Detector Pics

[ricky]

I thought it might be a good idea for people to post pics of their installations, especially entennas, since there are so many ways of doing it!

[ricky]

Here is my temporary, but probably pretty permanent now, antenna in the back garden...
Placed as far away from the houses as possible..
I had to get it running with hardly any time so put the 90° crossed antennas in the smallest waterproof electrical box they would fit, with the preamp board attached to the lid.
It sems to work really well despite being only about 1.5m off the ground.

[tgsnoopy]

Hmm, I guess I should have posted here first... Oh well

http://www.northauschasers.com/forum/vi ... hp?p=62045

[ricky]

Ah yes, very similar!

I put mine diagonally crossed to squeeze it in a smaller box..

[iomkiwi]

Here's a pic of mine - I left the rods outside the box, it is all weatherproof and one day I might even get around to putting it outside
I have it screwed to the underside of a ducting cover upstairs - for a long time it just sat on the corner of the coffee table downstairs.

[iomkiwi]

I have just put my detector into a new housing, bit of a juggle to get it all in but seems to be working OK.

These housings are made to be outside and with the Digital switchover should be pretty cheap or even free as they will now be obsolete for their intended use.

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(as the saying goes - you may get a dozen of them for a dime)

[tgsnoopy]

I'm going to show my ignorance, in it's current form, I don't recognise the housing. Obviously it's redundant with the Analogue switchoff, but what is it?

[tgsnoopy]

FWIW, I will be relocating my detector in a couple of weeks. It's going a bit higher (inside ceiling cavity), switching to large loop aerials, and may have it's gain reduced.

Wouldn't mind using a Raspberry Pi computer to host it, but that's past my current skill set at this point.

[iomkiwi]

It's a Hills boat/caravan omni directional TV antenna with the guts stripped out.
Gonna look like a radar dome (or a UFO) once I get it up the mast.

I'll post more pics after I get the GPS in there too and put it up the mast

[iomkiwi]

This might make it a bit more recognisable.

hillsmount2.png

Just sitting on the upstairs windowsill at present until I am sure everything is working OK

[ARrrr]

Here's my amplifier- it's housed in a large tupperware container in my courtyard (I've removed the lid for the photo obviously). The 20cm ferrite rods are housed in conduit tubes with copper tape stuck to the outside to act as shielding. I've connected the antenna cables using audio jacks so that I can easily upgrade my aerials in the future if I want. The control board is housed in my living room.

[lokeynz]

Here's my attempt at building something robust enough to handle being on an exposed site.
I'm a bit unsure about the antenna wires, are they ok as is or should they be covered in heatshrink or cut short and normal wire soldered on?

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[lokeynz]

And the E-field.
The top is just sealed with silicon while testing, will put a proper cap on it before install.

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[Tornado Tim]

I'm a bit unsure about the antenna wires, are they ok as is or should they be covered in heatshrink or cut short and normal wire soldered on?

I wondered that myself, but then again, I keep my station inside. I have a suspicion if your station is sealed without any silica gel, then I think the wires may oxidize and go blue....
If they are wrapped they may gain a bit of resistance, but the performance hit would be small I think.

[tgsnoopy]

With the ferrite aerials, I recall the notes saying capacitance between the wires should be kept at a minimum. So please feel free to put them in individual heatshrinks, but not both in the same one.

[ShimmerNZ]

including my setup for East Auckland.

ferrite rod inside black irrigation tube, ribbon cable shielding and then heat shrinked outer with oodles of black silicon for water proofing