The reason you could hear the TV broadcast is because it's a rebroadcast meant for reporters in the field to use. Interestingly it's usually less delayed than the standard broadcast and sometimes will contain directions to the field crew by the producer. It's called an IFB. Check radio reference for your local frequencies
As a steely-eyed RF guy and missile man, I can strongly assert that having an extensive "library" of RF adapters and cables will provide you with a happy, happy life :)
I don't know if it's a library so much as a drawer or two in the parts organizer... and a box of extras... and probably another box in the garage and a tray in the tackle box and... they're around here somewhere dangit!
It is a phased array folded dipole antenna usually used for repeaters and sometimes for FM low power broadcasts. With the antennas being in phase the output of each is added to the hole but using a significant gain increase.
Looks like a DB420. I'm glad that you saved it from the trash! I would have even paid money for it. What a great find. A new one will cost you over 2k.
Electrical Specifications Impedance 50 ohm Operating Frequency Band 450 - 470 MHz Polarization Vertical Electrical Specifications Frequency Band, MHz 450-470 Gain, dBi 11.3 Beamwidth, Horizontal, degrees 360 Beamwidth, Vertical, degrees 7 Beam Tilt, degrees 0 VSWR | Return loss, dB 1.5 | 14.0 Input Power per Port, maximum, watts 250 This is just below UHF TV channel 14. Some type of land mobile thing?
Last time I lived near one of these it blasted through the speakers of my stereo system even with the system turned off. It happened multiple times. I thought I was hearing things until it happened when I was in the room. The coil of the speaker and stray capacitance acts as a tuned circuit, and the signal is strong enough to forward bias the power transistor that drives the speakers. It was not a faint signal, it was loud enough to hear outside if the window was open.
Ahhhh…the classic old crazy neighbor with a bunch of antennae on his roof. Every neighborhood need one. Keep doin’ you! (Love the double multi-tool belt btw!)
Very swag dumpster find. Would love a commercial phased UHF antenna to pop up in the local dumpster. Have you ran SWR on the VNA yet to see how close you we're to match? I was certain at first glance it was for a 2m setup. Great find..Great Video! ✌
I always thought it was weird too that Fox 9 (KMSP) still has a analog signal for a audio out for their broadcast. First saw it as a kid with my dad’s old scanner, and was surprised in 2020 when I went to go program a new handheld I got, found out it was still there.
Personal. I think the stations was on channel 6 should be Analog. The audio can be heard on the lowest frequency that on FM Radio. Maybe government and PBS take channel 6. Be great for analog devices. In case for emergency and education.
This antenna is a DB engineering antenna fir uhf. This antenna will work on uhf. Also this antenna has a ground potential which gives a non lighting attraction capability.
I like seeing other youtubers who have gigabytes of years-old half finished project videos. I have a lot of projects I need to finally finish so I can upload.
"...round 415-500mhz..." Capitalization is important: m is milli, while M is mega. Billion-to-one error. And it's Hz, as surname unit *abbreviations* are usually capitalized. For example, hertz and Hz. Cheers.
You'd be wise to drive a grounding rod in next to the tower and attach it with some heavy gauge cables, the last thing you want is to have to replace all your electrical if a strike arcs from the tower to the 120volt inside the garage.
3:15 On terrible audio, look for a frequency adjustment on the low end, (bass) and a de-hiss option, IDK what editing software you're using, but if you use those two options, you should be a lot better sounding. Also, PLEASE don't throw that out, if you don't want it, I'll take it, pretty sure I can clean that up in post.
Young man, that is probably a high-dollar UHF DB Products antenna for Repeaters of Business Band use. We use one of these on both our UHF and VHF repeaters.
I got one of those off one of the radio stations I work for. Mine and likely yours is common broadband 450ish range used for a business 2 way radio repeater back in the day but is now being repurposed by me as a licensed GMRS repeater for the neighborhood along with some cheap 50 watt chinese radios, duplexer and build it yourself repeater board. I just have to put all the pieces together. It will be going up this spring along with a lora/mestastic node. Few years ago town our phone exchange is in flooded and we were without phones for 2 weeks. Being able to hand out a bunch of cheap baofengs preprogrammed for the repeater or lora radios to all the neighbors if something like that happens again is the goal. A GMRS or FRS repeater using that antenna might be very useful out at your sand property.
@3:32 - You know how I know you're good people? The fat-azz Weber charcoal grill is more accessible than the gas monstrosity. I only have 3 Webers myself - none gas.
I might honestly use the gas one more, just because it's convenient, but they're both available! Along with a crab cooker that the Midwesterners insist on calling a turkey fryer 😂
You might finally blow up that baofeng if it actually does get struck by lightning 😂 On that note, those antennas are well designed to take direct hits. They’re DC shorted, and as long as the mast is well grounded (ideally to a perimeter grounding system bonded to mains, not just a single ground rod or water pipe) and you have an inline coaxial cable gas discharge device (like a polyphaser), it should be fine. Baofengs make great fuses though haha!
That's a nice high gain antenna used for business and ham radio repeaters DB products made them for years CommScope 450-470 MHz 9.2dBd Exposed Dipole Omni Antenna (DB420-B) there over $3300.00 new
If you haven't done it already apply for a GMRS Radil License this was you can be authorized to trandmitt up to 50 watts. and now you can check the SWR an antennas from 462.550 - 462.725 plus 467.550 to 467.725 all 50 watts operation then the additional 7 frequencies 462.5625 to 462.7125 5 watts operations and with that big boy stacked foldeed dipole aray which has some formidable gain and if it's centered for 450.000 to 470.000 it's perfect but I highly suggest that you get a going well known SWR / POWER METER Diamond SX-400 would be my first choice and keep the SWR under 1.7:1 you should do at least 30 miles with a 50 watt mobile and a 50 watt base and get this you can put up your own repeater too no more than 50 watts and a 6db not dbi gain antenna
Man that hording trash bit had me lolling hard. Normies will never know the satisfaction of finding the perfect use for that useless trash you've been saving for a decade.
Great mulltistack antenna👌 Mine is a 2 stack. Sorry about your mobileradio😐 I have been using a RT73/DB-25D for the last 3 years. (UHF/VHF & DMR) Nice compact little mobile radio.
Yes, that is a high gain repeater antenna. It will work from 403 to 500 MHz I believe it’s an excellent antenna with more than 8 DB of 5:16 gain. dipole antennas are usually very broadband and will accept anything you can give it like 420 to 480 MHz I believe that that is really optimal for. I have one on my repeater system that’s up 3000 feet has more than 150 miles range.
Jesus! That looked fun. I also hoard things, practical things, like that. Fittings, connectors, bolts, nuts, wires, etc, etc. I get so much delight when I see a fellow Practical Hoarder making a Big Win! If I save myself six trips to the hardware store or wherever per year, I feel like I won big. It's generally more than that. I truly love your channel and your content. If I had any extra money I would give you some.
Here I am listening/watching while attempting to attach one piece of my junk to another. I had to pause, turn of my noise cancelling headphones, walk back to the house and show this to her. Her face was worth the price of admission. Ha, it's gotta be bad or ginormous to get liquidated.
For cheap but great quality radios check out anytone. They kinda blew up and make higher end stuff now but they still make a fair bit of budget options. I have a mobile rig thats been through 4 cars, homelessness, 2 houses. Much of its life has been jsing xband rpt for me to use an ht to hit my local repeater from a freezer or warehouse. The thing has been overheated, frozen it just wont die had it since 2018
Right now it’s setup for a two lobe array commonly used to cover a straight line along highways. By turning every other bay pair 90° to the others you will wind up with an omnidirectional pattern. Be careful of the wiring harness, this is critical in phasing the bays and are very expensive to replace, if there is a manufacturer that can copy what you have. Are there any tags left on the main mast? About a decade ago I repaired a fiberglass 450MHz antenna. Pulled out the main guts of the antenna and located the failed solder joint which was burned out from a lightning strike. Cleaned the copper pieces and used silver solder to do the repair. Antennas after assembly showed no reflected power and transmits just fine. Used a Bird field strength meter and measured the radiation emitted from the antenna when mounted on a homemade mount on the ground. Everything measured 360° around the antenna was even with measured radiation.
The antenna is a stacked dipole array antenna. The mostly come in 4 or 8 stacked dipoles. More dipoles more Rx/tx gain. We use a 4 Stack on our local repeater. Interesting video, have fun with your new setup. David M0DUU
I keep telling my Missus that the drawer I have full of cables and odds and sods are useful, if and when the occasion arises that I need something that fits into the category of what's in there. It's saved me a bit of money/convenience over the years. I will admit that _some_ of it probably never will get used, but you know how sod's law works. You've got something that's been stuck in the drawer for years and you decide to finally throw it out, only for not too long in the future, you suddenly find you need that exact part for something. 🤦♂ All throwing it out does is provide a tiny bit more space that you wouldn't miss not having anyway. Rant over...
Ruff? Roof? I literally posted this before your follow up explanation of the pronounciation issue.. I am subbed for life. Good laughs. Love the content.
I'm sure someone has already mentioned it is a folded dipole array. In my opinion you would be hard pressed to find a better omnidirectional antenna. I want to make a VHF version but I have yet to find competent DIY plans. The hard part (for me) is getting everything in phase.
That big anchor bolt is sort of for what you wanted to do with it BUT it goes with a 2-part epoxy kit. It's likely a Hilti anchor for concrete and you squish a 2-part goo into the concrete hole and this bolt gets locked in there with friction and epoxy.
A very nice UHF antenna, whether you can also receive signals from the moon with it. You'd hardly believe it, but you can even screw with a hammer. I'm curious to see what comes next and what you can receive with the antenna.
Get that antenna grounded, it doesn’t matter if there are taller objects in the immediate area, lightning is a beast with its own mind. If you can go to your electrical supply house and purchase an 8 foot ground rod and pound it into the ground. You will need a decent clamp, not a copper strap, around that support pipe with a short run heavy copper ground line run in a straight line to the ground rod. Get some antenna mastic around that connection to the ground rod to prevent oxidation of the joint. The antenna pipe itself is a straight ground line to earth but you need that rod to get the charge dispersed into the moister soil below. If you plan on putting any repeaters if satellite dishes on the roof, they all should be grounded. As with other transmitter sites you can start placing shorter 4 Foot ground rods every six feet and connecting them to your main rod with the same heavy ground line. Eventually you want a "halo" of ground line around the garage. We do this with every stand alone structure housing "expensive" equipment.
Hmm... You still might want to properly earth that antenna. Bolts into asphalt are not a great earth. Depending on what your local earth type/quality is, just pound a copper rod in and earth it to that. Better to be safe than sorry for the rare occasion where it might get struck by lightning.
That was a very expensive antenna. It is high gain and be made directional. I suspect it can handle up to 500 Watts. Wish I could find something like that.
Make sure to include a link for the legal defense fund...when that nasty neighbor rats you out to the zoning board and they come and confiscate all your future projects
I would never install an antenna on my roof. If lightning strikes it, it will come through your house. I've seen lightning catch houses on fire in the past.
Another interesting radio adventure, thank you. An antenna or other conductive structure that falls onto a power line can result in fatal electrocution. You might want to establish an antenna prohibition radius around any electric power lines and power line feed droppers aka power "potheads" that pass by / cross / feed your property. I think I saw a power feed line on the side of your garage. Be safe.
I'm sure someone else has mentioned it by now but the bolts into the asphalt aren't a good enough ground, you want to have at least one 5/8 dia ground rod driven the full 6 foot length into the ground
BAHAHAHAH 4:43 comment might be the greatest reasoning iv'e ever heard from a hoarder, i mean collector ,ya......collector lol im gonna use that line with my wife when she calls me out on why im saving another broken appliance! "one piece of trash fits another piece of trash " thats gold .
The antenna is a phased array dipole antenna ,they use it for repeaters but also UHF data links between sites like a mesh network,it has some facing 1 way and the other way due to nulls of the folded dipole radiation pattern
4:16 You can see the floor, it's NOT HOARDING!
no no no you have it all wrong, it is only hoarding if you cant see the cieling
The best thing about being a hacker is you have all these cool toys, but they are all in a million pieces!
That antenna would make for a great GMRS/FRS repeater station which uses frequencies in the 462/467 MHz range.
The reason you could hear the TV broadcast is because it's a rebroadcast meant for reporters in the field to use. Interestingly it's usually less delayed than the standard broadcast and sometimes will contain directions to the field crew by the producer. It's called an IFB. Check radio reference for your local frequencies
As a steely-eyed RF guy and missile man, I can strongly assert that having an extensive "library" of RF adapters and cables will provide you with a happy, happy life :)
I don't know if it's a library so much as a drawer or two in the parts organizer... and a box of extras... and probably another box in the garage and a tray in the tackle box and... they're around here somewhere dangit!
It's what the mathematicians would call the "degenerate case" of a library :)
@@patchvonbraunit's mathematically equivalent to an organized library.
@saveitforparts
"Repository" 👍 😉
It is a phased array folded dipole antenna usually used for repeaters and sometimes for FM low power broadcasts. With the antennas being in phase the output of each is added to the hole but using a significant gain increase.
It should probably be a few more wavelengths in free space too
useless unless its at least 65 feet high! Its pattern is made for 100 feet
😂"I might say things a little weird sometimes - anyHuay" hahaha love it.
Ground rods are normally ~3 feet or more long. Those bolts are not that hot. You can purchase rods at home depot.
4:30 trash + trash + trash = success!
winning at life!
Admittedly, I like that wireless mic. The background noise is pretty intense but it makes you sound like a radio announcer.
And it is better than using the in-camera mic from that far of a distance away, quality probably be a lot worse
99% of what you do is beyond me and my knowledge, but as someone who likes to hoard random cool stuff, I really enjoy this channel.
Looks like a DB420. I'm glad that you saved it from the trash! I would have even paid money for it. What a great find. A new one will cost you over 2k.
I HAVE 2 OF THESE, AND THEY ARE HEAVY!
HIGH WIND LOADING.
Electrical Specifications
Impedance 50 ohm
Operating Frequency Band 450 - 470 MHz
Polarization Vertical
Electrical Specifications
Frequency Band, MHz 450-470
Gain, dBi 11.3
Beamwidth, Horizontal, degrees 360
Beamwidth, Vertical, degrees 7
Beam Tilt, degrees 0
VSWR | Return loss, dB 1.5 | 14.0
Input Power per Port, maximum, watts 250
This is just below UHF TV channel 14. Some type of land mobile thing?
I am assuming the power dividers and phased jumpers are inside the mast. That way, you have 1 input and it comes out of all elements in phase.
@@AECRADIO1 how do you like em?? how far you get with them, Handheld? mobile? base? distance
the HOG WASH sign is hilarious. I'd have it facing the road to amuse the neighborhood
Yeah that is a nice surplus antenna from a maybe public safety UHF site ! That antenna is BUILT TO LAST !
Yeah, looks like a db420. They dont have labels on them, are held together with silver tape and are connected to each loop with little nuts and bolts.
we hear your phone vibrating and i thought it was my phone but no it was yours! ahah!
Your neighbors must have been especially thrilled to see you on the roof with this thing. LOL. Love the channel, keep up the good work.
Last time I lived near one of these it blasted through the speakers of my stereo system even with the system turned off. It happened multiple times. I thought I was hearing things until it happened when I was in the room. The coil of the speaker and stray capacitance acts as a tuned circuit, and the signal is strong enough to forward bias the power transistor that drives the speakers. It was not a faint signal, it was loud enough to hear outside if the window was open.
P.S: Yes, I could hear the operator talking.
@ndotl
This effect happens only with AM transmissions, not FM. At a frequency of 100 mhz and below.
Ahhhh…the classic old crazy neighbor with a bunch of antennae on his roof. Every neighborhood need one. Keep doin’ you! (Love the double multi-tool belt btw!)
One belt thing is a flashlight, the other is a multi-tool. Always super handy to have those ready!
looks like a comscope/decibel products DB-420. likely cut for the 450-470mhz band.
Very swag dumpster find. Would love a commercial phased UHF antenna to pop up in the local dumpster. Have you ran SWR on the VNA yet to see how close you we're to match? I was certain at first glance it was for a 2m setup. Great find..Great Video! ✌
I always thought it was weird too that Fox 9 (KMSP) still has a analog signal for a audio out for their broadcast. First saw it as a kid with my dad’s old scanner, and was surprised in 2020 when I went to go program a new handheld I got, found out it was still there.
Personal. I think the stations was on channel 6 should be Analog.
The audio can be heard on the lowest frequency that on FM Radio.
Maybe government and PBS take channel 6. Be great for analog devices. In case for emergency and education.
That garage roof is ripe for a few ATT Long Line antennas :-D
It's used for various commercial services. I'd disconnect it during lightning storms!
I loved this!
Antenna looks great
How are you not verified?
@@MoneyMitrovic333 done
I'd recommend getting an used Kenwood TMV type for your car, if you get the TMV7 there's an project for an additional spare screen.
How did he release it 1 minute ago yet you commented 2 days ago?
@@tyson-media-group
@@tyson-media-group Early view over patreon, I like this channel so I opted to support him on patreon 😀
@@orca984 Oh, I see. 👍
Cool lightning rod, glad you made sure it was extra grounded so the lightning has an easier path of least resistance 😆
you know its a bad product when someone named "saveitforparts" throws it in the garbage 🤣
Wait... my first was a GT3 too....hmm... you really reading my mind. I got the GT3 with an Ed Fong even before I got my license.
This antenna is a DB engineering antenna fir uhf. This antenna will work on uhf. Also this antenna has a ground potential which gives a non lighting attraction capability.
Those antenna are expensive and is probably better than what most of those UHF repeaters you're listening to have.
I like seeing other youtubers who have gigabytes of years-old half finished project videos. I have a lot of projects I need to finally finish so I can upload.
I have SO MANY unfinished projects! Sometimes I don't know what to do with them, or can't make them work, or break something along the way...
actually, the roof piece to camera audio sounded fine, and the audio recorded from 2021 sounded so thin and tinny... :)
"...round 415-500mhz..."
Capitalization is important: m is milli, while M is mega. Billion-to-one error.
And it's Hz, as surname unit *abbreviations* are usually capitalized. For example, hertz and Hz.
Cheers.
It's not ridiculous if it works. 👍
You'd be wise to drive a grounding rod in next to the tower and attach it with some heavy gauge cables, the last thing you want is to have to replace all your electrical if a strike arcs from the tower to the 120volt inside the garage.
I appreciate you; sharing your journey, bringing us along, makes me grateful.
3:15 On terrible audio, look for a frequency adjustment on the low end, (bass) and a de-hiss option, IDK what editing software you're using, but if you use those two options, you should be a lot better sounding. Also, PLEASE don't throw that out, if you don't want it, I'll take it, pretty sure I can clean that up in post.
Thanks for the shout-out again Gabe! It sounds like our morse decode feature will come in handy for you!
Hello from Mounds View. It's two antennas. Hairpin commercial type. They are all on one side so they it is directional.
Nice DB-420, have a couple up here north of St. Cloud
yeah, i would check the memory battery inside the radio. its a button type battery and hopefully it will work again with a new battery.
Glad to see I'm not the only one "hording"
GMRS guys are drooling right now lol. Awesome antenna! Usually used for repeaters.
You are definitely the guy operating a radio station in Fallout. Thumbs up.
You are the mad scientist genius we all aspire to be!
I grew up in Minnesota and people make fun of how I say "Roof" as well down here in the South
Young man, that is probably a high-dollar UHF DB Products antenna for Repeaters of Business Band use. We use one of these on both our UHF and VHF repeaters.
@1:56 - That sound. Sound's like the body cam recording tone that cops have.
I got one of those off one of the radio stations I work for. Mine and likely yours is common broadband 450ish range used for a business 2 way radio repeater back in the day but is now being repurposed by me as a licensed GMRS repeater for the neighborhood along with some cheap 50 watt chinese radios, duplexer and build it yourself repeater board. I just have to put all the pieces together. It will be going up this spring along with a lora/mestastic node. Few years ago town our phone exchange is in flooded and we were without phones for 2 weeks. Being able to hand out a bunch of cheap baofengs preprogrammed for the repeater or lora radios to all the neighbors if something like that happens again is the goal. A GMRS or FRS repeater using that antenna might be very useful out at your sand property.
I actually let the ads play when i watch your vids. Enuf said!
@3:32 - You know how I know you're good people? The fat-azz Weber charcoal grill is more accessible than the gas monstrosity. I only have 3 Webers myself - none gas.
I might honestly use the gas one more, just because it's convenient, but they're both available! Along with a crab cooker that the Midwesterners insist on calling a turkey fryer 😂
In my opinion the wireless mic isn't so horrible it's unusable.
England. Love's you!
it would be sick to make that garage as a full studio that can track ufo's hahah
You might finally blow up that baofeng if it actually does get struck by lightning 😂
On that note, those antennas are well designed to take direct hits. They’re DC shorted, and as long as the mast is well grounded (ideally to a perimeter grounding system bonded to mains, not just a single ground rod or water pipe) and you have an inline coaxial cable gas discharge device (like a polyphaser), it should be fine. Baofengs make great fuses though haha!
DB 416 16 bays of commercial UHF.
That's a nice high gain antenna used for business and ham radio repeaters DB products made them for years CommScope 450-470 MHz 9.2dBd Exposed Dipole Omni Antenna (DB420-B) there over $3300.00 new
Your roof looks like mine, 3-4 various antennas mounted everywhere.
Very cool. Have you checked out Meshtastic?
If you haven't done it already apply for a GMRS Radil License this was you can be authorized to trandmitt up to 50 watts. and now you can check the SWR an antennas from 462.550 - 462.725 plus 467.550 to 467.725 all 50 watts operation then the additional 7 frequencies 462.5625 to 462.7125 5 watts operations and with that big boy stacked foldeed dipole aray which has some formidable gain and if it's centered for 450.000 to 470.000 it's perfect but I highly suggest that you get a going well known SWR / POWER METER Diamond SX-400 would be my first choice and keep the SWR under 1.7:1 you should do at least 30 miles with a 50 watt mobile and a 50 watt base and get this you can put up your own repeater too no more than 50 watts and a 6db not dbi gain antenna
I love it! The sphincter did tighten a bit when watching you hoisting the mast. Glad you didn't get hurt.
Man that hording trash bit had me lolling hard. Normies will never know the satisfaction of finding the perfect use for that useless trash you've been saving for a decade.
Great mulltistack antenna👌 Mine is a 2 stack. Sorry about your mobileradio😐 I have been using a RT73/DB-25D for the last 3 years. (UHF/VHF & DMR) Nice compact little mobile radio.
i love watching the garage to turn into some cyberpunk looking scrappers yard , beautiful
Yes, that is a high gain repeater antenna. It will work from 403 to 500 MHz I believe it’s an excellent antenna with more than 8 DB of 5:16 gain. dipole antennas are usually very broadband and will accept anything you can give it like 420 to 480 MHz I believe that that is really optimal for. I have one on my repeater system that’s up 3000 feet has more than 150 miles range.
Jesus! That looked fun. I also hoard things, practical things, like that. Fittings, connectors, bolts, nuts, wires, etc, etc. I get so much delight when I see a fellow Practical Hoarder making a Big Win! If I save myself six trips to the hardware store or wherever per year, I feel like I won big. It's generally more than that. I truly love your channel and your content. If I had any extra money I would give you some.
I think at one point KMSP used to broadcast their IFB feed on 450.450, which is what likely what you heard when you said you could hear FOX 9
1:14 have anyone ever told you that you have a huge antenna 😅 #Bender
Here I am listening/watching while attempting to attach one piece of my junk to another. I had to pause, turn of my noise cancelling headphones, walk back to the house and show this to her. Her face was worth the price of admission.
Ha, it's gotta be bad or ginormous to get liquidated.
For cheap but great quality radios check out anytone. They kinda blew up and make higher end stuff now but they still make a fair bit of budget options. I have a mobile rig thats been through 4 cars, homelessness, 2 houses. Much of its life has been jsing xband rpt for me to use an ht to hit my local repeater from a freezer or warehouse. The thing has been overheated, frozen it just wont die had it since 2018
Right now it’s setup for a two lobe array commonly used to cover a straight line along highways. By turning every other bay pair 90° to the others you will wind up with an omnidirectional pattern. Be careful of the wiring harness, this is critical in phasing the bays and are very expensive to replace, if there is a manufacturer that can copy what you have. Are there any tags left on the main mast?
About a decade ago I repaired a fiberglass 450MHz antenna. Pulled out the main guts of the antenna and located the failed solder joint which was burned out from a lightning strike. Cleaned the copper pieces and used silver solder to do the repair. Antennas after assembly showed no reflected power and transmits just fine. Used a Bird field strength meter and measured the radiation emitted from the antenna when mounted on a homemade mount on the ground. Everything measured 360° around the antenna was even with measured radiation.
The antenna is a stacked dipole array antenna. The mostly come in 4 or 8 stacked dipoles. More dipoles more Rx/tx gain. We use a 4 Stack on our local repeater.
Interesting video, have fun with your new setup.
David M0DUU
I keep telling my Missus that the drawer I have full of cables and odds and sods are useful, if and when the occasion arises that I need something that fits into the category of what's in there. It's saved me a bit of money/convenience over the years. I will admit that _some_ of it probably never will get used, but you know how sod's law works. You've got something that's been stuck in the drawer for years and you decide to finally throw it out, only for not too long in the future, you suddenly find you need that exact part for something. 🤦♂ All throwing it out does is provide a tiny bit more space that you wouldn't miss not having anyway. Rant over...
Isn't that an Exposed Dipole Omni Antenna for repeaters? It looks like CommScope 450-470 MHz
I think the roof mic is kinda decent. In shots like that it feels immersive
Ruff? Roof? I literally posted this before your follow up explanation of the pronounciation issue.. I am subbed for life. Good laughs. Love the content.
I'm sure someone has already mentioned it is a folded dipole array. In my opinion you would be hard pressed to find a better omnidirectional antenna. I want to make a VHF version but I have yet to find competent DIY plans. The hard part (for me) is getting everything in phase.
There goes the neighborhood EDIT: further gone 😂... Hmm trash plus trash, sounds like marriage... 😅
That big anchor bolt is sort of for what you wanted to do with it BUT it goes with a 2-part epoxy kit. It's likely a Hilti anchor for concrete and you squish a 2-part goo into the concrete hole and this bolt gets locked in there with friction and epoxy.
This is likely COMMSCOPE 16 bay dipole UHF antenna 8 x Dipole. I run same on repeater.
A very nice UHF antenna, whether you can also receive signals from the moon with it. You'd hardly believe it, but you can even screw with a hammer. I'm curious to see what comes next and what you can receive with the antenna.
Blessings From Aberystwyth . Wales
Get that antenna grounded, it doesn’t matter if there are taller objects in the immediate area, lightning is a beast with its own mind. If you can go to your electrical supply house and purchase an 8 foot ground rod and pound it into the ground. You will need a decent clamp, not a copper strap, around that support pipe with a short run heavy copper ground line run in a straight line to the ground rod. Get some antenna mastic around that connection to the ground rod to prevent oxidation of the joint. The antenna pipe itself is a straight ground line to earth but you need that rod to get the charge dispersed into the moister soil below. If you plan on putting any repeaters if satellite dishes on the roof, they all should be grounded. As with other transmitter sites you can start placing shorter 4
Foot ground rods every six feet and connecting them to your main rod with the same heavy ground line. Eventually you want a "halo" of ground line around the garage. We do this with every stand alone structure housing "expensive" equipment.
Hmm... You still might want to properly earth that antenna. Bolts into asphalt are not a great earth. Depending on what your local earth type/quality is, just pound a copper rod in and earth it to that. Better to be safe than sorry for the rare occasion where it might get struck by lightning.
That was a very expensive antenna. It is high gain and be made directional. I suspect it can handle up to 500 Watts. Wish I could find something like that.
Another great video that basically says "Be crafty and resourceful and you'll do it eventually." Onward and upward!
If you’re in a lightning prone area. Install a lightning arrester on your coax cable. Or keep the cable outside when lightning is possible.
Make sure to include a link for the legal defense fund...when that nasty neighbor rats you out to the zoning board and they come and confiscate all your future projects
Dogs say "ruff". I think there are parts of Canadia where they say "ruff". Myself, I say "roof" as the Queen intended :)
I would never install an antenna on my roof. If lightning strikes it, it will come through your house. I've seen lightning catch houses on fire in the past.
Surplus Antenna you say? WJLX-AM in Jasper Alabama would like to have a chat
Another interesting radio adventure, thank you.
An antenna or other conductive structure that falls onto a power line can result in fatal electrocution.
You might want to establish an antenna prohibition radius around any electric power lines and power line feed droppers aka power "potheads" that pass by / cross / feed your property. I think I saw a power feed line on the side of your garage.
Be safe.
I'm sure someone else has mentioned it by now but the bolts into the asphalt aren't a good enough ground, you want to have at least one 5/8 dia ground rod driven the full 6 foot length into the ground
BAHAHAHAH 4:43 comment might be the greatest reasoning iv'e ever heard from a hoarder, i mean collector ,ya......collector lol im gonna use that line with my wife when she calls me out on why im saving another broken appliance! "one piece of trash fits another piece of trash " thats gold .
The radio in your car; its a bad solder joint, or a dry soldder joint, or a cracked solder joint, or a capacitor.
Its a 30minute fix.
The antenna is a phased array dipole antenna ,they use it for repeaters but also UHF data links between sites like a mesh network,it has some facing 1 way and the other way due to nulls of the folded dipole radiation pattern
I know that if I was your neighbor, I would offer to give you a hand on stuff like this. Would be interesting to see it come together. 🙂
Put a anti surge in coaxial line
Open up that mobile radio and check the heat sinks. Those things are notorious for separating components from heat sinks with foam!