Station Updates

I decided to change the way I ran my cables from inside the shack to the antennas outside. I've wanted to do this for quite some time. I decided to move my station from the basement to my office. This required a longer run of coax to my previous door bulkhead connectors, which required replacing the glass with Lexan and then drilling and installing the bulkhead connectors.

The new setup eliminates the door bulkhead and moves it closer to the station location. By using a 5/8" hammer drill bit and boring 2 holes in the foundation at the back of my house, I was able to install two 12" bulkhead connectors. I then upgraded the coax to LRM-240 on the inside for the 50' run between the rig and the bulkhead connectors.

Outside, I decided to use existing 9913 coax to run to my Diamond X-30 antenna, but selected LMR240 for the 100' run to the top of the hill to the G5RV.

I connected the 9913 to the Diamond X-30 for 2m/440.

I dug a trench up the hill to the G5RV in the woods.

I then connected to the G5RV which is suspended in the trees at 10'.

The current setup reduces the amount of coax run to the antennas and replaces old coax that had been previously cut by edging the flowerbeds. I also found that I installed 2 barrel connectors on the old coax because it was a little too short. With these potentially lossing connections eliminated, more radiated power should make it to the antenna feed points.