DX'n Forum

[alphanguy]

Originally Posted by smdp1

ROFL...I actually did that once....I lived in a bit of a gully and needed at least 80' to get above the rim...well I climbed a 60' tree and cut out the top (smaller branches only) and used the main trunk to mount a 30' mast with a cm4228 on it which worked great except that I had some co-channel issues so when I moved 3 miles down the road to where I live now I decided that I would get a new rig that would be more directional....thats how I happened on a vu190xr.....and well it did ok for what it was, but I am glad that I have finally made it to what I have now because it works soooo much better....its funny, but at my old place I could barely get huntsville(60miles) at all...and now here I could get it on a 4bay.....guess moving to a place with 250' higher elevation helps

Glad to know I'm not the only one with that idea. I've read alot of other people also have had co-channel issues with the 4228, so that's one reason I'm going with the XG-90. Lucky for me, I live about 3/4 of the way up on a hill...I have another higher hill close by...but only to the southwest where there are no stations whatsoever. So once I get up above that tree line, I should be home free. I wouldn't attempt such a thing with a large combo antenna, but since the XG-90 is light, not too bunglesome and easy to handle, I feel fairly good about trying it.

[smdp1]

The biggest problem I had was with grounding so to resolve this I used some rg6 with ground line on it to ground the antenna to a ground rod I installed on the ground...this will be necessary to avoid some interference and to help reduce damage done by lightening....which I did get hit 3 times from doing that....only killed one tv though. If you do it, be very careful make sure to secure it very well as wind will be twice as bad up in the tree tops as it is on the ground and the swaying of the trees along with the flex of the mast will create great strain on the attachment points....I had it blown down twice before I figured out how to mount it....I used three gator clamps with 4" lag bolts ratcheted into the tree trunk...also don't use a telescoping mast....I tried and it bent over during the first storm....the best I found to use were some 16ga 1"OD locking poles I bought at Lowes. They came in 10' sections and I used one entire section to mout to the tree so I only had 20' above the highest clamp. These poles offered the flexibility that I needed to keep from breaking.

[alphanguy]

I wondered about that myself. It's been so long since I installed tht I can't remember, but does the XG-90 have seperate place to attatch a ground line? If so, I'm not averse to running some copper wire from that directly to a ground rod at the base of the tree. I also was going to go the lag screw route. Being oak, and the way the tree is structured, it doesn't sway alot in the wind, since the trunk is much larger in proportion to what little branching structure it has. and I did some research on KMIZ, and I think I may have found why I get it so well. They installed a new transmitter a couple years ago, and are cooking with effective radiated power of 1,380 KW. KRCG in Jefferson City is only working with 318 KW, no WONDER I never hardly get that damn station! And I ALSO found out the transmitter for KMIZ is in Prairie Home, MO...20 miles closer to me than Columbia (Which the station is licensed to) .

[alphanguy]

I had another idea and wondered if it might work. In the instructions for the XG-91 (Dummy me has been calling it XG-90 in this thread) it says that you can leave off one of the boom sections if you want it smaller and lighter, but performance will be reduced. So it makes one wonder... what if a person were to ADD extra boom sections? Are these things designed to be a certain size, and it will screw them up if theyr'e bigger, or can you jsut add an extra 3 or 6 feet of identical boom section, and add more gain? I can do that NOW... I have an old UHF only radio shack antenna in my barn, I could cut of the boom section (right in front of the balun) and add it to my LP-210 just for kicks and grins. I'll then have a boom section of about 9 feet before I get to the corner reflector. think this will work?

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by alphanguy

I had another idea and wondered if it might work. In the instructions for the XG-91 (Dummy me has been calling it XG-90 in this thread) it says that you can leave off one of the boom sections if you want it smaller and lighter, but performance will be reduced. So it makes one wonder... what if a person were to ADD extra boom sections? Are these things designed to be a certain size, and it will screw them up if theyr'e bigger, or can you jsut add an extra 3 or 6 feet of identical boom section, and add more gain? I can do that NOW... I have an old UHF only radio shack antenna in my barn, I could cut of the boom section (right in front of the balun) and add it to my LP-210 just for kicks and grins. I'll then have a boom section of about 9 feet before I get to the corner reflector. think this will work?

I don't know about the ground wire bit on the xg91, my tower is grounded and so is my line inside so I didn't even think to much about it....as for adding the extra boom sections....the xg91 has a spacing pattern to the directors that would be interrupted by adding extra sections, but with the radioshack stuff I really don't know.....for that matter, I don't know that the spacing pattern on the xg91 is all that critical so I guess it could be tried just to see...what could it hurt....If anyone out there has tried it please let us know if it worked. One thing that I do know is that one antenna does offer an extension to increase gain so maybe it will work.

[rbinck]

It would be better to gang two 91XGs than to try to add more boom section.

Check out this: http://www.amfmdx.net/fmdx/dxing.html

[CreedFan818]

I enjoy this DX'n forum and it got me thinking... why do we get such enjoyment out of this? Some people I know don't quite understand a few things... like why I even put an antenna on the roof when I can get the stations through the satellite, and why I put a rotor on it. They wonder what the difference is between a Fox station here and a Fox station 200 miles away, for example. Here are the answers I've come up with.

I think I get a sense of accomplishment when I'm able to receive distant stations. I feel good about my hard work putting up my antenna system. Also, I get bored watching the same station, same news, etc. It's interesting to see what's going on other cities without even having to travel there. You can also get some different programming. It's great for sports, whether it's AM DX'ing listening to sports games across the country at night, or TV, seeing highlights of the teams from another area or having more options for football games. I don't really care for fishing, but maybe it's a little like that. You try pointing your antenna in different spots to see what you can catch.

For what reasons is everyone else interested in DX'ing?

[rbinck]

You hit the high spots, but also the HD from OTA stations is much better in PQ than the satellites. Also they don't cover all of the stations and don't do subchannels. Here in Houston our MyTv and WB is not on satellite in HD and they have some good HD programming. A customer was pissed that he couldn't get some of the Rockets games in HD because they were shown on our MyTv station. Sports bars need the games in HD if they are on.

[CreedFan818]

Originally Posted by rbinck

You hit the high spots, but also the HD from OTA stations is much better in PQ than the satellites. Also they don't cover all of the stations and don't do subchannels.

That's a point I forgot to mention. The same is true here in Milwaukee. If I got the locals through the satellite, they would be the main channel (no subchannels), in SD. Another point I forgot is that these better quality channels, along with the subchannels, are free. That saves me 5 or 6 bucks a month.

[alphanguy]

I know so many people who scoff at me taking the trouble for OTA when theyre' available on sattelite. First of all, I can spend that 60$ a year on a couple of DVD sets, there's always something else I'm wanting. But the main reason I have OTA is because I live on a 40 acre farm 10 miles from the nearest town. And during tornado season, we don't have sirens like they do in town.... I depend completely on OTA broadcast for my severe weather information, and as we all know, in the middle of a severe weather situation, that sattelite signal will go up in a puff of smoke, just when I need it the most. The weather radio is about useless anymore, computerized voice...updates come over our local station a full 1 or 2 minutes before that computer voice on the weather radio put them out. And in a situation like that, it could mean the diference between life and death. Another reason I like to try for news on the Columbia stations and elsewhere in the state is because Kansas City newscasts give news that mainly pertain to just Kansas City, and the Coulmbia stations give more regional news information, things that affect rural people, and those of us in the entire state. KC and St. Louis news think of themselves in a little "bubble" I suppose.

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by CreedFan818

I enjoy this DX'n forum and it got me thinking... why do we get such enjoyment out of this? Some people I know don't quite understand a few things... like why I even put an antenna on the roof when I can get the stations through the satellite, and why I put a rotor on it. They wonder what the difference is between a Fox station here and a Fox station 200 miles away, for example. Here are the answers I've come up with.

I think I get a sense of accomplishment when I'm able to receive distant stations. I feel good about my hard work putting up my antenna system. Also, I get bored watching the same station, same news, etc. It's interesting to see what's going on other cities without even having to travel there. You can also get some different programming. It's great for sports, whether it's AM DX'ing listening to sports games across the country at night, or TV, seeing highlights of the teams from another area or having more options for football games. I don't really care for fishing, but maybe it's a little like that. You try pointing your antenna in different spots to see what you can catch.

For what reasons is everyone else interested in DX'ing?

I like dx'ing because I feel like I am getting a peek into life in areas far away and get a feel for the people living there....we have taken several day and weekend trips due to stuff we saw on dx tv....like we went to tupelo MS. to visit the buffalo park there because we saw it in the news on a Columbia MS station...Also it is a sense of accomplishment....It started out as a quest to get Nashville and Birmingham digital stable so I could get a genuin fox station and not the independent version like the closest one to me......but then again almost all the channels I watch could be considered dx....seeing as the closest major network stations are 58miles out and next to that you hit 100 miles....oh yeah...my brother is a coach at Hoover in B'ham (100+miles) and I can check out how his school did on the news and not have to call and ask....

Also...when did this become a sticky?... I like it being a sticky, thanks to whoever made it a sticky....

[smdp1]

....stupid...stupid...stupid.... In that last post I meant "on a Columbus MS news station" not " a Columbia MS news station"....sometimes I amaze myself with the type-o's I make

[rbinck]

I thought the subject deserved to be stuck, so I stuck it.

[alphanguy]

You wrote Columbia probably cause I've been blabbering about Columbia, Mo... I've been doing research and calculations tonight, and found that the station I'm aiming for has a transmitter height of 1,876 feet above sea level, while my house is 850 above sea level. At 80 miles away, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to get this. All I have to do now is calculate the curvature of the earth.

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by rbinck

I thought the subject deserved to be stuck, so I stuck it.

Well thank you....and to think I wasn't sure this would catch on....