Kingshootr's Hilarious Scanner Antenna Mounting Project

[kingshootr]

So last year, before my shop/metal building was erected, I had all kinds of imaginations of towers and masts and all sorts of overly complicated ways to put up a scanner antenna.

Fast forward to current times, and sanity and/or reality finally kicked in. The slope of the roof of the building is a 4/12 and I just want a mount to straddle the peak.

Because the last time I tried to mount an antenna on a pitched roof, I screwed it up royally (mis-measure, welding warp...), I purchased a pre-made tripod mount.

I went up to do a test fit and the angle of the feet were making it difficult to get flat and avoid the various ribs of the steel roof.

So I slapped together a quick and dirty buck to work things out. A little massaging in the vise and they lay nice and flat now.

I have gone to great pains to avoid as many penetrations and holes in the building as possible. I'm a great fan of magnets, and have been using them extensively to mount the shop lights, decorations, etc.

So the plan here is: I ordered up some 150lb pull magnets and will be bolting 2 onto each foot. The thin steel of the roofing will bump that pull strength down, but should still be pretty "sticky".

The mast is going to be 1" EMT conduit, a 5ft piece that will be on the tripod mount, then a connector, then another 2ft piece of conduit into that (about 8ft tall to the base of the antenna.) At the connector, I'm drilling and tapping holes for (3) eyebolts to attach guy wires to. The wires will run down to more magnets to stabilize the system.

The only hole I'll be drilling is for a safety cable, so if this thing blows off it's position, at least it won't slam to the ground and destroy everything.

I'll be posting pics and commentary as I progress for the entertainment of all.

 

[kingshootr]

The antenna I'm using is a Sirio GP 3-E. Thanks to @mmckenna for steering me to this model.


It'll be tuned to 150MHz. Call it luck, or sad - but in my rural area (Lakeside, AZ 85929) there appears to be no trunk systems, and everything in the RR database indicates frequencies are in this range. I guess I'll see.

The sail cross section is spec'd at 0.02 m2 with a weight of 570g, a tad over 1lb. It seems like a really sturdy, quality unit.

 

[kingshootr]

Change of plans - the magnets holding the tripod are stout, but with 8ft of mast - a bit iffy in my opinion.

I'm going to go with just a 3ft piece of EMT and guy wires. The few trees will be in line of sight whether at 3ft or 8ft off the roof.

The last parts are due here Tuesday so that should be the day I can finish up.

 

[mmckenna]

I'm going to go with just a 3ft piece of EMT and guy wires. The few trees will be in line of sight whether at 3ft or 8ft off the roof.

Seems like a good idea. Height doesn't seem to be an issue for coverage based on your location, at least not enough that 5 feet is going to make a big difference.

Let us know how it works out long term. That's an interesting approach to mounting.

 

[CrowsSDR]

The last parts are due here Tuesday so that should be the day I can finish up.

Whenever you can get it man, Nohury.

I am eager to check out the finished result as well!

 

[dkcorlfla]

Love your mini Honda and the mockup roof
Did have an idea on making the mount stick better, use some marine 5200 sealant under the magnets. Takes a long time to dry but after it does it will be a real chore to remove. Should also help keep electrolysis down by keeping any water out frome between the magnets and roof.

 

[dkcorlfla]

Love your mini Honda and the mockup roof
Did have an idea on making the mount stick better, use some marine 5200 sealant under the magnets. Takes a long time to dry but after it does it will be a real chore to remove. Should also help keep electrolysis down by keeping any water out frome between the magnets and roof.

To expand on this a bit, if you can come up with a section of the same metal panel that was used you could cut some pads from it to expand the area the 5200 would have to grip on. The 5200 would go between the pad, roof and the magnets. This would also double up the thickness and should make the magnets hold even better.

 

[kingshootr]

Love your mini Honda and the mockup roof
Did have an idea on making the mount stick better, use some marine 5200 sealant under the magnets. Takes a long time to dry but after it does it will be a real chore to remove. Should also help keep electrolysis down by keeping any water out from between the magnets and roof.

Some people buy Ferrari's when they retire - I wanted the mini truck. It's an absolute blast and perfect for my area. That's a good thought, putting a bit of adhesive under the magnets.

I really tore up my knees trying to climb around that slick as snot roof. I guess I was jamming them into protruding screw heads without thinking. I'm cool with heights, but sliding around this pitched roof is something else. I modified a pair of old knee pads with some Shoe-Goo to see if that helps. No comments on the results - I know darn good and well what some will say it looks like .

I must have been out of the hobby for longer than I thought - I feel like I'm having to learn SDR software all over again. I have to back through my old threads - I know someone told me how to scan banks of channels (like an old timey scanner) but I'll be danged if I can figure it out so far. I have SDR++ all loaded up with the local freq's I want to listen in on, but now I don't think it has channel bank scanning. I don't know, I'll figure it out someday.

And just to throw a little more on my plate, I'm picking up a pair of these Tidradio TD-H3 HAM handheld radios. I used the excuse to the missus that she needed a way to talk to me when I'm in the shop and "walkie talkies" would be perfect. How they do this for $45/pr is crazy - but if the chineze want to listen in on my banter, whatever...

 

[dkcorlfla]

It would be interesting trying to figure out what the Bluetooth can do on the Tidradio. If it's paired to a device that has Internet does it phone home? Who needs expense spy satellites when a radio can be sold near cost that can send back all sorts of radio comms ;-)

OK, time to take off my tin foil hat.

 

[rdmcvicar]

I must have been out of the hobby for longer than I thought - I feel like I'm having to learn SDR software all over again. I have to back through my old threads - I know someone told me how to scan banks of channels (like an old timey scanner) but I'll be danged if I can figure it out so far. I have SDR++ all loaded up with the local freq's I want to listen in on, but now I don't think it has channel bank scanning. I don't know, I'll figure it out someday.

Feel free to DM if you’d like to compare notes on the SDR stuff. I think I saw some older posts about scanning 460 MHz DPS channels — which could lend itself nicely to parallel SDR monitoring given the closeness of the freqs.

 

[kingshootr]

It would be interesting trying to figure out what the Bluetooth can do on the Tidradio. If it's paired to a device that has Internet does it phone home? Who needs expense spy satellites when a radio can be sold near cost that can send back all sorts of radio comms ;-)

OK, time to take off my tin foil hat.

"Supposedly", it's to program the radio from your phone, or to clone one radio to another.

I'll be programming them via CHIRP thru a usb-c cable. So they'll probably put bugs into my laptop when I do...

 

[dkcorlfla]

I want to use an old Android phone and connect it to a WiFi network with Wireshark monitoring when I pair it to the radio.

It would be interesting seeing if the radio does anything strange.

 

[kingshootr]

I got all the parts and pieces today to finish up the installation tomorrow.

Antenna Farm made up the cable using CommScope CNT-400. Stiff sucker, but that's OK.

I drilled the mast and bolted on the rings for the guy wires. Yes, those nuts are super smooth, there will be no chafing of the sheathing.

Yes, getting the nuts and lockwashers on was a bear. Sticky tack and a piece of wood shim to the rescue.

But it's clean and I dig it.

 

[kingshootr]

Aaaaaand - Done.

 

[kingshootr]

All went pretty well. The knee pads helped a little, but kept wanting to slide up. Still, I didn't die. The bucket of tools was almost a goner, but the ice dams caught it before going over the side.

A dab of gorilla glue construction adhesive under each magnet just for a little added help (grassy a$$ for the suggestion.) Same for the guy wires.

Now I have to learn SDR# all over again... But that's what retirement is for.