Installing SDR Discone Antenna

Installing a new wideband discone antenna to go with my existing one up on the roof. This will give me more flexibility with my SDR setup.

[@TallPaulTech]

I'm well aware that this setup is about as ballanced as a horse's arse, but it's better than a kick in the head for now.

Don't want to bad mouth because I've found it interesting (and I am here because I enjoying doing Enterprise WiFi for a living. Watching you do your thing and geeking around is a learning opportunity itself)... But here is the thing to consider if you're heading back on your roof and I know you will :) 1# I've commented before about it, it's just my personal taste to replace zip ties with Velcro (Seriously it will save you time). 2# You'll need to properly ground that antenna for your own safety. Also because your insurance will be happy to decline your claim if a lightning is striking your DIY install and a major damage occur on your house while the install isn't up to your country's electrical standard on roof top antennas and masts. 3# Lightning arrestor will also be needed. 4# You need to review the bolting situation and going with a locking washer or locknut solution. The wind will eventually get the best of your install. 5# You did good with the dripping loop on your cabling but the wind will make sure to push the water and the anchor bracket's shape and physics of fluids will do its thing. 6# Not sure what screw material you've used to attach your brackets but I hope it won't rust.

[@jamess1787]

How do I heart this comment?

[@user-qo8js3qk5z]

@ That's a waterproofing membrane that was torn under the tile right? shouldn't that be resealed?

[@aboveamenity]

Your videos are thought provoking technological wizardry. Thank you for your effort. ~ Derek in Okinawa.

[@vitale6633]

Very helpful. Thank You for documenting your in attic setup and roof installation. You've given me several new ideas.

[@keithiebaby100]

Next time I’m in Oz, I’ll buy you a beer. Keep having fun . I appreciate your willingness to share.

[@zapphoddbubbahbrox5681]

lol.. I was researching for what type of connectors I need to avoid this hellscape. This actually helped alot ;) Thanks!

[@itsmestevieg81]

Fantastic video made. Love these Linux/Raspberri/SDR Videos. Your professional commentary combined with our Aussie phases is on par "as you can see my plan has gone tits up" bahahahha. Brissy weather has been a bit unpredictable lately. Appreciate the video, tiled roofs aren't the easiest to shoot a video from while installing an antenna

[@yv6eda]

The radio cable has to be 50ohms and you are using TV cable RG6 that is 75ohms. Run a RG8X for the radios. Maybe you can receive as is but you can damage your Amp or even the HackRF!

[@andrewr886]

loving that microphone!!! can hear your heart thumping away at the 6:50 mark :-)

[@alcampbell]

Ya do know that roof`s gonna leak now that you messed with it. LOL.

[@alexnaturalis1179]

Nice setup! It would be interesting to compare how much dB you will regain with the correct adapters. Compare the strength of a known RF transmission before and after.

[@TallPaulTech]

Now that's the sort of thing I might do actually.

[@greyman5590]

All of your cables and connections should be 50 ohms. Don’t mismatch 50 ohms with 75 ohm tv

[@Warrigt]

That attic has great acoustics. Should use it as your VO booth. Just ignore the heat!

[@MrJaz8088]

You are mixing 75ohm cable with 50ohm cable with too many joins and connectors, Make a Cable

[@robertl.fallin7062]

naw, the more cables the better!

[@jonshouse1]

You really need an inline lightning arrestor... even if you do not expect to be directly hit by lightning. I found with a discone antenna that the shape gives several thousand volts across the feed point just in pre thunder storm conditions, enough that it would spark from the coax connector if left unplugged.

[@n5yiz]

I bet your neighbors could not be happier.

[@farktard2740]

Yep, HackRFs work great with those discones (gqrx) and LMR400 cable and N connectors ;) Cheers and 73s

[@v-neck]

What need was there to cut the weather proofing...betta grounding directly onto the wooden trusses 😂👍

[@nickjedl]

How do you stop lightning from striking the antenna and possibly setting your house on fire?

[@typxxilps]

could also be a side sonar scan of the seabed for treasure hunting.

[@wilddiode]

Great video mate!

[@vincentstragier6628]

I think you might get some bad signal reflection on the line because you did not put any adapted load cap on the splitters... But, hey, it works.

[@bingobongo17]

Do some LoRa stuff :)

[@ScanQld]

Thank you for a great video! This is very useful. I have the same mast but haven't installed it yet. I was looking at the screws and can't work out where six of them could possibly go. Did you have any leftovers after your install?

[@TallPaulTech]

Haha, no I didn't, but don't ask me because I don't remember.

[@Code3Indiana]

At first I thought you were going to say you were going to put it through your piano

[@SergeiJonovich]

Cool video, thanks for sharing. 73’s

[@padden999]

00:06 I must say your PC speakers are bigger than mine!

[@pawanacreations7686]

Nice job

[@joeazzara]

Do some ham radio project with the sdr you can use that amplifier that you had.

[@sampamnl.8964]

Thank you so much.

[@jamess1787]

Oh my god, are all tiled roofs like that? :S. Seems like a good F2 would pull your roof off.

[@jamess1787]

But no worries, the mount will still be there, just the shakes might not be :D

[@DiyintheGhetto]

What type of antenna is that?

[@KieranShort]

That's cool. I've never heard of the hackRF one before. Pirate radio transmissions 😁?

[@Donnyguy903]

What is the pc program used please

[@TallPaulTech]

You mean the one that has it on the title bar of the window?

[@WR3ND]

To be fair, it's too small to easily read.

[@abraham4124]

Great house 😋

[@maverick25ss]

If you can't do something with zip ties your not using enough zip ties!

[@typxxilps]

11:42 What is the glas dome for ? Light and / or protected ventilation ?

[@HenrikLindhe]

@@voltare2amstereo I was guessing an All Sky Camera setup, until i saw the pipe in the attic

[@padden999]

Im pretty sure there is a Raspberry Pi in that dome :)

[@catalinalb1722]

you can try some FT8 reception on 2m ham band or higher :)

[@MrJaz8088]

Have you tried a Biconical Discone (Double Discone aka The BowTie) they work better than the Diamond and Tram Discone's Now add a MLA 30+ Loop 100khz - 30mhz and a Double Discone 25mhz - 1300+mhz and with both you have it all covered

[@MrJaz8088]

Use at least RG-58 Mil-C or higher and no joins and less connectors to stop losses

[@SimonBilodeau00]

Is is that ''hot'' of a neighbourhood the you live in that you need metal bars in all of the windows ? Sorry, I know this is not a very technical question. Great setup btw.

[@scottt5314]

I have been using "sdr angel" with my hack rf on PC, it was easier to TX than with GNU Radio on Pi. Is there a way of getting a VSWR reading from the hack Rf when in TX ?

[@TwstedTV]

I am a bit confused by this. Are you using the Hack RF to Rx and Tx from a computer with an SDR software without using an actual hardware HF transceiver ?? If so, I am very interested on how to do this. I would love to use my computer as a Home base station for HAM HF/VHF/UHF instead of buying a $1,500 hardware transceiver. I am debating between HackRF and SDRPlay RSPdx, still gathering information, because every time I ask friends about it, they do double speak without actually telling me anything. And its very frustrating. Its like they want me to guess, even though I ask them for help for what I want to do. I stopped being friends with them, because its not worth it or my time.

[@TallPaulTech]

Hey mate, I just did that the other day. I'll be making some more SDR videos in the near future, but I did make a transmitter the other day with gnuradio and hackrf. In the meantime, get as familiar with gnuradio as you can.

[@QUADBOYification]

Do you have links to buy these nice wideband sdr antennas?

[@detectiveinspekta]

d-130j on Amazon

[@CamStansell]

awesome man

[@MegaKrustyman]

Love the hackery. Use what you've got! I did a small PA gig once and didn't take the right cable to get background music into the mixer. Also didn't bring my bag of adaptors. The solution? The tip of a headset mic pushed into the hole of the left earbud turned down low. Come on you lot, what dodgy shit have you pulled together to solve a problem?

[@scanner_956]

What do you use to transmit, what software or GitHub repository?

[@terrysimms6976]

where can i get these brackets who sells them thanks in advance

[@geirha75]

What coax do you use? From the discone antenna. RG58?

[@TallPaulTech]

Yeah, it's good enough.

[@napomania]

My Discone has Rg58A/U by default

[@KmanAust]

I hate those fucking tiles. I have them on my roof and I can't tell ya how many times I'v grazed my knuckles and hurt my fingers. Wish I had Corrugated Iron. You better check your SWR. There's a fair bit of impedance mismatch with the different Coax's you're using.

[@h.sapienstechnologicus8865]

Why they say you cannot transmit on discone antennas?

[@TallPaulTech]

Who says that?

[@TwstedTV]

@@TallPaulTech I as well have seen a few youtube videos and youtube posts of people saying not to transmit on discone. I was also concerned about that as well. It seems like there is some type of misinformation bouncing around youtube, and its very frustrating. Because the specs says you can, but people saying dont. so its confusing.

[@gittesilberglarsen1262]

Only reson i could think of would be power limitations when transmitting and or poor impedance matching. The latter could damage the power stage the former the antenna.

[@WR3ND]

You can but it usually isn't ideal as they generally have quite a bit poorer SWR than frequency specific antennas. It could damage your radio.

[@will16320]

What about lightning?

[@TallPaulTech]

What about all the things, that you said we were to gain?

[@will16320]

@@TallPaulTech Hahahahah! Well played - just like in the ashes.

[@will16320]

@@TallPaulTech Any method you'd suggest for isolating it in case of a storm?

[@WR3ND]

@@will16320 Grounding on the negative side and spark gap arrester on the positive lead to ground. This is generally ideal for home use at where the cabling would enter the home. I use a 4 foot copper grounding rod driven in near one of the drain spouts.

[@jimmycake7143]

Way to much work just for a light Discone, Could have gone right in the attic on rafters

[@jamess1787]

You're immediately suspect when I drive down the road looking for interference :'D

[@bentheguru4986]

Light-Medium duty pole kit with very light duty mounting, screws too short and too flimsy. The way to mount on tiles is drilling them. As for the cabling and radio side, suggest getting an amateur license and understanding of all that is wrong with it. No comment on your plans to transmit and the legalities associated.

[@felixthecat1672]

I usually don't comment on KZbin because of retards like yourself, but I can't not say anything. Drilling concrete tiles to fit the antenna? Too flimsy? What fucking planet are you on?

[@PedroNZ1965]

how can this be legal? what do you need an rf transmitter on the roof for?

[@fuhwurd]

im not sure if hes using the HACKRF to transmit (since the hackrf SDR has a TX output.) but im pretty sure its just to recieve signals

[@colonelhacker3661]

@@fuhwurd He says he is going to be transmitting in the video.

[@cabsandy]

I take it you live on your own as no way would my missus let me have that amount of kit on my roof 😉 and you need some knee pads!

[@TallPaulTech]

If your missus is telling you what you can do, then it sounds like you need the knee pads!

[@cabsandy]

@@TallPaulTech quality reply big fella! Say hello to everyone for me 😉

[@davidbee3704]

@@TallPaulTech you win the Internet with that reply mate!

[@25566]

The hell is a hack rf, you should take 30 seconds at the beginning to explain what will you do and WHY are you doing it

[@TallPaulTech]

Why should I?

[@PedroNZ1965]

he can open your garage door from 2 blocks away.

[@25566]

@@PedroNZ1965 thank you

[@thomasmanson1119]

Do you really need to use SDR? Seems like a total waste of time and money unless you’re doing it just to brag about it.

[@math64000]

Do you realy nedd to comment ? Seems like a total waste of time and money unless you’re doing it just to brag about it.

[@alejandrocavazos1400]

Ok boomer

[@tld8102]

Could you "dumb down" you videos... and jargons uses. Sometimes i find it hard to follow along