I Needed A Break

I needed a break from the craziness at work, including the last negotiation meeting. So I took off today from work. I wanted to get some personal stuff done, which I have not had a chance to do for the longest time. My goal was to put up my HF vertical antenna and get back on the air.

One of the pluses of taking off was the ability to sleep in, which I did. After going to my (late) morning ritual of a bowl of cereal and checking my email, I was ready to do what I had set out to do.

AWG 14 Stranded Insulated
Copper Wire

The first task was to drive a 3/4-inch diameter, 3-foot galvanized pipe to the ground, while leaving about 15 inches exposed. This was where the vertical antenna would be mounted, by inserting it over the exposed pipe. The required diameter for the pipe was actually 1.25 inches, but I couldn't find one that was no more than 40 inches. Home Depot and Lowes would cut the length I needed, but I had to buy the entire pre-cut piece, which was 10 feet long. Instead, I used a couple of 8-inch galvanized nipples, with 1.25-inch diameters. Both slid easily over the buried pipe, and the antenna base fit snugly over it, as required.

Burying 20 inches or so of that pipe wasn't easy. The ground at my backyard was dry and firmer than you can imagine. I had to soften the ground with water, as I pounded the pipe in place with a small sledge hammer. The first time it was driven, the pipe wasn't straight as it veered slightly diagonally. That wouldn't work. It had to be straight up, 90 degrees from the horizontal plane. The second try was better, but still a couple of degrees off. I decided not to reposition the pipe for the third time, and made do with its current position. I would take care of the installation later.

Ground radial plate with
ground radials

The next task was to prepare 16 (yes, you read it right!!!) ground radials. These radials were 26 feet 9 inches long, gauge #14 stranded insulated copper wire, with a ring terminal attached to one end. The ring terminals would be screwed onto a stainless steel ground radial plate, which will be situated at the base of the vertical antenna.

Whenever I do something repetitive, I try to come up with some kind of a "standard" process, as well as a jig or template of some sort. In this case, I marked the dining table I was working on with blue painter's tape, with fixed lengths of 9 inches, 2 feet, and 3 feet. So to make one radial, I would measure my copper wire 8 times on the 3-foot line, and once on both the 9-inch and 2-foot lines. Once the wire was cut, I spliced about 0.25 inch at one end, and crimped a ring terminal to it. I repeated this process 15 more times.

After all 16 radials had been completely assembled, each one was securely screwed on to the radial plate. I cut a smaller 12-inch wire, and fastened ring terminals on both ends. This would be used to connect the ground radials to the negative terminal of the 4:1 UNUN, which was electrically connected to the braided portion of the coaxial cable. The wire of the vertical antenna would be connected to the positive terminal of the 4:1 UNUN, which was electrically connected to the center lead of the coaxial cable.

Sounds complicated? Well, just pretend you understood it.

4:1 UNUN

With lunch interfering in between the prep work, plus the fact that I had to pick up my medication at Kaiser Fremont, I figured that I might run out of daylight and not be able to put up the antenna. I didn't want to rush the work just to get it done and be on the air, so I didn't make any attempt to do anything further. I had planned on finishing the installation tomorrow by starting out earlier than I did today.

I tidied up the dining table, and put away all the tools, wires, ring terminals, and all the other stuff I used. Soon after, James and I had dinner, then watched Growing Up 2. Tomorrow is another day.