I have a detached garage that is approximately 15 feet high. The garage is approximately 20 feet from my home I will be using a Kenwood D-710GA radio, a Grandmaster SWR Meter and a 6 foot comet GP-3 antenna.
I’m thinking of using a 2” pipe as a mast. The pipe will be driven 4 feet into the ground and mounted to the concrete side of the garage. I’d appreciate your thoughts on the following: I’ve read an antenna mast should extend 3 foot above the antenna. Is this necessary? I was thinking of terminating the pipe 3 foot higher than the garage and attaching the antenna to this part. The antenna would be 6 foot above the roof of the garage (a three foot overlap of the pipe/antenna). Will this work and be safe? Or, do I have to extend the pipe 9 foot above the roof (6 foot for the antenna and 3 additional feet).
In addition to the pipe being driven into the ground and attaching it to grounding rods is there anything else I can do to make sure the antenna is properly grounded? One last question. For safety reasons I plan to disconnect the coax from the radio when there is a chance of rain. Is there anything else I can do to reduce the possibility of my equipment being damaged or someone being hurt if the antenna is hit by lightning? Thank you for your help Jeff
Can you use 1 antenna mast (pole) for 2 different radio antennas? I understand there should be a 3-foot separation between antennas. However, I am limited to the amount of space I can use.
Here's what I'm thinking. Attaching 2 antennae to opposite sides of the 2" pipe I will be using as an antenna mast. The pole/mast will be anchored to the concrete wall on my garage. Once they antenna are mounted I thought of using multiple tennis balls on each antenna to prevent one from touching the other.
Thank you for your thought on this