I can tell you a horror story about using fence rail for mast material. Of
course if your only going to put one antenna just above the top of the tower
almost anything will work, however if you're going to stack antennas, fence
rail material will not hold up. If you're going to stack antennas use the
mast calculating software available from Champion Radio Products buy what is
recommended and sleep well at night. It may cost a little more in the short
term but it will pay you back in the long term.
http://www.championradio.com/
Julio, W4HY
-----Original Message-----
From: David McKenzie [mailto:kb1fsy@vhfwiki.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:33 AM
To: w8zn@comcast.net
Cc: TowerTalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Mast material
A friend of mine uses the fence rail from home depot, he says it's thicker
wall than EMT and feels lighter. It comes in 10' sections and the ends are
tapered so that they fit together better than you could "join" EMT conduit
with the HD clamps. It's also just as cheap as conduit. I think HD sells it
in 1.5 OD and 2.25OD or so.
On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 8:16 AM, <w8zn@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
> Don't overlook 6061T6 aluminum - 2" OD with .25 or .375 wall thickness.
> Lightweight (relatively), no, you can't put a monoband 40m beam 10 feet
> above a thrust bearing but within the specs, it works very well. No rust,
> clamps well to prevent slipping, exactly 2" OD so it fits well. Great for
> VHF and smaller HF antennas. I had a pair of 36 foot long 6m antennas on
one
> for many years in Ohio, one was 22 feet out the top of the tower, it
> survived 60+ mph winds, it bent in the wind but sprung back. Last I know
> these were less than $200 for a 24 foot long section. No comparason to the
> chrome molly masts for strength but probably 1/4 to 1/3 the weight.
>
>
>
> Terry
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "jimlux" <jimlux@earthlink.net>
> To: "k2vi" <k2vi@cox.net>
> Cc: TowerTalk@contesting.com
> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:53:18 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada
Eastern
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Mast material
>
> k2vi wrote:
> > Hey guys, can someone please advise me on the mast to use, I was
> > looking at 2" EMT pipe I saw in the electrical dept at home depot.
> > Keep in mind this pipe will be supporting a hy-gain 203BA which has a
> > 16' boom and weighs 32# also it will be pushed up from the thrust
> > bearing about 6'. Im sure it will be fine here in va beach. Right now
> > im using a galvinized 2" shedule 40 pipe that weighs a ton.
> >
> EMT is pretty thin wall, and structurally not all that hot. After all,
> it's really only designed to protect wires from abrasion. For instance,
> you can't use it to support an electrical box holding a duplex
> receptacle sticking out of the ground.
>
> I've built structures from EMT (like a big geodesic ball), and it tends
> to split along the weld, for instance.
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