Sounds to me like he said "the antenna rotates on the mast," and not "the
mast twists inside the rotator clamps." There's a difference, although the
suggestion that pinning stuff can lead to rotator destruction is pretty
valid and which part actually rotates may not matter much.
Still, some boom-to-mast clamps aren't very good and I've seem some that are
downright inadequate.
I pin everything with a HAM-IV and it takes the beating okay...however it's
not overloaded at all, and is only turning about half its rated load.
If this is an ongoing problem and the beam load is large, I'd probably go to
a worm gear drive rotator and then pin everything.
Problem with stuff spinning when you don't want it to isn't just that you
don't know your beam directions -- you can also pull a feedline right off
the antenna if the beam tries to rotate much more than 360.
That's a bummer.
WB2WIK/6
-----Original Message-----
From: K8RI on TowerTalk [mailto:K8RI-on-TowerTalk@tm.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 1:32 PM
To: Mel Ming; towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Keeping antenna for rotating on mast
> My antenna periodically rotates on the mast because of wind and storms. I
> have tightened everything as much as I know how. This throws off my
> direction indicator.
Usually those things slip for a reason which prevents you from having to
purchase a new rotator. OTOH sometimes they slip just due to a poor mast
clamp. Still it's not a good idea to pin the mast to the rotator unless
you have a rotator that is nearly indestructable and that eliminates all the
non worm gear drive rotators.
Roger Halstead (K8RI and ARRL 40 year Life Member)
N833R - World's oldest Debonair CD-2
www.rogerhalstead.com (Use return address from home page)
>
> What are the best ways to lock the antenna and rotator to the mast?
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