WiFi Expansion: Building the Katherine Repeater Tower

[@gerrydempsey4443]

Wow Jack, what a tremendous set up. Your skills are exceptional. WELL DONE👍💪💪👏👏

[@Spotinski]

Great skills Jack, electronics defy reason every time!!

[@SHANEWILSON-u8s]

Awesome job jack 👍working smarter not harder. Nice bit of engineering. It’s actually really good to see that you’re now constantly reminding yourself to slow down and rest. Keep up the amazing work and thanks for sharing your progress and work and your journey. Shane Warrnambool Victoria 👍👍

[@robsin2810]

You certainly are, a Jack of all trades. Well done Mate.🙏👍🇦🇺

[@ThePaulv12]

I've got an amateur radio license. I've got a 15m telescopic mast that only has only a TV antenna and a wire dipole antenna on it so not much load. The purpose of the guys is to transfer lateral load to vertical load. I have 20 guy wires in a 90 degree arrangement (as per the mast manufacturers pdf instructions). Each 'point of the compass' so to speak, has 3x anchor points and 5 wires arranged thus: 1) inner anchor point carries mast guys from plates at 3m and 6m height, 2) middle anchor point carries mast guys from plates at 9m and 12m height, 3) outer anchor point carries mast guy from plate at 15m only. If I had my time over I would only have guyed to 3 compass points 120 degrees apart as is tradition with tri sided towers. The mounting plates even have provision for this - you live and learn as I could have saved myself a lot of work. While my mast may be over anchored, I'd say yours is under anchored. The fix for you is time unfortunately. What I used for anchors for mine was full length star pickets hammered nearly all the way in at about 10-15 degrees to the outside of vertical (similar to how you'd use tent pegs). For the guys, I used stainless wire rope and stainless decking turnbuckles for tension with the turn buckle hook conveniently fitting in the wire hole of the star picket. I used a hand held hydraulic swager with thimbles. You could use 2x wire saddle clamps instead of hydraulic swager with ferrules and thimbles at each loop but remember if you use wire clamps to *never saddle a dead horse* . *Also wire clamps are often very poor quality so when you screw them up the threads strip on the U bolts, or the saddle breaks in half so a swager is a more reliable bet. Another thing I'd change is I'd pay more attention to lightning management. I permanently leave my coax disconnected when not in use now. A lightning fuse in an antenna switch has blown one too many times. Lightning management is simple, make a lightning flower by fraying one end of a length of old wire (say galvanized or something) at the top and run the wire down the mast vertically to an earth rod driven as deep as possible into the ground and the wire bolted to a clean paint free point on the earthing rod (piece of old reo bar perhaps). Ideally you'd want to swage an eye terminal on to to the cable at the earth end. The 'flower' at the top is sacrificial and increases the surface area so the lightning goes for that rather than the tower and if you run the wire vertically it is the shortest possible distance to ground. This is better than lightning having to use the guys or jump the Faraday cage cattle grid base you've used. Soil resistance is real and is a massive topic in its own right. Yours maybe good being red but who knows? A dry lightning strike might create a spark or something stupid. My mast has been hit by lightning many times now.

[@guyschiefelbein7505]

I am Glad it worked out for you mate well done

[@bigunone]

back in the early 90s I met an amateur radio operator who had a hydraulic tower in his house, it was quite interesting to watch people's faces as it slowly appeared from behind the peak of the roof. Watching your tower go up reminded me of that

[@canoetipper019]

Thought of you folks this morning when I checked our home weather station and it showed a nice -29°C...lol. Beautiful clear sunny day again today...might go out and shovel a path through the 30cm of fresh fluffy snow and put on a campfire to sit at. In the cold you can put on enough to be warm...can't take off enough to get coolmin the heat...lol. Cheers from New Brunswick Canada(eh) 🇨🇦

[@4JTH]

Hello from Texas. I just discovered your channel and have enjoyed it very much. I hope your lawmakers will help preserve your God-given rights of self-preservation.

[@danielrunkle815]

Also Jack of All Trades!

[@goatfiddler8384]

Regarding the old batteries you are using to tie off the guywires. They may weigh about 250kg, but as they are sitting on the ground they are providing a lot less resistance to slipping, which you saw, 6:45. Fr = Fn * mu where Fr = resistance to slipping, Fn is the normal force, in this case 250kg, 2.5kN, mu = 0.4 - a guess from reviewing a few tables, so the resistance you have is only 100kg. This is getting hard to explain without diagrams, dimensions and being able to do upper and lower case and Greek letters but basically drive some star pickets, deep, in front of the batteries so they won't slide and you will get a lot more resistance[1]. [1] I'm a Civil Engineer and taught this sort of stuff at Curtin for years.

[@GlockamoleG17]

That red dirt reminds of the red clay dirt in New Mexico, USA. It turns greasy when wet… Cheers from the freezing -5 degree (F) Southern Rocky Mountains!

[@Chris_the_Muso]

Australian red dirt isn't clay (well hardly ever though the clay often is red). Mostly it's the elements the rock was made up from (like iron oxide) that has been pounded into powdered sand over a few millennia of weathering. Some hills are conglomerate rock where the red powdered sand has been compressed into rock again (over a few more million years), and is currently in the process of being broken down into sand. Again. It's a bastard of a country aye.

[@GlockamoleG17]

@@Chris_the_Muso That red clay dirt is basis of modern oil well drilling. Some enterprising well drillers in the Permian basin figured out if you mixed in local clay in drilling ponds. Helped remove rock drillings from the well. I used to provide I.T. support for a gentleman that was “mud engineer” that developed artificial mud for deep bore drilling. Cheers!

[@hollydavid69]

So you built it?

[@johnsebar7807]

holy moly what a set up.Wondering if all the 29 water points are now on line? One thing to be a cattle rancher but you have brought it to a whole new level.

[@Ifyouarehurtnointentwasapplied]

He doesn't have to do much windmill fixing the odd little pump and a few electronics it's very cool to see the idea becoming a Easter way of running big country ✌️

[@garyhalton7120]

Well done! Using the truck seems somewhat easier than lugging it on your back 😃 Did you build the tower yourself ? Thanks for the experience 👍

[@erichowarth364]

How many water points do you have now ?

[@JHruby]

Love these videos. If you were much farther out there, you'd really be in the outback. Nice tower setup, that box was really tidy. And good idea with the extend o matic tower. Another dozen of those and you'll really have it down.

[@SHANEWILSON-u8s]

Hi jack. If possible can you please give a quick update on how to become a member of your channel. Not shore if I’m missing something somewhere but you mentioned some time back about buying you a coffee. Can’t seem to find that info. Thank 👍

[@jack_out_the_back]

Hey Shane, apparently it's easier on Apple phones, and also on a PC. I know I can hardly find how to do it on my phone. I understand that you click on the channel name, and it should bring you to the channel page, and it /should/ be there. The buy me a coffee (or beer) page link, I must have shifted it from the description when we launched the drone campaign. I'll locate it and post it again. buymeacoffee.com/JackOutTheBack Thanks Shane 👍

[@philippw1971]

Very cool installation you put up there. Do you need to take precautions for a lightening strike? The tower seems to be the highest point in the area.

[@homey3051]

[@gordonmackenzie7782]

What was the final height on the tower? and what did you think it was going to be? There seemed to be alot of talking to yourself about it should be higher lol

[@PenDragonsPig-Jam_on_Top]

Can't see a Katherine on Google Earth😩

[@CASHCRZZY1]

Can’t you add a 20 to 40 foot extension on the top of that tower just use a 4 inch by quarter cast pipe

[@robsycko]

Almost 1600 lbs

[@Lovinglifeintassie]

Mate you really do need to touch on Where is Danny. Simplify it but tell us. Did he go home and not come back? ?

[@lylemclean7061]

Yeah I have been wondering also. I have noticed when anyone asks they never reply. In all fairness it’s there business and they don’t owe us a explanation but it would be good to know.

[@Chris_the_Muso]

I don't think you said what the temperature was. Tuesday 21st Jan '25 was 45.5 C. That's 113.9 F for the SI challenged. In the shade. (BOM data for Lake C)

[@merv190]

Feb !!! , is that a prediction ? 😂

[@Chris_the_Muso]

@@merv190 No, I just had my planner open to Feb and mistyped (fixed). The fingers remember incorrectly when I forget. The maximum should be in the high thirties by Feb.

[@merv190]

@@Chris_the_Muso 😀

[@merv190]

@ I’ll make a prediction , there will be more 40 deg days in Feb. 😀😀

[@Chris_the_Muso]

@ Jeez I hope not. No one needs that.

[@Chris_the_Muso]

Do you need some streamers/flags on those tiny little guy wires so Danny or someone doesn't garrote themselves on it? IP wizardry makes my brain leak out of my ears. I think I never had it explained well enough to make sense.

[@Lovinglifeintassie]

Jack you have troubles because you think you know better and you interfere with every system you buy. You think you can make it better. But then it nevet works. How about you just set it up then go from there???

[@Ifyouarehurtnointentwasapplied]

😂😂😂 tell me you have never lived in the middle of nowhere in the heat 😂😂