Off the Air for a While
Since I started the station antenna and ground rebuild back in July, I have cut the 4-inch hole in the block, installed the 4-inch PVC to line the hole, and knocked a hole in the brick so I can get the Heliax through the wall. I have installed the bracketing and the box on the outside and mounted the antenna ground bus with surge protectors on the inside. Hopefully I will take some photos of the installation and do a section on the web site showing how I did it.
Last year we built a big patio off the walkout basement. When it was built, I had them bond the rebar so I could use the patio as a really big Ufer. It will be bonded to the basement footing Ufer at the power ground rod.
The patio Ufer is grounded to the antenna radio panel with a short ground rod at the entrance to stabilize the area and serve as the connection point for the #8 ground wire. Hopefully, when my wallet recovers a bit, I can replace the wire with a copper ribbon for lower impedence.
Two Heliax runs are installed and waiting for me to install the connectors. So today, I hope to install connectors and pull the third of four Heliax runs to the radio position.
Once all the mechanical work is done, I will still need to get the FT-857 up and running and debug the old PSK interface that I built for it long ago.