I get my Wouxun KG-1000 G Plus Mobil Today - Base Antenna Discussion

[Tiercel]

Its like Christmas.  My I get my Wouxun KG-1000 G Plus Mobil Today.  It is out for delivery.  The only issue is that my play time is reduced because I have several irons in the fire including my upcoming Ham tests which I have not studied for recently.  I just inherited a WWII Mauser my great uncle brought home from Europe after the war so I am cleaning and researching.  I am trying to sell some estate property, and my son just sent me the book "One Second After" which is a pretty riveting and interesting book so not enough hours in the day.  I am not complaining,  It could be worse.

I will start by setting it up as a base just so I can get used to it without sitting in a car and have it next to my PC for programming.  I do have a laptop however so that is not a big issue.

[ClassicCarGuy]

I also also ordered my complete mobile antenna. I hope they get it out soon.

[WRYZ926]

@Tiercel Yes the Comet CA-712EFC is 10.5 feet long and weighs less than 3 pounds. Here are the specs that I pulled from Giga Parts website:

Comet CA-712EFC 460-470MHz Base/Repeater Antenna

UHF Fixed station antenna 1.5:1 or less

SWR: 460-470MHz

Gain: 9dBi

Max power: 200 watts

Length: 10 ft 5 inches

Weight: 2 lb 13oz

Connector: N-female

Construction: Two-piece white fiberglass

Max wind speed: 112MPH

https://www.gigaparts.com/comet-ca-712efc-460-470mhz-base-repeater-antenna.html

 

@WRZM228 yes an 8 foot ground rod will work well. Drive it in so that only enough is sticking out to clamp your ground wires to it. 

 

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, WRZM228 said:

Very good follow-up. I haven't really read everything yet because its all happening at the same time while I'm working and getting ready for the holidays. So going back a but on the right way to install the home base antenna. The highlight you recommended is grounding 8 gauge copper wire (in general) like from both ends on the coax cable and the lower part of the antenna where the mast connects. The other one is, No need for me to put a ground rod instead use the house piping as a ground. Is this correct? Kind of something like the picture below?

No.

1. Lightning arrester goes at the wall of the house at the other end of the coax from where you depict it, where the coax enters the house.  You don’t need anything where you show the lightning arrester.  I also would be very careful about those right angle coax connectors. Cheap ones can cost you 75% of your signal.

2. The ground wire goes from the lightning arrester to the utility ground,  which is usually located below your service entrance.  Almost no houses nowadays use a pipe as the ground. Feel free to post a picture of your service entrance and I’ll try to point out what to look for.  I have a ground terminal block that I can connect to but if your electrical service hasn’t been worked on in the last 20 years you probably don’t.

 

 

 

[ClassicCarGuy]

54 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

No.

1. Lightning arrester goes at the wall of the house at the other end of the coax from where you depict it, where the coax enters the house.  You don’t need anything where you show the lightning arrester.  I also would be very careful about those right angle coax connectors. Cheap ones can cost you 75% of your signal.

2. The ground wire goes from the lightning arrester to the utility ground,  which is usually located below your service entrance.  Almost no houses nowadays use a pipe as the ground. Feel free to post a picture of your service entrance and I’ll try to point out what to look for.  I have a ground terminal block that I can connect to but if your electrical service hasn’t been worked on in the last 20 years you probably don’t.

 

 

 

Okay I will take a picture. I don't really know where is that ground wire. All I know is my whole electrical box is in the other side of the house which is far from where I'll put the antenna and the coax entrance. The beauty of this is the radio will be sitting upstairs on our bonus room and that is only not even 25 feet of coax I need besides the ground wire which is going to the ground floor. I just wanna point out too that I my patio was recently dug over 6 foot and the soil is still fresh. I mean I can easily stick a solid ground rod in that spot painlessly.

Oops by the way.. I almost forget that I need to buy 2 GMRS handheld radio. Because our old walkie-talkie dies not too long ago.  Are there any GMRS hand held radio that I can buy that that is not that expensive like around 100 bucks for 2 of them? Honestly we dint use our old radio besides emergency or she's inside the grocery. what do you think about this one?

[WRYZ926]

Best practice is to bond your ground rod/ground wire to your home service ground and 6 gauge wire is preferred. I would ground your antenna mast and lightning arrestors to the ground rod and then run another ground wire to your service ground to bond everything together.