anybody here (Cedar Rapids) got a base station?

[llcvt15]

I guess my friend caught the radio bug the last time I had my old Cobra 89 out of the closet-- today he went out and bought a Galaxy DX98VHP, with a Diamond Antenna GZV6000 switching power supply, antenna wise he (somehow) installed a Solarcon 99 (one of those 17 foot things) up on the roof with an eve mount.

He called me up to come check this thing out and I have a few concerns, he knows how to spend money, how to use all this equipment I'm not near as convinced of. I'm hoping somebody in this forum could help me answer a few questions that he's asking me, essentially.

First off (this is probably the most urgent question) the dealer he bought this antenna from claimed it didn't need to be grounded. I thought this was strange, granted this antenna is fiberglass, but still isn't it made of some conductive metal?

Also, does anybody know where I can find reading material on this radio and all its different capabilities? Its a lot fancier than any old Cobra or Midland I've ever owned... Other than this neat site I just found of course... :O)

Thanks for all your time, he's already giving me a headache with the damn roger beep-- though this guy he's talking to claims he's in Georgia, so maybe this thing is working right after all.

 

[LowSignal]

It absolutely needs to be grounded, for lightning protection. If it's not grounded, and grounded properly, you can almost guarantee large amounts of damage/fire to your radio equipment at bare minimum and most likely your home's electrical system as well.

The coax should run through some sort of lightning protector (polyphaser), which should then be mounted to a suitable metal plate or other solid enclosure, with the metal plate or enclosure grounded directly to an 8 foot lightning rod. This ground rod should also be bonded to the home's main electrical earth ground to prevent stray voltage from flying everywhere upon a strike. Ideally, the mounting bracket for the antenna should also be grounded and bonded to the rest of the setup.

 

[llcvt15]

Exactly as I figured; I know technology evolves but didn't think there was any type of magic 17 foot antenna that wouldn't act like a giant lightning rod... Can't believe somebody actually told him there was no need to ground the antenna. I gave him the number of the guy who installed my TV antenna, hopefully he'll give him a call. Anybody know of any good radio companies around here? I noticed Toco Electronics closed up their shop earlier this year, I live up the street from the old building...

I only have internet access a couple times a month, just to cheap to pay for it at the house. Hopefully I don't annoy people not responding to this thread in a timely manner.

He has already gotten himself in a little trouble knocking the neighbors TV signal out when he turned the power up to high on his radio last week, guess that means I'm going to have to take a refresher course in this hobby myself and try to lend him a hand. I know your not supposed to do that, nor is it legal either.

So now that I've got the radio fever again, I'm hoping I can find a radio dealer around here so I can either get my old Cobra running again, or maybe find a decent used radio someplace. If anybody has something laying around they may want to sell, I might be interested. I've never thought about ham radio, though I have learned this "cadilac" Galaxy rig he bought is capable of it.

 

[burner50]

He has already gotten himself in a little trouble knocking the neighbors TV signal out when he turned the power up to high on his radio last week, guess that means I'm going to have to take a refresher course in this hobby myself and try to lend him a hand. I know your not supposed to do that, nor is it legal either.

Assuming he is running legal power, this is not his problem.

It is the neighbors problem, or their television provider.

But I doubt he is running legal power if he is knocking TV service out because there is no television channels in that band, even on CATV.

 

[gewecke]

I guess my friend caught the radio bug the last time I had my old Cobra 89 out of the closet-- today he went out and bought a Galaxy DX98VHP, with a Diamond Antenna GZV6000 switching power supply, antenna wise he (somehow) installed a Solarcon 99 (one of those 17 foot things) up on the roof with an eve mount.

He called me up to come check this thing out and I have a few concerns, he knows how to spend money, how to use all this equipment I'm not near as convinced of. I'm hoping somebody in this forum could help me answer a few questions that he's asking me, essentially.

First off (this is probably the most urgent question) the dealer he bought this antenna from claimed it didn't need to be grounded. I thought this was strange, granted this antenna is fiberglass, but still isn't it made of some conductive metal?



Also, does anybody know where I can find reading material on this radio and all its different capabilities? Its a lot fancier than any old Cobra or Midland I've ever owned... Other than this neat site I just found of course... :O)

Thanks for all your time, he's already giving me a headache with the damn roger beep-- though this guy he's talking to claims he's in Georgia, so maybe this thing is working right after all.

Tell him to GROUND THAT ANTENNA, and turn OFF the crappy beeps because they're not needed!
That's the advice he needs. :wink:

73,
n9zas

 

[ferd1605]

first off , i did a search of that radio , it is a "so called" 10 meter ham radio , which just so happens to cover the CB band .. VERY illegal to use ! amy self respecting ham would never use such a radio on
the 10 meter band due to poor quality and not leagally alowed on the ham bands anyway ( from what i have read) It is a over rated & over powerd CB ..
Putting out 200 watts from that radio with a ungrounded antenna , no wonder he tears up neighbors tv , partly because those radios splatter a signal all over the place & have a nasty habit of numerous spurs .
Best thing he can do without getting rid of it is to turn power way back to no more that 10-15 watts , GROUND the antenna & radio to a good earth ground and put in a TVI filter behind the radio ..
As for the antenna , the Antron 99 is worthless in my opinion , high input loss due to the matching system and a high take off angle of radiation .. better to use a Imax-2000 or a Maco v-5000 ..

 

[Signal3and2]

I'd have to disagree with not using it on the 10m band. If he's actually a HAM, use it on 10m all day. You can run all the different brands/non-brands/homebrew radios you want on HAM. I personally run an "import" radio on 10m and have only had great signal reports on it as far away from Iowa as Sao Paulo, Brazil and Buenes Aires, Argentina. And that's from my Jeep while driving.

It's certainly not legal to use on CB, but completely legal on properly licensed ham bands. In fact, it's got a frequency readout, SSB, and if it does tuning in 1khz steps, probably not a bad 10m rig all around, provided he operates it normally and not with echo/roger beep/voice cranked way up. I have to be careful with the Magnum 10m radio I use while mobile, as the inside of my Jeep is extremely loud on the highway and I get a lot of background noise over the air if I don't keep the mic gain down low enough to only capture my voice and not my mud tires slapping the pavement.