The Cat's Studio

The mast carries two antennas to cover both the VHF and UHF Television Bands. The VHF antenna was originally a combination antenna with a small UHF antenna at the front. I took it off because the UHF reception did not deliver the results I had hoped for. The separate UHF phased array antenna mounted at the top is much better. The fully shielded Kingray Masthead Amplifier MHW24FS combines the signal of both antennas into a single cable. All connectors are of the F-Type and the cable RG6 quad shielded. The cable goes through the inside of the RHS pole and then down to the house where it is split by a Kingray 4 Way TV Distribution Splitter Amplifier into four separate cables to the various applications in the house. The mast amplifier and the distribution amplifier are both powered by the same power adaptor.

The YAESU G-250 antenna rotator requires a 6-core #20 AWG cable for runs of up to 30m and #18 AWG for longer ones. I went to Bunnings and bought a roll of 50m trailer cable which is 7-core and thicker (#12 AWG) than required. I wasn't able to get anything thinner. I found it very difficult to get this thick cable through the grommet hole in the bottom of the rotator. I wound some magic tape tightly around the cable end thus overcoming the friction between the cable insulation and the grommet. Grease would possibly have done the trick too but I didn't want to risk getting any onto the contacts. The connection on the controller end was a bit easier but still difficult.

• < Prev