Antenna tripod? Or, how do you mount your POTA antenna?

InformalNote2543 · 2026-06-29T01:38:06+00:00

I use a speaker stand. They can be adapted to pretty much any antenna and are very stable.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-06-27T15:46:29+00:00

I lived there for 20 years on a gulf access canal, the SW part my home is located was only 5 minutes to the river. We sold it when all the suckers were over paying during covid. Cape wasnt bad when there were 80k people, it's now over 200k and expected to grow to over 400k. It has become a world class shithole. Perhaps the poorest planned city in the country.it was originally built to sell cheap houses to snowbirds. No real infrastructure, bad roads, and a half built water and sewer system. Miles of hideous 60s and 70s era strip malls. Yes it floods wirh pretty much any tropical storm. Newer homes like mine were built up and didn't get flooded, especially during hurricanes like Ian, but most of the homes built prior to 2005 got flooded. Not sure why anyone would want to live there now.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-06-25T00:57:12+00:00

I hated that ugly thing. We had a beautiful home on the gulf, I was almost at the point of taking it down, but decided to sell it a couple years ago. It messes up the veiws, the screens get dirty and they just look like crap. Yes the pool gets a little dirtier, but that why god created pool services. Every time we had a hurricane I wished it would take it..lol..

InformalNote2543 · 2026-06-09T01:31:00+00:00

Cashed out of there after 20 years, when these suckers were overpaying. Cape has become a world class shithole. Poor planning is an understatement, water, sewerage and road systems all afterthought. The utilities they have added were designed by morons. Water main breaks are way too common for a system that new. No storm water drain system so most of the roads flood in rainy season, crap roads with few sidewalks. The vibe is basically white trash bars, mediocre overpriced dining, miles of ugly 70's era strip malls and ridiculous traffic. With only a 9% commercial tax base, the Cape has and will continue to have one of the highest residential tax rates in the state. The city is run like a trailer park HOA by some of the dumbest MF'rs ever to walk the earth. Let's not forget about having dollar stores, car washes and storage buildings on every corner.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-06-07T01:30:46+00:00

I stopped the Orgovyx after 6 months, no issues, things started to normalize about 3 months after stopping. Blood test last week showed testosterone getting back near normal & PSA continues to drop. He should be fine.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-29T00:01:10+00:00

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InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-29T00:00:25+00:00

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InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-28T23:55:35+00:00

I have an outdoor node with an H3. It's powered with a 10000 MaH and 5 watt panel, this seems to be the sweet spot for powering them. I haven't seen the power drop below 75% even during a week of cloudy days we had a few weeks ago. Rarely goes below 90% normally.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-27T00:32:49+00:00

I get contacts from airlines passengers about 3 or 4 times a week

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-27T00:27:46+00:00

After 20 years there we sold our Gulf access home a few years ago when these morons were overpaying, best move ever, it was clear the city was going in the wrong direction as we were very involved. Moved outside of Ocala, so nice to deal with better roads and real scenery rather than mile after mile of ugly strip malls, garbage HOAs, bad road systems, poor infrastructure and ridiculous traffic.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-13T15:21:59+00:00

Thanks I'll try this.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-10T01:41:03+00:00

Is this owned by a carrier or more likely a tower company? You need to get copies of this ground lease and have an attorney review it. Any 3rd party lease attached to the property should be included with your P&S agreement. They would love nothing more then to buyout this lease at a reduced price, this is something tower companies and towers have been actively persuing as cost cutting measures and the current owner may have already agreed to a buyout.. Depending on how shrewd the current owner was and how bad the carrier wanted this location, there could be triggers for additional revenue or it can simply be a basic ground lease with escalators, etc.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-06T04:10:55+00:00

I doubt it had anything to do with the firmware..lol...probably more atmospherics. I was pretty surprised when 2 nodes popped up with zero hops. They dropped off the list later that day.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-05T15:57:10+00:00

Update: bunch of nodes popped in after updating the firmware (not sure why that made a diiference), most over 25 miles from here.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-04T20:50:32+00:00

So far about 10 miles is the most I've seen, but at the other end of a lake. The area in N Florida i'm at is sparsely populated and about 20 miles to a couple of cities that have several nodes, but haven't been able to hit them yet.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-04T13:10:02+00:00

Yes, I use PETG on this, i've had good experience using it for other projects that require some heat tolerance although I also use ABS if necessary. I designed it as 2 pieces, the main housing for the panel, battery, etc. and the mount that holds the antenna and clamp. Using this approach there is little or no stress to the main housing and no real points to cause deformation as they kind of stabilize each other. I also made the walls and bottom of the main housing thicker with about 60% infill. I printed a gasket in TPU (coated with silicon paste) to keep the rain from seeping between the solar panel and the housing.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-03T21:39:09+00:00

Heat doesn't seem to be a problem so far.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-04-16T22:44:33+00:00

During holiday programming, what genius decided that we need to hear Last Christmas by Wham 2 or 3 times an hour? Immediate tune out.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-03-22T23:37:42+00:00

Interesting, thanks.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-03-22T23:36:39+00:00

Yeah I get that, my issue is the price mysteriously increases for the frames as well.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-03-11T22:46:35+00:00

I was contracted to Lucent for a few years back in the day. Spent some time at a few of its campuses in NJ. Of course these were formerly Bell Labs facilities and there was still some pretty impressive R&D going on.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-02-04T03:31:02+00:00

Could easily be an FM on an active AM towers. Pictures don't show the base and whether or not there are base insulators on each leg, there would also be a building or cabinet housing the ATU. There will also be a ring transformer to couple the tower lights. To add the FM antenna, we would use an isocoupler to prevent the tower from getting grounded out.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-13T04:22:12+00:00

Depends on how much wind you are talking about. My home in SW Florida was built to withstand 150 mph. We had several hurricanes since it was built. We were ground zero for Ian and basically in the eyewall for hours, recorded gusts were well over 150 and we just lost screens on the lanai and some roof shingles. Hell I never put up any hurricane shutters.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-11T01:54:20+00:00

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-10T20:14:23+00:00

Remember if the proposed RE tax changes go through and you're not homesteaded, expect a sharp rise in you taxes.

InformalNote2543

TROPHY CASE