violent thunderstorms in the summer as a monsoonal flow sets up from the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez inside of the Baja peninsula. In any case this storm left lots of sand sticking to the sides of the buildings poles and trailers so it guess that the force of the wind plus the mass of the rain and sand was too much for this 35-year old antenna. At least the bottom section.
Fortunately, DXE sells replacement parts "...allow you to keep your Hustler vertical performing at its peak. Whether for maintenance or repair due to unfortunate damage, Hustler offers the replacement antenna parts that you need." So I bought and replaced the lower mast section (P/N 4087-11) I think with shipping it was twice the cost i paid for the original used antenna but she is standing tall now:
The base of the antenna was in pretty good shape considering that it was basically in this desert environment for 11+ years. When I decided to fix the bent antenna I dismantled the entire antenna and took it back to the Radio Ranch repair labs. In the process I had to cut the radials to remove it as the bolts were badly rusted. ANTENNA RADIALS
The new installation would not be able to attach the radials ( 2 per band) to the original tie points as they were slightly too short now. There would be no way to pull the radials back to make up for this with out digging them up - not an option with out a Nephew in site. ( he is now all grown up with two kids of his own to dig holes with) Instead, I fabricated a radial plate out of 4 Stanley angle mending brackets:
I simply formed a square ( 2 under, 2 over ) and fastened with #8 SS hardware. The bracket was bolted to antenna base with a salvaged TV antenna "U" bolt that happened to come complete with a mast clamp ( a second bracket that prevents crushing the square antenna tube:
These were fastened with 1/2" and only one nut and lock washer as the space is tight between the mast clamp. Finally the original radial tie points screws were replaced with stainless screws, washers and nuts. Replacing the original "stack of nuts" that corroded before. I attached these points, in a bit of overkill, with two ground straps made up of a length of braid salvaged from an old RG-8 cable, they look pretty impressive anyway.
At the end of the day, the bracket is mostly buried in the sand anyway. The first 6" of the insulation of the original radials as you can see - is now long gone due to exposure to the elements, are now safely buried under sand and these small stones. The connection point and UHF connector are now wrapped in tape and a large tube of heat shrink as well.
THE WORKS.
BTW we made some PSK contacts with 5 watts on 15 and 20 meters and a couple of RTTY and - of course - CW. The contacts ranged from Cuba in the east to Japan and Russia in the west. All bands but 10 meters was tried but i think that band was not too active the day I tested it. |
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