Hi Gene.
I see you're not too far from Jeff, W2FU. I'll be turning the new
OR2800 with one of his controllers. I'm pretty excited about that!
Thanks for taking the time to do the initial work-up for me and then to
further go back and give it a second look. I appreciate the time you
took to look into the issue for me by plugging in some numbers that are
very close to my real world situation.
While I'm probably never going to have to worry about ice, the winds can
cause some havoc here in Florida from time to time. It was twenty years
ago - almost to the month that I suffered a catastrophic 3" boom
collapse to my 4 el. Cubex quad during one giant wind gust that I
seriously thought was going to take the roof off. I got up the next
morning, never thinking to look at the tower. It was still dark out and
I was happy to be driving 90 miles to the north to the Orlando Hamfest.
The No Name Storm http://www2.sptimes.com/Weather/SW.3.html had taken
out my boom, overnight. Not until I got to the hamfest did I receive
notice from one of my late arriving friends that he'd received a phone
call from my wife and been to my house to survey the damage. Half the
boom was still held up in the air by its truss line. The other, not so
much.
In 39 years as a ham, prior to owning this new KT-36XA I've only ever
owned bamboo and fiberglass cubical quads. While three dimensional in
nature, they're also very forgiving of the wind.
Thanks again, Gene for performing due diligence for me.
73,
Jon Pearl - W4ABC
www.w4abc.com
On 2/7/2013 9:22 PM, Gene Fuller wrote:
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 ft on
the tribander at 1 foot up and 1 more sq ft on the 6 meter at 7 feet
up, with still a little room for ice or whatever. Sorry, again, about
that.
The "Economy of space" may well be in not having to replace the mast
and perhaps one or more of the antennas after the first medium wind
storm. Being a bit conservative in the design sure helps you sleep a
lot better on those windy nights.
Gene / W2LU
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