Today was the day to mount my booster antenna onto a 20′ foot pole and get the pole mounted to the cabin. The goal of this was to improve my signal stability, get my antenna off my neighbour’s property, and get the antenna cable off the ground.

Croft and I have been working on this project for a bit and I really owe him a bottle of good Scotch! He’s helped me work through all the steps and solve issues, like the fact that I couldn’t actually wrangle a top heavy 20′ pole and get it vertical!

It was a lot of hard physical work, mostly while balancing on a ladder, but I got it done!

For the pole, I used the two 10′ sections of chain link fence top railing. This was perfect because the pieces are meant to fit into each other, making for a 20′ foot pole that I could actually fit in my truck!

So here it is:

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Croft suggested I secure the pole in the ground with cement, but that was too permanent with impending construction, so I dug a hole and then wedged the pole in between a bunch of rocks. It’s secure!

To get the pole vertical, I laid the two pieces on the ground, with the antenna end against the building. I then slotted the two pieces together and secured them somewhat with duct tape to keep them from separating:

Croft suggested I secure a rope to the pole, climb the ladder, and then use the rope to pull up the pole until I could grab it. What worked better for me was to lift the pole as high as I could and lean it against the building, climb up, grab the pole, and then very, very, very careful ease it up. It was very top heavy and it wouldn’t have taken much for it to pull me off the ladder so I was extra cautious!

I had already secured a block of wood to the eave to bring it flush with the roof, so once the pole was almost vertical, but still angled enough to stay in place on its own, I quickly secured the top with strapping.  Croft had also suggested a U-shaped clamp to secure the top of the pole to the eave, but the home stores in town didn’t have the right size. One clerk suggested I use flexible plumbing strapping. Croft thought it would be too flexible for the job, but I believed that it could be molded to provide a much tighter fit. Hate to say it, but I was right. 🙂 The pipe is completely immobile. For this step, I just secured the banding loosely to hold the pipe while I adjusted the antenna’s direction, and then I went back up with several more screws to get the tight fit.

After doing the preliminary securing at the eave, I went back to the ground and gently pushed the pole up so I could get it into the hole and secure it with the rocks.

Croft also advised me to secure the wire to the pole to take a load off the connector. So I gathered up all the loose cable and secured it with a zip tie and then secured the bundle to the cable with another zip tie.

Finally, how did I mount the Yagi to the pole? As it turned out, I had what I needed, I just didn’t know it! I’ve been using a U-shaped bolt and a clamp with teeth to secure it to the broom handle I’ve been using for years, but that didn’t give me enough grip for mounting onto a metal pole. Well, I found another clamp with teeth while I was emptying out the junk drawer the other day! I forgot to take a picture while the pole was on the ground, but my camera’s zoom is amazing:

(Here’s another view of the materials, but there’s only one clamp with teeth. I wound up with two since I had to buy several antennas to get one that worked well.)

My signal strength is now going between -83 and -88 when I was getting between -87 and -110 before (usually sitting at -95). Before doing all the final securing, I tested a download, ie. some critical system updates. I went from an estimated download time of +4 hours with the download timing out every five to ten minutes to an estimated download time of 30 minutes and no timeout! I’m not seeing any improvements while surfing the web, however.

This was a big job but worth it! My internet setup looks a lot less hillbillyish (with all due respect to hillbillies).

My only concern about this is that I’ve lost the ability to bring the Yagi to Mexico as there is no way I am taking this apart! I have another antenna that I think will work well, so I’ll have to get some coax cable for it and find the necessary connectors. I didn’t use my phone much on Isla last winter, but I was always glad to have the ability to do so thanks to the booster since service in the heart of the village was poor.

I am still not going to promote the booster I am using because I am not impressed with it and don’t want to give Wilson any more publicity since they are such a horrible company. Let’s just say that I should have plenty of range to use my phone anywhere within a 125′ radius of my office and that I go from -87 to -120 when I step two feet away from the inside antenna. Well, at least I get that -120 now. I was getting no signal when I did that before today’s exertion. 🙂