Eave Mounting Idea/Help

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skatertj

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Hello,
I have recently gotten into sdr's and have finally gotten ahold of a discone. I just got a radioshack discone locally. Previous owner had it up on his tower for a few months, antenna is in great shape besides alittle rust on the radial screw ends. I currently have it in my attic and am recieving signals 40-50 miles away. My attic is only one story up and now im thinking of trying to get it outside with more height.

My idea is to get an eave mount and place the antenna on a 10 ft pole off the eave mount. I am a college student, still with my parents and my father has approved of me putting it outside on one condition. It goes on the side where the house ground rod is already at. This means itll be around a 80 ft run from my computer to the roof where the antenna will be then 10 ft up. Overall 90-100ft.

So, im looking for insight on a few things.
-Is the 10ft un-guyed mast safe with a eave mount? 9 ft above roof, 1 ft for the mount. 1-1/4" Top fence post rail
-how straight does a ground wire need to be? Ill post picture of the side of my house to show how id probably need to run ground wire to reach the ground rod.
-Im looking at just using rg6 quad shield for the run and getting a lna for the db loss. Sound ok?
-Any experience with the radio shack eaves mount?

On the image, where should i route the ground wire?
 

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PACNWDude

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Eave Mount and Discone Antenna.

I had a similar setup at my last house.

However, the eaves where I live now look almost like the ones you show in your picture. I had a TV antenna eave mount bracket from Radio Shack and their discone antenna also. This could support the weight of the discone antenna and a four foot aluminum pole it was attached to. However, it was starting to crack the wood of the eaves of the house. Plates could have been added to the back of the wood to help this though.

At that point I decided to move it to the attic. This made the roof line look cleaner and I did not loose any noticeable range in my case. The height difference was only a few feet.

For your installation, the grounding wire should be as short and vertical as possible in case of a lightening strike. So that is a long ways to run a ground cable and it may have too many bends.

RG6 has 75 Ohm impedance as well and you would do better to use 50 Ohm coax and no amplifier instead of RG6 with an amp. I always try to keep cable runs shorter and match impedance for better signal before using amplifiers.
 

LtDoc

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Your mounting method should work. There are a few things you should consider as has already been said. Mechanically bracing the thing is a good idea. Those eaves are more 'cosmetic' than structurally sound. The higher the thing is the better it will 'hear'. You have to be practical about that, unrealistic expectations are just that. Also keep in mind that a diskcone antenna has no gain, more of that 'realistic' thingy.
Just for grins, try just setting that antenna on a high place on the roof, the results may surprise you...
- 'Doc
 

skatertj

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Good advice from both of you! I had thought about the structural integrity of the gable and wondered if it would hold up well or not. Our wood on the right side of the peaks gable does feel a little soft.. Idk how I'd go about reinforcing it yet. I do know I'd like to have my antenna outside my house because of the SDR, it shows any interference on the fft display. I do have one mounting option closer to the ground. Right below the dish is a previous dish mount. Still glued and screwed into my roof. I could possibly use it but idk how high I could go safely and if it would look odd or not for being a discone....

As far as cable, I have plenty of rg6 already on hand and planned to just use it for receive only. A lna will be in my purchase soon for the reason that SDR dongles can benefit from them so I don't have to over power the db on the dongle.
 

skatertj

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We'll I went and check behind that gable and it wouldn't be easy to add wood or metal behind it... It's just a standard 1x4. I don't really know of any different mount spots to try but the satellite mount behind the dish. I know it wouldn't be able to go up high though. That would be right above the ground rod but probably stuck at a 3 foot max height... Any suggestions on reinforcement of the gable? Is it still too far from the ground rod that's already in place?

My father seems to think that a ground rod needs special minerals in the soil for it to be effective, is this even true? Can a ground rod be placed anywhere?
 

skatertj

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I went back into my attic and checked that gable again. This time trying to get the best look at it that i could. It does appear to have a 2x4 behind it. If thats the case, i feel pretty safe using it but possible only going with a 5ft or 6ft pole instead of the 10ft.

Now the main question remains of it the ground is to far away. If so, id try and get a ground rod and place it directly below the antenna. Just have my local utility companies come and scan for any objects under that area.
 

WA0CBW

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National Electrical Code section 810 provides information about grounding an antenna and mast.

810.21(J) Bonding of electrodes. If a ground rod is installed to serve as the ground for the radio and television equipment, you must connect it to the power grounding electrode system with a minimum 6 AWG conductor. The bonding of separate system electrodes reduces voltage differences that may develop between them.

Getting your ground wire to your system ground rod poses some problems. The wire from your antenna/mast ground rod can be buried and placed under the sidewalk to get to your system ground rod. Be sure that any underground wire-to-ground rod connections are exothermic (welded) and not mechanical connections.
BB
 

skatertj

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Thank you for posting that WA0CBW. I may go the route of placing a ground rod below the antenna and then connecting the two.
 

AronDouglas

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I've seen those mounts Majoco, they look sturdy. I've also seen people use old roof mount satellite TV brackets. I saw one the other day where a HAM operator had a (roughly) 15' antenna mounted to one, they offer a very clean look once installed.
 

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