Un-nesting a telescoping mast today that was frozen by some rust was
accomplished by two 19 year-old young men and me (48). I provided some
force and all the directions. They didn't understand the process, but they
had the strength!
Vy 73,
Gordon Beattie, W2TTT
201.314.6964
w2ttt@att.net
w2ttt@att.com
w2ttt@arrl.net
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Robert Chudek - K0RC
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 10:10 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Un-nesting aluminum elements...
Okay fellows, thanks for all the ideas. I need to let everyone know it was
necessary to round up a wench to finally get these two pieces of aluminum
apart! (And a mighty find wench she was, I must say!)
On the other side of the element, this joint slipped apart real easy. (This
is the side that points True North.) This afternoon I took the antenna down
to work on it on the ground. I ended up sacrificing the smaller diameter
tube even after soaking the joint overnight with LPS and downing the Coke as
instructed. Sears was back ordered on the pipe wrench and I'm not allowed to
play with matches so heating the outer tube was not an option.
Once I got them separated, I saw there WAS oxigard (or whatever the grey
stuff is called) in this joint, but part of it had hardened like concrete.
Other areas were still "wet". I ended up strapping the "thick" end of the
element to my Ford tractor 3-point hitch using hose clamps. I was necessary
to grip the smaller tube with vise grips... thus the sacrifice. When I spun
the smaller tube I asked the wench to pull on the loose end. In about 2
minutes we had it apart. But you wouldn't believe how HOT that tubing got
from the friction!
In any case, I salvaged a replacement piece of tubing from an old yagi.
(Never throw anything away!) I cleaned everything up and put it back
together. I ran some VSWR sweeps with this element sitting on a step ladder.
Right now it resonates about 6600 KHz. When I raise it back to the 65 foot
level this will move up the band. Just how much I'll report later this
weekend. (BTW, when I lay it on the ground, it resonates at 4400 KHz, so 5
feet makes a big difference!)
The first time I put this element up (to chase 3Y0X in February), I
under-estimated how much it would shift up in frequency. So the resonance
ended up about 7500 KHz. (I think it moved up over a half meg!)
That's what started this whole fiasco in the first place... my desire to
lengthen it and get it to resonant in the 40m band! I'm starting with 75 ft
5 in total length this time. If I did my math correct, that should put it on
7150 KHz.
Just why this dipole needs to be so much longer than formula escapes me! (I
am taking my measurements at the feedpoint, without coax.)
73 de Bob - K0RC
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