Thanks for the video. Looks good. I purchased the 43 foot zerofive vertical antenna and I have been happy with my antenna. The aluminum Zerofive uses is by far thicker than the hustler 6btv that I had previously had up and works at least as good. The 43 foot Zerofive is able to handle more power than the hustler which had some traps burn out after I purchased a 1.5 KW amp.
That's a great project. An alternative to a 48" vertical dig might be a 24" deep 18" diameter hole, which would be a lot easier to dig and should provide as stable a base. I'm not a concrete expert, but for a similar project I'll certainly consider a shallower and broader solution. One finishing suggestion: Surround the base with a rock landscaping bed with weed arresting material of some sort. That will provide a very clean look; otherwise, you're going to have no end of trouble trimming grass from around the base without risking damage to your radials.
The foundation I used was specified by Zero Five, so that's why I went with that. I now have a circular wall of 3 courses of cobblestone around the flagpole, and have the 36" i.d. filled with grey crushed stone. The downside to this is that the cobblestones sit on the radial wires. So if there is ever any maintenance needed, I will have to figure out a way to burrow under the cobblestones, and bring a cluster of wires outside of the wall before fanning them out into the lawn. I have forty-five 33' radials installed presently with no current plans for more. Thanks for the comment.
Great explanation of what it takes to install an antenna/flagpole. I agree it is a project. I finished my foundation using an 18" cylinder form. Digging the hole 48" was the toughest part. Now I am waiting for the antenna to arrive. Thanks for your narrative. Phil Tyson KO4ESY
Just watching this while on holiday in Scotland I had to laugh when you said you pounded the earth rod into the ground. I've just put up a temporary mast up. when I put the earth rod in I managed 4 ins and hit bed rock I think I need a bigger hammer, nice installation should last years good dx
Thanks very much. I wanted a vertical that I could hide in plain site, and this fit the bill. It sits on the side of my house, and I think by now the neighbors have forgotten me spending hours on my hands and knees pinning down radial wires. To them, it's simply a flagpole. Other than that, it's nothng more than a 30' radiator. I've got a 3 element SteppIR yagi and a SteppIR BigIR broken down in my garage from my old house. They just won't work here, so this is the best I can do. Thanks again.
Perhaps in the future, I will make a video showing it's performance. Trust me though, it's nothing special. It's a compromise antenna I chose to fit into a particular set of circumstances. Thanks!
Elsewhere someone indicates an issue with the main nuts coming loose. I read this, and as a result checked mine every month for a year. I had no such problem, not even a tiny bit. I have strong winds in my area - just south of Wyoming, and extremes in temperature - from -5 to 95 degrees. I’ve had ZERO problems of this type.
I have not noticed any loosening of the nuts which bolt the sections together. At the time, my kit was supplied with nylok locknuts, and they seem to do the trick.
A trick for pulling cable through conduit is using a strong rope or fishing string. A shop vac on one end will pull it through as you feed it through the other end. You can make it very easily with the large radius couplersand the lube.
I substituted SS Nylok nuts for the hex nuts provided wehn I found that the nuts provided had loosened after only a few months. I had tightened them during instalation and even with lock washers they still loosened. I went out one morning to hoist the Flag and looked up and saw one of the screws hanging out about an inch. The nut and lock washer were no where to be found. Brought the pole down and changed out all the nuts. I found one other screw that was loose.
I wished you'd taken video while putting the round guard and pouring the cement. Anyways all is good. Congrats on your set up. Hopefully I'll have a non-hoa house next year. Take Care and 73.
The original plan was to go all the way to the bottom with the 12" diameter cardboard form. I was concerned about having an intimate contact between the surrounding soil and concrete but figured this would be the only way to do it. However, I realized that in digging the hole, I dug out just enough soil to make the form a press fit. This allowed me to dig out the bottom a bit more to form a bell shape to it. I used a mallet and a block of wood to tap the form into the hole after most of the concrete was shoveled into it being careful not to damage the edge of the form. Press fit is the key. In my case, it was sheer luck that I had dug out the exact amount to press it into, but not enough that it would fall into the hole.
You sir are a brave man.... I don't dare touch my wife's crochet hooks... Just imagining the radioactive fallout I would get from my wife if I broke a crochet hook is..... I just shudder!
I just posted the same. Your post has existed for several months with no action, so I imagine one or more may find out the hard way, and that would be unfortunate.
Hi Tom not sure about the ground system a little confused? You already have the lower element grounded so I don't see any value in the spark gap. Electricity takes the least path of resistance.
Ray, the radiator, i.e. the flagpole, is not DC grounded, but is isolated from the grounded aluminum mount by a large oil impregnated insulator. When NOT in use, I short the radiator to ground by way of a solid, #4AWG wire which indeed renders the spark gap redundant. However, when the flagpole is in use and the shorting wire is disconnected, the flagpole is isolated from ground and is connected to the autocoupler. The Icom autocoupler has minimal high voltage protection on the antenna side, so the spark gap is another line of defense against atmospheric static build up on the flagpole from wind, snow, thunderstoms, etc, and possible damage to the autocoupler, while it is in use. I lost another Icom AH-4 years prior when an induced high voltage on the long control lines and actually blew the surface mount components of the controller circuitry off the internal PCB.
Thanks for the informative video! What’s your 80 meter SWR before tuning it on the radio. Is the SWR less than 2:1? Many antennas have a narrow bandwidth on 80 meters to keep the SWR less than 2:1. I didn’t see any lightning loops in the cable. When cables are run, usually a loop is made in the cable to help stop the lightning energy from traveling through the cable. The flagpole antenna isn’t stealth, which you’d need to do if you have HOA antenna restrictions. To make it stealth, I think you’d have to mount the antenna tuner / coupler closer to the ground, and in case the whole bottom of the antenna with bricks or wood to make it look like it’s not an antenna, but looks like it’s just a flagpole.
The flagpole is simply 30' of aluminum tubing over a large radial field. I imagine the VSWR on 80m is significant without the insertion of a tuner. Placing the tuner (coupler) out by the antenna reduces transmission line losses when compared to a tuner located near the transmitter. There are no loops in either the 1/2" Heliax transmission line or the 4 conductor control line. Since the video, I have constructed an 18" high circular wall around the flagpole. I chose the flagpole due to the visibility of my corner property rather than any HOA requirements. I have a 3 element SteppIR yagi and SteppIR BigIR presently sitting in my garage that I used at my former rural home before I moved. This is a compromise, but it is what it is. I have been pulled into weak signal VHF/UHF now too, so I have a pretty full slate here. Thanks for writing.
@@thomashybiske5399 there are 2 or 3 others that make the gas tube surge suppressor. I have not had anyone tell me anything bad about MFJ before. I am just thinking that you don't know at what voltage that will work, it is easy to get bumped and maybe short out the antenna. I don't want to put down anyone or anything. Just I think if you go to any of the Ham Radio stores there are some gas tubes sold to do this. Pick one that you trust. 73. DE W4DES
@@donaldsmith3048 Thank you for your comment, Don. I made my previous comment regarding MFJ sort of tongue in cheek, but there's a lot of truth in that. Here is the problem: If the transmission line ran directly to the feedpoint of the antenna, I could use some kind of gas tube arrestor or a simple EMP network right at the antenna feedpoint which would be tied to an extensive grounding setup. The problem is in the remote tuner. The jumper wire from the antenna to the tuner is actually part of the antenna. There is no place to insert any lightning abatement device except between the house and the remote tuner. This makes the tuner vulnerable to any significant static discharge. I had one AH-4 destroyed years ago by a nearby strike. It entered the box via the control line and actually blew parts off the internal pcb's. The antenna side of the box was undamaged, but it was still a total loss. So this time I've buried the control line and disconnect the jumper from the flagpole to the AH-4. I short the flagpole directly to ground when not in use. I do have a gas tube arrestor at each transmission line where it connects to my entrance panel at my house. But regarding my flagpole vertical, I believe that I have done the best I can do with what I have to work with. I took a picture of the antenna base area, but I'm unable to post photos here, unfortunately. Thanks,!K3GM
@@thomashybiske5399 I don't know if this will help or not. I worked at a place that had a 300 ft tower in Florida. We had wires going from the building next to the tower to the main building and were always getting charges from the tower coming in to the main office. We put low amp fuses 1 amp on the wires from the tower building and MOV's on the office side. That helped but sometimes what came in was just to much. But stopped much of it. MOV become a short when there voltage is exceeded, shorting it to ground. Don't know if this will help you with your problem. Just an idea. We used 16-18 volt ones. Don't remember what voltage they are made but we had the 16 V, 28 V, 175 V, 280V it has been years so I may be off on the voltages. But we had them to use for 12V, 24V, 120V, and 240V. The MOV were above what would be on the lines. Metal Oxide Varistor.. don't know if this will help just putting out ideas! 73. W4DES
Bob, the antenna is simply a thirty foot piece of tapered aluminum tube. It's totally passive with no traps, or moving componentgs. You can tune it from the shack with your transceiver's internal tuner, use an external antenna tuner just following the transceiver, of use an antenna coupler at the base of the antenna like I opted for to reduce transmission line losses. My Icom AH-4 links to my Icom IC-7610 as well as a number of other Icom transceivers. It will tune from 80m to 6m. The claim to fame of the entire line of Zero Five antennas are their brute construction. I have never seen an antenna built like this one; it's remarkable. Also this antenna requires radials of basically any length and quantity. In constructing this one, I chose to install forty-two radials of approximately 32' in length, although there are perhaps eight to ten radials which had to be shortened due to physical obstructions. There are also a half dozen or so that are much longer; around 60' in length. The radials were placed in direct contact with the grass and soil, and were held down with home made U pins, and a large nail at the end of the wire to keep them straight and taut. The grass and thatch quickly covered the wires and I now mow the radial field area with a standard lawn tractor. The project was a lot of fun planning and constructing, and I highly recommend it.
I did not. I just made a simple cage, and set it in the hole on top of a couple inches of concrete. Then poured around it. I then set the pole socket with the J bolts bolted to it into the wet concrete and let it cure.
Was the copper lubricant specified by the Mfr? Seems strange to put two components that react electrolytically against each other (copper vs. aluminum), unless the idea is to bond them permanently. I guess it would help with conductivity between all the joints.
I used it based on many years of prior use on aluminum antennas. I hear what you're saying, but here's the description from DX Engineering advertising: "Jet-Lube SS-30 Pure Copper Anti-Seize is the top choice of engineers and technicians in government, industry and leading Amateur Radio contest stations, for protecting mechanical assemblies of aluminum tubing, general hardware and copper grounding systems"
You are correct Warren. It should not be used here. I'll copy and paste a portion of what I posted elsewhere: Due to galvanic corrosion, I would not recommend using SS-30 here. I know DX engineering recommends it, but that's a mistake that I believe is driven by their automotive division, where this product is at home. I read that the manufacturer does not recommend it for aluminum; however, I didn't get that directly from the manufacturer. Nonetheless, aluminum and copper are not a good combination in this application. I would recommend Noalox or similar.
I don't know why DX Engineering would recommend using a copper based product with aluminum parts. There is a product made specifically for aluminum to aluminum electrical connections. It's called Gardner Bender Ox-Gard Anti-oxidant Compound and it can be found at Menards, Home Depot or other electrical suppliers.
I respectfully disagree. You want the entire ground network to bounce evenly. When one segment of ground bounces higher than another, current flows. In my installation, EVERYTHING is tied to a single point ground. That is the utility ground rod at the service entrance. K3GM
Due to galvanic corrosion, I would not recommend using SS-30 here. I know DX engineering recommends it, but that's a mistake that I believe is driven by their automotive division, where this product is at home. I read that the manufacturer does not recommend it for aluminum; however, I didn't get that directly from the manufacturer. Nonetheless, aluminum and copper are not a good combination in this application. I would recommend Noalox or similar. I can assure you that spark gap and anything else like it, short of implementing Motorola R56, will be meaningless in a direct lightning strike. You've got another problem with your grounds. They must be bonded at the service equipment. That's not just the NEC requirement, it eliminates electrical differences, and a path for transient voltage to flow through your equipment. Unfortunately, as configured, you've created a bigger problem than you have solved.
Thank you for your comments, but you must have missed the part at 23:25 where I show the entrance panel bonded to the utility ground. Any ground rod placed by me is tied back to the service entrance ground. None are left isolated.
@@thomashybiske5399 I did miss that. Well done. Videos like this are very helpful to the community. While they add time and labor to the project, they serve the community, so good on you for doing that.
Thanks for the video. Looks good. I purchased the 43 foot zerofive vertical antenna and I have been happy with my antenna. The aluminum Zerofive uses is by far thicker than the hustler 6btv that I had previously had up and works at least as good. The 43 foot Zerofive is able to handle more power than the hustler which had some traps burn out after I purchased a 1.5 KW amp.
I like this Construction the Way you did it. Good job. 73's from Germany
Great job, thanks for sharing your project.
That's a great project. An alternative to a 48" vertical dig might be a 24" deep 18" diameter hole, which would be a lot easier to dig and should provide as stable a base. I'm not a concrete expert, but for a similar project I'll certainly consider a shallower and broader solution.
One finishing suggestion: Surround the base with a rock landscaping bed with weed arresting material of some sort. That will provide a very clean look; otherwise, you're going to have no end of trouble trimming grass from around the base without risking damage to your radials.
The foundation I used was specified by Zero Five, so that's why I went with that.
I now have a circular wall of 3 courses of cobblestone around the flagpole, and have the 36" i.d. filled with grey crushed stone. The downside to this is that the cobblestones sit on the radial wires. So if there is ever any maintenance needed, I will have to figure out a way to burrow under the cobblestones, and bring a cluster of wires outside of the wall before fanning them out into the lawn. I have forty-five 33' radials installed presently with no current plans for more. Thanks for the comment.
@@thomashybiske5399 Excellent, Here's hoping you never have to get at those radials, and the way you've installed them, you probably will not.
I think a 24" base will not be below the frost line.
Great explanation of what it takes to install an antenna/flagpole. I agree it is a project. I finished my foundation using an 18" cylinder form. Digging the hole 48" was the toughest part. Now I am waiting for the antenna to arrive. Thanks for your narrative. Phil Tyson KO4ESY
Thanks, Phil. Good luck with yours!
Just watching this while on holiday in Scotland I had to laugh when you said you pounded the earth rod into the ground. I've just put up a temporary mast up. when I put the earth rod in I managed 4 ins and hit bed rock I think I need a bigger hammer, nice installation should last years good dx
Cool, nice details
Great job neighbor.
Very well done video Thomas. Thinking of purchasing
ZeroFive Antennas 30' Flagpole.
Thanks, Steve. I hope the video provided some basic insight to the building process. Fun, but rather long project.
Excellent video! Thank you. Wish you made another showing it’s performance.
Thanks very much. I wanted a vertical that I could hide in plain site, and this fit the bill. It sits on the side of my house, and I think by now the neighbors have forgotten me spending hours on my hands and knees pinning down radial wires. To them, it's simply a flagpole. Other than that, it's nothng more than a 30' radiator. I've got a 3 element SteppIR yagi and a SteppIR BigIR broken down in my garage from my old house. They just won't work here, so this is the best I can do. Thanks again.
Perhaps in the future, I will make a video showing it's performance. Trust me though, it's nothing special. It's a compromise antenna I chose to fit into a particular set of circumstances. Thanks!
This may be the perfect option for me
Great video description!
You have done some very nice Concrete work also. KC2AGT
Good job with the video and install. 73's
Wicked cool job...
Elsewhere someone indicates an issue with the main nuts coming loose. I read this, and as a result checked mine every month for a year. I had no such problem, not even a tiny bit. I have strong winds in my area - just south of Wyoming, and extremes in temperature - from -5 to 95 degrees. I’ve had ZERO problems of this type.
I have not noticed any loosening of the nuts which bolt the sections together. At the time, my kit was supplied with nylok locknuts, and they seem to do the trick.
A trick for pulling cable through conduit is using a strong rope or fishing string. A shop vac on one end will pull it through as you feed it through the other end. You can make it very easily with the large radius couplersand the lube.
I substituted SS Nylok nuts for the hex nuts provided wehn I found that the nuts provided had loosened after only a few months. I had tightened them during instalation and even with lock washers they still loosened. I went out one morning to hoist the Flag and looked up and saw one of the screws hanging out about an inch. The nut and lock washer were no where to be found. Brought the pole down and changed out all the nuts. I found one other screw that was loose.
Good video although the post hole digger traumatized me and brought back bad memories :)
I wished you'd taken video while putting the round guard and pouring the cement. Anyways all is good. Congrats on your set up. Hopefully I'll have a non-hoa house next year. Take Care and 73.
The original plan was to go all the way to the bottom with the 12" diameter cardboard form. I was concerned about having an intimate contact between the surrounding soil and concrete but figured this would be the only way to do it. However, I realized that in digging the hole, I dug out just enough soil to make the form a press fit. This allowed me to dig out the bottom a bit more to form a bell shape to it. I used a mallet and a block of wood to tap the form into the hole after most of the concrete was shoveled into it being careful not to damage the edge of the form. Press fit is the key. In my case, it was sheer luck that I had dug out the exact amount to press it into, but not enough that it would fall into the hole.
You sir are a brave man.... I don't dare touch my wife's crochet hooks... Just imagining the radioactive fallout I would get from my wife if I broke a crochet hook is..... I just shudder!
I have their (monster!) 33' 40m vertical - and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.
Cool
DON'T use a copper antie-seize compound on AL!
They have an aluminum version.
I just posted the same. Your post has existed for several months with no action, so I imagine one or more may find out the hard way, and that would be unfortunate.
Should have put ground rod in the bottom of the hole. And 8 gage wire
Hi Tom not sure about the ground system a little confused? You already have the lower element grounded so I don't see any value in the spark gap. Electricity takes the least path of resistance.
Ray, the radiator, i.e. the flagpole, is not DC grounded, but is isolated from the grounded aluminum mount by a large oil impregnated insulator. When NOT in use, I short the radiator to ground by way of a solid, #4AWG wire which indeed renders the spark gap redundant. However, when the flagpole is in use and the shorting wire is disconnected, the flagpole is isolated from ground and is connected to the autocoupler. The Icom autocoupler has minimal high voltage protection on the antenna side, so the spark gap is another line of defense against atmospheric static build up on the flagpole from wind, snow, thunderstoms, etc, and possible damage to the autocoupler, while it is in use. I lost another Icom AH-4 years prior when an induced high voltage on the long control lines and actually blew the surface mount components of the controller circuitry off the internal PCB.
Thanks for the informative video!
What’s your 80 meter SWR before tuning it on the radio. Is the SWR less than 2:1? Many antennas have a narrow bandwidth on 80 meters to keep the SWR less than 2:1.
I didn’t see any lightning loops in the cable. When cables are run, usually a loop is made in the cable to help stop the lightning energy from traveling through the cable.
The flagpole antenna isn’t stealth, which you’d need to do if you have HOA antenna restrictions. To make it stealth, I think you’d have to mount the antenna tuner / coupler closer to the ground, and in case the whole bottom of the antenna with bricks or wood to make it look like it’s not an antenna, but looks like it’s just a flagpole.
The flagpole is simply 30' of aluminum tubing over a large radial field. I imagine the VSWR on 80m is significant without the insertion of a tuner. Placing the tuner (coupler) out by the antenna reduces transmission line losses when compared to a tuner located near the transmitter.
There are no loops in either the 1/2" Heliax transmission line or the 4 conductor control line.
Since the video, I have constructed an 18" high circular wall around the flagpole. I chose the flagpole due to the visibility of my corner property rather than any HOA requirements. I have a 3 element SteppIR yagi and SteppIR BigIR presently sitting in my garage that I used at my former rural home before I moved. This is a compromise, but it is what it is. I have been pulled into weak signal VHF/UHF now too, so I have a pretty full slate here. Thanks for writing.
Very nice! where can you purchase the flange base?
Thank you. The flange base and oil impregnated insulator are provided by ZeroFive. All that was needed was concrete. Everything else is provided.
Good information tnx for the info hillbilly in the bam waving the hand
MFJ makes a surge suppressor with gas tube for surge. I would not bet my radios on something I made!
...and I wouldn't bet my radios on anything MFJ made!
@@thomashybiske5399 there are 2 or 3 others that make the gas tube surge suppressor. I have not had anyone tell me anything bad about MFJ before. I am just thinking that you don't know at what voltage that will work, it is easy to get bumped and maybe short out the antenna. I don't want to put down anyone or anything. Just I think if you go to any of the Ham Radio stores there are some gas tubes sold to do this. Pick one that you trust. 73. DE W4DES
@@donaldsmith3048 Thank you for your comment, Don. I made my previous comment regarding MFJ sort of tongue in cheek, but there's a lot of truth in that. Here is the problem: If the transmission line ran directly to the feedpoint of the antenna, I could use some kind of gas tube arrestor or a simple EMP network right at the antenna feedpoint which would be tied to an extensive grounding setup. The problem is in the remote tuner. The jumper wire from the antenna to the tuner is actually part of the antenna. There is no place to insert any lightning abatement device except between the house and the remote tuner. This makes the tuner vulnerable to any significant static discharge. I had one AH-4 destroyed years ago by a nearby strike. It entered the box via the control line and actually blew parts off the internal pcb's. The antenna side of the box was undamaged, but it was still a total loss. So this time I've buried the control line and disconnect the jumper from the flagpole to the AH-4. I short the flagpole directly to ground when not in use. I do have a gas tube arrestor at each transmission line where it connects to my entrance panel at my house. But regarding my flagpole vertical, I believe that I have done the best I can do with what I have to work with. I took a picture of the antenna base area, but I'm unable to post photos here, unfortunately. Thanks,!K3GM
@@thomashybiske5399 I don't know if this will help or not. I worked at a place that had a 300 ft tower in Florida. We had wires going from the building next to the tower to the main building and were always getting charges from the tower coming in to the main office. We put low amp fuses 1 amp on the wires from the tower building and MOV's on the office side. That helped but sometimes what came in was just to much. But stopped much of it. MOV become a short when there voltage is exceeded, shorting it to ground. Don't know if this will help you with your problem. Just an idea. We used 16-18 volt ones. Don't remember what voltage they are made but we had the 16 V, 28 V, 175 V, 280V it has been years so I may be off on the voltages. But we had them to use for 12V, 24V, 120V, and 240V. The MOV were above what would be on the lines. Metal Oxide Varistor.. don't know if this will help just putting out ideas! 73. W4DES
I'm curious about the band/frequency range for this antenna. Could you please share this information?
Bob, the antenna is simply a thirty foot piece of tapered aluminum tube. It's totally passive with no traps, or moving componentgs. You can tune it from the shack with your transceiver's internal tuner, use an external antenna tuner just following the transceiver, of use an antenna coupler at the base of the antenna like I opted for to reduce transmission line losses. My Icom AH-4 links to my Icom IC-7610 as well as a number of other Icom transceivers. It will tune from 80m to 6m. The claim to fame of the entire line of Zero Five antennas are their brute construction. I have never seen an antenna built like this one; it's remarkable. Also this antenna requires radials of basically any length and quantity. In constructing this one, I chose to install forty-two radials of approximately 32' in length, although there are perhaps eight to ten radials which had to be shortened due to physical obstructions. There are also a half dozen or so that are much longer; around 60' in length. The radials were placed in direct contact with the grass and soil, and were held down with home made U pins, and a large nail at the end of the wire to keep them straight and taut. The grass and thatch quickly covered the wires and I now mow the radial field area with a standard lawn tractor. The project was a lot of fun planning and constructing, and I highly recommend it.
Did you connect the mounting studs to the rebar forms? If so how did you connect them. Hoping to put one of these up before winter.
I did not. I just made a simple cage, and set it in the hole on top of a couple inches of concrete. Then poured around it. I then set the pole socket with the J bolts bolted to it into the wet concrete and let it cure.
@@thomashybiske5399 wonderful thank you so much for the info. Seems pretty simple actually. I will rent an auger that digging is for the birds lol.
That's nice. How does it work on each band. What's the bandwidth on 80 Meters?
It works really well. Bandwidth isn't a problem because you just retune it with a press of "Tune" button on the radio.
I have an SWR 1:5 to 1:6. How do I improve it?
What kind of antenna is it? I need more info.
Was the copper lubricant specified by the Mfr? Seems strange to put two components that react electrolytically against each other (copper vs. aluminum), unless the idea is to bond them permanently. I guess it would help with conductivity between all the joints.
I used it based on many years of prior use on aluminum antennas. I hear what you're saying, but here's the description from DX Engineering advertising:
"Jet-Lube SS-30 Pure Copper Anti-Seize is the top choice of engineers and technicians in government, industry and leading Amateur Radio contest stations, for protecting mechanical assemblies of aluminum tubing, general hardware and copper grounding systems"
You are correct Warren. It should not be used here. I'll copy and paste a portion of what I posted elsewhere:
Due to galvanic corrosion, I would not recommend using SS-30 here. I know DX engineering recommends it, but that's a mistake that I believe is driven by their automotive division, where this product is at home. I read that the manufacturer does not recommend it for aluminum; however, I didn't get that directly from the manufacturer. Nonetheless, aluminum and copper are not a good combination in this application. I would recommend Noalox or similar.
I don't know why DX Engineering would recommend using a copper based product with aluminum parts. There is a product made specifically for aluminum to aluminum electrical connections. It's called Gardner Bender Ox-Gard Anti-oxidant Compound and it can be found at Menards, Home Depot or other electrical suppliers.
A post hole digger won't do it? I've dug hundreds of holes with post hole diggers over the last thirty years, I never had a problem with them.
Wonderful
Never connect the house grounding to any of your antenna grounding system
Keep your station on its own
Grounding!!.
I respectfully disagree. You want the entire ground network to bounce evenly. When one segment of ground bounces higher than another, current flows. In my installation, EVERYTHING is tied to a single point ground. That is the utility ground rod at the service entrance.
K3GM
@@thomashybiske5399- well done. That’s what NEC and best practices require.
I have 16ft flagpole
Due to galvanic corrosion, I would not recommend using SS-30 here. I know DX engineering recommends it, but that's a mistake that I believe is driven by their automotive division, where this product is at home. I read that the manufacturer does not recommend it for aluminum; however, I didn't get that directly from the manufacturer. Nonetheless, aluminum and copper are not a good combination in this application. I would recommend Noalox or similar.
I can assure you that spark gap and anything else like it, short of implementing Motorola R56, will be meaningless in a direct lightning strike.
You've got another problem with your grounds. They must be bonded at the service equipment. That's not just the NEC requirement, it eliminates electrical differences, and a path for transient voltage to flow through your equipment. Unfortunately, as configured, you've created a bigger problem than you have solved.
Thank you for your comments, but you must have missed the part at 23:25 where I show the entrance panel bonded to the utility ground. Any ground rod placed by me is tied back to the service entrance ground. None are left isolated.
@@thomashybiske5399 I did miss that. Well done. Videos like this are very helpful to the community. While they add time and labor to the project, they serve the community, so good on you for doing that.