Today, after several weeks of frustration caused by not being able to get woodville-west and grange road sites connected, I pulled the mast down.
I decided to add another 3 metres to the mast and try to make it a bit easier to raise and lower the WRAP & Antennas. The new height from the ground to waveguide is 13.8 Metres.
I purchased 2 30m rolls of guy wire, 3 turnbuckles and 6 cable clamps.
Most of the work is done on the modification of the mast, I just need to add the extra 3 guy wires to the very top of the mast near the antennas.
The mast is now 4 sections. The first 2 guyed down permanently with the top 2 sections hinged to the bottom 2. That way I am only lifting 2 sections and the base is stable. I am still figuring the best way to raise the top 2 sections, but that shouldnt be too hard.
.
should complete work today
maximum height
I am wondering about the legalitys of poles of these heights.
I was of the understanding that radio hobbists such as Amateurs and others were permitted to erect towers or poles and antennas to a maximum height of 10 metres without council approval, but with council approval and all the plans, permits etc higher structures are allowed depending on the regulations for the zone or area in question.
While I would say stick them up and then worry if someone complains it may be something that may bear some thought for some people(IE people with crappy neighbours).
perhaps someone from the committee can find out what the current regulations are?
aerials and towers
I found this for Charles Sturt Council
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Aerials/Towers
Development Approval is not required for an aerial or tower if:
It is not attached to a building, and the total height (including attachments) does not exceed 7.5 metres (10 metres if an amateur licence is held under the Radiocommunications Act 1992);
It is attached to a building, and the total height from the point of attachment to the building does not exceed 2 metres in any residential zone (4 metres in any other zone).
It is in the form of a dish, and the diameter of the dish does not exceed 1.2 metres in any residential zone or historic (conservation) policy area (2.4 metres in any other case).
http://www.charlessturt.sa.gov.au/Default.aspx?tabid=423
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which is a bit of a bummer really when you need the height like Wlan does.
Cougar
Depends
It depends on the council/area.
monolith
My god thats huge
what sort of range are you aiming for?
What wasnt working at 6m?
Are you sure that hieght is the only limiting factor?
Sam
grrr
I am aware of the council regs.. just doing the wait and see.
I am not sure if height is the cause of my problems, but I do know I got over ambitious with the height.
I just couldnt raise the damn thing.
back to the drawing board. :-(
raising
See the pic for how I was trying to raise it. I *could* have pushed the damm thing up, but the second section with the 3 guy wires just wasnt firm enough. The whole thing was twisting slightly, and that was enough for the weight of the waveguide and dish to pull it sideways.
It looked like it would work ok, but the combination of weight, length, leverage and working on a roof made it way too hard.
I am going to try and work something else out.
mast back up
I cut the last section down to about 1 metre to take some of the weight off. I changed the position of the 6m RHS to work like a lever. You may have seen this idea on some flagpoles..
It is now very easy to lower the mast.. just take off 3 guy wires and lower the thing!
tilt over
very simple solution,
I have seem similar thinking used for Amateur towers and poles before, I think Hills still make a tiltover tower for Tv antennas in the mid north but I think these are free standing.
is it set up to be able to turn the directional for fine tuning the link?
I havent set it up for fine
I havent set it up for fine tuning yet. It isnt very easy to devise something to both turn the antenna from the ground AND lock it into place when tuned.
I will probably have to lower & tune repeatedly..
Wish I could program the WRAP....
while (!adjusted) {
lower();
tune();
}
stay tuned for the next exciting episode of "DodgyAntennaMan"