[Today’s run: Watson Road 3.5 miles]
Today’s picture is of my overhead feedline run from the house to the tower. I have four 12′ 4×4 posts that I have buried about 40 inches in the ground. So each is just over 8 feet tall. I have ropes strung from post to post. I plan to use the posts to get my feedlines and rotator cable to the tower base.
I am still contemplating how to handle grounding. I would like to have a good ground system at the tower base then just use disconnects on the shack end. Right now I only have one lightning suppressor. So I guess I will put a bit of slack in at that last post and later put in some lightning suppression devices there.
Also, for the rotator cable I am using a run of larger wire between the house and the tower base followed by regular 8 conductor cable up the tower. So I will have a couple of 8-port binding posts on the first pole and the last pole to transition between the two types of wire.
I need a container for these things on the first and last posts. I hope to find a rubbermaid type container that will do the job. It may not be completely waterproof after I poke entry/exit holes in it. But it will keep most of the rain off. And if I get something clear I can check it out without much fuss.
I am imagining I will have three RF feedlines: 1 for VHF beam, 1 for HF beam, 1 for HF wire antenna (dipole or G5RV). I have plenty of the smaller coax cable (rg58). I have about 50 feet of LMR-400, and I have 200 feet of nice new stuff which is my best shot for the VHF application.
So (thinking out loud here) I need the new cable to come down from near the rotator to the tower base, have a bit of slack for future lightning arrestor, etc, then go across the yard to the shack entrance, have another bit of slack, then to the entry panel.
