The Chimney
The Chimney
This house was built in the 1970’s when fireplaces were commonplace. The fireplace commanded a place of prominence in the lounge previously, but it hasn’t been used for 20 years. Until I spotted that it was holding up a sturdy 5 meter 50mm thick-walled antenna pipe with an old TV and FM antenna mounted onto it. The chimney was also in the middle (more or less) of the stand, and the furthest away from all the trees. It was also not very far from the spare bedroom which was going to do double duty as my shack.
And so, with the addition of a 1m height extension (half a pool cleaning pipe) and a few pulleys, I had myself a perfect antenna tower. The ground slopes quite a lot, but at that point it is able to raise a wire antenna (inverted V) about 12 meters above ground level. It is not too hard to get to it, and the brick portion also holds my DSTV antenna and my weather station wind vane. All in all the best possible location I could wish for. I will add some diagrams and measurements later, but in the picture you can see the MFJ G5RV-Junior hanging happily from the top in inverted V format. This picture was taken from the river side looking south (and uphill), with my shack to the left of the lounge.
