Plans for the weekend

Well, I have a number of plans for this weekend..... I've taken a couple days off from work to do this.

first let me explain what I have for Antennas and plans:

At the moment, I only have 2 antennas up.... a GP9, for VHF/UHF and an IMAX2000, both at about 30 feet.

The IMAX at the moment allows me to run the upper HF bands, fairly effectively, although 6m and 20m are pretty weak.  At 10m, 12m and 17m it's flat out stellar, with 5.2dbi. That gives me on the order of 300w PEP,ERP when you consider the line losses.  I bought this one used some time ago and frankly, it's the best $30 I ever invested in Ham radio.

The GP9 of course is a legendary gain monster and is likely the strongest omnidirectional performer one can buy for these bands.  With my 50w of input, I'm getting around 500w ERP.  Welllllll, okay.... Maybe 400 once you firgure in the line losses.... And given I'm running LMR400, that's probably a bit conservative.

The antennas are mounted on poles which are secured to some clothesline pole in my back yard.... one each.  My plan is to move these up to the back of the house, fastening them to the rear wall of the garage. This will give me a far shorter coax run, and a few added feet of ground height, since the backyard tilts down as you move toward the back fence. Additionally, I plan on getting a couple 15 foot masts, so the base of each will be at 15ft which would place them just over the roof line. .

The matter is made a bit complex by the idea that we live in a ranch style house with an overhang of 1.5 feet all the way around the house. So I've had to buy a couple standoffs which are pretty large. The maker of these standoffs insist that the base of the mast be on the ground.... the idea being that the standoff is only bearing the lateral weight of he antenna, not the vertical weight, as well.  This actually works in my favor because it gives a nice counterpoise to the verticals. 

I'd better get to it.