Improvements to the SCT-100 Terrestrial End Caps -the first grid

IF you have an Ersa-1 from last year, you have a 100 mm aluminum grid, as an end cover and a plastic clear acrylic inside window/wire mount. 
                     The new SCT-100
We have switched to a 100mm acrylic disk, and a thin aluminum back piece that is electrically the same as the old, holds a better water seal, and the nylon ties plus clear sealer is a stronger mount. 

Remember, these helical antenna tubes are guaranteed for life. We make them as tough as we can, and also serviceable if the need arises.

end cap,grid 1,isolation resistor,ext.grid screw

The SCT-100 Armored Helix SpiralCone Antenna- new front optical plastic-NEW node conductor.

WE IMPROVED the water-proofing and the physical strength of the front optical window on all SCT-100 Helical antennas, and we needed a larger node conductor than just a small piece of brass.
so now its a Penny!

YEP, you can legally drill a hole through these  babies, and they are great conductors with just enough surface area to be a NODE conductor. and, the COiL end wires are easy to silver-solder. see the photo, with the evap screw next to it. You can remove yr own paper of the lens, when ever you need to do more accurate high -frequency sightings.BUY these on ETSY

That back  ledge above the grip is good for mounting small cameras, etc. but NOT a Compass!

ALiEN GREEN !Adding a little color to the Terrestrial tubes and the pistol grip combinations.We gotta start LiSTENING !

SO BACK by popular demand, the pistol grips are added to the newest versions of the ERSA-1 's- the new SpiralCone Terrestrial 100's.  SCT-100's are lighter, more water resistant, and come with a 16 inch PVC pipe, for adding a 2nd RESONANANT GRiD.

This one has a large metal #1 grid, and a rectangle proto type # 2 grid, for Ariel outdoor pole mounting.

Its just a little round screen, connected with a decade resistor, and a nice green alien face on it.
Using it gives you more signal strength and directivity. The original SpiralCone included 3 resonant grids, 2 work well with a single Terrestrial unit, and we'll add a 3rd larger one for use with the larger Parsec coils.

IS THAT GREEN enough for you? hard to take the antenna serious, when it looks like this much fun

NO UAV's Over My House !! The SCT-100 test unit mounts on the mast. And up it goes !

 

SO the pvc tail fit right in the mast top, cable connected, and some strapping tape added to keep it stable and pointing one way. Same direction as the camera. 

The onion plant helped me out by stabilizing the reference grid number 2, since it didn't weigh much!

And back up in the AIR it goes. The GREEN grid went a little off-set  on me, but no harm done. Its line-of-sight position is still close enough. 

SO THAR SHE BLOWS- I hope some body with a drone gets a good video shot of my UAV sticker! So now, its testing time. come back soon, and see our signal strength results.

NO UAV's Over My House !! continued, down comes the UFL300 Mast.

The SCT-100 test unit is ready to go,so down comes the tripod and mast. 

The UFL300 was recently cleaned, painted, and re-cabled, so we added an extra cable, to wait on the test SCT-100 to be finished.Its so convenient to work on laying in my wifes flower beds!. HA HA

  

NO UAV's Over My House !! The SCT Terrestrial goes up -continued

So here is our test model contraption ( my grandfathers word) with the PVC mounts and the two reference grids. You could use it hand -held this way, but I prefer the pistol grip out in the field. 

The 40 MM window on the dounut is still covered with the tacky paper, since  the unit is going 25 feet in the air, we wont see anything through it on this test.  I like the performance of the yellow zip ties on the end -cap seals, it adds strength to the back apron, and solves mounting problems while reducing metal content. 

Remember, the original idea for the SpiralCones was to keep metalic objects away from the coil and then Isolate them with decade resisters in the back of the coil. So now we're going to put this on top of the mast, and connect up the coax that was pre -installed. 

NO UAV's Over My House !! the Terrestrial Antenna goes up in the air.

WE are back on the blog, with photos of a Terrestrial antenna being mounted on a mast, and raised skyward. We needed to do some more testing, so we mounted it next to a Universal flat line 300 VHF antenna, that is uni-direcional, and has almost zero gain. We use the ufl300 to tune in HD TV signals and get signal strength readings all the time.

So we thought a good side to side comparison with a Spiralcone Terrestrial unit would be of good value. 

We already know two things- the SCT is very directional and exhibits high gain at certain frequencies. On the bad side, we have the SCT connected to 30 feet of coax cable, and that will kill some signal strength. We have the same amount of coax on the UFL300, so no diffo's there.

Here is the NO UAV's over my house decal, on a stainless reference  grid . it just extends the area of the "white dounut"which is the first grid in back of the antenna cone. We added a second grid 16 inches away, it was an experimental grid we had laying around in the shop. It was painted bright green, and already had a decade resister on it. So we put it to work.