Any input appreciated

[Loraine71]

new to this and am setting up my first antenna. What I have is a second hand antenna that I am wondering if it is a good one for my purposes. I plan on getting my ham radio operator’s license in the future and so I will be using the antenna also for ham radio. I have 36 feet of commercial tower sections that I will have a 30 foot telescoping mast connected to supporting my antenna. It has a 18 foot center mast with 3 ground plane pieces coming off. Their length is 8 foot 6 inches. If anyone recognizes the type or model of antenna I would appreciate the information. I’m in attaching pictures of everything. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. I’m wondering if this antenna is a good one or if I should purchase a new one. Once this thing is in the air there won’t be any taking it down to switch it out it’ll be up there permanently so I have to get it right the first time. Since I’m a novice my experience is extremely limited and I would be very grateful for any wisdom that you would have to offer. Thank you for your time and patience

PS- I tried to attach pictures but it said they were too large for the server to process. Maybe tomorrow when it's daylight I can take some smaller ones somehow I don't really understand but I'll try again and get the pics on here as soon as I can figure it out

 

[K4EET]

new to this and am setting up my first antenna. What I have is a second hand antenna that I am wondering if it is a good one for my purposes. I plan on getting my ham radio operator’s license in the future and so I will be using the antenna also for ham radio. I have 36 feet of commercial tower sections that I will have a 30 foot telescoping mast connected to supporting my antenna. It has a 18 foot center mast with 3 ground plane pieces coming off. Their length is 8 foot 6 inches. If anyone recognizes the type or model of antenna I would appreciate the information. I’m in attaching pictures of everything. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. I’m wondering if this antenna is a good one or if I should purchase a new one. Once this thing is in the air there won’t be any taking it down to switch it out it’ll be up there permanently so I have to get it right the first time. Since I’m a novice my experience is extremely limited and I would be very grateful for any wisdom that you would have to offer. Thank you for your time and patience

PS- I tried to attach pictures but it said they were too large for the server to process. Maybe tomorrow when it's daylight I can take some smaller ones somehow I don't really understand but I'll try again and get the pics on here as soon as I can figure it out

Hi @Loraine71,

Is all of the above in your post related to this thread?

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/newbie-antenna-setup.493437/

Pictures would be a big help. It is not clear to me whether you are doing an installation for a CB antenna, ham antenna, or both. For the ham antenna(s), you would need to let us know what band(s) you are interested in. One antenna is not going to do everything if you want more than a CB antenna. Please clarify what you want to accomplish now and perhaps what you plan to do in the future. Keep in mind that wind and ice loading on the antenna(s) will determine if your tower and mast(s) will be sufficient. For the coax feedline(s), that will be determined by the frequency band(s), distance between the antenna(s) and radio(s), burial of the coax required (?), etc. Try to get those pictures posted and let us know more details. Thanks!

 

[Loraine71]

Yeah I'm trying to post pictures but it says all my files are too large Bear with me I'm working on it

Right now it's just for cb. I'm planning on ham in the near future. Do I need to be able to access the antenna to I don't know tune it or fiddle with it or something because if so I'm going to have to take a different approach because once this thing is up there it's just up there. Man I wish I could post pics because when I bought this property there was several antennas inside the shop and I would like to post pictures of them to see what y'all could tell me about them. But if I can't even figure out how to post photos to a forum then maybe I'm not smart enough for the learning curve on this hobby

 

[K4EET]

Yeah I'm trying to post pictures but it says all my files are too large Bear with me I'm working on it

Right now it's just for cb. I'm planning on ham in the near future. Do I need to be able to access the antenna to I don't know tune it or fiddle with it or something because if so I'm going to have to take a different approach because once this thing is up there it's just up there. Man I wish I could post pics because when I bought this property there was several antennas inside the shop and I would like to post pictures of them to see what y'all could tell me about them. But if I can't even figure out how to post photos to a forum then maybe I'm not smart enough for the learning curve on this hobby

Depending on the selected antenna, it may or may not be tunable. If it is tunable, it is best to tune it the best you can on the ground since apparently you cannot tune it in the mounted location. Once the mounted antenna is tested, you may need to bring it back down and make adjustments. Then back up it goes and a re-test is required. This process repeats until you have good test readings.

If you can tune the antenna on the tower, that would make things go faster. It is still not clear to me what you have to work with. Also, are you just putting up a CB antenna for now? Do you know what antenna gain you would like, omnidirectional or directional radiation pattern, etc. for the antenna that you are installing now? We still need answers to my first post in this thread to be able to assist you much further.

Keep in mind that the antenna system is what makes or breaks a good radio system. Don’t skimp in this area.

As for posting pictures, reduce the pixel size of the picture to roughly 600x480 pixels and/or change the JPG compression. Both will make the file size smaller.

 

[dave3825]

I tried to attach pictures but it said they were too large for the server to process. Maybe tomorrow when it's daylight I can take some smaller ones somehow I don't really understand but I'll try again and get the pics on here as soon as I can figure it out

Yeah I'm trying to post pictures but it says all my files are too large Bear with me I'm working on it

If your using Windows, open the pics on your pc/laptop. Once displayed, use Windows Snipping tool. Once you use that to capture the pic, simply right click on it, choose copy, then just paste it into the post.

Use Snipping Tool to capture screenshots - Microsoft Support

Learn how to use Snipping Tool to capture a screenshot, or snip, of any object on your screen, and then annotate, save, or share the image.

support.microsoft.com