Ham Radio Help Desk

There is nothing like going to the beach.

Seafood, sand in everything you own, beach strolls, a time with family away from the usual distractions of life.

What better to do at the beach than visit the local lighthouse… especially a big coastal light station like Assateague Lighthouse on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Of course being a ham makes you notice things others miss with your “hammy eyes.”

Follow along in this picture tour of our visit to Assateague Lighthouse in 2007 and see the unusual thing we found within.
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A few years ago I installed lengths of LMR-400 Direct Burial coaxial cable in my back yard. I wanted good connectors for my investment. I seriously considered the superior N connectors, but my DX Engineering Coax Switch uses SO-239 connectors. While not the high quality choice, I succumbed to tradition and sought out suppliers for the PL-259.

Money was really no object since the connector is often the weak link in the system and deserves quality. I just made an investment in 240 feet of LMR-400 cable and wasn’t about to shortchange the connector.
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About two years ago I received a DX Engineering Radial Plate for Christmas. Nice gift for a ham eh?

It has been serving as the focus of twenty-eight 33′ radials and a 16.6′ vertical antenna for over a year with great results. A QSO, a 20 meter phone QSO, with a station in Australia was the highlight. Okay he had a stack of four 20 meter beams phased and pointing straight at me, but it still makes me like my dirt based 20 meter vertical.
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Well I went ahead and purchased the 43 foot antenna kit from DX Engineering during that sale they were having till the end of last year.

This is the story of how I constructed the ground mount for it.
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