Diamond X-50 Antenna Install

[geoff5093]

For the past month I've been trying to decide how to mount my antenna, up until today I have been using the radio while the antenna was in the tree at the second floor level, but today I finally got the ladder out from under the snow and went up on the roof, but didn't have many choices.

I found an old satellite mount that was still secured to the roof, so I did some make-shift mounting and it seems to work great! The holes were in the perfect location for the U-Bolt's.

Sorry for the crappy pictures though, but I only brought my camera phone up on the roof.

 

[RESCUE4NFD]

Very Nice Install...Great idea to use old dish mount...

 

[geoff5093]

Thanks! I hope to get a mast at some point for added elevation, but this will be more then enough for the mean time. If I left it where it was in the tree, I'm sure the signal would have dropped once the spring leaves came in.

 

[KD4KNR]

Not a bad idea!!!!!

Only thing I would suggest is attach a short section of mast to mount then the X50...

Steve
KD4KNR

 

[n8emr]

Get a short mast and get that up a little higher 5ft or so. Also DRESS those cables. The coax will be ripped to shreds laying on top of an shingles like that.

 

[geoff5093]

Get a short mast and get that up a little higher 5ft or so. Also DRESS those cables. The coax will be ripped to shreds laying on top of an shingles like that.

Thats my plan, and I'm using 100ft of RG-58, I'm planning on buying 50ft of RG-8 or RG-213 to replace it with, so I'm not that worried about the cable setup now.

 

[n8emr]

Thats my plan, and I'm using 100ft of RG-58, I'm planning on buying 50ft of RG-8 or RG-213 to replace it with, so I'm not that worried about the cable setup now.

I would go with LMR400, about the same as 213 in cost and has better specs.

 

[N1BHH]

A buddy of mine put his X-50 up using plain old hose long hose clamps to the vent pipe on the back of his house. Sure works nice, and your looks good, too.

 

[subwaysurfer]

Very nice install. I noticed in the pictures I didn't see any ground, I would think that is required for safe operation.

 

[af5rn]

A buddy of mine put his X-50 up using plain old hose long hose clamps to the vent pipe on the back of his house. Sure works nice, and your looks good, too.

One thing you have to be careful about though, is that most modern homes have PVC vent pipes covered by a thin metallic cover. They look like metal pipe, but they aren't. And a tall and/or heavy antenna will tear off of there eventually.