Advice For Building An Antenna And Pole?

[clovis]

Well, I think I need to build an outside antenna and place it on a tall pole in order to get better TV reception.

I've done my best trying to jerry-rig a rabbit ear antenna system, complete with aluminum foil flags hanging off ear ear.

The aluminum foil rigging I did confirmed the hillbilly that lives in my heart.

Anyway, I have questions:

What kind of material can I use for the antenna pole?

Do I need to pour concrete around the base of the pole?

Should I put a sleeve in the concrete so I can turn the pole if needed?

If I put a sleeve in the concrete, how do I tighten and secure the pole so it doesn't spin when the wind catches the antenna?

Can you tell me how you built your outside antenna? Materials? How did you attach it to the house?

Thanks in advance!!!!!!

[blufford]

Originally Posted by clovis

Well, I think I need to build an outside antenna and place it on a tall pole in order to get better TV reception.

I've done my best trying to jerry-rig a rabbit ear antenna system, complete with aluminum foil flags hanging off ear ear.

The aluminum foil rigging I did confirmed the hillbilly that lives in my heart.

Anyway, I have questions:

What kind of material can I use for the antenna pole?

Do I need to pour concrete around the base of the pole?

Should I put a sleeve in the concrete so I can turn the pole if needed?

If I put a sleeve in the concrete, how do I tighten and secure the pole so it doesn't spin when the wind catches the antenna?

Can you tell me how you built your outside antenna? Materials? How did you attach it to the house?

Thanks in advance!!!!!!

Next you must try hooking a wire to some mattress springs after that to an outside umbrella type clothes line. Aw shucks may as well see if the umbrella works too.

[Windy in Kansas]

I don't currently have my scanner hooked up or I'd make a drawing for you of what was used in my home area which allowed the antenna to be lowered for servicing via pivoting pole.

Oilfield pipe was what they were generally made of. Three inch diameter for the main pole, and welded to the top, if the pole was in the ground, was a horizontal piece a few inches long.

The horizontal piece served as a pivot point and into it was placed a smaller diameter pipe to which another piece of three inch was welded thus forming a laid down T, and with the pole standing, the top of the laid down T would become parallel to the main pole.

A smaller pipe would be inserted into the T and a ring of three inch would be welded below the top which actually supported the weight of the antenna mast but allowed for aiming. The pipe would extent to within a few feet of the bottom of the main pole thus being a couple of feet above grade when the main pole was set into the ground. Near the bottom of the smaller pipe a three inch ring would be placed which contained a set screw which could be loosed for aiming. The ring then had a tab welded to it and was drilled for a bolt hole to which allowed it being bolted to a tab on the main pole.

Into the smaller pipe a still smaller one extending upward was inserted to serve as the mast to which the antenna would be fastened. The key to success was getting this pipe and the weight of the antenna to somewhat balance the weight of the pipe they were inserted into to to be heavy enough to over balance and cause pivoting. You always fastened a stout rope to the lower portion before letting the mast pivot so that you could pull it back into place after servicing.

Pole stand-offs were used to support the coax or in the old days the 300 ohm ribbon wire.

The T shaped pivot that is welded to the main pole is somewhat of a weak link in that it needs to be heavily greased so that it does not seize from rust and prevent the mast from pivoting.

I will be unavailable much of today but will check back later to see if you would like a drawing to help make sense of all of this.

[Harry Chickpea]

Craigslist sometimes has antenna tower sections for sale. What you use and how you construct is based on how high you want to go. My dad's 2 meter antenna was stuck over 50' in the air and had a 3 cu yard concrete base and six guy wires stabilizing a sectional mast. The longwire antenna was a tilt-up cedar pole design.

A power pole makes a nice sturdy mast for a low antenna. You may even find a crew that'll install one in an hour or two. You can extend the height by attaching clamps and sliding a pipe up another 15' or so.

AFAIAC, there are two major things - you don't want things falling down, and you don't want lightning coming into your home. Guy wires and anchors can solve the first problem, but you need a ground rod at the base of the pole and a lightning arrestor, and further down the antenna wire a inductance coil and surge suppressor.

Concept for the lightning arrestor - take a couple of brass balls and mount them securely about 1/8th to 1/4 inch apart vertically. Have the downlead shield from the antenna come directly down to the top one, and the lead from the ground rod come directly up to the bottom one. The antenna co-ax to the house exits at a 90 degree angle. When the lightning strikes it seeks the easiest path to ground (or the leader seeks the easiest path up from ground). It can easily jump the spark gap, so the bulk of the current is harmlessly dissipated. You can buy small lightning arrestors fairly inexpensively.

The induction coil is simply about four loops of about 1' in diameter in the co-ax. As any large current starts to flow through the loop, the fields of energy around each loop work to constrict the flow and choke it off. That makes it easier for the current to just drain through the spark gap.

Finally, the surge protector can handle the much reduced voltage and current that remains, by burning out an MOV.

Since the bulk of this happens OUTSIDE the structure, risks of fire or electrical damage inside are far reduced.

I had an antenna on the roof of our house in Florida. After one storm I noticed the insulation had been blown off the ground wire, but our TV was fine.

[backwoodsman7]

Originally Posted by clovis

Well, I think I need to build an outside antenna and place it on a tall pole in order to get better TV reception.

Before you go to all that trouble and expense, try one of the little indoor amplified antennas. $25 or so at Walmart et al. Might save you a lot of work and money. Get the one with the highest dB rating.

[beowoulf90]

As someone else said, get a tv antenna from craigslist or Freecycle. We are going to tear one down this Sat. so we can get a better internet connection and ham radio signal.

We posted an ad in freecycle, looking for an antenna and got plenty of responses. We just had to pick the one we could get to and make arrangments to take it down.

It is 50' with a 20' center pole, making it about 70' overall.. It even come with a radio antenna mounted to it... All free, all we have to do is provide the labor to remove it and take it down..

Oh also if you are afraid of heights, this isn't a good idea..

[clovis]

Wow...

You guys come through again with great ideas!!! I hadn't thought about many of the things you've brought up.

I know this is a short response. I've got alot on my plate tonight.

Again, thank you so much!!!! Your posts are excellent!!!

[alleyyooper]

http://www.tvantennaplans.com/

Best I found so far on goggle.

Al