Antenna Mount

These are NLA type mounts. RG-58 coax goes up through the center. The shield gets sandwiched between the white nylon piece and the brass tube under it. The center conductor has all but about 1/4" of insulation stripped off. This goes up through the white nylon piece, and the brass pin sticks through the top, wedging the center conductor. Not shown is a thick brass washer that I put on AFTER the hole is drilled and the nipple is pushed through the hole. This makes the mount much stronger. Then, the outer threaded nut is tightened down. I have LOTS of VHF Low NLA antennas, but few of the mounts.

The assembled mount. The Brass tube holds the nipple expanded where it goes through the roof or hood.

Here's what Olivia sounds like. This might be 8 tones at 500Hz spread. It goes up to at least 16 tones and 1000Hz. This is a very robust mode, once the computer syncs up. The signal could be invisible on the 'waterfall' and still copy 100%. Finding these signals to begin with could be impossible if they are this weak. Also, contrary to the way it sounds, 8-500 is slower than PSK31. But, outperforms it.

12/3/10 I'm playing with a Ku band LNB. It's a model NJR2117FK. I took the high pass parts out and put in coils to allow a lower frequency IF out. I found the Local Oscillator to be 10.750GHz. That means, if I want to RX 10.368, I'd have to tune to 382MHz. This is the lower side of the injection, so it's inverted. I'm ashamed to say I don't know if my FT-847 can go down that far. It might..
Update: 410MHz in the minimum on 440 on the Yaesu FT-847.
However, double the noise because it's receiving the upper side too, at 11.132GHz, where it's more sensitive anyway. It is a Ku band LNB. Here's a picture:

The coil to the left just gives power to the regulator. The coil on the bottom takes the 8V regulated and gives it to the output pin of the osc/mixer. I pulled 3 caps from their locations, and moved one of those to it's new location off the F connector's pin. All the output filtering is essentially wideband now. I might need to get bigger coils if it doesn't have gain at 382MHz. I'll let you know how it works. Maybe even record some audio and put it here.
Update: The crystal-looking device is a DRO (Dielectric Resonator Oscillator) and mixer in one package. Wow! Can it be tuned? Well, first I thought I'd lower the frequency by presing the 'dent' in. It had a dent on the top when it was factor tuned I suppose. Well, well, the frequency changes quite quickly when 'dent-tuned' and squeezing it more rose the oscillator frequency! I have 10.368GHz coming in around 416MHz now. It still has a lot of gain! I can't wait to test it out..