[amsat-bb] Re: pole mounting az-el system

Tue Jul 20 09:55:16 PDT 2010

Since I live in a rental, my mount had to be temporary.  I mounted a 3 ft Radio 
Shack Tripod onto a 4'x4'x3/4" plywood.  Used a super large/heavy stepping brick 
to anchor it down, plus placed large river rock ontop.  Mounted my G5400 Azimuth 
rotor just above the tripod, then placed 5 ft of 1-1/4" EMT mast, with the 
Elevation rotor and horizontal PVC with wooden dowel insert.  Even only using an 
Arrow now, but still gives enough strength to when I'll get a "real antenna 
setup, again".  See photo....

John W6ZKH

________________________________
From: John Belstner <w9en at arrl.net>
To: Scott Townley <nx7u at cox.net>; amsat-bb at amsat.org
Sent: Tue, July 20, 2010 8:32:12 AM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: pole mounting az-el system

Hi Scott,

The 10' galvanized pole trick is exactly what I did in my back yard.  I used a 
hand post hole digger to go down 32" (until I hit a big rock) though I had 
planned to go down 36".  The pole was cemented into the hole but I did not pour 
cement into the pipe.

The G-5500 sits on top with a 6' cross boom and a 7x7 432 on one side and a 5x5 
146 on the other. 

73
John 

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Townley <nx7u at cox.net>
Sender: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:51:05 
To: <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Subject: [amsat-bb]  pole mounting az-el system

I was planning on pole-mounting an az-el system:
> KLM CP yagis (the shorter ones)
> TekSharp 1.2m dish with dual-band patch feed
> 8' fiberglass boom
> G-5500 az-el rotator with mast brackets.

The G-5500 can accept a 2-1/2" mast.  And the 2m KLM is about 13' long so I 
need to get it up at least 7' in the air.  So I was thinking of using a 
piece of electrical conduit.  Not EMT (the thin-walled stuff), but rather 
IMC, which is thicker walled (0.095" vs. 0.065") and readily available at 
home improvement stores.  2" trade size is 2.36" od so it will fit the mast 
brackets on the rotator fine.
There is an even thicker electrical conduit GRC which is 0.146" wall, but 
at twice the price and a trip to Grainger (not out of the question but not 
convenient either) I can't help but wonder if that's overkill.

The conduit comes 10' long so I'd put 3' in the ground, say a 12"x36" hole, 
filled with concrete.  Maybe filling the conduit with concrete as well.

I'd appreciate any comments as to the feasibility of doing 
this...particularly the conduit size and hole size for concrete fill.

Scott Townley NX7U
Gilbert, AZ  DM43di
mailto:nx7u at cox.net
http://members.cox.net/nx7u 

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