Continuing the Saturday morning presentations series, this past week was a discussion of Field Day and options if you are planning to do a joint event (safely) and options to run at home.
Field Day in the time of COVID-19
Stay safe!
Posts published by “Tom”
Hello. I have been licensed since 1980. I am currently the president of the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club (SPARC). I am a founding member of the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC) as well as a past-president and past club secretary. I am a Life Member of the ARRL as well as a member of the ARRL Maxim Society. Additionally, I am a life member of AMSAT, a member of the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society and a past-president and member of the Utah Amateur Radio Club. I hold 9 band DXCC covering 160 meters through 10 meters. I am also a member of the ARRL's A-1 Operator's Club. I mostly chase DX, POTA parks and dabble in contests both at home and with SPARC. I also work on the development of several amateur radio software projects including TR4W among other open source projects. I am a dyed in the wool Elecraft fan utilizing my K4D and KPA1500 for HF but also have more Icom radios than any one person should own. I also have a growing Begali key addiction that seems to keep growing. I also have a nice collection of older radios, Mac computers and HF 1500 watt amplifiers. Professionally, I own a software consulting company and have been involved in software development and IT continuous for the past 39 years.
The presentation I did last week on the Raspberry Pi Overview mentioned several links. These are below:
- Zoom Recording of Session (unedited)
- RaspberryPI.org
- Pi-Hole
- HamClock
- Top 10 Ham Radio Uses for a Raspberry Pi
- Fldigi Digital mode software
- Raspberry Pi Satellite Tracking Inteface
Follow-on discussions
My goal with this tower is to built an exception satellite station so I can try for WAS and DXCC on Satellite. While WAS is doable, the DXCC part will need lots of low angle AO-7 passes and FO-29 passes. With that in mind, I decided to install some very high gain antennas. I like the quality of construction of other antennas I have from M2 so I decided for their biggest satellite antennas. Of course, I also need an rotator to adjust both the Azimuth and elevation. I opted for separate rotators in case I decide I want to put a small HF beam at the bottom of the mast.
Here is the bill of materials (BOM):
- AlfaSpid RAK Rotator inside tower
- AlfaSpid RAEL Elevation Rotator
- KF7P AlfaSpid Flat-plate adapter
- DXE-AS455G Accessory Shelf
- DXE-TB-300 Thrust Bearing
- DXE-ST200CM-22 Chrome-Moly 22’ mast
- Rohn ROH-BPL55G tower bearing plate
- KF7P Antennas Standoff Arm
- KF7P Standoff Stabilizer Arm
- M2 Crossboom HD FG 11’
- M2 436CP42UG 430 Mhz Yagi (18’)
- M2 2MCP22 2m Yagi (19’)
The concrete is in the ground secured by a good amount of concrete. The contractor that rebuilt the house is doing the base and house brackets for this project. We had some false starts on the hole. Specifically, the first one they dug was too far from the house relative to the house bracket. The second hole was too far from the house in the other direction (the house bracket would have hung over). I really do not understand why it is so hard to look at a set of plans.
I thought I was going to wait a few months after the house was finished before I proceeded with the tower install, but plans changed. Since we obtained the tower permit as part of the house project, the permanent Certificate of Occupancy (CO) is dependent upon closing all projects on the main permit. Hence, the tower has to be installed sooner than planned.
With this in mind, I ordered 4 sections of Rohn 55G which was delivered recently.
The general contractor has the specs to have the rebar cage built. Next steps include digging the hole, then Dan K1TO will come up and check the base looks OK with the tower section in it, then the inspector will come out, followed by 1 1/2 yards of concrete.
The latest batch of cards I had checked at the Tampa Bay Hamfest were processed. I now need just 5 more confirmed on 12 meters for 9 band DXCC as I currently have 8 bands (Basic 5B DXCC on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m) plus 160 DXCC, 30m DXCC and 17m DXCC. After that my focus switches to VHF for DXCC on 6m but that will be tried again in Sporadic-E season in June when I have the tower all ready.
After a contentious Special Exemption meeting where 5 of my neighbors made their case why this tower permit should not be granted, I am in possession of the tower permit. We submitted this permit application near the end of May 2018 and due to the hoops Madeira Beach required me to jump, we were granted the permit mid September. 
I applied for the tower permit at the same time we are building the house as the tower is house bracket’ed in two places. The top bracket is built into the roof structure.
The picture below shows the bracket support detail built into the roof.
This is then the overall tower as installed on the house.
The final step in the saga of the tower permit is for the Special Magistrate to review the application for special exemption. This seems to be just to cross the T’s for the way the City of Madeira Beach has setup for amateur radio tower’s to be reviewed. That meeting is Monday August 27th.
http://madeirabeachfl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Special-Magistrate-Special-Exception-Complete-Packet.pdf
The Madeira Beach Planning Commission met tonight and approved the tower project. This now moves to the Special Magistrate to just verify it meets the Special Exception process on August 27th.
During the presentation tonight, the planning director and two commissioners mentioned how thorough the packet of material I presented was. It does make one wonder what they normally get for these things.
The planning directory also mentioned that the city may want to review this whole process to simplify it. After my tower is permitted and our house is all done, I will revisit this with the city to see if we can make conforming towers a simple matter of a building permit and not the process I have had to go through.
Madeira Beach has scheduled my tower permit on the Planning Commission agenda. The city staff has recommended approval. After the planning commission approval, it goes to the Special Magistrate at the end of August. Here is a link to the agenda packet with my info for those interested.