EME

EME Station @ KK3Q

This is a part of the hobby I’ve wanted to get involved in for several years now. Since we now live in a rural part of Florida and 11 miles from the closest city I thought I’d better get with the program and get started. I already had one M2 antenna so I purchased another one from R&L Electronics along with a Yaesu mast bearing.

What I have so far at this point ( 02 March 2018) is the Glen Martin roof tower which I got for free via some trading of an antenna which was also given to me. I will be ‘mounting’ the tower on the ground using concrete blocks filled with … concrete. Here’s what everything looks like so far:

The mounting hardware will go into the side of the blocks instead of the area where I filled it in with concrete. This was done more for weight than strength as I think the tower and 2 antennas wouldn’t be enough weight to topple the blocks over. However, we do get some winds through here with our notorious Florida thunderstorms so I added the extra concrete for more wieght.

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( 07 March 2018)

I received my new M2 antenna I purchased from R&L Electronics along with a Yaesu mast bearing. I have the tower bolted onto the blocks, the Yaesu G450A rotator is in place. The LMR 400 feedline and rotator cable are run from the house to the tower. Will have to rework the top of the tower to accept the mast bearing to work which was expected.

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(28 March 2018)

Finally found a source for the ground connectors and installed the ground wire. I know… it doesn’t need grounded. Or does it? Better to have one than to wish I had one if something goes wrong.