My Antennacraft ST-2 installation

[smokeyjones666]

This is my Antennacraft ST-2 that I put up just this last summer (along with a Radio Shack UHF for broadcast tv.) They're mounted to a simple 10' mast and bolted to the side of the house with wall standoffs. I used Commscope double-shield RG-11 with Thomas & Betts LRC compression fittings for the ST-2 (As well as Commscope tri-shield RG-6 with Gilberts for the UHF.)

It all connects to a set of grounding blocks mounted to the board near the bottom of the mast just behind the bottom wall mount clamp, this is more for my convenience in attaching cables than it is for grounding (though they are electrically connected to the bottom of the antenna mast.) The RG-11 and two runs of RG-6 (one extra, just in case) run down the back of the house and over to a repurposed house box that contains 3 grounding blocks. What's not shown in the photos are the thick copper ground conductors that I added later, attached to the bottom of the mast and down the side of the house using screw-in electric fence insulators. This and the grounding blocks in the house box are bonded to an 8' grounding rod in my wife's flower garden just below. (Though not yet bonded to the electrical grounding conductor, which I believe violates code - this I need to fix sometime between now and the spring thunderstorms.)

Cables of the same sizes run from the grounding blocks in the house box to a distribution point near the breaker panel approximately 7' away and then off to their various destinations throughout the house, with the Antennacraft ST-2 being a single run of RG-6 from the distribution point about 30-40' or so to my 'office' in the opposite corner of the house.

I've been considering trying to get the antenna higher, but I'm not sure if I trust my current mounting method for a longer mast. Either way, I'll have a newborn baby in the springtime and I doubt I'll have time to pursue that until later in the year.

Note: You may notice the balun in the two closeup pictures appears to have changed between the time I took the first picture and the time I applied the monkey poop. That's because, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to wrench the connector onto the balun that came with the antenna and busted the balun. That second one I had learned my lesson and just gave it a little 'tweak' with the wrench to make it a tiny bit tighter than I could with my fingers.

 

[digitalanalog]

Looks like a nice clean install
Well Done, Looks Great

 

[blueangel-eric]

nice install. those antennas look cute together and both nice and shiny

 

[smokeyjones666]

A few more pictures of my antenna and feedline installation. You can see the addition of the grounding conductor and ceramic insulators (wish I'd lined those up better along the roof line there.) There's also a the connection to the ground rod (the ground wire continues underground off to the left of the picture, toward the feedline grounding box and then to the power meter.) A couple of shots of the house box where the feedlines attach to ground blocks and then feed into the house. Finally, there's my whole cluttered mess of cables at the distribution point next to the breaker box.

 

[eddie412]

nice clean install!

 

[rcg6028]

what is the green wire that is zip tied with the coax for?

 

[ReCall]

Well Done Smokey, you do some nice work!
Now when you get time I have 8 antenna's and 500 feet of LMR-400 that I need to re-install, can't take more than a day or two, it's all up in my attic.
just funning with ya.

Very Nice

ReCall

 

[smokeyjones666]

what is the green wire that is zip tied with the coax for?

That was my woefully inadequate grounding conductor for a while. I started reading more about grounding and lightning after that and I've since moved on to a grounding conductor that means business.

 

[Wahoos4Life]

nice clean install!

really?

i was thinking the bottom r ight photo looks like a huge mess

verry nice antenna tho

 

[smokeyjones666]

i was thinking the bottom r ight photo looks like a huge mess

You're right, that is a huge mess. If you can look past the big hoops of cables dangling down, it all started out rather neat in the beginning and then slowly got out of hand on me as I've added cables throughout the house in the few years I've lived here.

For now, the only one that really matters is the RG-11 barreled to the (white) RG-6 on the middle right, that's the feed from the ST-2 to the scanners. Everything else is just for television and internet.

 

[hoser147]

Looks good, did you happen to check the Wiki for the reinforcement mod??

 

[Wahoos4Life]

You're right, that is a huge mess. If you can look past the big hoops of cables dangling down, it all started out rather neat in the beginning and then slowly got out of hand on me as I've added cables throughout the house in the few years I've lived here.

For now, the only one that really matters is the RG-11 barreled to the (white) RG-6 on the middle right, that's the feed from the ST-2 to the scanners. Everything else is just for television and internet.

so what kind of stuff are listening to on that rig?

 

[smokeyjones666]

I have a PSR-500 that I use to listen to the P25 system in my area, mostly local police and fire. I also use it to monitor Xcel Energy on their trunked Motorola analog system for the occasional power outage (I think it's really neat, you can hear them give the order to close the switch before the power comes back on.)

I also have a Pro-2006 and a Pro-97, which seem to be rather better at VHF-Lo and Air Band stuff. It seems since I've added a notch filter to clear out all of the junk from the broadcast FM radio band I can pick up a lot more stuff, especially with the 2006. I mostly just hunt around with those, checking to see what I can pick up. Lately, I've been using the 2006 with Unitrunker to try to understand the P25 system better and for the last couple of days I've had acarsd running.

So I hunt around quite a bit looking for things to listen to, but I mostly just listen to local police and fire from the digital system.

I keep thinking I'll eventually post a picture of all that stuff in the pictures forum, but not until I get it cleaned up to where it's not just a big mess of radios and wires half-buried under a mound of stuff.

 

[cgriggs]

Looks good, did you happen to check the Wiki for the reinforcement mod??

Hoser147 if you don't mind can you post a link to the referenced "reinforcement mod"?

Thanks

 

[Sinister]

Hoser147 if you don't mind can you post a link to the referenced "reinforcement mod"?

Thanks

See this wiki thread for the mod.
I believe the new scantenna has been modified to prevent the damage that was caused in the earlier versions due to high wind. I have had winds over 50 MPH with no damage to mine as of yet.

 

[hoser147]

Hoser147 if you don't mind can you post a link to the referenced "reinforcement mod"?

Thanks

Here you go hope this helps http://wiki.radioreference.com/images/8/8c/Reinforcescantenna.jpg