Hi Rick - If you have something akin to our Coast Guard, they or anyone who uses nautical charts for navigation, should know as they need to make a correction between what they read as a course headi
Why not just bend the shank of an eye bolt in the plane of the eye and fasten however many of them to the tube with a couple of hose clamps with the eyes above the clamps. Thimbles on the eyes for th
For anyone who is "trig challenged",, pencil, paper and a ruler and using about 8 feet to an inch (i.e.1/8th of an inch to a foot) would probably work out close enough. Anyway, trig wouldn't allow fo
Joyce - Please know ans let Roger know that we all will have our best prayers and thoughts with both of you. Gene / W2LU Roger asked that I send a note to Tower Talk so I hope that I've addressed thi
Just do the math. I use burial cable out to the tower base/ power supply (~200 feet). Note: Although the PPM's will run on AC it's best to feed them with DC. Then up the tower (another 100 feet) stil
I'm not sure if it's still available, but I have antennas and raised radials using Alumoweld that have served well for many years/decades. I tried it for buried radials, but the soil is fairly damp a
Instead of putting it in the tower, it sounds heavy duty enough to put the tower on it. It shouldn't be too bad a project to design a rotating tower system. Gene / W2LU To refresh memories, you asked
Hi Doug - I believe that the "ham" rotators have a reputation for having the brake wedge hang up in the gear, in which case rocking it back and forth a couple of time may free it up if your lucky. I
Putting the starting cap out at the tower would also save a couple of wires in the control cable that could be put to other uses. Gene / W2LU -- Original Message -- From: "Missouri Guy" <n0tt1@juno.c
Hi Jerry - Check McMaster-Carr on line. An endless selection and, in my mind, hard to beat. No minimum order, order by noon - next day delivery (at least to upstate NY), telephone order takers who ar
I don't know how high wasps will go, but a few years ago on my way up I didn't realize had just past a nest tucked in on an inside corner of the tower at about 40 feet. Since I was moving right along
Hi Jim - For supporting those collapsible masts for portable operation I've found that an old shovel handle, sharpened at one end, driven into the ground, and used with a couple of hose clamps, makes
Hi Steve - My favorite for portable operation for some time has been a forty foot center fed wire vertical dipole fed with 450 ohm window line. I use a little home brew balanced tuner (floating grou
Making the gross assumption that you can drive a substantial three or four foot stake a foot or so into the ground or find a suitable fence post or railing to tie the base of one of the collapsible m
A simple minded, approximate approach to this would be to look at it as a bending moment problem. Making an assumption that the manufacturer's 18 sq ft allowed load is 4 ft above the sleeve, which is
Sorry for the way that got formatted. I'll try for a narrower format for the table.- item sq ft lbs/sq ft ft to fulcrum moment -- -- -- -- -- mast(2"cyl surface) 2 x 6 12x HF tribander 8 x 1 8x 6 met
Correction to my previous re mast loading. I think my mind was on vacation. Clearly, 18 x 4 = 72, not 64. Therefore in the example shown there is room for another 8x worth of antenna. e.g. 1 more sq
Hi Grant - It's been a few decades since I took my ME courses also. There are obviously many refinements to my suggested quick look, such as conditions on the mfg's spec's, guying, column loading, ma
Why not an RF choke for static drain/noise purposes across a spark gap for direct hit purposes ? Gene / W2LU At first that's what I thought, but OP was looking for lightning protection. And, if you w
Yet another way of attacking this problem, or if you have a bit more SWR than you would like, is to build a "line flattener" box. I made one with three lengths of 50 ohm coax - 2,4 and 8 feet long, w