Antenna Installed

Yesterday I spent the day installing the Comet GP-9. I purchased an antenna mount that I hoped would work under the eaves but due to the fact we have a Dutch hip/Gablet roof, I ended up building a structure that I secured to the house on which I mounted the antenna mast.

Mast

The mast is composed of two 6′ sections of telescoping aluminum tubing overlapped 12″ and screwed and clamped together. This puts the base of the antenna well above the roofline and the majority of the antenna is above the trees near the house.

Coax

I ran DRF-400 coax along the roof and down into the shack (unfinished for now). I tested the antenna and feed line and got about 1.2 SWR at 146.520 using my new MFJ259CM.

Future upgrades

Once I start remodeling the shack, I’ll add proper bonding and grounding and a pass through for feed lines. For now this is good enough considering I haven’t done much beyond listening in on local nets.

Tested the v8000

The Icom 2m I picked up on eBay works fine and will probably end up in the shack so I can use my 5100 in the Jeep (another project post to come).