A Serious Sirius Antenna Mount

[Brink]

My older brother bought our parents a Sirius tuner for their new Sirius ready receiver, and after deciding on the best/most convenient location for the antenna, it was obvious that some sort of mount was needed to attach said antenna to the soffit. Dad (duaneb55) is mostly responsible for this project, but he must have had an extra screw loose because he let me use the Hypertherm Powermax 350 and MM200

Pops made the material/piece selections, measuring/marking, grinding, and fit-up. I'd step in occasionally to mess everything up with either the plasma or mig . . . depending on whether something needed to be jaggedly cut or covered in useless spatter

This one is going to take two posts so hold on to your britches

The antenna base with the foil cutaway so it can be removed. Apparently it's made in some country I've never heard of


Base plate removed . . . those are some tiny torx screws holding it together


All the pieces cut and ready to be cleaned up


The antenna base attached to the 2"X3"X1/4" angle with self tapping screws. Forgot to get an underside shot to show the holes drilled so that the base can be reattached to the antenna


2"X2"X1/4" angle ready to be tacked to the 4"X5"X1/4" plate. The plate will be secured to the soffit with 4 lag screws.


Hold for post #2 . . .

[Brink]

Angle melted to the plate with extreme prejudice


Angle-to-angle butt weld . . . still nothing to be proud of here


The oversized bracket painted with antenna base tightly secured


The final product


It's not attached to the soffit as of yet, but rest assured pictures will be posted once it is. We could have gone with something a bit thinner than 1/4" (even 1/8" would have been more than enough for this antenna) but hopefully it'll stand up to any future hurricanes (Heaven forbid )

P.S. - I apologize for the title, but it was Dad's idea . . . I at least owe it to him

[farmersamm]

Tell your old man he's wearin' out the steel with all that grinding

It's not gonna fall off the building unless ya got termites You could probably hang a television set on it

[farmersamm]

Siriusly

[Ultrachop]

Good job Brink! and nice work with the posting.
You are sure to be a pro welder sooner then a lot of us!

Tim

[Rojodiablo]

Very nice. At least if a truck runs into the side of the house, you can watch yourself on the news!!

[Sandy]

Wait a minute !! There's got to be some atenna to bracket weight ratio broken here on this one.

[farmersamm]

Don't get 'em goin'

[duaneb55]

Originally Posted by Sandy

Wait a minute !! There's got to be some atenna to bracket weight ratio broken here on this one.

David R's cell tower job is awesome but he's got nothin' on Mike's 'Hurricane Rated' Sirius antenna mount.

[farmersamm]

Originally Posted by duaneb55

David R's cell tower job is awesome but he's got nothin' on Mike's 'Hurricane Rated' Sirius antenna mount.

NOW YER HIJACKIN' YOUR OWN BOYS THREAD

[Greyhorse]

Hopefully some 1/2" X 10" lag bolts were used for good measure...... wouldn't want a bolt breaking, the bracket might crush the antenna if it falls.

[agwelder_dal]

man u want to talk about overkill
and i thought i did stuff to the max

[OUCHthatshot]

This is getting sirius! lol

[MoonRise]

Weight of antenna - 4 ounces

Weight of bracket - 4 pounds

Sounds about right.

Now look y'all, they're just noticing how much work there is if you have to go back after the fact and add gussets and offset mounting tabs and such because of future expansion plans on the antenna tower. Like David is doing in the cold and snow.

Hmmm, needs some gussets in there. Somewhere. So that if you're up on the ladder trying to fiddle with the antenna and the ladder wobbles, you can grab onto the mount and do a one-handed Tarzan swing from the mount while screaming for someone to pick up the fallen ladder so you can then climb down.

Ooooo, it also needs some sort of roll-cage or brush-guard loops around the perimeter of the antenna itself. So that hurricane-blown debris can't easily bash the antenna itself, nor any kamikazee avian critters, nor errant basketballs or baseballs or footballs.

Psst, try to wrap the welds -around- the corners and don't put a start/stop right on the corners.

And mount it to something more substantial than the soffit. Soffit is usually thin and lightweight stuff (1/8 inch plywood or just aluminum or vinyl pieces or such). Attach it to the underlying structural framing (the 2x lumber) or at least to the 1x rake trim boards or such.

[HGHS-Corp]

Normally i would say that oversizing is because you don't have the materials in the correct/wanted size, so you use what you got instead .

[duaneb55]

Originally Posted by MoonRise

And mount it to something more substantial than the soffit. Soffit is usually thin and lightweight stuff (1/8 inch plywood or just aluminum or vinyl pieces or such). Attach it to the underlying structural framing (the 2x lumber) or at least to the 1x rake trim boards or such.

That would be my bad. It's being attached to the fascia not the soffit as I told Mike. My dad would disown me - he was a carpenter and I know better.

[Brink]

Thank you everybody for the comments and tips, I really appreciate it. Like I said, Dad must have been extra crazy that day because I was in no way prepared or confident enough to start welding project pieces together. It is a bit oversized, but I think we could have gone a bit bigger After looking at it for a bit I think it needs some reinforcement . . . just incase

[Brink]

Well we finally got 'er mounted in place. We had to wait for the ground to dry enough to where we could get the crane in place in order to mount it. We were going to go with 1/2"X10" lag screws like Greyhorse suggested, but we need to be prepared for future expansion and any and all category hurricanes that come through our area, so we went for the extra 2"

1/2"X12" lag screws


Shot to give an idea of where the 'horizontal antenna tower' is mounted


Close up of it mounted


We still need to secure the cable in place and add a weather loop or two before it enters the house and silicone the entry point to provide a weather tight, water proof, bug proof seal.

[specter]

Well you and the ole man (sorry duanne) will pass away before that mount ever fails. 10 to 1 weiight ratio yep thats overkill! But you got to keep that damm china made stuff from blowing away.

Geesh with those lag bolts going from the facia to the house frame you would most likey tear off the side of the house before the bracket ever pops off that facia.

[spiral-cut-bevel]

nice build....I too have Sirius, however I had to mount my receiver on the ridge of my roof in order to get full service 24/7. I found that a 360 deg. clear view of the sky was the only way to go...hope your location works out

cheers mate

[farmersamm]

Don't laugh One of these days I'm gonna step on it.

You high tech guys embarrass the rest of us

You guys are gonna love the radio. The Wise Guys Show on one of the comedy channels is great

[MoonRise]

specter,

At 4 ounces for the antenna (assumed/guessed number there) and 4 pounds (roughly calculated number there), that's a 16:1 weight ratio. Not a measly 10:1 ratio.

Yup, that angle iron could act as an airfoil and produce uplift. As well as making a place where wasps, bees, yellow jackets, or hornets of various sorts might set up nests. So you will have to remove the bracket from the facia and take it back to the shop. Cut another matching piece of 2 x 2 x 1/4 angle and turn the two pieces of said angle into a square tube. That will be stiffer and stronger and more neutral aerodynaically and not leave that sheltered underhang critter magnet.

Pssst, paint it all brown to match the house trim.

Oooh, you can run the antenna wire -through- the soon-to-be-fabricated square tube part of the mount, and then run the wire into the house through the facia and then the soffit space! Just a little weather loop, then through a caulked grommet at the little piece of angle iron the antenna is sitting on, and then down through the shop-made square tube and then into the house.

[Brink]

As far as painting it brown I'll let the homeowners decide. After Rita the roof was re-shingled and a different/lighter color was chosen so that the soffit, fascia, trim, etc could be painted (not sure what they had in mind) while allowing the shingles, brick, and new paint to all go together. Besides, you can't beat black when it comes to brackets

We could have gone with a different design in order to avoid wasps and whatnot, but what's done is done and it's nothing a can of hornet spray can't handle . . . . we had a honey bee colony in our wall awhile back, but that's a story for another time.

Hopefully we won't have to worry about any hurricanes coming through and testing the aerodynamic properties of the mount

Oh yes, the cable is already run inside and hooked up. This was already done before the mount was built, so changing the entry point wouldn't necessarily be impossible, but the current location should do just nicely. All that's really left to do is secure the cable in place, but I'm back at school right now so I'll have to wait until I make a trip back home one weekend or dad will have to handle it without me . . . . that is if he has time between tinkering with generators and modifying his welders

[Tractapac]

That looks like it would make a good mount for a set of wind chimes. Maybe with an automotive ring to it. Nothing like the chimes of polished aluminium pistons chinking sporadically in the breeze, artistically hung from various points below an old Cat block....

I'm pleased we don't have all the nuisance insects you guys have to nest in things like that.

Looks like a serious mount alright. Is it for internet radio?

I read today that a firm in Australia and Blaupunkt a German car stereo maker have developed a car stereo that will play Internet radio via a 3G cellphone and it is expected to sell for $399. Somehow I doubt I'd want to pay for a 3G data call to listen to a radio in an environment where you can only half listen. (or I guess you could pay more attention to the radio and less on the driving!) Driving is dear enough without extra luxuries like that.

[amen]

Looks great, but if I were to build that my kids would insist that I add one more piece on the front and put thier ballketball hoop on it in front of the garage.

Good job.