No-Drill Attic Installation

[KI5IRE]

*Note* I just realized after I hit post that I put this in the wrong forum, my apologies.

I am getting ready to install my discone in the attic at my new home.

I am trying not to do what I did last time, I had a 2x4 nailed horizontally to a vertical stud in the attic, but that a real pain to do and I prefer not to do any screwing or nailing at this house other then for my feed line, which will be dropped through an existing hole in my wall.

My original plan was to cement a fence pole or some type of pipe into a paint bucket to hold my discone but I just found out there is no decking in my attic to set that on. I am looking for some suggestions for "temporary" no-drill installations. What have you done?

Also, I am curious what the "best" coax and connectors I can find on Amazon Prime would be? Not super concerned about spending the most money for quality right now as I am on a limited budget and am looking to get the stuff here as quickly as possible. At my last house, I just used the RG-58 that came with my Diamond discone with not many issues. This time, I don't have a way to get the cable into the wall with the connectors on due to the size of the hole so I will be having to terminate my own coax.

I plan to drop two lines, one for my discone for my scanner and another for another scanner/ham radio antenna, which I will probably switch between an old Isopole 440 I found in my grandfathers attic and a Yagi.

 

[a417]

My original plan was to cement a fence pole or some type of pipe into a paint bucket to hold my discone but I just found out there is no decking in my attic to set that on. I am looking for some suggestions for "temporary" no-drill installations. What have you done?

a piece of planking 18 inches wide will span the distance between 2 joists in your attic, and you can rest your gallon paint can on that. No nails required, just lay it down.

 

[WB9YBM]

I am getting ready to install my discone in the attic at my new home.
I am trying not to do what I did last time, I had a 2x4 nailed horizontally to a vertical stud in the attic, but that a real pain to do and I prefer not to do any screwing or nailing at this house other then for my feed line

maybe tie-wrap it to something? Duct tape? Wedged between roof braces? It probably won't take much since you don't have to worry about wind pushing it around.

 

[ka3aaa]

use a piece of string looped under several of the horizontal elements on the top of the discone and tie that to one of the trusses fore the roof or pass it through a metal gusset plate.

 

[N9JIG]

I have my discone hanging from kite string in my attic, with no weather and wind issues there is no reason to get crazy with mounting hardware.

LMR400 is great coax, especially for longer runs. For shorter than 50 feet RG8X or RG8 would work, if it was less than 25 then RG58 is usually fine. At those short lengths the loss differences between them is probably not going to cause a noticeable difference. If you were working mostly on 700-900 MHz. then I would worry more about the coax.

 

[chief21]

If you have any vertical 2x4s in the attic, you can bridge two of those with a horizontal 2x4 or 1x4 and mount the antenna to that. If your antenna requires a mast, just use two horizontal pieces separated by a foot or so. You could then use some conduit "U" clamps to secure the short mast section. If, for some reason, the mast section needs to rest on the "floor" of the attic, you can use a piece of wood or whatever between the joists in order to spread the load so the end of the mast does not penetrate the drywall.

 

[BDavis27707]

What brand cable are you going to buy? I am looking at 35 ft LMT-400 N connectors made by ABR for $60 but then saw 50 ft of same cable and connectors from Cableexperts for $60. These prices are from Ham Radio Outlet.