Working on a base setup using some old, some new.

[Mentor3006]

So I am looking to repurpose my old Radio Shack TRC-465 / Radio Shack power mic setup for a base setup to talk around my local area and shoot some skip. Budget is limited and HOA is what an HOA is. I would rather they not even know than have to get permission...

So my plan at least for now is the following...

Radio Shack TRC-465 40 channel AM / SSB with Radio Shack noise cancelling power mic.
Obvious overkill, but it is what I have, 600w / 50 amp power supply.

Now is where I get fuzzy, never set up an antenna system for a base, I know the Antron 99 is more or less the bang for the buck. But it is also white and sticks out. My thought process is paint it sort of mid gray to blend in with the clouds and make it harder for the HOA to see from the street.

But what to attach it to?

I am seriously thinking of 16' of EMT well grounded and attached to my shed.

Again LOTS of grounding. I assume that somewhere on the Antron I can / should attach a ground run to a driven ground rod.

All total going up that 16' of EMT, buried in the yard and run to the corner of the house, (14 feet between where the pole will be and the corner of the house)

Up into the attic, so another 9', let's round it up so up and down will make 20', and across another 20 feet, so I am looking at about 70+ feet of coax just to get into the house, and into the studio / office that will have the radio in it as well... .

Is this line of thinking correct, do I need a separate ground plane kit? I know higher is better, but again, HOA... so not obvious is best.

At some point in the future will probably upgrade entirely to another President McKinley II FCC AM/FM/SSB, but for now, FM is too quiet outside of the 4x4 club to be worth it locally.

[De_Wildfire]

RS23, Do you have big trees around? I have the iMAX 2000 vertical, like an A99 without radials and I put a 15 foot pole in the trees that is painted green. I also painted the antenna green and it sticks out a little bit at the top which blends in nicely at the tree line. I ran 140 feet LMR 400 flex coax from the radio underground to the tree line in the back yard. I have been shooting skip all over the world on it. I have a 12 foot ground rod at the bottom of the pole.

[Mentor3006]

Yeah, there is a big Texas Ash tree about 10' away from where I intend to mount the antenna. I really don't have much of a back yard at all...

[De_Wildfire]

If you are going to use the metal poles, paint the bottom brown to blend the pole color with the trunk and then the top part hanging out a little, paint it green. I used non metallic spray paint. I used those four foot military metal poles so as the tree grows , it will be easy to lift up on it and put in another section. Make sure you give yourself excess coax when the tree grows or you will be using barrel connectors and adding more coax.