Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Hardware”

Tower project full steam ahead!

By Tom on March 25, 2019

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.

Tower Permit in-hand

By Tom on September 25, 2018

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.

Special Exemption Hearing Date Set

By Tom on August 20, 2018

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

 

Planning Commission Approval!

By Tom on August 13, 2018

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.

Tower Install on the Planning Commission Agenda

By Tom on August 7, 2018

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.

Tower Project

By Tom on July 7, 2018

To catch up, we are rebuilding our house in Madeira Beach. We lifted the house to avoid future flooding (the house has been flooded 6 times so far since 1985). As part of this project, I am installing a new shack and tower. The tower will be 45 feet of Rohn 55G house-bracketed to the house in two places. I have engineered drawings showing the system to support the house bracket. The tower will be free standing.

 

In Madeira Beach, Florida, the city has some confusing language regarding amateur radio towers. In one section of the city ordinances related to towers, they specify that amateur radio towers by licensed hams are exempt from this section. But in the code regarding single family residential property, they state that an amateur radio antenna up to 50 feet is a valid special exemption purpose. As a special exemption purpose, it has to be approved by a Special Magistrate. The Special Magistrate first gets a recommendation from the Land Planning manager which here is the Planning Commission. Hence, the presentation to the planning commission first and then if approved, the special magistrate.

Building a Serious Field Day Satellite Station

By Tom on April 21, 2018

I have been acquiring hardware for a serious portable satellite station for several years. I have used various setups at Field Day and Winter Field Day with irregular success.

Here is what I have so far:

  • Green Heron RT21 Az/El Rotor
  • Icom 9100 HF/VHF/UHF Satellite Radio
  • M2 LEO Pack Satellite Antennas
  • Yaesu G5500 Az/El Rotor
  • SSB Preamps for 2m and 440
  • Mac Doppler for radio and rotor control

One website I check out from time to time is the wonderful site of Fred [QRZ call=AB1OC] and Anita AB1QB. I first found this site when looking for ideas on building a shack. One of Fred’s projects has been building  a portable satellite station. As I read the list of equipment in Fred’s article, I realized I have just about the exact same equipment that he does. You can find that article here.

Regarding Field Day, one practice that works very well for Field Day planning is a dry-run. Several weeks before Field Day, we get all the radios, cables, computers, etc together and make it all works together. We then take it all apart, put it all in sealed bags or boxes and bring those exact same bags and boxes to Field Day. It eliminates many surprises at the event itself. It occurs to me that I do not do that same with the satellite setup. So this year, a different plan is on order.

Building on Fred’s project, I went ahead and ordered the Glen Martin 4.5 foot roof tower and sand bags. In May, I plan to get together with those interested and assemble the satellite station complete with antennas, preamps, coax and the rest of the gear. We will then make some contacts. I will work on the bits and pieces between now and then, but the goal is to both educate those interested in satellite operations as well as ensure we have a reliable satellite station for portable operations. This can be of use for Field Day, Winter Field Day and the St. Petersburg Science Festival in which SPARC participates. In the future, the antennas may change as I put some of this equipment up at home, but it will be similar.

If you are interested in helping out, I will advertise this to the usual SPARC/CARS and UPARC channels.

Real-time interface of Station Contest Data to Website

By Tom on May 14, 2017

In an effort to involve more of our club members, I had the idea to allow users of the St. Petersburg ARC (SPARC) web page to see in real-time, the status of the contesting efforts at the club station. My vision is something like this…

  • Using the TR4W or N1MM+ contesting software’s feature where contact and radio info is broadcast to the network via UDP, I have a Raspberry Pi-based collector of this information running at the station.
  • This info is parsed using code from a few other projects that already process the XML UDP messages and I place these in a database.
  • A webpage is built from the database with the current radio info (both stations) and a view of the last 50 contacts.
  • I then build a widget to place on the club’s WordPress site to show this information.
  • The net result is a user on the website will be able to see the VFO of each radio, the current operator, and the last X contacts worked. The score of the contest will also be available courtesy of the contest logger’s real-time scoring updates.

I will keep a running history of this project on it’s own page on this blog. If you are interested in participating, let me know. I imagine this could have some general utility for other clubs too.

Radio Gear for Sale

By Tom on August 4, 2016

Updated 8/4/2016 – Any items not crossed-out are still available.

I am selling some surplus gear. All prices are for local pickup. Actual shipping paid by the buyer. I could also meet in the Tampa Bay area.

  • Microham DB-37 cable for Icom $40
  • Microham USB sound card interface (with an icom cable) ($65)
  • Icom ID-1 1.2 Ghz Analog/DStar radio. Includes data mode via Ethernet connection to send 128kbs data via DStar. Have microphone, manuals and cables. I have a second one if you want to make a pair for a remote data app. ($550 each)
  • Icom 821H Dual-band 2m/440 base CW/SSB/FM radio (it has a quirk in that when you key there is a slight delay). ($400)
  • Icom ID-92AD dual band DSTAR radio. Included base charger $200

 

All radios have been tested on my HP8924C service monitor including output and receiver tests. If you come to see anything, I would be glad to fire it up into the analyzer and let you verify it works according to specs. You know, unless the analyzer sells first.

Station Building

By Tom on June 17, 2013

I ran across a very good blog on building a station. This chap built it from soup to nuts including the room, adding A/C, generator, two contesting operating positions and more. There are many good ideas in his station building series. Look here for more.