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    May - June 2003 - The West Georgia Amateur Radio Society - P.O. Box 1535 - Carrollton, Ga. 30117 Page 3

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My Two Cents

Emergency Call-out Project by N4FWD

Lightning     When was the last time you considered the consequences of not protecting your equipment against Lightning? As many of a "Storm Spotter" can attest to, Lightning is not something to ignore. You can lose your equipment and even your home. So next time when you have time and the weather is fair, Check out those external antennas and make sure your home and equipment is protected. Johnny Reb's CB Shop P.O.Box 322 840 Ga. Hwy 100 near I 20 (Next to Nobles Truck Stop on exit 5) Tallapoosa, Ga. 30176 Open 9-5 Mon.-Sat. EST Come see us for all your radio needs. We work on all radios. 404-326-5150 73 de N4UQB

Let us get down to the nitty-gritty now:     painter's 6ft. pole     extenders plus couplers     painter's 23ft. pole     Coupling 6ft. to 23ft.     Tripod     Pole being held     Tripod details     Pole in tripod     Windy Day     Pole fully extended As you can see, the 6ft. pole combined with the 23ft. pole can stick the antenna(s) up very high, almost 30ft. if the base of the pole is set on the ground. (even higher if set in the tripod middle) On a windy day, one can either 1) guy off the mast using rope and stakes (or bricks), or 2) shorten the mast. This arrangement is great when no antenna supports are possible, like when a hurricane flattens an area. As a last note, the tripod can be mounted on a platform or other arrangement to help stablize the mast.