Shack Upgrade 2023

[W1KNE]

Again, this is NOTHING compared to the super shacks like Scott's, but I now have two new monitors ready!
(And two new antennas.)

What I have:
1) BCD536HP - Omni Antenna
2) BCD996P2 - Omni Antenna
3) BCD536HP - UHF antenna aimed West
4) SDS200 - 800 Antenna aimed West
5) BCD536HP - UHF antenna aimed north

shack2023.jpg (367.48 KiB) Viewed 458 times

[W1KNE]

And the antenna compliment.

northuhf.jpg (49.8 KiB) Viewed 457 times

westuhf.jpg (53.36 KiB) Viewed 457 times

antennas.jpg (65.36 KiB) Viewed 457 times

[W1KNE]

Now if only I had remembered F to UHF adaptors, I could actually be using my two new antennas... lol.

RF is RG6 Quad shield. For the short run and the maximum frequency of approx 950 MHz, the loss from the impedance change is negligible as well as the coax loss. It's less than a 50 foot run.
I do need to install grounding blocks as well.

That broken dipole (East omni) was the one I picked up all the Cali HP on this year. This coming fall, that will be on a 996P2 which is supposed to be an outstanding VHF receiver.

[Scott]

Looks good from where I sit! You're also in a great location for monitoring of a lot of good stuff. Nice antenna setups as well. Ten thumbs up from here!

[W1KNE]

Well so far the 800 antenna is a failure so far. I can only still get the north zone with it. I should expect terrain shielding to be a problem but I suppose it was worse than I guessed?
I may swing that one around to see what else I can get with it. It also may just be too much gain, so the receive azimuth is very narrow too. This will require some experimentation.

[Scott]

Don't forget those zany SDS filters too!

[W1KNE]

Don't forget those zany SDS filters too!

So no change to the filters from the other antenna. Found I didn't do a good job with the crimp job. Replaced the end, and wrench tightened it all. I am happy to say off of that single antenna, I can now receive all four RISCON zones from here. South is the weakest, but they all are strong enough for the SDS to decode audio. I honestly think the bigger picture are those ebay adaptors I got are junky. The UHF antenna was also weak as it comes until I seated it down harder. Now it seems to be performing nicely. I can finally hear Pawtucket UHF here, which I still can't on any other antenna.

[Scott]

Nice!

One of my spring projects is to get a yagi up pointed at one of the East Zone towers for RISCON. I have a big challenge with the terrain on the west part of the cape adjacent to Buzzards Bay, which has always been a killer in that direction. Glad to read that you fixed your problem.